# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Aussies are losing their competitive spirit for sport

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Just one in five Australians now regularly play competitive sports, down from 27 percent in 2001, the latest sports participation data from Roy Morgan Research shows.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Aussies are losing their competitive spirit for sport

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Just one in five Australians now regularly play competitive sports, down from 27 percent in 2001, the latest sports participation data from Roy Morgan Research shows.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Whether young or old, rich or poor, Canadians are less active these days. In fact, according to a new study, our participation in sports is at an all-time low. But why? Are Canadians getting lazier? More complacent? More distracted? In the first of two parts, we examine some of the problems with our approach to youth athletics. Part 2 looks at why adults are dropping out of sports.
At a time when sports appear to be more popular than ever at elite levels, participation rates across age groups continue to decline, according to a new study prepared by Vital Signs and the True Sport Foundation.

"Eighty-five per cent of Canadians agree that sport participation builds stronger communities, but at the same time we are seeing a dramatic drop in sport participation across the country," says Lee Rose of Vital Signs.

"We are trying to select out the 'talent' far, far too young. - John O'Sullivan, Changing the Game Project

Perhaps most troubling is that many kids are deciding to hang up their cleats or sneakers or skates at a young age.

By about age 13, many youngsters have already stepped away from an active life style. And it can't simply be chalked up to laziness, video games or "kids these days."

In fact, adults should get much of the blame. Most kids quit because they think they're not good enough - a by-product, experts say, of the hyper-competitive environment that lords over most youth sports.

"Just because a kid at age 10 isn't on a scholarship track doesn't mean there shouldn't be a place for them in the game," says John O'Sullivan, founder of the Changing the Game Project, a Portland, Ore.-based organization trying to put the "play" back in "play ball."

Obsessed with the best

Nearly three quarters of Canadians - 73 per cent - agree, saying that children's sports have become too focused on winning at the exclusion of fun and fair play, according to the study.

And yet, our continued obsession with rooting out the "best" players at an early age is having a devastating effect, O'Sullivan says.

"The problem is we are trying to select out the 'talent' far, far too young, by starting highly tiered teams with cuts. We're saying these eight-year-olds are on the top team, so they get the best coaching and best facilities, and these other kids go down this house league track. "

O'Sullivan says this makes little sense, even if your only goal is to develop the top athletes.

There was a time when hockey was October to February. Now you have spring hockey and summer hockey and conditioning camps. - Karri Dawson, True Sport Foundation

"We cannot know at that age which kids will make it and which kids won't. What the science says is we are best off training as many kids as possible with the best coaches and best environment as long as we can, letting them grow and then seeing what happens.

"But to say we are only going to focus on these 10 or 12 kids is crazy."

Indeed, the desire to select and specialize can actually backfire on parents and coaches who have big dreams for their young athletes.

Karri Dawson is director of the True Sport Foundation, a national charitable organization dedicated to advancing sport in Canada and a partner on the study with Vital Signs.

She says parents should look at athletes on Canada's Olympic teams.

"Chances are they were multi-sport athletes," she says. "They played hockey in the winter, soccer in the summer and they participated in different sports at school. They cross-trained, and they exercised all kinds of different muscles and abilities that one day made them gifted at a particular sport."

Rising costs

Even if children are able to navigate the ultra-competitive landscape of youth sports, and even if they actually have the skills to compete at the highest level, it still may not be enough.

The Vital Signs/True Sport Foundation study finds that the rising cost of sports is also a barrier for many families. The most recent data shows that six out of 10 children from low-income households are active in sports, compared with 8.5 out of 10 from families with incomes over $80,000.

"Some people believe sports are no longer seasonal, that children should be participating all year long," says Dawson. "There was a time when hockey was October to February. Now you have spring hockey and summer hockey and conditioning camps. When you add it all up, it increases the cost of sport."

In addition to the socioeconomic gap, there's a gender element to Canada's sports squeeze. According to the study, one in three men in this country regularly participate in sports, compared with one in six women. That's partly because girls are less likely to be active when they are younger and more likely to drop out earlier than boys.

But there are ways to fix the problem, says Dawson.

Role models

"I think part of it is creating new sport experiences, creating programs that are specific for girls, that are interesting for girls," she says, "as opposed to trying to shoehorn them into programs they have no interest in or don't have friends participating in, things they don't see as fun."

Dawson also emphasizes the importance of role models who demonstrate physical activity at a young age.

"Statistics show that young girls are more likely to be active if their mom is active," she says.

Sounds straightforward. And, indeed, the key to keeping more Canadian kids active, say the authors behind the report, could be keeping things simple.

"It doesn't have to be the big hockey league or big, institutionalized sport," says Rose. "It can be as simple as a pick-up game of hockey or soccer in the park in the summer."

To do that, though, we may need to drop our obsession with being the best, says O'Sullivan.

"We're so scared that we aren't going to keep up that we're doing all this stuff that goes against everything we know about how to make sports better."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Why Canadian kids are dropping out of sports | CBC Sports

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Whether young or old, rich or poor, Canadians are less active these days. In fact, according to a new study, our participation in sports is at an all-time low. But why? Are Canadians getting lazier? More complacent? More distracted? In the first of two parts, we examine some of the problems with our approach to youth athletics.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
funding; financial assistance; grants; contributions; tax credits; bursaries; government; canada; culture; arts; sport; museums; publishing; history; heritage; film; festivals; official languages; commemorations; celebrations

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Funding - Culture, history and sport - Canada.ca

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
View a list of Government of Canada funding opportunities related to culture, history and sport.

# data[].attributes.headline
Comparison Between Australia and Canada Sports Structure

# data[].attributes.subject
Comparison Between Australia and Canada Sports Structure

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
First Advisor

Olafson, Gordon,

Keywords

Political Science, Public Administration.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare Sport Canada and the Australian Sports Commission using organizational structure theory. The organizations were compared using a qualitative methodology, with data collected via document analysis and semi-structured interviews. The Australian Sports Commission was found to be more complex, more formalized and less centralized than Sport Canada. The results can be attributed to the Australian Sports Commission's greater size and decreased proximity to government.Dept. of Kinesiology. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis1998 .R85. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 39-02, page: 0397. Adviser: Gordon Olafson. Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1998.

Recommended Citation

Rule, Catherine Louise., "Organizational structure: A comparison of Sport Canada and the Australian Sports Commission." (1998). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2964.
https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd/2964

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Organizational structure: A comparison of Sport Canada and the Australian Sports Commission.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The purpose of this study was to compare Sport Canada and the Australian Sports Commission using organizational structure theory. The organizations were compared using a qualitative methodology, with data collected via document analysis and semi-structured interviews. The Australian Sports Commission was found to be more complex, more formalized and less centralized than Sport Canada.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
National Sport Organizations - Canada.ca

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Find a list of National Sport Organizations in Canada. These organizations serve a number of functions such as selecting national teams, managing high performance programs, and supporting bids for international competitions in Canada.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Structure for sport : AIS : Australian Sports Commission

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Each element of a sport needs to be incorporated into governance arrangements on the same basis. Only a sport fully integrated in this fashion can plan strategically for the benefit of the whole sport and operate with optimal efficiency.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Clearinghouse : Structure of Australian Sport

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Australian sport sector has many players and moving parts. It is strongly influenced by other leading service sectors including government, community, education, health, retail, media and entertainment. It can be difficult to see where the sport sector begins and ends-particularly when you consider intersecting themes such as active recreation, fitness and physical activity.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
From within the confines of an increasingly pluralistic society, it can oftentimes be difficult for countries like Canada to lay claim on any one particular activity, style or happening. However, as one of only a handful of things that stand alone, being distinctly Canadian, the game of hockey has come to embody and dominate our national sports culture.

While lacrosse technically remains the Canadian national sport du jour, de facto, no sport, not lacrosse, nor football, nor curling has permeated the national psyche quite like hockey. Many Canadians identify both our passion and our talent for the game as a point of pride, while the Stanley Cup - awarded annually to the champion of the National Hockey League - has become a full-fledged national icon in itself.

During the winter months, CBC's Hockey Night in Canada has continued as one of the highest-ranked programmes in Canadian television history with nearly 1.9 million viewers tuning in on Dec. 19 to watch a meaningless midseason matchup pitting the underachieving Boston Bruins against the lowly Toronto Maple Leafs. Likewise, the annual International Ice Hockey Federation's World Junior Hockey Championships are always a ratings bonanza for TSN and the event has become a venerable holiday tradition for thousands of Canadian sports fans.

Each year, as winter draws down to a welcome close, thousands of Canadians mark the change in season not by the warmer weather, longer days or the sudden emergence of green buds, but rather, by playoff hockey. Starting in mid-April and culminating in early June, with the crowning of a new Stanley Cup Champion, the NHL playoffs showcase the very best of Canada's sports culture. In cities and towns stretching from Victoria, B.C. to Cornerbrook, N.L., raucous fans from all walks of life frequent pubs and sports bars, sporting their team gear while the pints of Keith's flow and large flatscreens broadcast live games from all over the continent.

Although the true Canadian hockey hotbeds are located in our country's small towns and rural communities, when the NHL playoffs roll around, the epicenter of the sport is often in the major cities where the six Canadian NHL clubs call home. In recent years, as both the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames have made deep, and unlikely playoff runs, fans took to the streets in droves to celebrate each victory. Referencing the thousands of fans in team colours, Edmonton's Whyte Avenue and Calgary's 17th Avenue have even been dubbed the Copper Mile and Red Mile, respectively. Hockey, at both the club and international level evokes our national sports devotion in its purest form. The sport has undoubtedly retained the unofficial title as Canada's national pastime.

Still, when you look around at cultures around the world, you get the sense that, while Canada's passion for hockey is certainly notable, our sports obsession rarely, if ever, reaches the crazed fever pitch seen in other countries. Yes, each spring, thousands of Flames fans clog Calgary's downtown business district and transform it into the Red Mile, but this is only during the playoffs and only when the team is winning. Compare this to the 92,000-plus who crammed the University of Alabama's football stadium to witness the Crimson Tide's 2007 red-white intrasquad scrimmage game, or consider the approximately 81,000 names on the 30-year waiting list for Green Bay Packers season tickets at the often-frigid Lambeau Field. Yes, 2.5 million folks brought in millions of advertising dollars as they sat through the 16-0 drubbing of Latvia by the Canadian National Junior team on Boxing Day, but when the English National Football team (soccer) failed to qualify for the 2008 European Championships, it cost their national economy upwards of £2 billion (C$3.4 billion).

Further, while debate continues to rage in these parts over whether or not the Greater Toronto Area can successfully support a second NHL team in addition to their two CFL teams and NBA and MLB franchises, Melbourne, Australia, with a population of four million, hosts nine different Aussie Rules Football teams (their most popular sport), along with multiple franchises in their national rugby and soccer and cricket leagues. The bottom line is that despite the hallowed place that hockey holds within our own sports culture, Canada rarely competes with other countries in terms of sports-craziness.

This then, for many Canadian sports and hockey fans, myself included, is the promise of the upcoming 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games. Not only does Canada have a unique opportunity to demonstrate its winter sporting prowess on home turf with a strong finish on the official medal table, but also with Men's Hockey as the marquee event, Canada can finally establish itself as a legitimate sporting nation. If the intense media attention and the fevered buildup to the Team Canada selection news conference on Dec. 30 is of any indication, this tournament could be unlike any other in Canadian sports history. After more than a year of nearly constant sportswriter debate, fantasy pools and water cooler discussion over player predictions and analysis, when Canada finally hits the ice in Canada Hockey Place for its first round robin match versus Norway on Feb. 16, hockey fans in this country will likely be whipped up into a frenzy. If Team Canada can then live up to its immense hype and potential and ultimately find itself in medal contention, the country may just shut down in anticipation (and hopefully, celebration).

Even if the national sporting phenomenon only lasts for a couple weeks, it will still be an event for hockey fans to revel in and one for Canadians in general to cherish. The anticipation and fervour expected to accompany the men's tournament this February promises to be a uniquely Canadian experience. The men's Olympic hockey tournament will, however briefly, place our sporting culture on par with the other sports-mad countries around the world and by bringing together millions of people in support of a common cause, Team Canada's pursuit of gold in Vancouver will hopefully be an event for all Canadians to be proud of.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Canada's sports culture and the rest of the world | The Manitoban

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
From within the confines of an increasingly pluralistic society, it can oftentimes be difficult for countries like Canada to lay claim on any one particular activity, style or happening.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Although there is growing interest from governments in participation levels in sport, the extent to which governments actively promote 'sport for all' and their motives for doing so vary greatly. This is the first book to examine the sport participation policies of national governments across the world and to offer a comparative analysis of the motives for, and successes and failures of those policies.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
It's a bit of a cliché to say a country is sports mad. But in Australia, the cliché fits. Australia's not just sport mad, it measures its place in the world on the sports field.
"Sport? I suppose it's our great distraction, but it's also the great sort of bonding of Australian society, and people and culture," said Sean Gorman, an academic from Curtain University in Perth.
I went to an Australian Rules Football Game in Melbourne with Gorman to try to find out why Australians love sport so much. "It's a hard question to answer, but... it goes straight to our identity and the way we do things here in Australia."
And the way they do things, Gorman insisted, is more intense than any silly old American baseball game or Brazilian soccer match. "Without a shadow of a doubt. When you talk to people from overseas, they are gobsmacked at just how popular this game actually is," said Gorman.
I was myself gobsmacked at how passionate Gorman and others were in making their argument. To prove his point, Gorman even went through the personal humiliation of trying to sing his team's fight song. He supports the lowly Fremantle Dockers.
I also got to hear the fans of the Melbourne Demons sing their fight song, a rousing ballad sung to the tune of George M. Cohan's patriotic American song "You're a Grand Old Flag." The Demons' lyrics: "It's the emblem of the team we love." (By the way, when I told people at the game their fight song was an American knockoff, they looked at me in disbelief.)

There are many theories as to why Australians cherish sport so much. First there's the climate and space theory.
"It's much easier to engage in sport in Australia because it has good weather and it has lots of room," said David Rowe, a professor of cultural research at the University of Western Sydney.
Makes sense. Then there's the theory that sporting culture in Australia is different because it's not dominated by one or two main sports.
"You've been to Britain I'm sure, you know, (they're) football mad, Italy is football mad, South America is football mad. But, not sport mad," said Rowe. "What distinguishes Australia is a broader commitment to sport."
I'd buy that. Australians seem to like just about anything with a winner and a loser.
Then, there's the theory that Australians are just trying to get their mother's attention.
"The British take notice of us because we bash 'em up at Cricket," said John Coates, the president of the Australian Olympic Committee.
Coates did issue a correction. "Or, we used to (bash 'em up at cricket)."
And lastly, there's the chip on the shoulder theory, as explained by Clive Allcock, an Australian psychiatrist who also writes about horse racing.
"Americans have got the rightful position of being one of the big nations in the world. And our competitiveness says we'd like to be up there, but obviously, we're not so big, we haven't got such a strong business culture. We can do well in sport. Being a smaller country, we can take on the world in sport and succeed, and succeed beyond sometimes our wildest expectations."
Olympic Glory
In the unofficial medal table, Australia finished in 4th place at the Summer Olympics of 2000 and 2004. In those Games, the Aussies took home about half the medals that the Americans did. Not too shabby for a country with only 1/14th the population. Australia's incredible success was no accident.
"Between 1980 and 2000, we imported 200 coaches, largely from Eastern Europe and Asia, in diving, in gymnastics, in rowing, in canoeing, in archery," explained John Coates, the AOC president.
In just eight years, Australia more than doubled its medal haul. But then, the wheels fell off the bus. At the Beijing Summer Games in 2008, Australia dropped to sixth place. Newspapers depicted a country gripped by an identity crisis.
"The Brits beat us," said Coates.
I offered: "It wasn't like it was a disaster."
He countered: "It was."
Coates said that won't happen in London next year. He said finishing outside of the top five is "not good enough."
Coates told me the old Olympic ideal of just participating is "not the Australian ethos. We are very much about winning."
At What Cost?
This determination to win at all costs is starting to be questioned among ordinary Australians. Taxpayers are paying an awful lot of money to train their athletes to win all those medals.
"Various people have tried to come up with calculations of the cost per gold medal," said David Rowe at the University of Western Sydney. "One (calculation) I saw was $48 million per Australian, per medal, something of that nature."
That's at the very high end of spending, per capita, compared with other countries. Rowe didn't think that's an appropriate use of taxpayer dollars. He said that money could be better spent on community ball fields and local resources. That was also the conclusion of a well-publicized national report in Australia, referred to as "The Crawford Report."
I met with Australian water polo Olympians Rebecca Rippon and Alicia McCormack and asked them if money should be spent on community sport or elite athletes? The two women said both are necessary.
"If you don't put (money) into grass roots, then you're not going to support those athletes enough as a grassroots athlete to come up and be an elite athlete in a high-performance sport," said McCormack.
Rippon added, "If you want to people to aspire to do things, and there's nothing for them at the end, then it's really hard for them to continue and wonder why they're putting in the work."
Regardless, both women don't buy the idea that they're coddled elite athletes. The women get some money to train, but funding "really doesn't even add up to your rent," said McCormack.
And being an Olympic athlete requires long, long, long hours of training, with little glory and glamour for most Olympians.
"The only people that really know that you're an Olympian are either people that you've grown up with, or if you come from a small community, people from there may know, or people within the water polo community. It's not like I'd be walking down the street, and someone would say, 'Ahh, there's an Olympian,'" said McCormack.
But once the Olympics are on TV, McCormack and Rippon know they become role models. And the two women said that matters.
But investing in role models and national sporting prestige is no longer resulting in widespread public participation. People aren't getting off their couches. Australia has an alarming obesity problem among its young people.
Still, for the time being, that hasn't put a dent in funding elite sports. Last year, the Australian government boosted the budget for training top athletes by more than 20 percent.
So, Australians remain as obsessed as ever about sports: just watching them, not playing.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Why Australians Are Obsessed with Sports

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
It's a bit of a cliché to say a country is sports mad. But in Australia, the cliché fits. Australia's not just sport mad, it measures its place in the world on the sports field. "Sport?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Either as participants or as fans, team sport provides one of the best opportunities for people from diverse backgrounds to come together. Fortunately, with four codes of professional football, three varieties of professional cricket, professional basketball, semi-professional baseball and semi-professional netball, Australia has arguably the most diverse professional sporting environment in the world.

# data[].attributes.body
Canada

# data[].attributes.body
Australia

# data[].attributes.body
Canada

# data[].attributes.body
Australia

# data[].attributes.body
Canada

# data[].attributes.body
Australia

# data[].attributes.body
Canada

# data[].attributes.body
Australia