The elite breakaway sustains its lead on the peloton: social leverage, major sport events, and cultural decolonisation

Abstract

ABSTRACT Major sport events are considered to be a catalyst of social benefits in society and are a fully-fledged actor within social sport policy. However, sports and sport event participation are socially stratified and many studies indicate non-uniform effects. This article draws on data from an online questionnaire collected in the context of the 2021 Road World Cycling Championship and aims at examining, through Elite theory, early participation and social effect differences between communities in the host city. The self-reported differences in event participation, direct social impact, and long-term social outcomes are compared between the dominant and non-dominant groups within this context. The findings indicate that participation, social impacts, and outcomes are not that straightforward, nor universal throughout different social communities. Despite the rhetoric of events’ beneficiary character, especially towards non-dominant groups, the event turns out to be mainly attuned towards the dominant groups. This is due to the inability of major sports events to be separated from inequality because of their political, cultural and economic embeddedness. In addition, the events serve as a cultural coloniser through the transmission of Western-dominated neoliberal thought patterns.