Let us build on how Olympic role models inspire sports participation
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With the Olympic Games in the rear-view mirror, it is only now that the athletes can truly see the real impact that they have had on people across the island.
Throughout the games, a major feature in post-event interviews with David Gillick was the impact that these athletes hoped to have on the next generation, particularly around inspiring young people to participate in their sport whether it was Phil Healy and athletics, Rhys McClenaghan and gymnastics or Kellie Harrington and boxing. Ultimately, this is exactly what these athletes are role models for, encouraging young people to be active, resilient, hardworking, and healthy in and through sport.
But do sports stars influence young people’s decisions to take up sport and if so, how can we harness that to create the heroes of the future and to improve the health of coming generations?
The work we do on sporting role models in SHE Research in TUS Athlone is providing some timely and relevant context for the many conversations around the impact of elite athletes across media, from politicians, and among families and clubs nationwide.
Our research included data from an all-island survey titled the ‘Children's Sport Participation and Physical Activity’ (CSPPA) survey. This study was supported nationally by Sport Ireland and delivered by a cross-institute team. The role model questions led with the premise that a sporting role model is someone who inspires youth to play sport and we have found that sports stars are the most prevalent sporting role models among Irish youth.
For those young people who have identified a sports star as their role model, they are almost twice as likely to be sufficiently physically active, nearly three times as likely to play sport weekly and to have a sport club membership than those who do not have a sports star role model.
In general, young people select sports star role models in the sports that they are involved in; Gaelic games players opt for intercounty stars, soccer participants select soccer heroes and youth involved in boxing jump for Katie Taylor and Katie Harrington.
Boys select male rather than female, international more than Irish, and soccer players more than any other sport as their sports star role models. Girls mostly choose Irish, female, and Gaelic Games athletes.
Ultimately, although research in this area is lacking, it is suggested that the most impactful sports star role models are those that are successful, and are local, relevant or similar in some way to youth. This indicates an important opportunity to nurture and promote our Irish male and female elite athletes as sporting role models to young boys and girls.
Research has proposed different ways that role models influence youth; first, they can have inspirational effect, by showcasing admirable and desirable characteristics and showing that something is not only possible but also desirable to attain. Role models can make something new seem desirable to the young person for the first time.
Secondly, role models can have a behavioural impact, motivating young people to practice and imitate new skills and behaviours that they learn directly from their role model. Thirdly, role models can be representations of the possible, showing young people that their goal is attainable by presenting a future exemplar of the goal and success.
However, a review of role model-led programmes led by researchers in TUS, found the programmes globally were poorly designed, did not have a clear focus for role models, were not tailored to youth in different contexts, and were not evaluated. So, our goal in this research is to develop and evaluate a feasible, informed, impactful role model programme that can perhaps help us to leverage the impact of sports stars on participation in sport among youth, with a particular focus on young females.
SHE Research aims to bridge the gender data gap in sport, and in this instance to increase, maintain and support female participation sport. With that in mind, we have engaged with young camogie players and have found that young girls would like to see more female athletes play sport, more access to information about female sports, more information about their idols, more support for their participation in sport so that they ultimately can be more ambitious and confident about a positive future in sport whether that is lifelong participation for most, or competing at a high level for others.
Equally, we have engaged with elite female camogie players and have found that athletes appreciate they are products of the role modelling process, crediting their own idols when younger as inspirations to pursue sporting goals. Athletes see being a role model for camogie as a positive responsibility and with that are eager to engage in future role model programmes to maximise their generations impact on the next.
We have a fantastic opportunity in Ireland to connect our elite athletes across sports with young people given the relatively small size of our country and the national network of grassroots clubs. We urge policy makers and sports leaders to design and invest in programmes that combine best practice from research, co-design with the youth and athletes, and rigorous evaluation. Rhys McClenaghan indicated he wants to travel to all gymnastic clubs across the island to promote his sport; that’s a great start.
- Eimear Kelly is an Assistant Lecturer in Sport Pedagogy & Coaching Science at MTU and a PhD candidate in Female Sporting Role Models at the SHE Research Centre at TUS Athlone.
- Dr Aoife Lane is Head of Department of Sport and Health Sciences in TUS Athlone.