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A researcher at Queensland's CQUniversity (CQU) has suggested that the administrators' good intentions will not be enough to ensure the development of sport in China after the Olympic Games.

Event legacy researcher Dr Danya Hodgetts of CQU, believes that a conscious, sustained effort is required for sports to develop as result of major events. As Hodgetts explains, "it is not necessarily a matter of build it and they will come," as Chinese sport administrators try to ensure the momentum in elite sports rubs off on potential competitors in the general population.

Hodgetts explains that effective legacies needed to be planned from early in the bid process, citing the example of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games which has a specific legacy section, including the donation of sports equipment and the creation of legacy funds to contribute to sport development. In contrast, Australian Sports Commission desires to harness motivations from the Sydney Olympics started much later in the process and were not as effective as they could have been.

Similarly, hope was expressed that the Germany 2006 FIFA World Cup would encourage wider participation in exercise via grassroots sport, but this was not supported by any programs or initiatives to bring about this change.

Dr Hodgetts said she would be tracing the event legacies from the Australian Surf Lifesaving Championships in Western Australia over the 2007-2009 period. Evidence to measure the sport development impacts will be gathered from organisational and event statistics, a member survey and focus groups. As she adds "this research will establish a framework for measuring the sport development impact of large sporting events, with likely recommendations including performance indicators for event bidding documents."

Image: Beijing's National Stadium.

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