Page 18 - Sphere No.22 (Aug 2008)

C O V E R S T O R Y
16 SPHERE
ALL
SPORT
FOR Catching the Olympic spirit
By Mark Redvers
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WATCHING THE OLYMPIC GAMES brings out the amateur athlete in everyone: kids who watch the
athletics and swimming events immediately want to head down to the local track or pool to emulate their
heroes, adults vow to fit more exercise into their schedule.
This summer’s Olympics, to be held for the first time in China, promise to have the most success ever in
persuading people to incorporate some kind of sport into their everyday lives. The two-week feast of sport
in Beijing is certain to notch up record global audiences, with the vast majority of the host nation’s 1.3 bil-
lion population glued to their television sets for the duration of the Games.
When local hero Liu Xiang, he of poster-boy looks and lightning stride, makes his expected appearance
in the 110 metres hurdles final, the entire nation is likely to come to a standstill as people watch an antici-
pated gold-medal performance from the nation’s best-ever track star. Likewise, superstar basketball player
Yao Ming and his team-mates are under immense pressure to deliver, as are the nation’s swimmers, divers
and gymnasts, disciplines where Chinese sportsmen and women have excelled in recent years.
Their success – along with the continuing brilliance of badminton and table tennis players –has had an
impact on sports participation nationwide. The increased affluence of recent years has seen more and more
people take up golf, join gyms and play tennis, activities that are, in addition to providing significant fitness
benefits, clear signs of having made it to the ranks of the middle classes.
Corporate encouragement has also played its role in popularising sport both in China and other parts
of the world. Setting up sports-assistance programmes, as Hutchison does worldwide, has the multiple
benefits of fostering goodwill, helping team building and bonding among the workforce and, of course,
ensuring that employees are fitter, happier and more productive.
At its most basic level, sport is about running, walking or swimming in a non-competitive way, a means of