FITPRO NETWORK | JUNE JULY 2011

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It’s been called the greatest show on earth but what impact – if any – will the Olympics have on the UK’s health and fitness and your livelihood? Fitpro Network investigates.

One of the main arguments for a health and fitness legacy is through positive role models: that watching elite athletes inspires the general populationBUILDING

A LEGACY?

There is often an assumption that following an Olympics there will be a ‘trickle-down’ effect in the host country; that people will become

more active and take up sports following the media bombardment of the event. But is watching an athlete perform an incredibly specific skill, at an elite level,

really going to encourage someone to get off the couch? In an analysis of sports participation between 1985 and 2002, Veal 1

found that in the year following Sydney 2000, only seven Olympic sports saw an increase in participation, while nine saw a decrease. UK Sport research after the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games

revealed similar results – while survey results showed that respondents felt the event had a positive effect on their activity levels; there was no recorded rise in sports participation levels in the north west.2

However, when London was elected host city it was due to great sporting venues already in the country, a commitment to

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building new ones, a slick and well presented bid and – importantly – a commitment for a permanent health and fitness legacy.

Promotional materials for the bid claimed that, if successful, “Grassroots participation would be boosted. An already sports-mad nation would get fitter and healthier.” In his final address to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Lord Coe said, “Your decision today is critical. It is a decision about which bid offers the vision and sporting legacy to best promote the

Olympic cause. It is a decision about which city will help us show a new generation why sport matters; in a world of many distractions, why Olympic sport matters.”

Despite the many health and fitness legacy claims made, the Department of Health’s own study to investigate the legacy stated that, “Evidence directly relevant to the issue of developing a physical activity, sport and health legacy from the Olympic Games, sport events and sports franchises remains sparse.”3

One of the main arguments for a health and fitness legacy is through positive role models: that watching elite athletes inspires the general population

LONDON 2012

Craig O’Toole

The Olympics can only have a positive effect on my business. Unless you move to Mars next summer you won’t be able to move without hearing about it. Even for the most ardent couch potato it will be hard to avoid, and will hopefully turn on a whole new sector of society to exercise. It’s normally complete novices who seek the services of trainers to guide them into the daunting world of exercise.

Unfortunately, I don’t see the Olympics changing the country’s health and fitness – 30 years of bad habits is simply too big a problem for two weeks of sports coverage to address.

Scott Marsh

The Olympics can only have a positive impact on the health and fitness industry. With the amount of TV and press coverage surrounding the event it will be hard to ignore. I think people, no matter what their goal is, will find such an event inspiring. I expect there will be a lot more interest in health and fitness as people set about achieving their own personal goals.

The Games will be a crucial time for us to work alongside the media-created

hype and raise awareness of the type of impact we as trainers can make on people’s lives.

Ailish Hall

It is highly unlikely the Games will benefit my business. No one will

sit at home and think, 'Hmmm I must get down the gym or hire a personal trainer'. It will definitely make them more

aware and I hope people will feel inspired to try a new sport – but

spending money on their health and fitness and pumping money into the industry? It won't happen.

I'll probably challenge my clients to a few Olympic inspired workouts but that will be it. My time and effort will be better spent focusing on my usual, proven strategies for growing my business.

After the Games I think you'll see more people playing sports, and this will probably last a few weeks, just like the New Year rush does. The mentality just isn't there and inspiration isn't enough.

The views of three PTs

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Michael Payne, who in 1988 became the

IOC’s first ever marketing director and has

been involved with every Olympic Games

since, believes that promoting a legacy

was key to the UK’s success. “I had many

conversations with Seb Coe and it was

obvious that if London just went for a

beauty contest with Paris then it would lose;

it had to present a vision and a legacy.”

One of the main arguments for a health

and fitness legacy is through positive

role models: that watching elite athletes

inspires the general population. In his

2003 book, Payne et al argue that much

thinking about the link between sporting

role models and participation fails to

understand the complexity of processes of

learning and behavioural change.4 In short,

the role model (or their sport) may not be

relevant and accessible to the majority of

the population and athletes at the Games

don’t always provide positive examples; for

instance when they test positive for drugs.

If the event in itself is unlikely to create a

health and fitness legacy, then how about

targeted programmes by the Government

and bodies such as the Legacy Trust and

Sport England?

One of the Government’s main initiatives is the Sainsbury’s UK School Games. Launched last year, 2011’s event will take place this September in Sheffield and will feature a host of Olympic sports. Speaking about the event, Mr Hunt, the secretary of State for Labour, commented:

“We believe that we need to go a lot further to create a sporting legacy for 2012. If you asked ‘What is the one thing that you’re doing that is different from the previous Government with respect to legacy programmes?', the answer is that we have set up this plan for an Olympic-style school sports competition.5

“That is a way that we hope to create a lasting increase in the number of young people playing competitive sport ... our success in this programme won’t be about

having schools Olympics in 2012. It will be

whether they happen in 2013, 2014, 2015

– that is the real point of this programme.”

While the event may encourage sporting

participation in young people, the Games

are targeted at elite youth athletes. It is

questionable how many casual sporting

participants will be encouraged to become

more active by the event.

Another major initiative is Sport England’s Places, People Play programme which is targeting a more diverse demographic. The five-year, £135m project will invest money in upgrading up to a thousand local sports clubs and facilities, protecting and improving playing fields across the country, and recruiting, training and deploying 40,000 sports volunteers to organise and lead grassroots sporting activities.

However, at the project’s launch, Labour's Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell commented: “The legacy promise we made was to transform a generation of young people through sport. However they dress it up, the Olympic legacy promise that we made to this country's young people is yet another promise that has been broken.”

In a 2007 report, the Culture, Media and Sport Committee concluded that, “No host country has yet been able to demonstrate a direct benefit from the Olympic Games in the form of lasting participation.”6 The myriad organisations tasked with ensuring a legacy recognise the importance of this and programmes are in place. Whether they will succeed or not is unknown. As Michael Payne comments, “The bid did make a big point of the health and fitness legacy and I suppose the jury is still out on that, but we won’t know about the legacy until four or five years after the event.”

Payne – who has been involved with the Olympics since the 1988 Winter Games – believes that the country will come together to celebrate the event. “As soon as the Olympic torch lands in this country there is absolutely no question that the whole thing will take off beyond anyone’s wildest estimations,” he says enthusiastically. “There is nothing now that can prepare people for the sheer scale of the event. It will be a fabulous experience.”

The Games will provide an opportunity for personal trainers, but it is just that: an opportunity. It is highly unlikely that they will bring about a wholesale change in the UK’s attitude to health and fitness and it will be several years before we know the full impact (if any) of the legacy planning. Watching Usain Bolt, Victoria Pendleton and Ian Thorpe compete won’t – in the vast majority of cases – inspire someone to become healthier. However, it may put the idea in their mind and in the period before, during, and after the Games sport will be at the forefront of the nation’s minds. It’s up to trainers to do everything they can to capitalise on this.

To view the references related to this article visit www.fitpro.com/references

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As soon as the Olympic torch lands in this country there is absolutely no question that the whole thing will take off beyond anyone’s wildest estimations

ANDREW VERDON

I clearly remember the morning in 1993 when I awoke to hear we had been awarded the Olympics. The Games were flawless and the period was unlike anything the city had ever seen, or will again. It was a magical time.

As a PT it was the main topic of conversation with most clients from when the flame toured the country. By the Olympics, I had my own business within Fitness First and I was close to maximum numbers with my clients so I didn’t do any specific marketing around the event. I don’t think the Olympics left a health and fitness legacy in Australia – possibly a sporting legacy – but I think this too has eroded over the last 10 years. If it did we would not be battling the obesity issues we face now.

The Olympics opened my eyes to a world beyond personal training in elite sport, they were fantastic and they changed my career. To me they represented the pinnacle of sporting achievement, not just as an athlete but also as a support staff member.

In 2002, I was approached by the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) to get involved in the physical preparation of the Sydney-based athletes for the 2004 Olympics. In total now I look after approximately 35 athletes across four squads and I absolutely love my work.

A view on Sydney 2000

What do you think? Will the Olympics have any effect on your business? Let us know on Facebook and Twitter

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