tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/sports-participation-30447/articlessports participation – The Conversation2024-02-02T13:16:45Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2197972024-02-02T13:16:45Z2024-02-02T13:16:45ZStudents with disabilities often left on the sidelines when it comes to school sports<p>“Teen with special needs makes <a href="https://www.today.com/video/watch-teen-with-special-needs-makes-thrilling-buzzer-beater-shot-197284933762">thrilling buzzer beater shot</a>.”</p>
<p>“Special needs student <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrhuNjegi1A">offered shot</a> of a lifetime.”</p>
<p>“High school basketball manager gets his <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/high-school-basketball-manager-time-court-82967098">time on the court</a>.”</p>
<p>These inspirational headlines may sound familiar. They highlight brief but exhilarating moments of disabled students in sports.</p>
<p>They represent what’s commonly referred to in the disability community as “<a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/stella_young_i_m_not_your_inspiration_thank_you_very_much?language=en">inspiration porn</a>,” but they often miss an injustice that deserves far more attention. Student athletes with disabilities are sidelined or, even worse, never granted the opportunity to try out, even though they gained equal rights to extracurricular activities such as school sports more than 50 years ago. </p>
<p><a href="https://rsa.ed.gov/sites/default/files/downloads/rehabilitation-act-of-1973-amended-by-wioa.pdf">The Rehabilitation Act of 1973</a> prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability. As a professor who studies <a href="https://health.oregonstate.edu/directory/megan-macdonald">sport and physical activity participation</a> of children with disabilities, it’s clear to me that this public law has been misinterpreted for more than 50 years, in ways that deny students equal opportunities.</p>
<h2>Clarifying the issue</h2>
<p>Just over 10 years ago, the U.S. Department of Education had to broadly issue a “<a href="https://www.ncpeid.org/assets/docs/Dear%20colleague-201301-504.pdf">Dear Colleague” letter</a> to schools across the country to communicate and clarify their responsibilities under the act. In other words, school districts had to be reminded not to generalize information about students with disabilities based on stereotypes.</p>
<p>Section 504 of the act says students with disabilities must receive the same equal rights and opportunities afforded to their peers without disabilities in extracurricular activities such as school sports. It further states that school districts should work directly with athletic associations to ensure that students with disabilities are granted an equal opportunity to participate.</p>
<p>The precedent for this broad-stroke communication came from a U.S. Government Accountability Office report, which found that disabled students were <a href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-10-519.pdf">not afforded equal opportunities to participate in school sports</a>, including club, intramural or interscholastic. The content in the letter wasn’t new information – it clearly reiterated key components of Section 504, reminding school districts not to act on generalizations or stereotypes of disability. It also provided examples about how to ensure equal opportunities for disabled students.</p>
<p>So where do things stand now?</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vrhuNjegi1A?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">“Special Needs Student Offered Shot Of A Lifetime”</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Participation rates unclear</h2>
<p>Students with disabilities make up <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/07/24/what-federal-education-data-shows-about-students-with-disabilities-in-the-us/">15% of U.S. public school students</a>, which is about 7.3 million K-12th graders. It’s impossible to know if the “Dear Colleague” letter made a difference, because there still isn’t much data on this issue.</p>
<p>Data on the general makeup of school sports teams or intramural activities is lacking, despite the fact that research shows participating has physical, social, academic and <a href="https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/fact-sheet-us-department-educations-proposed-change-its-title-ix-regulations-students-eligibility-athletic-teams#:%7E:text=Participating%20in%20school%20athletics%20is,%2C%20leadership%2C%20and%20physical%20fitness">mental health benefits</a>.</p>
<p>As someone who sees students with disabilities and their families on a regular basis, the stories I hear haven’t changed. Students with disabilities are still put in so-called manager roles or aren’t taken seriously when they express an interest in interscholastic sports.</p>
<p>A recent conversation with a parent echoed the stagnant nature of this subject: “It was just never presented as an option. If we knew more, we may have been able to help facilitate (participation in sports), but it just didn’t come up …”</p>
<p>The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights is responsible for enforcing Section 504. Since 2013, civil rights <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-co/pr/colorado-high-school-activities-association-agrees-improve-access-student-athletes">lawsuits still arise</a>. While these lawsuits often are resolved in favor of the student, they can be finalized or settled long after the egregious act. In other words, the legal action doesn’t always have immediate effects on the student athlete.</p>
<h2>What can be done</h2>
<p>While schools and their administrators have a responsibility to implement the 1973 Rehabilitation Act, there’s a collective public responsibility to ensure equal access and to uphold civil rights laws. There are tangible ways to start making changes now.</p>
<p>For starters, coaches should practice inclusive recruiting efforts for all school sporting activities, including direct outreach to disabled students. School districts can ensure training opportunities for all coaches and athletics directors focused on the best inclusive coaching practices.</p>
<p>I envision a future where headlines will reflect diverse teams, strengths of the student athletes and equal opportunity. Ignoring the civil rights of students with disabilities devalues their athletic skills. It’s also a violation of children’s <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/504faq.html">civil rights</a>. It shouldn’t take another 50 years for students with disabilities to get into the game.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219797/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Megan MacDonald does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Although disabled students are supposed to have equal access to school sports, questions remain about whether they participate at the same rate as their nondisabled peers.Megan MacDonald, Professor of Kinesiology and School Head, School of Exercise, Sport, and Health Sciences, Oregon State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1553992021-02-19T11:28:21Z2021-02-19T11:28:21ZCricket: children are the key to the future of the game, not broadcast rights<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/385026/original/file-20210218-14-1ii09lg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=47%2C0%2C4532%2C3188&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Jubilation: England cricket captain Joe Root celebrates a match-winning double century against India, February 2021.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Adam Davy/PA Images/Alamy Stock Photo</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/live/2021/feb/09/india-v-england-first-test-day-five-live">resounding victory</a> scored by England men’s cricket team in the first Test match in Chennai, India on February 9 was truly historic. India had lost only one of their most recent 35 Tests at home and had not lost in Chennai since 1999. The victory was largely assured by the England captain, Joe Root, who produced the highest ever individual score by an English player in a test in India. The icing on the cake was provided by fast bowler James Anderson, whose devastating display of swing bowling turned the momentum on the final day inexorably in England’s favour.</p>
<p>The match was also notable because it was the first time England’s test team had <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/feb/03/a-long-16-year-wait-channel-4-confirms-india-v-england-test-tv-rights-cricket">appeared live</a> on UK terrestrial television since 2005. Historically England (men’s) Test matches had been deemed sporting “crown jewels” of such national interest that they must be available live and on free-to-air. But this meant the game missed out on the huge potential income from broadcast rights on pay TV. </p>
<p>The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) successfully petitioned government and at the end of 2004 it was announced that Test cricket would be <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/television-coverage-at-the-point-of-no-return-d7mvq2r5wnq">demoted to the B-list</a> after 2005, meaning it could be bought up by the likes of Sky TV for exclusive broadcast on subscription channels. Since then, with a very few exceptions, anyone not subscribing to pay TV has not been able to watch live international cricket in the UK.</p>
<p>It was terrible timing because the 2005 series was also truly remarkable, as viewers in the UK got to watch their team win a hard-fought series to break Australia’s 16-year domination of the Ashes, actually winning the trophy on home soil for the first time in 18 years. In one BBC Radio 5 Live poll in 2005, 80% of respondents stated that they now <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/aug/22/mondaymediasection.bskyb">preferred cricket to football</a>. The television deal with Sky had been announced in December 2004 but grumblings <a href="https://www.thefulltoss.com/england-cricket-blog/lost-key-crown-jewels/">turned to dismay</a> in the autumn as people realised what the public would now be missing.</p>
<p>Standout England cricket victories are inevitably followed by a discussion of the potential for leveraging this public popularity. In part, this is because those who run the game or provide media coverage look enviously towards football’s wealth. Their firm belief that the game should be more popular explains, moreover, why cricket is unique in continuously tinkering with the game’s multiple formats by introducing one-day games and, more recently, the short-form T20 and (due for launch this year) <a href="https://www.thehundred.com/">The Hundred</a>, an even more abbreviated version of the game.</p>
<h2>Future of the game</h2>
<p>Ideas for expanding the game’s popularity invariably revolve around a desire to involve more children. For instance, <a href="https://www.thehundred.com/">The Hundred</a> is billed as “an unforgettable experience for the whole family”. But how realistic is that?</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A boy dressed for playing cricket stretches his leg, with other players in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/385034/original/file-20210218-13-187kd8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/385034/original/file-20210218-13-187kd8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385034/original/file-20210218-13-187kd8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385034/original/file-20210218-13-187kd8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385034/original/file-20210218-13-187kd8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385034/original/file-20210218-13-187kd8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385034/original/file-20210218-13-187kd8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Next generation? Primary school children would rather play cricket than watch it on television.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paul Rushton via Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In a 2012 survey for the Cricket Foundation (published in the Journal of the Cricket Society in 2014 and unfortunately only available to members online), we found that even though 76.5% of primary school children played cricket at school, just 20% correctly named the England men’s captain. We found that the short-format T20 cricket was twice as popular as Test cricket among secondary school children. Only a quarter of these children had seen a live cricket match or claimed to watch England Test matches on TV.</p>
<p>While 35.8% owned an England football shirt, just 9.3% owned the equivalent cricketing gear. But – most significantly perhaps – overwhelmingly children wanted more opportunities to play the game rather than the freedom to watch games either live or on TV.</p>
<p>So children seem to engage with cricket differently to the way adults do. Children largely want the stimulation of hitting a ball or experiencing the visceral sensations of being part of a noisy crowd. Adults are more drawn by the intellectual engagement that the game provides. An understanding of the subtleties of the sport takes time to develop and, for those who want to increase cricket’s popularity, change can be frustratingly slow.</p>
<h2>Winning helps</h2>
<p>So what will make a difference to cricket’s popularity? It seems that widespread television coverage is not that important. When Sky TV generously shared coverage of the 2019 Men’s cricket world cup final with free-to-air channels, the <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/wimbledon-cricket-world-cup-tv-viewing-figures-bbc-channel-4-sky-sports-online-a9005371.html">viewing figures</a> were just 100,000 less than the peak of 2005. So not much had changed in the intervening 14 years.</p>
<p>Rather, what we learn from 2005 Ashes and the unprecedented grip that cricket had on the nation’s attention, is that the greatest sports events resonate with some broader social narrative. The 2005 Ashes series took place against a backdrop of a new, more inclusive, democratic and open <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17430430802702897">sense of Englishness</a>. This was a team that challenged ideas about cricket being an upper-class game, with a heroic down-to-earth talisman in all-rounder Andrew Flintoff, roared on by the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1012690204040524">Barmy Army</a>.</p>
<p>But also, during that Ashes series, London was targeted by terrorist bombings at various transport hubs, killing 52 and injuring scores of others. The country desperately needed a feelgood factor. Cricket historians pointing back to the 1981 Ashes series, when another great all-rounder, Ian Botham, almost single-handedly defeated the visiting Australian team, recall that England was in the <a href="https://www.thesportsman.com/articles/how-botham-and-england-revived-the-spirits-of-a-nation-at-the-1981-ashes">grip of bitter and divisive race riots</a> at the time. </p>
<p>Cricket becomes popular when England does well. But the triumph in this year’s first Test against India was followed by a massive defeat in the next game. In the end, whether or not English fans continue to enjoy the success – or otherwise – of their national team on free-to-air TV, it will be the children who race outside with their bats and balls and youthful enthusiasm who hold the future of the sport in their hands.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/155399/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dominic Malcolm has previously received funding from the British Academy and the Cricket Foundation. He is affiliated with, and an Executive Board member of, the International Sociology of Sport Association. </span></em></p>The popularity of cricket is not as dependent on TV broadcasts as you might think.Dominic Malcolm, Reader in Sociology of Sport, Loughborough UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/803282017-08-03T20:16:47Z2017-08-03T20:16:47ZWhen it comes to sport, boys ‘play like a girl’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180809/original/file-20170802-19483-9p7tje.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Primary school-aged boys and girls can play in mixed teams until they reach high school, our research suggests.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/clappstar/6180090785/">Clappstar/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Girls in primary school are just as physically capable as their male classmates, according to <a href="http://www.neurology.org/content/88/16/1512">our research</a>, taking the sting out of the insult “you play like a girl”. </p>
<p>When <a href="http://www.neurology.org/content/88/1/36">we compared</a> primary school children’s physical capabilities, differences between girls and boys were not as important as people think. So, they should be happily playing with and competing against each other in the backyard, playground and sporting fields.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-not-just-the-toy-aisles-that-teach-children-about-gender-stereotypes-59005">It's not just the toy aisles that teach children about gender stereotypes</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>As part of <a href="http://sydney.edu.au/health-sciences/research/1000-norms.shtml">wider research</a> to assess people’s physical capabilities across the lifespan, we tested 300 children and adolescents between the ages of 3 and 19.</p>
<p>We tested each child for over two hours, taking more than 100 measurements. These included measuring the strength of 14 muscle groups, the flexibility of 13 joints and 10 different types of balance. We looked at factors including hand dexterity, reaction times, how far kids could walk, how high and how long they could jump, as well as their gait.</p>
<h2>What did we find?</h2>
<p>Across all measures of physical performance, there was one consistent finding. There was no statistical difference in the capabilities of girls and boys until high-school age (commonly age 12).</p>
<p>Let’s use standing long jump (also known as a broad jump test) as an example. This provides a measure of your legs’ explosive power. It needs minimal equipment and the results <a href="http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/22648464">compare well</a> with the type of information you get from strength testing using expensive equipment. It’s also one of the tests would-be American NFL (National Football League) players take to <a href="https://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2016/2/26/11103688/nfl-combine-2016-drills-broad-jump">impress talent scouts</a>. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aUdSebfVhgU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The standing long jump is a test football scouts use to assess explosive power.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We found no difference between boys and girls before they turn 12 (see graph below). Every physical measure followed this pattern.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176537/original/file-20170703-22491-xxz453.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176537/original/file-20170703-22491-xxz453.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176537/original/file-20170703-22491-xxz453.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176537/original/file-20170703-22491-xxz453.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176537/original/file-20170703-22491-xxz453.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176537/original/file-20170703-22491-xxz453.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176537/original/file-20170703-22491-xxz453.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176537/original/file-20170703-22491-xxz453.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Before the age of 12, boys and girls do just as well as each other in the standing long jump.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How do our findings compare?</h2>
<p>Other studies have had similar results. These have included ones testing <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16876555">muscle strength</a>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17675356">walking</a>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21615494">jumping and balancing</a>.</p>
<p>However, it’s difficult to directly compare data from one study to another, as different studies have different sample sizes, include children of different age ranges, and assess different measures. For example, we were the first to use the timed stairs test and stepping reaction time to find what regular children were capable of.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22561975">Some</a> <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0150041">studies</a> found differences in physical capabilities between primary school-aged boys and girls using the same types of tests we used. And others reported small differences in the jump height of boys and girls aged 6-17 years <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/205552770">but not</a> with the long jump.</p>
<p>These differences can in part be attributed to sampling methods that were limited to specific age ranges or locations and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2873582/">socioeconomic backgrounds</a>, the latter potentially having a significant impact on physical health and activity. </p>
<p>By contrast, the children in our research were generally representative of the Australian population, using data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics about socioeconomic status, ethnicity and body mass index. </p>
<h2>What do our findings mean for kids, coaches and parents?</h2>
<p>There is no consensus across schools or among different sports about mixed-gender sports for primary school children.</p>
<p>For instance, boys and girls compete separately in most local <a href="http://manlywarringahlittleathletics.org.au/program/">Little Athletics</a> after age five but field hockey can have <a href="http://www.nahockey.org.au/">mixed gender teams</a> until age 17.</p>
<p>And in tennis, primary school-aged girls and boys <a href="https://app.education.nsw.gov.au/sport/AppPage/Page/1002">play separately</a> in singles matches but can play against each other in mixed doubles.</p>
<p>Our findings support the push for boys and girls to compete in mixed sporting teams until the end of primary school, after which the <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF03262292">hormonal changes of puberty</a> mean boys tend to perform better in sports and tasks requiring strength and speed.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/our-sporting-nation-is-a-myth-so-how-do-we-get-youngsters-back-on-the-field-78186">Our 'sporting nation' is a myth, so how do we get youngsters back on the field?</a>
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<p>There are also some practical advantages to mixed sport in primary school and in weekend competitions:</p>
<ul>
<li>fewer scheduling conflicts for councils (allowing school and sport administrations to fit games more conveniently into busy sporting venues)</li>
<li>fewer clubs or organisations to share already stretched government and private sector funding</li>
<li>consolidation of coaching and manager talent, and most importantly </li>
<li>fewer parent-taxi drop offs.</li>
</ul>
<p>Perhaps perceived differences in physical capability between boys and girls are based on outdated gender stereotypes that appear at birth, when some boys are given their first footy and some girls their first doll.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"876233229996609536"}"></div></p>
<p>But whatever the origin of the idea young boys are physically more capable than young girls, the evidence is clear. Boys “play like a girl”, and that’s certainly no insult.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80328/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joshua Burns receives funding from NIH (National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke and National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, Inherited Neuropathies Consortium, Rare Disease Clinical Research Network #2U54NS065712), Charcot-Marie Tooth Association of Australia, Charcot-Marie Tooth Association (USA), Diabetes Australia, Multiple Sclerosis Research Australia, Sydney Southeast Asia Centre, New Zealand Neuromuscular Research Foundation Trust, Elizabeth Lottie May Rosenthal Bone Bequest and Perpetual Limited.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marnee McKay does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Girls in primary school are just as physically capable as their male classmates, our research shows.Marnee McKay, Lecturer of Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy, University of SydneyJoshua Burns, Professor, Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/711442017-01-17T02:57:07Z2017-01-17T02:57:07ZAustralia needs to make sport a more equal playing field: here’s why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152954/original/image-20170117-23932-1ozoqc5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Survey data show men are more likely to participate in sport for fun or enjoyment than women.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For an ostensibly fun-based activity, sport in Australia generates a good deal of anxiety. Questions like the following are often raised:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Do enough people participate in it? </p></li>
<li><p>Are they representative of the whole population? </p></li>
<li><p>Is enough public and private funding given to the appropriate sports to enable success, especially in the international arena? </p></li>
<li><p>Do too many people watch sport on TV without playing it? </p></li>
<li><p>Are some sports over- or under-represented in the media?</p></li>
<li><p>Is sport a vehicle for unhealthy products and attitudes? </p></li>
<li><p>Are sport organisations and sportspeople being corrupted by big money, drugs and gambling?</p></li>
</ul>
<p>All of these questions go far beyond sport’s most-celebrated contests between professional teams and athletes, and are much richer than its weekly suburban rituals.</p>
<h2>Who plays sport and why?</h2>
<p>Sport is a particular <a href="http://www.ausport.gov.au/supporting/nso/asc_recognition">form of physical culture</a>. What lessons can we learn from who plays it in Australia? </p>
<p>Recent <a href="http://apo.org.au/files/Resource/34648_ausplay_summary_report_accessible_final_7.12.2016.pdf">AusPlay data</a> from the Australian Sports Commission (ASC) tell us about both sport and physical activity. The findings must be treated with caution to avoid talking about organised sport when, in fact, describing casual exercise such as swimming and walking.</p>
<p>AusPlay’s survey of more than 20,000 adults – people over 15 years of age – and more than 3,000 parents/guardians of children reported in its key national findings that younger people are more physically active than older people. This is not only because physical education is part of the school curriculum, as almost:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>3.2 million children (69%) participated in some form of organised sport or physical activity outside of school hours.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>By contrast, it shows sport-related activity fell to only 37% among those aged 65 and over.</p>
<p>Although sport is widely viewed as male-dominated, the survey found adult men and women participate at similar levels across the life stages, and – surprisingly – that females aged nine-to-11 are slightly more active than their male peers.</p>
<p>Another instructive finding is that sport clubs and venues play an important role in fostering participation. Football (soccer) and golf clubs lead the field in this respect. But it is also clear that “being active” is an expensive business: more than A$10.7 billion was spent on participation fees over the past year.</p>
<p>This headline information about sport and exercise participation in Australia is valuable but limited. It does not say much about sport as a social institution, its cultural role, and the barriers to participation in it.</p>
<p>Some of that more illuminating detail can be found in the <a href="https://www.clearinghouseforsport.gov.au/research/smi/ausplay/results/national">survey’s data tables</a>. Here we find the top motivation for participating is “physical health or fitness” for 75.6% of men and 81.4% for women. 50.3% of men participate for “fun/enjoyment”, compared with 39.2% of women.</p>
<p>So, the gender differences not apparent in overall participation rates begin to emerge.</p>
<p>Similarly, in examining the barriers to participation stage of life, social class, level of education, and occupational status are shown to be important influences. For adults the main reason (37.1%) not to be active is “not enough time/too many other commitments”. But among those aged 35-44, when work and parenting pressures are likely to be at their height, it is 56.8%.</p>
<p>The non-participation demography demonstrates that you are less likely to engage in sport and physical activity if you live in a remote location, are unemployed, did not complete high school, are Indigenous, speak a language other than English at home, have a disability or other restrictive physical condition, and an annual household income under $40,000.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152950/original/image-20170116-22302-ifayil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152950/original/image-20170116-22302-ifayil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152950/original/image-20170116-22302-ifayil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152950/original/image-20170116-22302-ifayil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152950/original/image-20170116-22302-ifayil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152950/original/image-20170116-22302-ifayil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152950/original/image-20170116-22302-ifayil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sport clubs play an important role in fostering participation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Reinforcing social inequalities</h2>
<p>In other words, sport is not a magical space that transcends social inequalities. In various ways it reproduces and even reinforces them. </p>
<p>An example of the latter is when, as the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674212770">discussed in the French context</a>, elite sports organisations function as places where “social or cultural capital” can be exchanged and those outside the “club” are overtly or subtly excluded.</p>
<p>Sport in Australia long left behind the amateur ideal of playing for the fun of the game. While many people still enjoy playing sport, they are a minority of the population. The most-prized forms of sport are heavily industrialised and commercialised, and closely tied to the gambling, alcohol, fast food and branded merchandising and leisure-wear industries.</p>
<p>My <a href="https://westernsydney.edu.au/ACF">research</a> has revealed that while playing and watching sport is an important part of Australian culture, it fails to live up to much of its own publicity. A <a href="https://westernsydney.edu.au/ACF">national survey of 1,200 people</a> found that 61.2% of respondents never play any kind of organised sport. 55.5% had watched sport live at a venue in the last year, and 84.9% had watched it live through the media.</p>
<p>Gender was found to be significant. Proportionately, more men than women play at all measures of frequency, but more women (70.7%) than men (51.5%) never play organised sport. Among those who identified as working class, 63.8% never played sport, while that was only the case for 45.8% of the upper-middle class.</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://westernsydney.edu.au/ics/research/projects/a_nation_of_good_sports_cultural_citizenship_and_sport_in_contemporary_australia">qualitative study</a> conducted in greater western Sydney, I was frequently told how children found it difficult to join sport clubs because their families could not afford the registration fees, or were not able to transport them safely to and from training.</p>
<p>Several young women, especially those from Middle Eastern and Pacific Island backgrounds, encountered difficulties participating in sport because of gendered cultural expectations and responsibilities.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152953/original/image-20170116-9062-13dywm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152953/original/image-20170116-9062-13dywm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152953/original/image-20170116-9062-13dywm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152953/original/image-20170116-9062-13dywm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152953/original/image-20170116-9062-13dywm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152953/original/image-20170116-9062-13dywm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152953/original/image-20170116-9062-13dywm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">High registration fees are a barrier preventing many children from participating in organised sport.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Eradicating barriers</h2>
<p>It is apparent from these findings, which are more sport-focused and nuanced than the AusPlay data, that there is much work to do if we are to eradicate such barriers to participation in sport. </p>
<p>If it is accepted that access to sport, which is massively subsidised by governments and corporations, is a right of cultural citizenship, then more systematic attention needs to be given to bolstering rights and responsibilities in the sport field.</p>
<p>This area of citizenship includes enabling equitable sport participation, offering reasonably priced entry and <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-price-is-not-right-how-much-is-too-much-for-a-beer-at-sporting-events-69708">quality consumables</a> at sport venues, and guaranteeing <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Sport-Public-Broadcasting-and-Cultural-Citizenship-Signal-Lost/Scherer%20Rowe/p/book/9780415886031">free-to-air TV viewing</a> of major national sports events. </p>
<p>These are measures of sporting success that far exceed Australian victories in the tennis, the Olympics and the Ashes.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This is part of a short series of articles on equality in, and access to, sport. Catch up on the others <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/sport-access-and-equality-34779">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/71144/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Rowe receives funding from the Australian Research Council for the Discovery Projects 'A Nation of "Good Sports"? Cultural Citizenship and Sport in Contemporary Australia' (DP130104502) and 'Australian Cultural Fields: National and Transnational Dynamics' (DP140101970).</span></em></p>There is much work to do if Australia is to eradicate various barriers to participation in sport.David Rowe, Professor of Cultural Research, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/621652016-08-21T20:04:41Z2016-08-21T20:04:41ZWhy Rio, like Sydney and London before it, won’t turn locals into sports stars<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134747/original/image-20160819-10580-13ec8sh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There's little evidence relevant government bodies are able to leverage hosting the Olympics to develop a sport participation legacy for the wider population.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Kevin Coombs</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, there’s been increasing pressure on host cities to leave an ongoing benefit to the local community. But only recently has increased sport participation been explicitly included in legacy plans of host cities. </p>
<p>The mechanism for increasing sport participation that’s commonly relied upon is through what’s known as the trickle-down effect. It assumes that elite sport performances result in a greater number of people taking up the sport.</p>
<p>But there’s limited evidence (paper forthcoming) that relevant government bodies are able to leverage the Games to develop a sport participation legacy for the wider population. Why, then, aren’t the Olympics causing a universal rise of couch potatoes? </p>
<p>The two trends responsible are likely the elite/mass divide in sport legacy planning; and the challenges related to implementation of strategies and measuring outcomes.</p>
<h2>Sydney and London</h2>
<p>A sport participation legacy wasn’t viewed as important prior to the Sydney 2000 Olympics, although there was a belief that there might be a stronger focus on such programs after the Games. </p>
<p>It was thought, though, that Active Australia, a government instituted 1996 framework focused on lifelong participation in sport would receive increased prominence in this way. But a change of focus didn’t eventuate, despite an Australian government inquiry into the national sport system finding much greater investment was required into grassroots-level sports. </p>
<p>And, in 2014-15, three quarters of the Australian Sports Commission’s A$137 million funding went to elite sports.</p>
<p>The London 2012 Games were different. The city had a clear directive in its bid for a focus on increasing mass participation, which was later defined as getting at least 2 million more people in England active by 2012. But interviews with national sports governing bodies showed a recurring belief that success at London 2012 would be the inspiration for a trickle-down effect. And this seems to have justified prioritising elite sport.</p>
<p>One senior manager said there was a lot of pressure on athletes to win home gold medals, adding:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>finding the focus on grassroots [mass sport participation] is a real challenge … particularly with the complexity of how it is delivered. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This statement really says it all: elite athletes are motivated and success is easy while increasing grassroots participation means working with a lot of unwilling people whose success is harder to measure. </p>
<p>Dependence on the faulty mechanisms of elite success and role models hindered the London 2012 sport participation legacy. And it was compounded by a change of government as well as the regularly changing focus and investment between elite/grassroots sports and sport/physical activity.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134749/original/image-20160819-12303-l3nn1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134749/original/image-20160819-12303-l3nn1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134749/original/image-20160819-12303-l3nn1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134749/original/image-20160819-12303-l3nn1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134749/original/image-20160819-12303-l3nn1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134749/original/image-20160819-12303-l3nn1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134749/original/image-20160819-12303-l3nn1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dependence on the faulty mechanisms of elite success and role models hindered the London Games’ sport participation legacy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Neil Hall</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Rio’s plans</h2>
<p>Rio planned to focus on a sport participation legacy for marginalised youth by increasing funding to already existing programs. But after the city won the bid, allegations of corruption <a href="http://esporte.uol.com.br/rio-2016/ultimas-noticias/2013/09/02/governo-abandona-projeto-para-o-principal-legado-social-da-rio-2016.htm">led the funding to be cut</a>. </p>
<p>The Rio bid also had a plan to gain a top-ten placing in the medal count. Indeed, the focus on elite sport development is clear in the sport participation legacy being promoted for Rio 2016. </p>
<p>In official documents, proposals for mass sport participation programs frequently don’t provide investment figures or clear target groups, whereas <a href="http://www.brasil2016.gov.br/pt-br/incentivo-ao-esporte/plano-brasil-medalhas">elite sport programs</a> are presented with details of financial and infrastructure investment, as well as a clear identification of recipients.</p>
<p>Closely related to problems of planning and implementing – largely ineffective – strategies for achieving elusive outcomes are the challenges presented by measuring effects, or actual legacies. </p>
<p>A key problem identified in Sydney, London, and Rio relates to the availability of data, or the consistency in collecting relevant data that can help inform policy and planning as well as evaluate strategies and actions. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://stillmed.olympic.org/Documents/Reports/EN/en_report_1077.pdf">Olympic Games Global Impact (OGI) study</a>, which started in 2002, begins to address this, but it doesn’t do so particularly well for sport participation legacy. The <a href="https://www.rio2016.com/sites/default/files/parceiros/ogi_rio_2016_r1_eng1.pdf">first report</a> of the Rio 2016 OGI, for instance, presents some superficial data about pre-Games sport development impacts.</p>
<h2>Serious challenges</h2>
<p>Because the Sydney 2000 bid didn’t focus on generating increased community participation, strategy implementation and outcome measurement weren’t priorities. </p>
<p>Three reports outlining the evaluation that should be conducted were published in the lead-up to Sydney 2000. But only one of these (hard copy only) briefly mentioned increased participation in sport. And evaluation focused heavily on economic and infrastructure, rather than social, impacts. </p>
<p>Of the studies examining short- and long-term impacts conducted after Sydney 2000, <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19407963.2012.662619">only one</a> found there was an increase in post-2000 sport participation for people aged 15 and above, albeit in non-Olympic sports. </p>
<p>Olympic sports may have had a trickle-down effect on younger Australians – aged between five and 14 – but changes to survey design and methodological issues prevented the author from drawing any strong conclusions. </p>
<p>And when a <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200607/cmselect/cmcumeds/69/69ii.pdf">House of Commons Select Committee</a> examined the requirements for a London 2012 participation legacy, it found that a cross-departmental approach including local authorities, health, education and a wider coordination of resources would be required. But it also noted that sport didn’t have the political stature to adopt such an approach. </p>
<p>As for the London Games’ ambitious goals for sport and physical activity, the initial target of one million people participating in general physical activity was achieved by decreasing the original physical activity target from three sessions of 30 minutes of physical activity per week to just one. But Sport England makes no mention of this criteria change when reporting <a href="http://www.bloso-kics.be/Int-sportbeleid/Gedeelde%20%20documenten/130401_Overall_factsheet_Active_People_Survey_2012_2013.pdf">that 1.4 million more people were playing sport between 2005 and 2013</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134751/original/image-20160819-12312-ky8q3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134751/original/image-20160819-12312-ky8q3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134751/original/image-20160819-12312-ky8q3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134751/original/image-20160819-12312-ky8q3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134751/original/image-20160819-12312-ky8q3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134751/original/image-20160819-12312-ky8q3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134751/original/image-20160819-12312-ky8q3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Sydney 2000 Olympic bid didn’t focus on generating increased community participation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/David Gray</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Problems facing Rio</h2>
<p>In contrast to Sydney 2000 and London 2012, Rio 2016 highlights how a lack of legacy planning can be further complicated by the <em>governance</em> of legacy. Instances and allegations of political corruption have had a critical impact on the perceived value of programs and resulted in government funding for these programs being dramatically reduced. </p>
<p>Without population-level data, we can only make an informed guess about whether such drastic cuts in funding will significantly interrupt any legacy momentum that may have been gained in the lead up to the 2016 Games. </p>
<p>Overall, what the three Olympics discussed here indicate is that there’s limited evidence that organising committees and relevant government bodies have effectively leveraged the Games to develop a sport participation legacy for the wider population. Not going beyond the elite-end of the spectrum leaves this challenge for the next generation of Olympic host candidates.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/62165/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The commonly believed mechanism for increasing sport participation assumes that elite sport performances result in a greater number of people taking up sport.Danya Hodgetts, Adjunct Research Fellow, CQUniversity AustraliaArianne C. Reis, Senior lecturer, Western Sydney UniversityStephen Frawley, Director of the Australian Centre for Olympic Studies, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.