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SporTento, Vilnius (2026)

11/02/2022

Athletes won’t stay silent on politics anymore. But will leagues support their protests if it costs them real money?
This week, the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks refused to take the court in protest over the police shooting of a Black man in Wisconsin, Jacob Blake, who remains paralysed in hospital.

The players’ boycott immediately threatened the viability of the NBA’s playoffs, endangering the most lucrative part of the season for the league. The players were also risking millions of their own dollars to raise their voices against racism in America.

As the Bucks players later explained in a statement,

We are calling for justice for Jacob Blake and demand the officers be held accountable. […] We encourage all citizens to educate themselves, take peaceful and responsible action, and remember to vote on November 3.

The protest quickly spread across the NBA, where players are increasingly using their social clout to demand action on labour issues from the league and owners. Under pressure from other teams, the league postponed several games. Lakers star LeBron James was quick to remind fans, however, the players were actually boycotting the games — this wasn’t a mere postponement.

And the action quickly spread across the sporting landscape: the WNBA, Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer all cancelled games to protest the Blake shooting. Tennis pro Naomi Osaka refused to play her semifinal match at a tournament, tweeting this:

Remember the backlash against Colin Kaepernick?
The NBA boycott comes four years to the day that US football player Colin Kaepernick started kneeling before NFL games. The NFL blackballed him due to the protest — and he has yet to return to the league.

Colin Kaepernick has not played in the NFL since his protest movement in the 2016 season. Mike McCarn/AP
Since then, however, other American sporting leagues, particularly the NBA, have supported their players’ right to protest and voice their opinions on political issues.

Last month, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver defended players’ right to kneel during the national anthem. The COVID bubble where the playoffs are being held also features Black Lives Matter jerseys, signs and floor decals.

Although the players have voted to resume the playoffs after a day, they made a statement that would have been unthinkable in the sports world just a few years ago.

Read more: The Olympics have always been a platform for protest. Banning hand gestures and kneeling ignores their history

Despite risking millions of dollars in salary, endorsements and bonuses, many players have shown they are willing to pay the price, potentially even jeopardising their careers, because they are simply fed up with unchecked police violence against people of colour.

As Toronto Raptors guard Fred VanVleet told reporters,

if we’re gonna sit here and talk about making change, then at some point we’re gonna have to put our [manhood] on the line and actually put something up to lose.

Some players are also becoming political in more direct ways. James, for instance, has raised millions to pay off the fines for convicted felons to allow them to vote. Chris Paul of the Oklahoma City Thunder, meanwhile, registered his whole team to vote.

The stoppage in play across sport was in stark contrast to the response to Colin Kaepernick’s kneeling four years ago. JOHN G. MABANGLO/EPA
What happens if the NBA loses money, though?
Whether the NBA continues to stand by players in their protests, however, remains to be seen.

The league reportedly stands to lose upwards of US$1 billion in revenue if the playoffs are cancelled. Not only that, the bubble itself cost the NBA US$170 million just to set up.

Read more: Why US sports stars are taking a knee against Trump

If the playoffs do end early, the relationship between the league and players could very well be broken, possibly leading to a lockout next season. This, in turn, would further devastate the finances of both players and the league.

Trapped between the competing demands of its advertisers, TV partners, owners and players, the NBA has until now remained remarkably silent about the boycott. The big question is how the league will respond if fans start to tune out and the protests ultimately start to cost it money.

Crucially, it should be noted the NBA collective bargaining agreement bans strikes, so in effect, the players’ actions could be in violation of this (though there is some debate over whether this was a “boycott” or a “strike”).

Silver, the NBA commissioner, has been faced by a somewhat similar dilemma before. Last year, Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey tweeted support for the Hong Kong protests, angering the Chinese government to such an extent, the state broadcaster stopped airing NBA games — and still hasn’t resumed.

Silver has said the league could lose as much as US$400 million in revenue from China, yet he still stuck by Morey’s right to express himself.

The future of sport is no doubt political
For many NBA players and coaches, police violence is personal. Some Bucks players have spoken out about their own difficult experiences with the police. Clippers coach Doc Rivers tearfully explained how hard it was loving a country so much that “does not love us back”.

The players have also been supported by many inside the sport. NBA refs are marching in solidarity with the players, while one commentator walked off the set during a live broadcast.

But criticisms are also coming in from other parts of society. Author Juanita Broaddrick tweeted a message directly to James, telling him to “Move to China”, which was liked nearly 35,000 times.

The NBA boycott has angered some fans who want to keep politics out of sport. Rick Bowmer/AP
President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, meanwhile, said NBA players were

very fortunate that they have the financial position where they’re able to take a night off from work.

But despite the inevitable backlash, the boycott feels like the start of “something big”, to quote one sports columnist.

Taking a knee before a game or raising a fist during a medal ceremony rocked the country, but never before has a league just had to shut it down. Now we have, at least for a day.

In a sign of just how far such politically motivated protests could go, even the National Hockey League, the whitest pro sport in North America, decided to postpone games following Blake’s shooting.

Sports figures won’t stay silent anymore when it comes to politics, nor should they be expected to.

11/02/2022

What The Conversation talks about when it talks about football: 3 essential reads ahead of the Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is all about wings. Well, it’s about wings and commercials. OK, OK, it is about wings, commercials and four 15-minute quarters of broken play interspersed with moments of occasional sporting drama and a halftime singsong.

In fact, football is about all that and much more. Over the last 12 months, The Conversation has published articles on everything from race and sexuality in the NFL to how climate change may affect the game in years to come.

So if this year’s Super Bowl is a little dull, or you simply want to avoid being sold a truck every commercial break, here are a few interesting reads on what is happening in the football, but off the field.

1. NFL’s abysmal record on hiring diverse coaches
Super Bowl LVI is taking place in the shadow of a controversy over racial discrimination in the the NFL. On Feb. 1, former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores filed a lawsuit against three teams and the league, alleging a pattern of racist hiring practices.

To George B. Cunningham, professor of sport management at Texas A&M University, the legal development is perhaps hardly surprising. His article explores the “glaring absence of nonwhite head coaches” in the NFL.

Cunningham notes that at the beginning of the 2021 season there were just three Black head coaches in the NFL – the same as there were in 2003.

This isn’t a result of performance; there is no evidence that Black coaches are less qualified or have worse results. Rather, Cunningham notes, “biased decision-making, organizational cultures that value similarity, and societal forms of bias and discrimination are all to blame for the lack of diversity among NFL head coaches.”

Read more: Almost all NFL coaches are white -- lawsuit focuses on league's abysmal record hiring diverse coaches

2. An equally bad record on supporting gay athletes
Racial gaps at the top level of coaching isn’t the only disparity in American football. There is also a distinct lack of gay athletes in the sport.

In fact, the first openly gay active NFL player only came out in June 2021. The announcement, by Las Vegas Raiders defensive lineman Carl Nassib, received widespread attention and praise.

Penn State’s John Affleck writes that to “have a gay player in America’s most-watched sport represents a landmark moment” but that it does not mean “the end of homophobia in sport.”

Affleck notes the case of Michael Sam, a star college football player who was projected as a fourth-round draft pick heading into 2014. But after confirming in interviews that he was gay, he slid to a sixth-round projection. Ultimately, “he was not selected until the 249th pick overall – eighth to last – in the final round of the draft,” Affleck writes.

Barriers to out athletes continue today. Affleck cites 2021 research showing that half of LGBTQ respondents to a survey said they had “experienced discrimination, insults, bullying or abuse while playing, watching or talking about sports.”

Read more: Why it's such a big deal that the NFL's Carl Nassib came out as gay

3. Decision making away from the field of play
Big players made big calls during this year’s NFL season – but not all of them were right, and not all of them were on the field.

Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers made a call that was out of his field of expertise – and he was very, very wrong.

A few days after being diagnosed with COVID-19, Rodgers offered what USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences’s Joe Árvai described as “a smorgasbord of pandemic misinformation and conspiracy theories” defending his decision to skip the COVID-19 vaccine.

As someone who studies how people think, Árvai was also intrigued by Rodgers’s claim that his position on vaccination was due to his being “a critical thinker.”

To Árvai, critical thinking is not “some after-the-fact justification someone makes to convince others – or themselves – that their opinions or behaviors are sound.” Rather, it is a “pattern of behaviors that happen before someone makes a judgment, like coming to the conclusion that something is risky.”

He outlines three ingredients for critical thinking:

Acknowledging when to balance instinctive reactions with the need for a heavier psychological lift.
Following basic principles regarding information and being willing to change your mind in response to new insights.
Recognizing when it is time to look for experts to help.
“Unfortunately, Aaron Rodgers is far from alone when it comes to poor critical thinking,” Árvai laments.

10/02/2022

Creative dance teaches all-round skills – it should be valued more in primary education
Dance, by its very nature, is inclusive. It belongs to everybody and may appeal to young people who cannot engage in, or do not enjoy, traditional team games. Creative dance does not require formal training, making it ideal for all children – no matter their body type, cognitive ability, or skill level. It is not stylistic like other forms of dance, such as modern, tap, ballet or salsa.

Creative dance helps children develop an increased ability to be in the body in the present moment, feeling all its sensations, both emotional and physical. It can help children’s social and emotional development, and this can, in turn, be of benefit in other spheres of life.

Creative dance is taught as part of physical education (PE) in UK primary schools. However, physical education is overlooked in the national curriculum. It is taught as a foundation subject as opposed to a core subject, meaning that time for PE is limited when compared to subjects such as English, maths and science. In addition, PE time is often used for team sports rather than more creative activities such as dance.

Our recent research suggests that the many benefits of creative dance for primary school children mean that it should play a greater role in children’s learning in UK state primary education.

Learning through movement
Creative dance classes may begin with a physical warm up followed by the introduction of some improvised movement – possibly prompted by percussive instruments such as a drum for strong, sharp movements, or a tambourine, for quick, light, shaking movements.

Then children can work on individual movement sequences, inspired by an idea or prompt, such as a firework. Small groups might then combine their movement sequences to develop a choreography they can repeat, perhaps to share with others in the class, before reflecting on their experience.

Children dancing together
Children can work together to produce a dance. Iakov Filimonov/Shutterstock
The class incorporates problem-solving, collaborative and motor skills. It also introduces children to concepts such as metaphor and symbolism, as they work out how to use movement to portray something representing, for example, the qualities of a firework.

Our research shows that children value dance as part of their schooling. Primary schooler Nastacia explained that she loved “doing everything really, but you know dancing is the best. It is so cool”, while Ahmet stated that he “loved dancing”.

The value of creative dance, above other physical activity, is that it employs creativity and aesthetics in a unique way. Rather than aesthetics being an element considered additional to the main performance, such as in gymnastics, it is the basis of creative dance. It is also different to other arts subjects. It develops creativity based in physical activity. And, as with any form of art, the children learn by experiencing this creative process.

For example, children can learn skills and concepts in the process of creating dances and learn how the body works physiologically, such as while practising or performing their own choreographed dances in groups.

The range of skills involved in creative dance, and the connectivity between them, means the class has a focus on the entire person. Different ways of knowing, and areas of learning, can complement each other. Experiencing the arts can shape our ideas, provide a deeper understanding of emotions and increased self-awareness.

Mental and physical health
Furthermore, mental health and wellbeing can be improved as a result of engagement in the arts when employed as psychotherapies with children. Right now, this is more important than ever. In 2017 one in nine five to 16-year-old children suffered mental health concerns. This rose to one in six children in this age bracket in July 2020.

During the pandemic, exercise to promote physical and mental health has been emphasised. The endorphins released support a robust immune system, and physical movement develops strong bodies for adulthood. Learning in primary schools is often sedentary, and even more so where online technology has been used during lockdowns. This means that animated activity is needed even more frequently.

The holistic learning provided by creative dance – combining arts, physical exercise, communication and problem solving – should therefore hold a more prominent position in the UK education curriculum for primary schools.

10/02/2022

Why surfing is an antidote to the relentless march of capitalism
Surfing is as cool as it ever was. More people are competing in more contests and seeking higher waves, supported by a booming industry, even amid a pandemic.

Dramas and documentaries about surfing have bloomed since the 1960s, and companies such as Quicksilver, Billabong and Roxy have developed entire markets around the surf lifestyle. The recent decision to include surfing in the Tokyo Olympic Games marked the zenith of the global popularity of this sport.

Even though surfing is an extreme sport, most of it consists of the gentle art of waiting. Ask any passionate surfer, and they will probably tell you that surfing is, first and foremost, a contemplative practice.

“Surfing is a kind of stoic philosophy – it means accepting that we don’t have power over things,” writes novelist Sigolène Vinson.

To understand why, we must go back in history. Surfing was originally a spiritual activity rooted in the religion and culture of different islands in the Pacific Ocean, especially Hawaii. It represented the celebration of Lonos, the god of fertility. At the time, only the tribe’s high-ranking figures could undertake it.

South Africa’s Bianca Buitendag rides a wave during the gold medal final at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games
South Africa’s Bianca Buitendag rides a wave during the gold medal final at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Olivier Morin/AFP
Today, some surfers still follow this original mindset of communion with nature. “We call them soul surfers,” writes Lodewijk Allaert in his ode to surfing:

“They explore the imperceptible side of the discipline, dreaming of the precious balance between man and the elements, which pushed the Hawaiian pioneer of surfing, Duke Kahanamoku, to throw himself into colossal walls of water equipped with an antique acacia board. For them, surfing wasn’t a way to show off or a series of spectacular moves, but a lifestyle, a philosophy.”

These few utopian surfers base their entire lives around surfing, going against the flow of our society where capitalism is relentlessly expanding toward new areas, the alienation caused by technology always intensifying and freedom increasingly compromised.

Soul surfers vs capitalists sharks
The feeling of being fully present in what we are actually doing has become rare – except perhaps in the case of those who practice extreme sports (it’s difficult to think about work when you have to focus on not being crushed by a two-metre wave).

Surfing is an escape; an act of freedom. This is why it can be linked to the ideal of the American counterculture of the 1960s based on the “freewheeling spirit of the hippies” and modern forms of Bohemianism, largely inspired by the Beat Generation.

Like many other countercultures, from skateboarding and yoga to meditation and hip-hop, surf has to an extent been absorbed by capitalism. Look at the proliferation of surf schools, magazines, competitions, films, music, and surf wear, each representing an attempt by businesses to make money out of the sport. Like a prey splashing in the water, surfing has attracted the attention of capitalist sharks, and became a victim of its own success.

Yet, with surfing, unlike some of these other countercultures, something still resists. Capitalism cannot seem to capture the unique and solitary moment when the surfer must put aside everything he or she knows to avoid getting swept away, to ride the wave and feel a sense of communion with the powerful and untameable elements.

A surfer on a wave
No algorithms required. Joel Everard/Shutterstock
Surfing is the ultimate in unpredictability. Even the best weather apps cannot predict whether or not it will be possible to surf a particular swell.

The ocean puts human beings in their rightful place – not above nature but inside of it. I dare even René Descartes to try to become a “master and possessor of nature” in the building-sized waves of Nazaré in Portugal, the largest in the world.

The ocean as the last frontier
In a world where transhumanists seek to use technology to save humanity, and even to even to defeat death, surfing reminds humans of our staggering insignificance before the irresistible force of the ocean – and nature in general.

In the context of an increasingly tech-based and dehumanized approach to medicine, surfing can appear as a particularly efficient cure for the soul. While some hospitals have introduced secular meditation programmes to alleviate the pain of patients suffering from chronic illnesses or depression, others have used surfing for therapeutic purposes to help cure people like veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Now, a pandemic has caused many to question their lifestyles – moving, changing jobs or getting divorced. New rules implemented by the government to limit the spread of the virus have also had a major impact on individual freedoms. Not only directly when being mandated to wear masks, respecting curfews, and in some regions, forbidding access to the beach, but also in a more diffuse manner with the proliferation of applications intended to control citizens’ movements. Some have even gone so far as to place such measures within the realm of surveillance capitalism.

While American counterculture originally conceived technology as a way to free individuals from the establishment, they are increasingly criticized today. Surfing may be able to make this dream of pure freedom come true even for a short time by providing its practitioners with moments off the radar.

“Surfers are often portrayed as conquerors who travel on a whim, with new waves to discover, fleeing the trials and tribulations of modern life,” writes sociologist Jérémy Lemarié. “Today, the ocean is their only escape in the overpopulation and compartmentalisation of modern life. The ocean is their last frontier.”

In a 1945 presentation to the US government, Vannevar Bush presented science as the new frontier to be conquered. It would now seem that his wish has been fulfilled. Today, technology promises to take over both time, for those who dream of killing death, and space, with the billionaire race to conquer new planets. And yet, grab a board and head to the sea and you will soon realise that nature is still far from conquered. In this context, the ocean be seen as the last frontier likely to comfort mankind when facing disenchantment with modern life.

07/02/2022

As China welcomes the world to Winter Olympics, its economy is ever more isolated from the west
As the Beijing Winter Olympics get underway, all eyes are on China. There has been lots of coverage about China’s chilly relationship in the west and its persecution of the Uighur and other minorities, but there is also much to be said about the Chinese economy.

China’s great rise over the past several decades has been the great economic success of our times, lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and giving the global economy wheels in the years after the financial crisis of 2007-09.

Over the past decade, however, the miracle became a bit more ordinary as growth gradually slowed. China found it difficult to keep increasing exports at the same pace year after year, particularly in the face of weaker international demand for its products – not least because of the trade war with the US. Other issues have included an ageing population and the fact that growth had become increasingly dependent on debt, which wasn’t sustainable.

China’s economic growth 1997-2021

Trading Economics/National Bureau of Statistics of China, CC BY
China did seem to have weathered the pandemic better than many major economies, having contained the virus so aggressively. Yet the picture has since deteriorated as renewed domestic COVID outbreaks, including the new omicron variant, have caused fresh economic disruption.

Omicron’s effect on other major economies is not good news for Chinese exports either. Neither is the resurgence of inflation in many countries, which has prompted the US Federal Reserve and other central banks to threaten higher interest rates and an end to creating money via quantitative easing. This is likely to further dampen demand for Chinese goods.

China’s debt has also become an even bigger issue. Leading property developer Evergrande’s financial difficulties in 2021 made headlines, but excessive debt is rife throughout the property sector and beyond. If the bubble bursts, it could lead to a prolonged downturn that significantly damages the wider economy.

The government has been pressuring major companies to reduce their debts, while also restricting borrowing in the property sector and cracking down on informal lending across the country. It also sent a warning to excess borrowers through its willingness to let Evergrande default.

Weaker exports and reducing debt mean that China is heading for a slowdown: the World Bank projects that its economic growth will be just over 5% in 2022, compared to 8% in 2021.

China’s challenges
More broadly, China’s traditional growth model based on exports, infrastructure and real estate investment looks like it has run its course. The nation is facing a difficult rebalancing act as it aims to transition to relying much more on Chinese households consuming goods and services, while also having to move to a much less carbon-intensive economy.

Unfortunately for the ruling Communist Party, the best way to achieve this rebalancing is arguably to implement reforms that would limit the govermnent’s influence in Chinese life. For example, the World Bank thinks China needs to make it easier for companies to fail and to allow more private competition in sectors like education and healthcare as a way of driving up productivity. It also recommends enabling workers to move around the country by abolishing the hukou registration system in cities, since this system stipulates where someone is permanently resident.

Some World Bank recommendations do involve more government intervention, such as making the tax system more progressive to encourage consumers to spend more, and raising government spending on health and education so that people don’t need to save so much. Generally speaking, however, more liberalisation is the order of the day – and looks like the right way forward from my point of view.

Yet China has become more interventionist in the Xi era, cracking down on everything from tech billionaires to the number of hours that children can play video games each day. Meanwhile, China’s zero-COVID strategy has involved tightly sealed borders, swift citywide lockdowns and mass testing.

China adopted this strategy partly out of fear that its poor healthcare system could be completely overwhelmed by COVID, and more recently as a way of ensuring that the Winter Olympics proceed smoothly. Yet such is the climate in China that some commentators fear that it will not open up again, that the health crisis is turning into a political crisis of more committed isolation.

China therefore finds itself at a crossroads. On the one hand, it wants a greater role in the global economy, as can be seen through its Belt and Road Initiative to drive infrastructure development around the world in exchange for closer ties with Beijing.

But there is a contradiction between continuing to engage with global trade and the Chinese government’s instinct towards technological self-sufficiency and homegrown innovation. Trade liberalisation also requires, for example, opening up the banking sector to foreign lenders to make it more efficient. Yet that is a long way from Beijing’s interventionist approach. Indeed, the fact that the banks, which are partly owned by the state, were given mandates to lend to state-owned companies with poor financial status was the cause of many the debt problems in the first place.

Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping posing in front of flags
Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin have been holding a summit as the Games begin. EPA
Unfortunately, the indications are that China is more likely to move towards greater isolationism from the west. This might mean restricting people visiting the country and concentrating more on domestic consumption than global trade. We might see it further tacking away from globalisation via trade wars, as well as imposing greater capital controls to make it harder for money to get in and out of the country. Obviously, China is partly acting out of provocation from the west, but its overall policy shift has been to a large extent homegrown.

As with the winter Olympics, where China is trying to keep the athletes separate from its people, the nation is also behaving in a similar way with regard to the rest of the world. What should be a celebration of international cooperation is happening at a time when the exact opposite is taking place.

02/02/2022

‘Wicked problems’: Government involvement in sport is fraught with issues
People will soon be tuning into the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics — the second Olympics hosted during the pandemic and one that has come under much criticism.

It was recently announced that tickets won’t be sold to the public. Scholars and activists have continuously called for a boycott of the Games on the grounds of humans rights abuses. And many people are left wondering why the event would even be hosted given the ongoing global health crisis.

Read more: From sanctioning a refugee team to letting China host: Does the International Olympic Committee support human rights?

These developments have drawn much attention to the politics and political structures underlying the Olympic Games and sport more broadly.

While it is often suggested that we should keep the politics out of sport, the public is generally coming to accept how sport is inherently political.

In Canada, we have a national sport policy, and the “encouragement, development, and promotion of sport” is identified as the responsibility of the government through the Department of Canadian Heritage Act.

My research program currently focuses on understanding sport participation in diverse community contexts. This involves mapping the surprisingly complex system of structures that support sport participation and the ways that they vary across provinces and regions.

Multi-level governance and Canadian sport
We often think of sports at the elite level (like professional or Olympic athletes). A second thought might be grassroots or community sport (like a local soccer club or little league). These are both important parts of the sport system and are reflected in political structures.

But the network of organizations that support sport participation in different ways is complex. Scholars who study these structures call it multi-level governance.

At the top of the sport system in Canada, we have Sport Canada. As a government body, Sport Canada oversees a variety of programs. These programs include the Athlete Assistance Program, the Hosting Program and the Sport Support Program.

Next, there is a range of national, provincial and multi-sport service organizations — these organizations are generally non-profits. They work together to support the development and delivery of sport participation across the country.

For example, Basketball PEI supports clubs and competitions at the provincial level, while Wheelchair Rugby Canada oversees international competitions and the national team.

Young girls play a soccer game outdoors.
There are many organizations supporting sport participation at various levels across the country. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Fred Chartrand
And at the local level, there are many organizations who support sport participation. These organizations are in the private, non-profit and public sector. For example, private gyms host squash leagues, volleyball clubs offer youth development programs, and schools have competitive swim programs.

Municipalities also support formal and informal sport participation through recreation programming as well as maintaining facilities like tennis and basketball courts that people can book or drop in and use at their leisure.

The diversity of organizations working in the sport system allows for varied landscapes of sport participation opportunities to develop in different regions. My team’s research found that the average age of rowers varied by up to 15 years across different parts of Ontario. These trends are related to demographics, local culture, as well as how people access participation opportunities.

Read more: The secret formula for becoming an elite athlete

Significant investments and political will can improve access to sport. Despite this, data shows sport participation declines with age and is impacted greatly by factors such as gender and social class.

Despite the professionalization of the sport system, researchers have critiqued the “one-size fits all” approaches to sport development. They suggest place or context-based strategies might be more effective at increasing sport participation.

The Agenda covers rethinking Canadian sport policy.
Complex policy issues
Increasing sport participation is generally accepted as a desirable policy goal. However, the process of achieving it is complex.

Sport policy is complicated by the tensions that emerge around supporting both elite athletes as well as sport participation in general. When push comes to shove, there isn’t always enough budget or political will to build both high performance sport centres and a variety of community based introduction to sport programs. Innovative approaches in some countries are also challenging us to think differently about how we structure our sport systems.

Sport events like the Olympics complicate these problems further. They introduce disruptions to the system and redirect attention and resources. In the lead up to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Own the Podium was developed for the purpose of achieving high performance goals (like gold medals).

Read more: How Olympians train their brains to become mentally tough

Multi-level governance creates a host of problems when it comes to evaluation because sport participation is supported at the local, regional and federal level and each of these jurisdictions have their own priorities, metrics and reporting structures.

Making matters worse, informal sport participation (like pick-up games or “beer” leagues) are not easily tracked or recorded within the sport system and therefore not often considered in evaluation efforts.

Despite the ongoing modernization of the sport system, government involvement in sport is fraught with issues. These issues can be described as “wicked problems” because they are difficult to define, underpinned by competing ideas and potential solutions often create future problems.

The ‘trickle-down’ effect?
The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged us to think differently about sport. We’ve had a chance to re-evaluate where, how and when participation is important.

The upcoming Olympic Games offer another chance to reflect on these issues. The idea that major events lead to increased sport participation (often called the demonstration or “trickle-down” effect) is hotly disputed. But organizations who have the capacity and resources to leverage events and elite athlete performances may use them to achieve participation related goals.

The key to improving sport participation likely does not lie exclusively in discrete things like policy itself, or whether or not an event takes place. Rather, sport participation is supported by a strong system of connected stakeholders working towards common goals.

A strong system allows for coordinated policy implementation, evaluation and ultimately outcomes related to health, citizenship and community development that are accessible and realized for all Canadians.

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