Dictionaries are there to report actual usage not dictate how it should be. I still get to say it's being used as a way to unreasonably paint positive associations on unrelated topics in the same way that the word "right" means both "correct" and also a specific political team. Yes I know this isn't new, Latin for left is "sinister" etc., but I like clarity and dislike the entire pattern this represents, even if it is hard to get away from — both with positive and negative examples — in natural language.

That said:

Democratise running.

Running.

Even with that definition, nope.

(But what it does do is serve as a further example of why the word has such broad usage as to be almost meaningless).

I think you are reading far more into this than there actually is.

This is not a new meaning and is one that I learned a long time ago, have seen widely used for decades and has an even longer history.

The word is far from precise, but it is also far from meaningless. I understand exactly what is meant by "democratize running" (though I don't think running is a good example of something that needs democratization since there aren't systematic barriers to popular adotion.)

> I understand exactly what is meant by "democratize running"

I, sincerely, have no idea at all what this phrase is supposed to mean. Even with what you previously wrote.

Hmm. I'm British; where, geographically, did you encounter your usage?