Rationale/Purpose: : Despite its best efforts, India is still struggling to succeed in international sport. Consequently, this study aimed to firstly, contribute an empirically driven rich picture of the current sports environment in India and secondly, to explore management factors that might explain India’s elite sport achievements and stagnations. Design/Methodology/Approach: : A purposeful sample of 25 key stakeholders (high level athletes, coaches, administrators and government officials) were interviewed. Data were analysed using thematic analysis and reviewed against factors identified by Green and Oakley (2001) as those contributing to elite success. Findings: : Participants revealed that India is definitely doing better on factors such as financial assistance and job security; issues that were always a constant source of concern in the past. Importantly, however, further exploration highlighted that resources invested in Indian sport are not being used effectively and that India may be following an erroneous pathway of prioritizing hardware over liveware (i.e. stadia over people). Practical Implications: : The study provides some initial conclusions that managing the available resources differently by prioritizing development of Indian coaches and a coach development system might better facilitate India’s success in sport. Research Contributions: : The current study, to the best of our knowledge, represents an important but comparatively unprecedented step towards trying to unwrap the sports field in India, a diverse and vast country.
LINK
More and more municipalities are, fortunately, working on play-friendly public spaces. However, many policy visions and investments are still based on assumptions made by municipal officials or suppliers of play equipment.
LINK
As the two prime examples of sport light, running and walking have become very popular sports activities in the past decades. There are references in the literature of similarities between both sports, however these parallels have never been studied. In addition, the current digitalisation of society can have important influences on the further diversification of profiles. Data of a large-scale population survey among runners and walkers (n = 4913) in Flanders (Belgium) were used to study their sociodemographic, sports related and attitudinal characteristics, and wearable usage. The results showed that walkers are more often female, older, lower educated, and less often use wearables. To predict wearable usage, sports-related and attitudinal characteristics are important among runners but not among walkers. Motivational variables to use wearables are important to predict wearable usage among both runners and walkers. Additionally, whether or not the runner or walker registers the heart rate is the most important predictor. The present study highlights similarities and differences between runners and walkers. By adding attitudinal characteristics and including walkers this article provides new insights to the literature, which can be used by policymakers and professionals in the field of sport, exercise and health, and technology developers to shape their services accordingly.
