Sport event governance

The paper examines the talent identification and development process in three youth disability sports: wheelchair basketball, Boccia and disability tennis. The analysis is concerned to explore the extent of convergence in processes between disability sports and between disability and mainstream sports. The analytical framework adopted identifies seven dimensions along which convergence can be assessed and is used in conjunction with a typology of levels of policy change. The data for the analysis were collected through a series of semi-structured interviews and document analysis. The main findings included evidence of convergence between disability sports and between the three disability sports and mainstream sports especially in relation to: motives; agendas and aspirations; and contextualizing discourse/ideology/values. There was also evidence of policy change at all three levels identified by Hall.

The aim of the paper is to explore the consequences of the intensification of competition among the most successful countries at the Olympic Games - the sports powers - for participating countries, potential host countries and the International Olympic Committee. The paper begins by tracing briefly the emergence of increasingly sophisticated and expensive elite sports systems and then examines some of the characteristics of these systems paying particular attention to the extent to which selected major sports powers and medium powers have developed a competitive advantage in a relatively narrow range of sports. Data for the paper were collected through the analysis of a range of financial and sport performance data and the analysis of political indices of democracy. The main findings of the paper are as follows: (1) identifying sports in which a country has a relative competitive advantage remains crucial for the continuing success of major sports powers and is becoming increasingly important for medium sports powers; (2) the cost of maintaining a country's relative position in the medals table is considerable and arguably locks countries on to a path from which it is difficult for them to deviate; (3) the increasing concern with providing security for the Games may have a deterrent effect on the willingness of more open democratic countries to bid to host the Games; (4) the International Olympic Committee faces a potential challenge in providing the majority of countries that attend the Games, but which do not win a medal, with a return on their investment in the Olympics.

This paper examines the relationship between knowledge management/transfer processes and (good) governance practices in sports events. The research was undertaken at the Lillehammer 2016 Winter Youth Olympic Games, with data collected through interviews and document analysis. Findings include: 1) the significance of horizontal as well as hierarchical accountability; 2) different event logics for the event rights holder-organising committee relationship; 3) the importance of culture as well as structure in relation to governance; 4) the significance of tacit knowledge, person-to-person informal knowledge transmission and knowledge transfer timing.

The governance of the Olympic Games is a complex, multi-level and multijurisdictional endeavour. Taking as a starting point the key partners’ governance network in place for the 1988 Calgary Olympic Winter Games, this paper explores the development of the structures and processes, as well as the institutional and procedural dimensions that have shaped the resulting governance network in place of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games. Findings highlight five key parts of the Canadian approach to governing the Olympic Games – and other major sports events – namely, Canada-wide planned and coordinated stakeholder engagement, appropriate leadership, organizing committee structure flexibility, knowledge seeking and dissemination and a willingness to innovate. The paper also explores lessons learned and best practices, which have become contributions of the event to the Canadian major sport event landscape as well as the broader Olympic Movement.