The physical activity legacies of the Olympics

Adrian Bauman and Masamitsu Kamada discuss why the Olympics don't seem to have much of an effect on physical activity levels in their host countries.

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Transcript

This transcript was automatically generated using speech recognition technology and may differ from the original audio. In citing or otherwise referring to the contents of this podcast, please ensure that you are quoting the recorded audio rather than this transcript.

Gavin: Hello, welcome to the Lancet voice. It's July 2021. I'm Gavin Cleaver, and we're very pleased to have you on board again. Now, you've probably noticed the Tokyo Olympics is happening this week. It's pretty inescapable. And tied to that, the Lancet has a new series of papers out about the benefits of physical activity.

Highlights from these papers, which you can read online now for free at TheLancet. com, include the fact that 80 percent of 11 to 17 year olds worldwide are insufficiently active. They also look at the link between physical inactivity and conditions like heart disease, diabetes, and some cancers, and the potential health benefits of increased activity, like improved mental health and sleep patterns.

But of course, the athletes you and I are about to watch at the Tokyo Olympics are at the very pinnacle of health. We'll all be spending hours watching people at peak physical fitness performing these incredible feats, so why doesn't the Olympics inspire more people to get physically active and reap all of these amazing benefits?

One of the papers in the series is an assessment of the impact that the Olympics has on population levels of physical activity. Spoiler alert, it's not a big impact, but the Olympics promise all of these legacy improvements for local populations. That's one of the big selling points, which get countries to lay out the vast expense of hosting the games.

So what's gone wrong? I spoke with two authors of the paper, Professor Adrian Baumann, who's a professor of public health at Sydney School of Public Health, and Dr. Masamitsu Komada, who is a lecturer at the School of Public Health at the University of Tokyo, of course, being where the Olympics take place.

Hello, gentlemen. Welcome to the podcast. Hello. Let's kick off with the kind of big question. We're talking about your paper, which looks at the kind of physical activity legacy of Olympics past. Do the Olympics inspire people to get healthy? 

Adrian: I think the Olympics could inspire people. There's a few reasons why they don't.

One of them is that they get sponsorship from all kinds of unhealthy food manufacturers and other things that are contrary to public health. And secondly, they don't really take the opportunity to work with public health to make a health message out of the Olympics very often. And they often just focus on the elite sport and the competition.

Gavin: For the paper that you've put out in The Lancet this week, you look back through bid documents from previous Olympics. What sort of kind of grandiose claims did they make about a legacy? 

Adrian: There are all kinds of things that are promised, which is part of the process of getting the bid and making your city and your bid attractive to the IOC, the International Olympic Committee.

And they offer, first of all, to host a safe games. build infrastructure, and then they offer a lot to their community. They offer transport systems and peace and harmony and a festival spirit and a sense of economic development and productivity and tourism and building buildings and economic growth. So there's a host of things that are offered in the bid documents.

And. More recently, in the last few bids, they've started to offer a bid about we'll promote sport, encourage kids to be active, encourage people to participate in sport, encourage physical activity as part of the bidding process. 

Gavin: And just to follow up on that as well, there's quite a lot of built improvements generally, isn't there?

They are the ones that are realized. They're the kind of environmental improvements in the area. 

Adrian: They are really quite pervasive. People usually find very much improved transport systems. Often there are large built environment, infrastructure, use of parks, creation of parks, even creation of whole suburbs where the Olympic Village becomes a community asset after the Games, as it has in London and in Sydney, and is part of the infrastructure of a healthier environment.

So 

Gavin: what do you think the kind of long term effects of the Olympics generally are for the hosts? 

Adrian: The long term effects depend very much on whether the hosts plan well. Whether they took an excessive debt, for example, Montreal from the 1970s is still paying off its Olympic debt. So obviously that wasn't an optimal choice.

And how much real community engagement and working with the local municipality, the local council, each Olympics did. determined what happened. For example, the Olympic facilities in London, in Sydney, are well used. Those in Athens, in Greece, are not used at all and are filled with weeds and the stadia are not used and they're surrounded by barbed wire.

Gavin: Do you think there's anything in particular that defines that? Do you think there's any particular reason why some facilities end up unused and why some are very well used? 

Adrian: I think it depends really on the strategic vision and the estimate of costs of the bidding committees in the beginning. And some really did it very well and thoroughly and succeeded, and some perhaps overestimated or were too keen to get the games and perhaps didn't do so well because it really wasn't going to provide the economic.

boost and the infrastructure and the built infrastructure that was hoped for. The other issue is sporting facilities and many cities use those sporting facilities for mass events, for sporting events, for elite competitions and for community activities. You can go swimming in the Olympic pools in some cities.

Other cities didn't do that, didn't build them for community use or built them in an inaccessible place that weren't connected with public transport so that they became idle and the facilities were not used. So sporting facilities is another and infrastructure is another potential long term legacy. 

Gavin: So Masa, do you want to add something to this one?

Masamitsu: Yes in terms of population level physical activity there is limited evidence that in Japan, individuals who experienced the Tokyo 1964 Olympic Games during their youth participated in sport more frequently in their middle age than other generations, which is known as a cohort effect. But there were limitations in the studies, and so we need more research to examine the long term effects.

Gavin: Do you think that host cities could do more to use the Olympics as a kind of jumping off point for these physical activity initiatives? It seems like such a great opportunity. Everyone's focused on this festival of physical activity, and it's right there in their community for a few months.

So they're, presumably they're focusing on physical activity for a few months. So it seems like such a good opportunity to get the community moving. 

Adrian: That's the real point of writing our paper. Which was, this is a wonderful opportunity if host cities take it and embrace it. And in order to do that, they're going to have to engage with more than elite sports people to make that festival spirit an active spirit.

And to make that an active community surrounding the games. And that's, only a couple of cities have actually tried to do that. Probably Vancouver 2010 tried. And Beijing 2008 seems to have really tried and made it linked to sport policy, but most of the others said this would be a great thing to do, but really didn't put the effort, especially before the games, into getting that to 

Masamitsu: happen.

My answer is yes. As an example, looking at the seven years since the Tokyo Olympic Games were decided to be held, it seems that the involvement of the IOC, Japan Olympic Committee, or JOC, and sponsors of the Games has been very weak so far in terms of the promotion of physical activity and grassroots sports at the national level.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government set a specific numerical target in 2013. To increase the percentage of adults who play sports once a week to 70%, which is among the highest in the world, and established a certification system for companies that promote sports. And the national government has also been making efforts to promote sports through the sports agency, although there is room for improvement in the budget size, and.

The Olympic brand has rarely been utilized for these promotion strategies. For example, there has not been a strategic and well designed campaign to encourage physical activity for the general public using the voices of elite athletes who would compete in the Olympics. And elite athletes are icons and with the help of their influence.

We can think of many fun and powerful approaches. Of course, I understand that the Olympic Games have a licensing business aspect. I hope that the IOC, ZOC, and sponsors will think again about what kind of message and supporting opportunities they should provide. to every citizen as their responsibility and the social contribution.

And not only in the host city, but also how to contribute to the global sports participation rate and physical activity is an important issue to consider. For example, at the center stage of the opening or closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games, how about awarding medals to countries and regions based on their sports participation rates or population level physical activity around the world?

So multiple countries could receive gold medals at the same time since the goal is not to rank them. It would give a clear message of what value the Olympic Games want to spread to the world. And the Olympic motto is faster, higher, stronger, but in promoting sports and physical activity, the value of fun, harmonious, sustainable, also required.

This is in line with the philosophy of the Olympic Charter, which states that the practice of sport is a human right, and every individual must have the responsibility, the possibility of practicing sport. It is also a concern that the IOC is not contributing to monitoring or evaluating the world's sports participation rate or physical activity.

Without such monitoring, they cannot evaluate their actions or activities. Although it would be costly to establish a global monitoring system. There are global companies that can contribute to this system, including the utilization of wearable devices and smartphones, and IOC, perhaps along with the World Health Organization, can lead or at least assist this initiative as a symbolic entity.

Gavin: I think those are some really important points for the IOC to take on board to listen to about non Olympic Games. And of course, talking about modern Olympic Games, Masa, we find ourselves right at the start of the Tokyo Olympic Games. And of course, Japan's in kind of this unenviable position of hosting an Olympics in the midst of a global pandemic when travel is so difficult, when infections are so unpredictable.

How are the restrictions impacting it? And I guess generally, as someone living in Japan, how do you feel about the Olympic Games? 

Masamitsu: It's a number of Spectators at sporting events is limited as part of infection control measures, and Olympic venues will also have a limited number of spectators, and the government and organizing committee of the Games holding the event without This spectators.

And in Japan, people will be watching the Olympic games on TV instead of at the venues. And at present, many Japanese people may have mixed feelings about the situation. It is feeling anxious about the spread of the infection. There are maybe moments when I watch TV with excitement, Once the media starts reporting on the achievements of the world's top athletes, I don't know whether I should be happy about it or not, since I know there are areas where the medical facilities are under severe pressure, so there are probably very few people in Japan who can say that they are looking forward to the Olympic Games without any concerns.

And this year about 40 percent of the elementary schools in Tokyo postponed or canceled their sports day athletic festival. The sports day, or in Japanese, is a major sports day. school event that many parents attend and many children look forward to it. Some children and parents might feel sad and wonder why the Olympic games are okay, but our sports day is not.

So if the next generation remembers the Olympic games as a negative experience, It will be a clear negative legacy, so careful responses will be required. 

Gavin: Yeah, there's a lot to think about, isn't there? I guess to sum up, we've talked a little bit about the potential legacies of Olympic Games, but also their kind of visions for what their legacy is.

could be. Looking back across all these quite disparate Olympic outcomes in terms of their bids, do you think the cost of holding an Olympics for a country is broadly worth it? What are your thoughts on that? 

Adrian: I think they can be and I think there are many countries who look fondly back on their Olympic Games.

There's still a missed health opportunity for improving the whole community's health, the whole population's health, and that's really where the link to existing. Public health services, community campaigns, as Masa suggested, and having a sustainable strategy that lasts from several years before the games.

beyond the games is something that could be added. The other legacies will depend on the strategic position of a particular country and can make a difference to the community's enjoyment of recreation facilities, sporting facilities, as well as an urban environment and transport systems that can be improved.

But the Olympic Games per se. is just a single event which attracts a lot of media attention. It's a huge mega event and we should be utilizing lots of other mass events. We should be utilizing mass sporting events like mass football matches to promote physical activity. There's a program in Europe called Football Fans in Training where Premier League football clubs help middle aged males who are sedentary spectators to get healthier.

We should be using the Wimbledon, we should be using all the World Cup events to promote activity as well in the spectators, not just have them sitting on the couch. So we should take a public health lens to a lot of things we do around sport, as well as supporting the achievements of Willing and Competition and the good natured attributes of Pierre de Coubertin in the 1896 Olympic vision.

Masamitsu: And for me this is a difficult question, but the Olympic Games itself will continue to be of great value as a highly publicized mass sporting event. And there are various aspects of value to be created in the host city, so there's no doubt about this. And the question is the balance between cost and benefit, and answering this question with a yes or no will require many discussions.

But when focusing on the aspect of population level physical activity, In order for me to answer yes, more cooperation is necessary between the IOC, the host country's National Olympic Committee, sponsors, and the national government and host city. Since there are things that can be done after the Olympic Games, I look forward to their future efforts to maximize their legacy for the Tokyo Games.

Gavin: I think that's a very positive note to end on. Dr. Adrian Bauman, Dr. Masamitsu Komada, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today. Pleasure. Thank you for having me. Yeah. Thanks to Masa and to Adrian there. I'm joined, as ever, by my co host, Jessamy Baganol. It does feel a bit, doesn't it, Jessamy, that perhaps there's not enough capitalisation on the world, watching all these athletes at the peak of physical fitness run around a lot and perform these amazing feats for a few weeks.

Where is this motivation going to come from, do you think? 

Jessamy: I think that people are motivated and there is obviously, inspiration for younger people to get involved in certain sports. But I suppose the difficulty is the disconnect between the Olympics and then local public funding. It's hard to see because I don't have an international perspective.

But from a UK point of view, we had the 2012 Olympics. And during those eight years, funding was cut massively for all of these types of initiatives that might be able to get youth into sports or, football clubs, sports, sporting clubs, gymnastics, whatever. All of those types of things were really tightened and the budget was pulled back.

So it's difficult to see. If the Olympics are able to inspire people, which I think they are, then the country that has them has to be able to have the public funding to be able to put things into sports facilities, to put things into sports clubs, to be able to take that inspiration and actually drive it into something which is more sustainable and long term for young and old people.

And that for me is where the disconnect is. And I don't know how that can be overcome. Because the Olympics can do as much advertising as they like and try and make people feel that they want to be healthy. But if the actual public funding isn't there in the country, then it, it's not going to go very far.

Gavin: I suppose it's not really in that case, is it? A case of focusing on legacy, it's more kind of broader, holistic approach to public health, like maybe with the Olympics as a jumping off point. 

Jessamy: Yeah, I think it's that public health lens, isn't it? Putting a public health lens to the Olympics and perhaps just more coordination from a sort of public funding point of view and maybe that being in the business model and in the pitch for the Olympics and that being something that the, one way of trying to instigate that type of thought process was if the Olympic.

Committee had that type of thing as a prerequisite for a pitch So if you were able to pitch that they were going to be long term sustainable changes to the way physical activity was delivered to, youth members or whatever in particular sports. And the Olympic Committee required that for them to be able to go to a country.

Then you can see that there would be some coordination and there would be a real push there. But without that then it's difficult for them to have, I think, much. Pull or sway over it. 

Gavin: Maybe a massive suggestion of awarding medals for physical activity levels in a country's population could work as a motivation.

You never know. People are motivated by medals, right? 

Jessamy: Anything! Anything that that ties those links. But I think what we have seen over the last ten years is A very strong increase in evidence for the benefits of physical activities on a number of different outcomes from, cardiovascular health, obviously obesity, but mental health, dementia, all of these very wide array of things.

And as one of the papers in the physical activity series that we've just published talks about also the sustainability front of things that, you know, having activity as part of either commute, which not many people are doing at the moment. As some form of travel is good for the environment and it's good for us as well.

And now we need the initiatives and the, regulation the sort of policy infrastructure to make that change happen in a more sort of impactful way, I think. 

Gavin: It does feel, doesn't it, over the last few years that the evidence base, as you said, has increased massively for the benefits of physical activity.

But at the same time, as these papers point out, the levels of physical activity have slipped, especially in this adolescent 11 to 17 age group, as one of the paper's highlights. 

Jessamy: We know, it's going to be because of lots of different factors, right? It's because of the way that, young people and teenagers live their lives and the way that society drives certain aspects of behaviour to either unhealthy eating or inactivity and it's all of those things that I think need to change and I do think that there needs to be The Olympics is great in that, it has incredibly fit people doing incredible things and it's, it is an inspiration.

But having physical activity pitched as something which is not necessarily going to the gym or doing a sport but going for a walk, being outside. doing some cleaning, making sure that you take the stairs, all of those smaller types of intervention that can be built in from childhood, from schools, the sort of mile run schools that they have, all of those types of things that teach people and children to actually enjoy the endorphin rush that you can have from physical activity.

Those are the types of things that I think can make a difference. Whereas when it's pitched as either just a sport or going to the gym or something else and that, that's more difficult because it's a barrier and then you've got all of society's, barriers as well which we know from predatory commerce to, computer games and everything else.

I think there is, there's a lot, there's still a long way to go in terms of pitching it as something which is fairly minor and doesn't have to be, a real activity. It just has to be doing something physical with your body. 

Gavin: Curriculums have a role to play as well, don't they? On a completely personal level.

When I used to live in Texas, my stepson, who was in middle school and then in high school, was exposed to, yeah, a huge amount of physical exercise. A lot more than he has been since we returned to the UK. He used to come back to us at the end of the day, absolutely exhausted. I think he had about four hours a day of exercise and is tired very early.

Jessamy: It's hard, I think, in this country where we've got, the private Comprehensive system because private schools have tend to have much better facilities There are many comprehensive now that have lost their swimming pools They've lost a lot of their sports facility or sports playing field.

So they're sharing things you know that does limit capacity I think and I think that's another area that really, you know It comes down to funding again and that needs to be built into the way that we View healthy lives, and health being a form of education, which is central to people's future, trying to ensure that people have some type of understanding of what health and being is, in that our education system is all geared around that, is One of the great ways, I think, that education can change and needs to change, because it's not just about, getting your A levels and GCSEs anymore.

We know that work's changing and people's workplaces are changing. There's not going to be the same types of jobs. It's going to be about long term learning and lots of different types of, courses and degrees that you're going to have to do to keep up during your life. For me, young people's education should be focused around health and being and to give them, the necessary skills to Live a healthy and long life.

That's the best thing that we can give them. 

Gavin: Yeah, I suppose to make it seem not so much an imposition as something that like begrudgingly has to be done But like more of a lifestyle.

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Lancet voice I hope you're inspired by the Olympics to get more physically active I think I'm gonna go now and dust off my bicycle. Maybe I'll head over to the London Olympic Village Who knows? Hopefully you're subscribed to The Lancet Voice already, but if not, that's very easy to resolve.

Just search for The Lancet Voice, you'll find us. This chat about the Olympics and physical activity is part of a wider series of papers on the benefits of exercise, which you can read online now for free. That's entirely open access at thelancet. com. We'll see you again next time here at The Lancet Voice.