Money vs. Athlete Development in Olympic and Paralympic Sport

Andy Smith

Context• Emergence of state-sponsored elite sport

development (ESD) systems

• Increasing globalization and social and cultural significance of sport – Olympic (and Paralympic) Games (Maguire, 1999, 2011)

• Growing commercialization facilitated by the development of sports sponsorship and the increasing global audience via television (Waddington & Smith, 2009)

• The ‘global sporting arms race’ (De Bosscher et al., 2006, 2008; Oakley & Green, 2001)

Global Sporting Arms Race• Development of more systematic approaches to

talent identification and development (TID)

• Increasingly professionalized approach to sports coaching (Green & Houlihan, 2005)

• Increased emphasis on sports science support

• The achievement-orientation of modern sport (Dunning, 1986) and the ‘sport ethic’ (Hughes & Coakley, 1991)

• Objective: examine the unintended consequences of the global sporting arms race for athlete development and welfare

Competitive Sport and Intensive Training• Currently ‘unless a child starts training at a

very early age, it is almost impossible to reach the top in many sports’ (David, 2005: 55)

• Beamish and Ritchie (2006: 27): ‘a trend towards initiating serious, systematic training at earlier and earlier ages … [and] increased specialization at younger and younger ages’

• The ‘sporting family’: a closed social world characterized by strong emotional and dependency bonds (David, 2005)

• Rarely questioned by those in sport (Brackenridge, 2001; David, 2005; Platts & Smith, 2009; UNICEF, 2010)

Culture of Sacrifice (Handball)• Dave: ‘It takes over my life basically. I don’t

have that much socializing time. I obviously socialize during the training and stuff like that with my friends, but because I have school as well and I have exams now, I literally can’t do much.’ (aged 16)

• Ellen: ‘This year I have really struggled with it ... because I started college and literally everyone was going out every Friday night and while they were going out I was going to training ... My mum is living in London during the week now; she only comes back during the weekend and ... I was seeing her for like an hour … before she had to go back to London.’ (aged 17) (Hulme & Smith, 2012)

Diet, Eating, and Body Image• Giordano (2010: 2): ‘The pressure to succeed

in professional sports might trigger the onset of eating disorders’

• Exercise: clinical feature of eating disorders and ‘silent sufferers’ (Giordano, 2010)

• Atkinson (2011): emaciation (intentional rapid weight loss, minimizing weight, purging) and self-starving lifestyles common

• Implications for athletes with particular impairments and dietary requirements

• A ‘culture of risk’ (Nixon, 1992) taken by athletes

Diet: ‘It’s Harder than Normal Life’• Dave: ‘It’s harder than a normal life ’cos there is

a lot of training and we have to change what we eat. We have to eat more healthily, more carbohydrates, and eat stuff that gives us more energy ... When we go away to Denmark - the training academy - we can’t (eat what we want) then ’cos they (coaches) are with us. When we go away it is strict on what we eat.’ (aged 16, handball)

• Carly: ‘It’s a lot stricter when you’re away. We can’t go to the shop and get what you want ... One time I bought some Kinder Eggs and a coke and I went up to the hotel with it in a bag and the … psychologist emptied the bag out and was like ‘You can’t have this’. (aged 17, skiing) (Hulme & Smith, 2012)

Diet: Politics of Acceptability• Louise: ‘When I go to the World

Championship I have the whole of August off. When I come home and that’s my relax time but I will have the odd ice cream ... (My personal trainer) ... knows that I’m 17 and I’m going to want to eat different things. I don’t want to eat nuts and seeds every day and pasta and all these cuscus and all of that ... If I will have an apple crumble after my tea or something ... he will understand.’ (aged 17, rowing) (Hulme & Smith, 2012)

Coach-Player Relationship: Soccer• 3. Like say if you do something he’ll just go ‘That was shit’.• 2. You’ll have the game of your life and like you’ll have played well but he’ll still

point out • 3. [Interrupts] Something bad you’ve done …• 3. It’s in front of everybody.• 2. Yeah it is, he’ll go round.• 5. He’ll go through the whole team and say ‘You did this, you did that’.• 7. He did it today. Everyone was standing there and he went though everyone.• 3. Make an absolute show of someone.• 5. And like ... once he went to me ‘Listen bollocks’, called me ‘bollocks’! I thought

‘Fuckin hell, that’s a bit harsh innit’?• (Year 2, Premier League club) (Platts, 2012: 228)

Protecting Athlete Welfare: Soccer• 6. Sometimes he [Welfare Officer) tells us about other players ...• 5. He tells us about other players’ issues that they have come to him, so then we are then a bit wary whether to tell him

about our issues.• 2. Because one player [Player’s name]• 5. [Interrupts] He always brings up how they have had hard issues in their life, which may be they didn’t want people to

know about, but he will be like, ‘Oh, if he doesn’t mind me saying’ but the other person hasn’t told him that he can say it.• 2. He doesn’t know. That is why I wouldn’t immediately tell him something personal, because maybe if you’re not there,

he will be like ‘I’m sure [Player’s name] wouldn’t mind but ...’• (Year 1, Championship club) (Platts, 2012: 242)

Conclusion• Commercialization, money and athlete

welfare: an anomalous alliance?

• Can athlete welfare and development can be prioritized alongside the growth of global sporting competitions such as the Olympic and Paralympic games?

• Data on athlete welfare ‘rightly draws some attention to an aspect of sports participation that is often ignored and rarely questioned – in both policy and practice – by many of those involved in the organization and administration of sport.’ (Platts & Smith, 2009: 332)