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At the beginning of 2023, Saudi Arabia's growing influence on professional golf, and sports in general, was a concern for players and their fans.
2023年初，沙特阿拉伯对职业高尔夫和整个体育运动的影响力越来越大，这引起了球员和球迷的关注。
Twelve months later, discussions are very different.
12个月后，讨论发生了很大的变化。
Worries about the supposed threat of "sportswashing" - using sports to improve a country's reputation – have declined.
人们对所谓的“体育洗白”（利用体育运动来提高国家声誉）的威胁的担忧已经减轻。
Concerns about moral issues - the line between "right" and "wrong" - have also gone down.
对道德问题——“对”和“错”之间的界线——的担忧也有所减轻。
Attention now is fixed on just how rich the Saudis might make the athletes.
如今，人们的注意力集中在沙特能让运动员赚多少钱上。
Two major events caused the change.
两大事件导致了这一变化。
On June 6, the PGA Tour announced it was looking to go into business with the Saudi group that was paying for the kingdom's LIV Golf, which the tour had labeled as a threat.
6月6日，美巡赛宣布其正在寻求与沙特集团合作，该集团为沙特的LIV Golf支付费用，美巡赛曾将LIV Golf列为威胁。
Then, six months later, Jon Rahm, the world's third-ranked professional golfer and an early resister of LIV, decided to join LIV for a deal reported to be worth about $500 million.
六个月后，世界排名第三的职业高尔夫球手、LIV的早期抵制者乔恩·拉姆决定加入LIV，据报道，这笔交易价值约5亿美元。
Other important events included the continuing talks between the Saudis and leaders of professional tennis organizations.
其他重要事件包括沙特与职业网球组织领导人之间的持续会谈。
In addition, the push into soccer will bring the world's biggest sporting event, the World Cup, to Saudi Arabia in 2034.
此外，进军足球领域将使2034年世界上最大的体育赛事——世界杯——在沙特阿拉伯举行。
Dan Durbin is director of the Institute of Sports, Media and Society at the University of Southern California (USC).
丹·德宾是南加州大学体育、媒体和社会研究所所长。
Durbin said of the Saudi plans: "You're investing in sports, which is one of the few growth industries in the world....It is, as far as we can see, an almost endless growth industry."
德宾在谈到沙特的计划时说：“你们正在投资体育，体育业是世界上为数不多的成长型产业之一……据我们所知，这是一个几乎永无止境的成长型产业。”
In early 2022, the discussion about golf centered on Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, or PIF, in LIV Golf.
2022年初，关于高尔夫的讨论集中在沙特公共投资基金给予LIV高尔夫的投资上。
At the time, six-time major winner Phil Mickelson made a critical comment about Saudi Arabia related to the murder of the Washington Post writer Jamal Khashoggi.
当时，六次大满贯得主菲尔·米克尔森就《华盛顿邮报》作者贾迈勒·卡舒吉被谋杀一事对沙特阿拉伯发表了批评言论。
Mickelson's comment set the dividing line in what was viewed as a moral question.
米克尔森的言论在这个被视为道德问题的问题上设定了界限。
And the discussion ignored how important Saudi Arabia is in the world economy.
讨论忽略了沙特阿拉伯在世界经济中的重要性。
The Saudis gain much of their importance by supplying around 15 percent of the world's petroleum.
沙特的石油供应量占全球的15%左右，这在很大程度上提高了其重要性。
Besides golf, the fund offered one of soccer's biggest stars, Cristiano Ronaldo, $200 million to join a Saudi team.
除了高尔夫，该基金还向足球巨星之一克里斯蒂亚诺·罗纳尔多提供了2亿美元，邀请他加入一支沙特球队。
And it also owns the Premier League's Newcastle soccer club.
它还拥有英超联赛的纽卡斯尔联足球俱乐部。
As the calendar turns to 2024, there is no sign of Saudi involvement in sports slowing.
没有迹象表明沙特在2024年参与体育活动的速度有所放缓。
The Saudis are hosting a Formula One auto race.
沙特将举办一级方程式锦标赛。
They are also looking to invest some $5 billion into cricket's Indian Premier League with an eye on making it bigger in other countries.
他们还打算向印度板球超级联赛投资约50亿美元，着眼于在其他国家扩大规模。
The ATP, which runs men's professional tennis, has a five-year deal to hold one of its biggest events in the Saudi port city of Jeddah.
管理男子职业网球的职业网球联合会签订了一份为期五年的合同，将在沙特港口城市吉达举办其最大的赛事之一。
Talks between the Saudis and the women's tour are reportedly ongoing.
据报道，沙特和女子网球协会之间的谈判正在进行中。
In a sign of how public discussions have changed, Billie Jean King, who fought for equal pay for women in sports, has said bringing women's tennis to the kingdom might not be all bad despite its poor record on women's rights.
为从事体育运动的女性争取同工同酬的比莉·简·金表示，尽管沙特在女性权利方面的记录不佳，但将女子网球引入沙特可能并不完全是坏事，这表明公众的讨论已经发生了变化。
"I don't think you really change unless you engage," she said earlier this year.
她在今年早些时候说：“我认为，除非你参与其中，否则你不会真正改变。”
Durbin says sports is a way for the kingdom to be seen as more than an oil-producer with a bad human-rights record.
德宾说，体育运动是让沙特不再被视为一个人权记录不佳的产油国的一种方式。
"For decades, sports has been the center of soft diplomacy," he said.
他说：“几十年来，体育一直是软外交的中心”。
"You try to create a positive response and feeling about your ethics because you're holding to the rules of sports."
“你在遵守体育规则的同时也在试图创造一种积极的回应，让人们对你的道德规范产生积极的感受。”
I'm John Russell.
约翰·拉塞尔为您播报。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
