If previous trends hold true, the Vancouver Olympics won’t inspire local children and teens to take up sports, a Canadian academic suggested today.
Organizing committees tend to sell the Games as the “chance of a lifetime” to get younger generations excited about physical activity, University of Toronto professor and Olympics critic Helen Lenskyj said during a talk at UBC’s Green College.
“That is a very popular rationale,” she said. “That has to be questioned – it can’t be taken for granted.”
Studies of sport participation in Australia after the 2000 Summer Games produced inconclusive results, Lenkskyj said. In fact, she added, research showed more Australians watched televised sports in the years that followed.
“There was greater passive involvement. More couch potatoes watching TV,” she said. “That’s not a positive legacy.”
A VANOC-commissioned report on Games legacies in North America said hosting the Olympics gives children “motivation from inspiring athletes” and “increased opportunity for participation in sport.”
The provincial government is spending an estimated $500,000 on the 2010 Spirit School program, a plan to make students healthier by tapping into Games excitement.
Geoff Dembicki reports for The Tyee.
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MichaelT
2 years ago
lol lol lol lol lol
keep running in circles in parks boys and girl Mary McDiarmid Antoinette has just the program for you.
Chris Keam
2 years ago
Summer and Winter
Compared to the Summer Games, I would guess that even fewer children take up the sports of the Winter games after the event. Many of the Summer events require little or no gear, while snow sports invariably require specialized (and expensive) equipment, clothing, and facilities.
southdeltawalker
2 years ago
More on Helen Lenskyj
Looks like we are spending 6 billion so folks can watch more TV.
Here is video link of Helen speaking last Spring:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2749393109959679608#
freebear
2 years ago
The Olympic Rings - Onion!
Pass the chips and onion rings as we watch the Owelympics on TV (if we bother to)!
THey also brag about an audience of 3 billion people! All sitting on their couches, or straw mats, or bar stools!
I never realized bob sledding and luge were so popular in Africa and India!
Wait many in Africa do not have televisions!
Are they counting 3 billion T.V.s?
I hope it rains in Whistler on the 5 ring elitist circus!
MichaelT
2 years ago
mmm onion rings...
don't get me started - I'm broke!
Diller
2 years ago
C'mon
The Australian studies produced "inconclusive" results is the first thing stated. It is then followed up by "more Australians watched televised sports in the years that followed". Questions conspicuously left unanswered: Did the overall television watching go up or was it just more sports watched in the same amount of time? What about the levels of physical activity? Did they also go up? Maybe they're just more sports oriented in general. I haven't done the research and I likely won't, but this article leaves far more unsaid than said.