Tokyo 2020 Olympics: Does watching mass sporting events encourage us to be healthier?
I’m not sure about you but watching the Olympics has made me want to become more active. After watching the women’s triathlon, I couldn’t wait to get out and run the following day, which made me wonder, does watching the Olympics encourage us to be more physically active? Does watching sport in general encourage us to be healthier?
Surprisingly, the answer is no. Despite organising committees often promising a health legacy as justification for staging major sporting events, studies have found that events such as the Olympics and FIFA World Cup have generally made little impact on the physical activity of local populations. However, what they do find is that we are inspired by watching elite athletes and motivated to become more physically active. So why aren’t we acting on it?
In today’s blog, we look at what is physical activity; the role that the Olympics (and other sports events) play in the health of society; barriers that prevent people from being physically active; and how to become more physically active.
What is Physical Activity?
Physical activity is defined as ‘body movement that expends energy and raises the heart rate’.[i] It’s recommended that adults should be getting at least 150-300 minutes of moderate physical activity, or 75-150 minutes of vigorous physical activity (or a combination of the two) throughout the week.[ii]
Physical inactivity is where you are getting less than 30 minutes of exercise per week. It’s the fourth biggest cause of disease and disability, and directly contributes to one in six deaths in the UK: that’s the same number as smoking! Around a half of women and a third of men in England are damaging their health through physical inactivity, which has only worsened since the COVID-19 pandemic.[iii] Multiple lockdowns and remote working have led to many people being less active and sitting down a lot more than usual.
Exercise and physical activity are not only great for maintaining physical and psychological health but also in helping our bodies respond to the negative consequences of many diseases including respiratory, diabetes, cardiovascular and hypertension.
The Role of the Olympics & Mass Sporting Events on Health
The Olympic Games is a global multi-sports event with over 200 nations and 11,000 athletes competing, attracting millions of viewers worldwide.
We’ve been facing the pandemic of coronavirus since 2020, but also global physical inactivity since 2012, so the Tokyo 2020 Olympics brings much opportunity for a healthier and physically active global society. It’s often predicted within pre-Olympic bid documents that elite sports events will lead to community interest, and more people engaging in sport and physical activity.
In some cases, this is true, the Olympics do provide a great amount of exposure to various forms of physical activity, inspiring some to even take up the sport. For example, after the 2008 Olympic games, there was an increase in people taking up popular Olympic sports such as gymnastics, running and swimming. For others, watching sports put them off taking up the sport but did encourage them to be more physically active[iv].
However, several studies found that the Olympic games has little impact on the physical activity of local populations. During the London 2012 Olympics, the Olympic Minister had anticipated over two million will be more people physically active, a million more playing sports, and 60% of youth playing at least 5 hours of sport a week. Unfortunately, this goal wasn’t achieved, and although there was a slight increase in physical activity, the capacity was far below recommended levels. [v]
Dr Adrian Bauman, Professor of Public Health at the University of Sydney says the Olympics a missed opportunity to promote health. However, there’s several factors which prevent this, one of them being that many sporting events get sponsorship from unhealthy food manufacturers and things contrary to public health[vi].
Joe Piggin, a senior lecturer in Sport Management, discusses the reason for this:
“The simple marketing logic is that sponsors connect with consumers at a very emotional time in their lives. Sport is emotional, it's about being involved, it's about joy and the uncertainty of an outcome, all that leads to consumers being excited…that's the reason why sports organisations, clubs, and events are targeted by food companies, and in the past, alcohol, and cigarette companies. They’re still targeted by gambling companies and if you think about these four examples; gambling, cigarettes, alcohol, and junk food, those are things which can cause a lot of harm in society.”
He goes on to discuss the repercussions of how these conflicting messages could set a dangerous precedent:
“What I have an issue with is at Rio 2016 (Olympic Games) they adorn the ultra-processed foods such as Coco Pops and Crunchy Nut Cornflakes, which are very high in sugar…If you're a parent thinking, well, I shouldn't be buying this high sugar cereal for my child, but at the same time on the packets, you could win a day with an Olympic hero - that’s some very confusing messaging. The parents are thinking, oh, if it's got Olympic athletes on the packet, it must be okay…it does create some real issues in terms of health promotion.”[vii]
But despite this, there’s no doubt that mass sporting events and the athletes that take part in them do make us more aware of our health in general, even when we aren’t watching the sporting event itself.
For example, American gymnast Simone Biles most recently raised awareness of mental wellbeing, after pulling out of the Olympics women’s team final, speaking of the need to “protect our minds and our bodies”.[viii]
Cristiano Ronaldo also took it upon himself to remove the unhealthy Coca-Cola sponsor bottles from view at a press conference and sent a health message to viewers urging them to drink water instead.[ix]
And during the opening week of the 2020 Euros, Denmark player Christian Eriksen suffered a cardiac arrest on-pitch which taught us that even young and fit people can be at risk of a cardiovascular event. The British Heart Foundation said that in the five days after Eriksen's collapse, views to pages on its website on defibrillators and how to do CPR increased by more than 2,000%, with record number of defibrillator sales.[x]
Barriers to Physical Activity & How to Overcome Them
Now we know that overall, the Olympics and other sporting events make us aware of our health and motivate us to be more physically active. But what prevents people from exercising, and how do we overcome these barriers?
A survey conducted by YouGov (on behalf of Pro Bono Economics) after the London 2012 Olympics found that only 7% of 2,000 respondent had been inspired to actually take up a sport. There were several reasons why the respondents failed to get active; 18% of the remaining respondents blamed busy lifestyles; 17% blamed the cost of playing sport; 12% cited a lack of local facilities; and 12% said they failed to participate in sport due to lack of confidence.[xi]
I believe this all comes down to how we view physical activity, that to be active means you must go to the gym or be doing a sport, which isn’t true. Physical activity is getting your body moving, so that could be going for a walk, doing some cleaning, heavy gardening (e.g., digging or shovelling), or taking the stairs. Adding small interventions to your daily life can greatly benefit your health.
Conclusion
So, in conclusion, watching mass sporting events hasn’t really led to greater health in society due to the primary focus on competition, and having sponsorships by brands who encourage not so healthy lifestyles, such as unhealthy food manufacturers, gambling, and alcohol, which can do more harm to society.
There’s a missed opportunity for committees to work with public health to improve the health of our nation as a whole, since the Olympics and other sporting events have been shown to be great motivators for encouraging people to become more physically active. They expose us to different types of sports, with elite athletes themselves making us aware of other health issues.
Despite this motivation, there are still barriers which stop people from becoming more physically active, such as busy lifestyles, cost, lack of facilities and lack of confidence. However, we can start to overcome these by thinking of physical activity as something that’s easily attainable, it doesn’t have to be a sport or going to the gym, but just by getting our bodies moving, we can become a healthier society.
Has the Olympics inspired you to become healthier or more physically active? Let us know!
Sources:
[i] https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/374914/Framework_13.pdf
[ii] https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity
[iii] https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/374914/Framework_13.pdf
[iv] https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)01165-X/fulltext
[v] https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20160805-do-big-sporting-events-make-us-do-more-sport
[vi] https://www.thelancet.com/the-lancet-voice
[vii] https://www.lboro.ac.uk/news-events/news/2020/january/sponsorship-in-sports-unhealthy-relationship/
[viii] https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/57996321
[ix] https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/jun/18/coca-colas-ronaldo-fiasco-highlights-risk-to-brands-in-social-media-age
[x] https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/57526058
[xi] https://road.cc/content/news/218091-do-olympics-really-motivate-people-try-sport
