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Barcelona 92 : a legacy case study
Barcelona 92: A Legacy Case Study examines the effects of the organisation of Barcelona's Olympic Games in 1992. Divided into five compelling chapters, the authors discuss issues concerning the definition of legacy, whilst also presenting new models of legacy management and measurement methods, and providing an in-depth examination of sporting, economic and social dimensions. This book offers the most significant studies and research on the 92 Olympics to date, presenting cutting-edge proposals for comparing different Olympic hosting cities into the future.
Book
The Palgrave handbook of Olympic studies
A comprehensive, state-of-the-art reference collection, bringing together an authoritative and international line-up of scholars to examine key social and political issues related to the Olympics. An essential, 'one-stop' volume for a wide range of academics, students and researchers.
eBook
Women in sports : 50 fearless athletes who played to win
\"Highlights the achievements and stories of fifty notable women athletes, from well-known figures like tennis player Billie Jean King and gymnast Simone Biles, to lesser-known athletes like skateboarding pioneer Patti McGee and Toni Stone, the first woman to play baseball in a men's professional league\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Host Cities and the Olympics
Rather than interpreting the Olympics as primarily a sporting event of international or national significance, this book understands the Games as a civic project for the host city that serves as a catalyst for a variety of urban interests over a period of many years from the bidding phase through the event itself. Traditional Olympic studies have tended to examine the Games from an outsider's perspective or as something experienced through the print media or television. In contrast, the focus presented here is on the dynamics within the host city understood as a community of interacting individuals who encounter the Games in a variety of ways through support, opposition, or even indifference but who have a profound influence on the outcome of the Games as actors and players in the Olympics as a drama.
Adopting a symbolic interactionist approach, the book offers a new interpretive model through which to understand the Olympic Games by exploring the relationship between the Games and residents of the host city. Key analytical concepts such as framing, dramaturgy, the public realm, and the symbolic field are introduced and illustrated through empirical research from the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games, and it is shown how social media and shifts in public opinion reflected interaction effects within the city. By filling a clear lacuna in the Olympic Studies canon, this book is important reading for anybody with an interest in the sociology of sport, urban studies, event studies or urban sociology.
eBook
The delivery of primary school physical education in South African public schools : the perceptions of educators
Background: Physical Education (PE) is a fundamental cornerstone for childhood development as it promotes lifelong participation in physical activities for holistic health. School educators play a key role in creating school environments that lead to developmentally appropriate and high-quality PE lessons. Aim: The aim of this study was to determine educators’ perceptions on the state and status of PE in selected public primary schools in all nine provinces of South Africa. Setting: Data were collected on the campus of the selected primary schools within 150 km of a university. In the absence of a university within the stated radius, an airport was used as an initiated point of departure. Methods: The mixed-methods approach (quantitative: questionnaires and qualitative: semistructured interviews and focus group discussions) was used to collect data. The purposive sampling method was used to select the participants. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics in the form of percentages, and presented using graphs and tables. Qualitative data were analysed using themes. Results: The findings revealed that the educators from quintile 4 and 5 schools especially are of the opinion that challenges, such as a lack of resources, qualified PE specialist educators, and facilities and equipment negatively affected the delivery of PE at their schools. Conclusion: Participants perceived that there are varying contextual and socio-economic school settings affecting the delivery of PE in the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) curriculum. The researcher recommends that all learners have access to the adequate provision of PE programmes.
Journal Article
Pay Attention to the Imaging Study of Sport Injury and Illness in Winter Olympics Sports
Ice and snow sports involve high speed, high resistance, and high metabolism. [...]injuries resulting from ice and snow sports are often serious and can directly impact the competitive state and the quality of life of sports fans and athletes alike. In these athletes, the long-term semi-flexion of the knees leads to laxity of the medial and posterior ligaments and decreases the stability of the knee joint. [...]the incidence of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury is the highest of all injuries. Slip-catch is the most common mechanism of injury. [...]training should be emphasized for the prevention and control of ACL injuries. [...]the ultrastructure of cartilage repair tissue can be examined in the physical examination, and multiple articular cartilage repair and biological engineering cartilage repair of articular cartilage defects can be evaluated qualitatively and quantitatively.
Journal Article
Going for the Gold: The Economics of the Olympics
In this paper, we explore the costs and benefits of hosting the Olympic Games. On the cost side, there are three major categories: general infrastructure such as transportation and housing to accommodate athletes and fans; specific sports infrastructure required for competition venues; and operational costs, including general administration as well as the opening and closing ceremony and security. Three major categories of benefits also exist: the short-run benefits of tourist spending during the Games; the long-run benefits or the “Olympic legacy” which might include improvements in infrastructure and increased trade, foreign investment, or tourism after the Games; and intangible benefits such as the “feel-good effect” or civic pride. Each of these costs and benefits will be addressed in turn, but the overwhelming conclusion is that in most cases the Olympics are a money-losing proposition for host cities; they result in positive net benefits only under very specific and unusual circumstances. Furthermore, the cost–benefit proposition is worse for cities in developing countries than for those in the industrialized world. In closing, we discuss why what looks like an increasingly poor investment decision on the part of cities still receives significant bidding interest and whether changes in the bidding process of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will improve outcomes for potential hosts.
Journal Article
Sprint mechanical variables in elite athletes: Are force-velocity profiles sport specific or individual?
The main aim of this investigation was to quantify differences in sprint mechanical variables across sports and within each sport. Secondary aims were to quantify sex differences and relationships among the variables.
In this cross-sectional study of elite athletes, 235 women (23 ± 5 y and 65 ± 7 kg) and 431 men (23 ± 4 y and 80 ± 12 kg) from 23 different sports (including 128 medalists from World Championships and/or Olympic Games) were tested in a 40-m sprint at the Norwegian Olympic Training Center between 1995 and 2018. These were pre-existing data from quarterly or semi-annual testing that the athletes performed for training purposes. Anthropometric and speed-time sprint data were used to calculate the theoretical maximal velocity, horizontal force, horizontal power, slope of the force-velocity relationship, maximal ratio of force, and index of force application technique.
Substantial differences in mechanical profiles were observed across sports. Athletes in sports in which sprinting ability is an important predictor of success (e.g., athletics sprinting, jumping and bobsleigh) produced the highest values for most variables, whereas athletes in sports in which sprinting ability is not as important tended to produce substantially lower values. The sex differences ranged from small to large, depending on variable of interest. Although most of the variables were strongly associated with 10- and 40-m sprint time, considerable individual differences in sprint mechanical variables were observed among equally performing athletes.
Our data from a large sample of elite athletes tested under identical conditions provides a holistic picture of the force-velocity-power profile continuum in athletes. The data indicate that sprint mechanical variables are more individual than sport specific. The values presented in this study could be used by coaches to develop interventions that optimize the training stimulus to the individual athlete.
Journal Article
Self-reported sports injuries and later-life health status in 3357 retired Olympians from 131 countries: a cross-sectional survey among those competing in the games between London 1948 and PyeongChang 2018
ObjectiveDescribe the self-reported prevalence and nature of Olympic-career injury and general health and current residual symptoms in a self-selected sample of retired Olympians.Methods3357 retired Olympians from 131 countries completed a cross-sectional online survey, distributed by direct email through World Olympians Association and National Olympian Associations databases. The survey captured Olympic sport exposure, significant training and competition injury history (lasting >1 month), general health (eg, depression) during the athlete’s career, and current musculoskeletal pain and functional limitations.Results55% were men (44% women, 1% unknown), representing 57 sports (42 Summer, 15 Winter), aged 44.7 years (range 16–97). A total of 3746 injuries were self-reported by 2116 Olympians. This equated, 63.0% (women 68.1%, men 59.2%) reporting at least one significant injury during their Olympic career. Injury prevalence was highest in handball (82.2%) and lowest in shooting (40.0%) for Summer Olympians; and highest in alpine skiing (82.4%) and lowest in biathlon (40.0%) for Winter Olympians. The knee was the most frequently injured anatomical region (20.6%, 120 median days severity), followed by the lumbar spine (13.1%, 100 days) and shoulder/clavicle (12.9%, 92 days). 6.6% of Olympians said they had experienced depression during their career. One-third of retired Olympians reported current pain (32.4%) and functional limitations (35.9%).ConclusionsAlmost two-thirds of Olympians who completed the survey reported at least one Olympic-career significant injury. The knee, lumbar spine and shoulder/clavicle were the most commonly injured anatomical locations. One-third of this sample of Olympians attributed current pain and functional limitations to Olympic-career injury.
Journal Article
Temporal trends in the cardiorespiratory fitness of children and adolescents representing 19 high-income and upper middle-income countries between 1981 and 2014
ObjectiveTo estimate international and national temporal trends in the cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) of children and adolescents and to examine relationships between temporal trends in CRF and temporal trends in broad socioeconomic and health-related indicators across countries.MethodsData were obtained from a systematic search of studies that explicitly reported 20 m shuttle run test (a validated measure of CRF) descriptive data on apparently healthy individuals aged 9–17 years. Following the estimation of relative peak oxygen uptake (mL/kg/min) as a measure of CRF, sample-weighted temporal trends were estimated at the country–sex–age level using best-fitting linear or polynomial regression models relating the year of testing to mean CRF. Poststratified population-weighted mean changes in absolute and per cent CRF were estimated. Pearson’s correlations were used to describe the association between linear temporal trends in CRF and linear temporal trends in broad socioeconomic and health-related indicators.ResultsTemporal trends were estimated from 965 264 children and adolescents from 19 high-income and upper middle-income countries between 1981 and 2014, using data from 137 studies. Collectively, there was a moderate decline in CRF of 3.3 mL/kg/min (95% CI −3.5 to −3.1), equivalent to a decline of 7.3% (95% CI −7.8% to −6.7%) over the 33-year time period. This international decline diminished with each decade and stabilised near zero around 2000. The decline was larger for boys than girls and was similar for children and adolescents. Trends also differed in magnitude and direction between countries, with most showing declines. There was a strong negative association between country-specific trends in income inequality (Gini index) and trends in CRF across 18 countries; meaning, countries approaching income equality had more favourable trends in CRF.ConclusionsThere has been a substantial decline in CRF since 1981, which is suggestive of a meaningful decline in population health. However, the international trend in CRF has not followed the anticipated trajectory, diminishing and stabilising with negligible change since 2000. CRF data are needed from children in low-income and middle-income countries to more confidently determine true international trends and determine whether temporal trends are similar to those observed in high-income and upper middle-income countries.
Journal Article