2024-08-13 05:30:03
The Olympics spotlighted people from the sports community, many of whom came from working-class communities. However, it is in working-class communities that young people engage in physical activity the least. These sports elites are the trees hiding the slow pace of sports desertification. From this paradox must arise a political and educational ambition, including giving these young people a taste of sport again.
Several solutions are possible. The most illusive idea is that these athletes are role models worth emulating, and it is enough for young people to identify with them so that, through a trickle-down effect, they will follow the same trajectory. Models are not imposed. It becomes an ideal that depends on the proximity and ideas between the viewer and the person presenting themselves. The identification process cannot be enacted. It is the fruit of everyone’s imagination.
The most formal solution is based on the instrumental dimension of promoting physical practice. It involves getting closer to young people who don’t play sports by extolling the virtues of sports. Exercise is for health, for developing better self-confidence, for the possibility of making friends, etc. We know that reliance on reports and abstract motivations for action has limited impact on desired outcomes over time.
health, psychological or social welfare
In order for sport practices to be sustainable, their expressive power must be experienced by those involved. Sports are not limited to competitions. If it can be meaningful in confrontation with others, it can also be experienced through overcoming limitations related to the environment or to one’s own limits. By allowing each individual to discover different types of sporting challenges, against – overcoming – and surpassing themselves, they will be able to choose the one in which they perform best, incorporate it into their daily routine and learn from it.
The most alternative solution is based on the idea that the development of sport depends first and foremost on its promotion. To encourage people to take up sport, we must facilitate access to sport. Obviously, it’s impossible to practice without the opportunity to practice. But research shows that if sports dropouts had not occurred during college, sports participation rates among these young people would not be as low. While more than 85% play a sport, one in two girls and one in three boys quit. If we take this observation into account, the goal pursued is no longer to create connections. It exists. We must prevent it from breaking. Actions to be implemented must no longer focus on the popularization of sport – triggering the practice – but on the sustainability of sport practice – sustaining the activity over time.
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