Winter Games Research Articles

‘Life is team play’: social inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities in the context of Special Olympics

This article provides insights from an empirical study on the meaning of social inclusion for Finnish athletes with intellectual disabilities (ID) who participate in Special Olympics (SO). A further objective was to explore the athletes’ perceptions of the role SO has played in their lives regarding their personal experiences of social inclusion. Data were transcripts of five focus group interviews carried out with a total of 31 participants during the last SO World Winter Games in 2017. The content was analysed with the aim of identifying the main themes in the athletes’ conversations about social inclusion. Three main themes were identified: inclusion as a contrast to past discrimination; inclusion as receiving and providing assistance; and inclusion as participation in teamwork. The results indicate that SO and arguably sport more generally can assist people with ID in moving forward on a path from being excluded toward social inclusion.

Lived Experiences of an Elite Performance Management Team Through Injury Rehabilitation: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

Injury is a common and challenging experience for many athletes, and return-to-sport outcomes have been persistently poor despite advancements in research and practice. To ameliorate this challenge and to bridge a gap that exists in the sport injury literature between theoretical conceptualization and intervention design, research is needed to explore team-based approaches to professional practice. The current study aimed to begin this work through exploration of a single performance management team (PMT) through 2 injury and rehabilitation cases leading into and across the 2014 Olympic Winter Games. Qualitative, interpretative phenomenological analysis. Interviews were conducted with the 5 members of the PMT (coach, physiotherapist, sport psychology consultant, case manager, and athlete) involved in both injury cases. Lower-order and higher order themes were identified and interpreted through the extent literature. Results indicate that 3 higher order themes interacted to impact the lived experiences of the PMT members across the 2 injury cases. Participants described the sociocultural context that surrounded the team, the individual struggles they faced, and the functioning of the team as the primary contributors to their lived experiences as well as observed rehabilitation outcomes. Findings of this study mirror previous research in team science within the general health care domain, and prompt ongoing exploration of how to improve the experiences for PMT members as well as rehabilitation and return-to-sport outcomes for athletes.

What future model for international sports events? The case of the arctic winter games

This article focuses on the Arctic Winter Games (AWG) that, since 1970, have been bringing together young people from across the circumpolar world. This sporting and cultural gathering prioritises sharing and exchange between young people and promotes indigenous cultural and sporting practices (Dene Games, Arctic sports). As such, the Games’ purpose is to contribute to building an Arctic community. Furthermore, via their educational objectives and social aims, they assert their role as an actor in the development of the territories. This article proposes an analysis of the 2016 Games organised in Nuuk (Greenland). By employing an ethnographic approach, combining work on the archives of the AWG and interviews with participants and Games officials, we show that beyond their sporting aspect, it would seem that these events can constitute levers of social, cultural and educational development for a territory from a sustainable and responsible perspective. They thus disseminate a model that questions, even destabilises, the contemporary sports movement, while suggesting perspectives for its evolution. By examining the public value of the AWG, we will discuss the paradigm on which international sports events are built today.

Changes in the Number of Medal Events, Sport Events, and Classes During the Paralympic Games: A Historical Overview.

PurposeTo chart how changes in the number of medal events relate to changes in the number of sport events and classes during the Paralympic Games (PG) between 1960 and 2018.MethodsWeb-scraping was used to extract information from the website of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) on all unique medal events, sport events, and classes per PG, which were then accumulated per sport to descriptively identify and further explore changes.ResultsThe increased number of medal events during the early Summer Games (SG) (1960–1984: 113–975) and Winter Games (WG) (1976–1994: 55–113) was primarily due to an increased number of classes and sport events. While this suggested an increased sports participation among athletes with disabilities, it made the PG difficult to organize. A decrease in the number of medal events subsequently occurred during the SG (1984–1992: 975–489) and WG (1994–2006: 133–58). This was mainly achieved by reducing the number of sport events in the larger sports. Following this decline phase, the number of medal events and sport events has remained relatively stable for both editions of the PG, though this was achieved through different strategies. The WG employed the time-factor system for all individual sports, which enabled competitions across classes within sport events and thus, award a single gold medal (one medal event) for several classes. The SG have maintained the number of medal events despite a slight increase in classes (112–181). This was due to some sports combining classes in the same event, while others excluded certain classes from certain sport events.ConclusionsThe number of medal events during each PG appear to be closely related to the number of sport events and, partially, to the number of classes. The stability in the number of medal events may indicate that a balance has been achieved, where there currently are enough classes and sport events to ensure fairness, while also maintaining a level of prestigiousness for winning a medal. However, it remains to be seen whether this stability will last or if the continued growth of the PG with more athletes and countries will warrant changes in the number of medal events.

The Long-Standing Issue of Mobility at the Olympics: From Host Cities to Host Regions in the Ongoing Case Study of Milan–Cortina 2026

Due to public opposition against the unsustainability of hosting the Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee adopted Olympic Agenda 2020 to adjust the event requirements to address modern society’s sustainability concerns. Since its implementation, the Agenda has driven important changes regarding the planning and organization of the Olympics, including the possibility of regions being hosts. This allows the sprawl of Olympic venues over larger territories, theoretically facilitating the alignment of event requirements with the needs of the intensively growing contemporary urban areas. However, the larger the host territory, the more complex becomes its mobility planning, as transport requirements for participants still have to be fulfilled, and the host populations still expect to inherit benefits from any investments made. The objective of this paper is to identify and discuss new challenges that such modifications bring for mega-event mobility planning. First, based on the academic literature of case studies of previous Olympic cities, a theoretical framework to systematize the mobility problem at the Olympic Games is proposed for further validation, identifying the dimensions of the related knowledge frames. Second, the mobility planning for the case study of the first ever Olympic region—the Milan–Cortina 2026 Winter Games—is described. Using this case study, the proposed framework is then extrapolated for cases of Olympic regions in order to identify any shifts in the paradigm of mobility planning when increasing the spatial scale of Olympic hosts. Conclusions indicate that, if properly addressed, unsustainability might be mitigated in Olympic regions, but mega-event planners will have to consider new issues affecting host communities and event stakeholders.

Climate change and the future of the Olympic Winter Games: athlete and coach perspectives

ABSTRACT The International Olympic Committee recognizes the risks climate change pose to the Games and its responsibility to lead on climate action. Winter is changing at the past Olympic Winter Games (OWG) locations and an important perspective to understand climate change risk is that of the athletes who put themselves at risk during these mega-sport events. A survey of 339 elite athletes and coaches from 20 countries was used to define fair and safe conditions for snow sports competitions. The frequency of unfair-unsafe conditions has increased over the last 50 years across the 21 OWG host locations. The probability of unfair-unsafe conditions increases under all future climate change scenarios. In a low emission scenario aligned to the Paris Climate Agreement, the number of climate reliable hosts remains almost unchanged throughout the twenty-first century (nine in mid-century, eight in late century). The geography of the OWG changes radically if global emissions remain on the trajectory of the last two decades, leaving only one reliable host city by the end of the century. Athletes expressed trepidation over the future of their sport and the need for the sporting world to be a powerful force to inspire and accelerate climate action.

Planning and implementation of event leveraging strategy: China’s legacy pledge to motivate 300 million people to be involved in winter sport

ABSTRACT This paper examines China’s planning and implementation of leveraging, using the Beijing 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, to achieve the winter sport participation legacy of 300 million people involved in winter sport. Drawing upon interviews and documentary data, the authors findings reveal that the planning of the leveraging programme, which was politically motivated, was a centralised and government-led bid to stimulate participation and consumption within China’s winter sport industry. The leveraging programme also served broader economic, social, and political state agendas. The main implementation pathway relied heavily on the existing structures for the provision of sport and education, and, due to a lack of state resources (or facilities), support was sought from the private sector. This study further suggests that state interference to steer the direction and development of leveraging might have served as a double-edged sword: On the one hand, it provided much government-led impetus for goal setting across sectors and departments, directing extensive cooperative efforts and resources towards leveraging. On the other hand, it might not have been the most sustainable approach for increasing participation, due to the overreliance on top-down implementation and short-term policy interventions.

Mental health services at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games during the COVID-19 pandemic

Mental health services at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games during the COVID-19 pandemic

On-site sponsorship leveraging patterns of TOP and domestic programmes: the case of 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games

This study explores on-site sponsorship leveraging of The Olympic Partners and domestic sponsors at Olympic venues. Field research consisting of photographs and reflective journals was conducted at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympic Winter Games, and these were analysed along with other archival documents. Findings revealed that, as groups, the two sponsorship programmes did not make a noticeable difference in on-site sponsorship leveraging patterns, such as leveraging methods, leveraging focus, and sponsorship fit. However, slight variances in terms of individual sponsors were observed. The research presents the on-site Olympic sponsorship leveraging cube as a tool that allows for visual cross-sectional representation of individual Olympic sponsors' on-site sponsorship leveraging within three key dimensions: leveraging method, leveraging focus, and sponsorship fit.

Research on the Development Characteristics of Ice and Snow Industry from the Perspective of Winter Olympic Heritage

China successfully hosted the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games, which left a large number of tangible and intangible Winter Olympic heritage for China. Under the background of 300 million people participating in ice and snow, how to play the role of Winter Olympic heritage and promote the development of ice and snow industry is an important issue to be solved. This study analyzes the basic characteristics of the heritage of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games and the winter Paralympic Games from the five perspectives of positivity, sustainability, inheritance, diversity and localization, and the unique green Olympics, mass Olympics and driving Olympics of the heritage of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games. With the rapid development of China's ice and snow industry and the high participation rate of people in ice and snow sports, China has a good industrial development prospect. From the perspective of Winter Olympic heritage, China's ice and snow industry has relatively perfect policy support for the development of ice and snow industry, and can inherit the tangible and intangible heritage of the Olympic Games to give full play to the maximum effect of the ice and snow industry.

The Dialogue concerning the Construction of the Facilities and Nature Conservation for Banff as the Candidate City for XI Olympic Winter Games

The Dialogue concerning the Construction of the Facilities and Nature Conservation for Banff as the Candidate City for XI Olympic Winter Games

The Development of Broadcasting and Hosting from the Perspective of Media Intelligence-The Case of AI Anchors for Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics

With the continuous progress of media technology, the media communication environment has undergone profound changes, and media intelligence has become a new trend of media convergence. As an innovative product of the combination of artificial intelligence technology and media communication, AI anchors have been applied to information communication in the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, which has attracted widespread attention from the public. According to the current development of AI anchors, this paper uses embodied cognition theory to investigate the development trend of the broadcasting and hosting industry under the influence of intelligent media. On this basis, the paper takes AI anchors of the Winter Olympics as the research object, analyzes their application reasons and communication characteristics, and then explores the irreplaceability of human broadcasters and hosts by comparing them with AI anchors. The study of this paper will provide a feasible path for the development direction of human-machine symbiosis and a new case for the study of AI anchors.

On-site sponsorship leveraging patterns of TOP and domestic programmes: the case of 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games

On-site sponsorship leveraging patterns of TOP and domestic programmes: the case of 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games

AI in Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games

Artificial intelligence (AI) is playing a driving role in empowering and safeguarding Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games. The power of AI ranges from improving player training, coaching and performance scoring, supporting language translation and communication, athlete and audience services, and catering, to enabling security, and COVID-19 and epidemic prevention.

Bubble Strategy - A Practical Solution to Return to Regular Life in the Intertwined Era of Vaccine Rollouts and Virus Mutation.

For a long time, vaccination and herd immunity were considered to be the magic solution for controlling coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, the emergence of new variants altered people’s expectations and prolonged the pandemic duration, especially the Omicron strain with substantially increased transmissibility and decreased vaccine efficacy. Therefore, we are in urgent need of a practical solution to resume regular life to some extent, while mitigating COVID-19 risks in the tight race between vaccine rollouts and virus variation. This commentary proposed that bubble strategy (or closed loop management), utilized in Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and to be implemented in Beijing 2022 Winter Games, could serve as a novel technique of non-pharmaceutical interventions in coping with such a situation.

Transmission of COVID-19 Under Non-Closed-Loop Management During Beijing 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in China: A Modelling Study

Transmission of COVID-19 Under Non-Closed-Loop Management During Beijing 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in China: A Modelling Study

Medical services for sports injuries and illnesses in the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games

Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games was the second Games held amid the COVID-19 pandemic. To a certain extent, it has altered the way sporting activities operate. There is a lack of knowledge on injury risk and illness occurrence in elite winter sport athletes amid the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to describe the incidence of injuries and illnesses sustained during the XXIV Olympic Winter Games in Beijing from February 4 to 20, 2022. We recorded the daily number of injuries and illnesses among athletes reported by Beijing 2022 medical staff in the polyclinic, medical venues, and ambulance. We calculated injury and illness incidence as the number of injuries or illnesses occurring during competition or training, respectively, with incidence presented as injuries/illnesses per 100 athlete-days. In total, 2,897 athletes from 91 nations experienced injury or illness. Beijing 2022 medical staff reported 326 injuries and 80 illnesses, equaling 11.3 injuries and 2.8 illnesses per 100 athletes over the 17-day period. Altogether, 11% of the athletes incurred at least one injury and nearly 3% incurred at least one illness. The number of injured athletes was highest in the skating sports (n=104), followed by alpine skiing (n=53), ice track (n=37), freestyle skiing (n=36), and ice hockey (n=35), and was the lowest in the Nordic skiing disciplines (n=20). Of the 326 injuries, 14 (4.3%) led to an estimated absence from training or competition of more than 1 week. A total of 52 injured athletes were transferred to hospitals for further care. The number of athletes with illness (n=80) was the highest for skating (n=33) and Nordic skiing (n=22). A total of 50 illnesses (62.5%) were admitted to the department of dentistry/ophthalmology/otolaryngology, and the most common cause of illness was other causes, including preexisting illness and medicine (n=52, 65%). Overall, 11% of athletes incurred at least one injury during the Games, which is similar to the findings during the Olympic Winter Games in 2014 and 2018. Regarding illness, 2% of athletes were affected, which is approximately one-third of the number affected in the 2018 Olympic Winter Games.

ON C-E TRANSLATION OF TCM TERMINOLOGY FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF CHINESE CULTURE GOING-OUT POLICY

With the propaganda and promotion of Chinese medicine culture during the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, Chinese medicine has once again entered the international vision. And yet, in the process of TCM’s foreign publicity, different factors hinder the better diffusion of TCM culture. This paper objectively analyzes the current problems existing in TCM terminology translation and then focuses on different characteristics of local Chinese medicine culture for target groups under the Chinese culture going-out perspective. In the end, we are trying to come up with four translation strategies to improve the quality and accuracy of the translation of traditional Chinese medicine terms. We hope to take this opportunity to achieve TCM culture going-out.

The Construction of Turkey’s Circassians as a Docile Minority

The 2014 Sochi Olympic Winter Games revived memories related to the Circassians’ forced migration from their Caucasus homeland into the Ottoman Empire after 150 years. In that year, I conducted a considerable oral history project to understand the collective memories of Circassians in Turkey. The main focus of this study is, however, the social construction of the Circassian minority in Turkey. I examine their oral historical narratives related to their immigration, reception and resettlement, and instrumentalization. It is as important to place emphasis on the protected, multiplied and renewed sociocultural values of Circassians as it is to confront the history. I will examine the relationship between their diasporic identity and minority identity as well as their preferences in identity reproduction.

Observing the limits of steering - Norway’s abortive Bid for the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Oslo

ABSTRACT Hosting mega-events and Olympic games have been debated lately. Some cities are eager to bid for hosting such games while others refrain from bidding. Why? Indeed, quite a few articles have sought to understand the mechanisms behind the bidding processes. However, the present body of knowledge appears fragmented and disjointed. It is essential to make the body of knowledge more coherent and understandable. This article analyses the Oslo 2022 bidding process in particular and other mega-events in general as cases of political steering. The political, economic, and social outcomes are not always as expected. People other than those who initiate and carry out the bidding process pay the bills. Are all these occurrences coincidences or consequences? Niklas Luhmann’s system theoretical approach allows for a comprehensive understanding of this complexity. This study suggests extending and strengthening the theory with other theoretical concepts to carry out this meta-theoretical endeavour. Empirical research on the Oslo case in particular and other bidding cases for hosting mega-events in general is used to substantiate the presented arguments. This study’s main finding is that each stakeholder, often as a social subsystem, operates from its code or logic, irritating other stakeholders to act according to their code and logic, thereby reducing the possibility to steer the process. In the Oslo case, the process ended when the Norwegian people said the event was not worth it. This result falls in line with other studies of failing bids that show reactions and resistance against elites’ powers and towards democratic beneficiaries.