Government Support of British Olympic Team at the Olympic Games 2008 - Coursework Example

The role of government support in the overall success of British Olympic Team at the games Abstract The 2008 Olympic Games in no doubt witnessed one of the greatest performances by the British national team. Just as it had been the case during the previous editions of these games, Britain was able to compete favourably amongst its peers from the lager European region. Competing amongst some of the world’s best nations, no one could rule out that the national team had prepared for these games. In particular, these results were evidence to the invaluable support from the government: an aspect that helped to enhance patriotism across the nation. Working closely with the National Olympic Committee and British Olympic Association, the government ensured that every team had access to adequate and high standard facilities for its preparation. With the declaration of London as the host city for the 2012 Olympics, the government’s support is conspicuously missing with regard to provision of facilities. That the success of the national team is at stake cannot be overlooked. Hence, this research proposal shall seek to investigate the role of government support to national team as it prepares for these games. Chapter One Introduction There is the general consensus among the sporting fraternity that 6th July, 2005 was a very important date as far as British sports is concerned. Hence, when it was announced by the International Olympic Committee’s president Mr. Jacques Rogge, that London had been given the honour to host the 2012 games, there was a feeling of accomplishment especially by the British Olympic Association, (BOA) as well as National Olympic Committee, (NOC). A closer look into the country’s efforts to host Olympic Games was indeed developed and conceived in as early as 1997. In this regard, this announcement marked the end of an eight year journey by the government through BOA to bring these games to the country. In particular, this bid was given the much needed impetus by the successful hosting of Commonwealth Games in the city of Manchester despite the fact that it had a huge economic impact on the government in terms of draining the public purse. That not withstanding, the successful hosting of the said games served to demonstrate to both the international and domestic pundits that the country was indeed capable of hosting events of such statue or magnitude. This was clearly evidenced by the remarkable Singapore result. On the other hand, this was a credit to all the stakeholders that had provided support to the London city’s bidding process. The government support throughout the entire bidding process was evidenced by the Prime Minister’s presence in Singapore on this particular date. Having successfully bid for these games, there is however general concern that that the country is faced with a serious challenge in terms of lack of facilities. The effects of just ended and unprecedented world economic down turn have not made things any easier in this regard. Hence, the need to address this problem cannot be over emphasised. Problem Statement That there is a positive correlation between adequate preparation and success of a team within any sporting extravaganza or competition is a fact. At the same time, it is worth noting that the said preparation is dependant on the availability and quality of facilities. Though the government played a very crucial role by providing the much needed support during London’s bidding process, it has emerged that it seems to have completely ignored the need to ensure that there are adequate as well as high standard facilities. In a nutshell, the country is currently faced with the challenge of lack of facilities. To some, it seems that the government quickly slumped back to slumber after London won the 2012 Olympic Games bid. Instead, a great deal of attention is currently being paid on preparing the city to host these games at the expense of providing the necessary facilities. Perhaps of importance to note is the fact that while the nation is grappling with this issue, other countries across the globe are focussed on giving the necessary support to their respective Olympic Games. Unless this issue is addressed as soon as possible to avert a looming crisis during these games, the national Olympic team would be a pale shadow of the other participants in 2012 games. As of today, the British team is greatly predisposed to failure due to the lack of facilities for training or preparation in a range of sporting disciplines. The inability by the government to provide support to the national team on the other hand is acting as a source of frustration to both the team as well as other stakeholders. The fact that the United Kingdom shall be the host implies that the failure by the national team against its peers cannot be contemplated. It is imperative to note that sporting events have grown to become more than just a platform for the world’s best athletes to compete but rather an avenue for enhancing patriotism in addition to defending the image of the nation. Justification of this Study With specific reference to the above stated problem, this study shall seek to explore the potential effect of the lack of facilities on the success of the National Olympic team. By so doing, this investigative field study shall seek to sensitise the government on the need to put in place adequate as well as high standard facilities to enable for the effective preparation by British Olympic team at the 2012 London games. Lack of such facilities is in fact a barrier to the success of this team. In addition, this field study shall seek to indentify some of the most affected sporting disciplines in their quest to prepare for these Olympic Games. With this in mind, this study is justified since it shall carry with it an ideal platform for the national team to bring to the fore its challenges other than lack of facilities in the wider context of the role of government. Therefore, this study shall attempt to fill the gap with respect to the role of government support towards preparation by the national Olympic team. Though much has been done by the government in terms of ensuring that the city London lives up to its expectation with respect to these games, very little is been done to provide facilities to the national team. Other than the government, this study shall challenge development partners to identify suitable ways of helping to address this problem as soon as possible. Secondly, this study shall act as a basis or foundation for any future research in this area. This study is also justified since it shall seek to identify the reasons behind this problem in the first place. Research Question In order to address and investigate the above stated problem, this study shall be based on questions that shall seek to identify the main reasons for the present-day lack of adequate and high standard facilities for the British Olympic team. This shall be reflected in terms of the difficulties that are currently being experienced by the various national discipline teams as they prepare for the 2012 London Olympic Games. Furthermore, these questions shall also seek to bring to the fore the impacts of this challenge or barrier to the growth and development of the national teams in the subsequent sporting events of such stature. Hence this research study shall seek to the answer the following research question: To what extent does lack of facilities deride the success of the British Olympic Team? In order to answer the above question comprehensively, this research study shall be guided by the following subsidiary questions. What is your sporting discipline? What was your team’s performance during the last edition of Olympic Games? How much does your team spend on average towards facilities? In your opinion, did your team receive full support from the government during these games? Does your team have all facilities for preparation for the 2012 London Olympic Games? How does lack of facilities affect your team’s preparation? How do you think the government should address this challenge? How is your team currently coping with this challenge? Research Objectives From the above stated research problem and questions, the broad objective of this study is to determine the potential impact of lack of facilities to the success of the national Olympic team during the 2012 games in London with particular reference to the each and every Olympics bound discipline. However, this broad objective shall be based on the following specific research objectives. To determine the role of government support towards the success of national teams. To determine the reasons for the diminishing government support towards the British Olympic team. To determine how each and every Olympic bound team is currently preparing for the 2012 London games. To determine the impact of the lack of facilities to the growth and development of sports within the country. To determine the total number of sporting disciplines for the 2012 London Olympic Games. To determine how the government and the national team is coping with this challenge. Assumptions In order for this research study to achieve the aforementioned broad objective, it shall be based on the following assumptions; Respondents shall give truthful and reliable information with respect to the problem. All the sporting disciplines covered shall be part of the national Olympic team. All the teams covered in this field study had participated in the previous edition of Olympic Games. Limitations of the Study One of the anticipated limitations during this research study is attributed to the fact that some respondents might not provide reliable and truthful information. This limitation carries the potential effect of greatly reducing the validity and reliability of the study findings. In order to overcome this challenge, the researcher shall request the respondents to be as truthful as possible. Also, the research shall be based on the principle of voluntary provision of information by the respondents and thereby reduce the likelihood of collecting biased information. The second limitation that the researcher anticipates to be encountered with is the issue of insufficient resources in terms of man-power and finances towards this investigative research. Time constraint is the other limitation to which this study is exposed since this research shall require at least eight, (8) months to be completed. Chapter Two Literature Review Overview of London 2012 Olympic Bid July 6th, 2005 shall in no doubt go into the history book as one of the most memorable and important date with regards to the British sport. The announcement by the International Olympic Committee’s president, Mr. Jacques Rogge, that London was to host these Olympic Games in 2012 marked a successful end of an eight year journey. A brief look into the British bidding history reveals that indeed the nation had on various occasions attempted to bid to host the Olympic Games with no success. The decision to forward London as the British candidate for these games was reached after unsuccessful bids by Manchester and Birmingham. Both cities had in fact forwarded their bid three times: for the 1992, 1996 and 2002 with the result being the same throughout the entire period. Having spent considerable time with the International Olympic Committee voting constituency, it was explicit to the British Olympic Association that the nation’s seriousness to host such sporting event would be charged subject to the inclusion of the city of London as its representative in this regard. (http://www.olympics.org.uk/contentpage.aspx?no=268) Aware of all that was at stake, the British Olympic Association then proceeded to formulate an elaborate roadmap. BOA set out on a major pubic relations as well as political lobbying as part of the wider campaign for London’s candidature for these games. The idea of the city’s bid for the Olympic Games would have been a mirage in the event that the support from the government together with the City Mayor was not enlisted as early as possible. Indeed, it was clear from the outset that advancing London’s candidacy on grounds of benefits of hosting such games would not hold in terms of persuading the two partners regarding the advantages of mounting this bid in the first place; not to mention the idea of this city actually being able to stage these games. Against this backdrop, BOA then formulated strategies which were in turn deployed around legacy, tourism, regeneration, the nation’s health in addition to the creation of housing. It is worth noting that at this point there was mixed reaction from the country’s media; although a few stood out to provide the much needed support for this bid. Despite some resistance from the government especially with regard to the staging of these games, the momentum continued to grow. According to the British Olympic Association, this proved to be instrumental through its influence on International Olympic Committee poll results in Singapore later on. Determined to realise this dream, BOA particularly embarked on an ambitious programme that was aimed at building international relationships and connections. As part of its strategy, these were confined to the Olympic family. These efforts together with those from the government and the Mayor were finally rewarded with declaration of London as the 2012 Olympic Games host city having beaten other equally suitable cities. Performance of the British Team The 2008 Beijing Olympics in no doubt presented an ideal platform for some of the world’s best athletes not only to compete but also defend the image of their respective nations. It is worth noting that throughout the history of time, these games had steadily transformed to be a source of economic development to the hosting nations as well. Just as it was the case during the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, there were 28 sports for this edition in Beijing which in turn gave rise to a total of 302 events. As it was anticipated, the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games were highly competitive as each and every nation strived to present its case as to being the world’s best sporting nation. According to the British Olympic Association and BBC Sport, there were a total of 86 countries that won medals, in which case 54 were gold medals; an aspect that confirmed heightened competition amongst nations. On the other hand, these games produced the highest number of loosing countries totalling to 118 nations that indeed had no medal to show for their participation. As it had become the tradition, Britain had made it customary to be amongst the top five best performing nations during such sporting extravaganzas. The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games saw Britain emerge as the fourth best with regard to the medal standing. By the end of these games, the country’s athletes had won a total of 47 medals closely following Russia which had 71 medals to its credit. Looking back to this event, there was no doubt that everyone was satisfied with these results. Furthermore, there was renewed hope throughout the country of the national team performing even better with some holding the view that it could in fact emerge to be the best. London’s win as the host city for the 2012 Olympic Games most certainly has presented Britain with an opportunity to live up to this expectation. The need for the government to provide the much needed support as the national team prepares is of importance if this dream is to be realised as it has been suggested by Masterman, (2009, p. 78). Although it is absolutely necessary for the government to pay special attention towards enabling the City of London to successfully host these games, it is also important to take into account the fact that the success of the national team is greatly dependent on government support through provision of facilities (Whittingdale, 2008, p.327 and Bosscher, et.al 2008, p. 53). Chapter Three Research Design and Methodology Study Area This study shall be based within the City of London as the main focus of data collection. The decision to use London as the primary sample area is informed of the fact that the city is a cosmopolitan with different types of sporting activities which would in turn provide diverse and valuable data for this study. Feasibility to the research area is the other reason why the researcher opted to choose this zone to be the main focal point of this study. This shall enable the researcher to overcome challenges associated with limited resources and time constraint; all of which would have otherwise negatively impacted on the reliability and validity of research findings. Being the host city for the said 2012 Olympic Games, this study area is currently serving as headquarter of the National Olympic Committee, (NOC). In this regard, the researcher shall be able to access concerned government department in relation to the research problem. Therefore, this shall enable the researcher to integrate the government to be one of the variables upon which the study findings shall be based as well. Sampling Procedure According to Patton, (1990, p. 136), the identification of the correct or suitable sampling procedure is positively correlated to both the accuracy and reliability of the research findings. Although this field study is investigative in nature, it should be emphasised that it is qualitative. In particular, this study shall take a descriptive and ethnographic approach with specific focus on the national team’s sporting disciplines for the 2012 London Olympic Games. With this in mind, this investigative research study shall be based on the cluster or area random sampling procedure to determine the sample size of the study. As it has been put forward by Fink (2006, p. 49), cluster or area random sampling carries with it the merit of being easy to administer in terms of both time and space. Unlike the other methods of random sampling, this method allows the researcher to focus on the specific regional aspects of the study out the larger population as it is argued by Benard, (2006, p. 392). Narrowing down on the specific area or unit during the field study further carries with it the benefit of reducing the geographical area or sample units to be covered while at the same time ensuring for accuracy in determining the sample size. Through the use of this method, the researcher shall be able to narrow down on the various sporting disciplines that shall form the national Olympic team for these 2012 games. Data Collection and Analysis The reliability and validity of this research study shall greatly be determined by the type or method of data collection as well as analysis. Owing to the fact that this study is investigative, primary methods of data collection shall take precedence. Thus the main method of data collection shall be through the use of questionnaire administration. Questionnaire administration carries with it the merit of being an easy and fast method of data collection. Questionnaires also provide an ideal opportunity for all the respondents to give feedback concerning the issue under investigation (Fowler, 2002, p. 63). Furthermore, they also encourage honesty as well as openness by virtue of the fact that response or feedback is usually anonymous. In order to increase the validity and reliability of the study findings, the use of questionnaire shall be complemented by structured interviews with the coaches and team captains and government officials from the National Olympic Committee respectively. Throughout the data collection process, respondents shall be given the freedom to voice their concern freely by the use of open ended questions for both questionnaires and structured interviews. As it has been put forward by Babbie (2009, p.183), the use of open ended questions usually provides an ideal avenue for the researcher to collect additional or closely related information. In so doing, the danger of biasness is greatly reduced since the researcher would be able to probe the basis for any additional information that might be provided by the respondents. This field study shall be based on a sample size of 70. The criterion upon which this sample size has been selected is based on the fact there shall be an average of 28 disciplines of which questionnaires shall be administered to both the team captains and coaches giving a total sample size of 56. The other additional sample units shall be derived from the government as represented by the officials from the National Olympic Committee (NOC). However, unlike the team captains, the 12 government officials from National Olympic Committee shall be selected randomly. In order to increase the accuracy and validity of data from this section, the said sampling procedure shall be limited to those that are directly involved in the planning and organization of the 2012 London Olympic Games. The qualitative data collected during this field shall be analysed by the SPSS programme and presented through the use of score tables, graphs and pie charts. Research findings shall however be expressed in terms of frequencies and percentage with regard to the research question or problem that is under investigation. Ethical Considerations One of the ethical considerations that the researcher shall have to take into account is the aspect of designing the field study to fit into the individual training schedules/programmes of the various teams. This shall ensure that the research study does not conflict with the day-to-day operations of such teams and thus enhance successful data collection exercise. The importance for this consideration can not be understated since these teams shall be the primary source of information upon which this study is founded. Similarly, the researcher shall seek to get the weekly schedule of the National Olympic Committee with specific reference to those that are directly involved in the preparation and planning of the national team for this sporting fete in 2012. In addition, prior to the actual data collection, the researcher shall see to it that all respondents are duly informed regarding this process and subsequently book for an appointment on the same. As it is suggested by Gratton and Ian (2004, p. 113), the researcher shall also have to ensure that the identity of all the respondents during this study is kept confidential. To add to that, the data collected during this investigative study shall only be used for the intended use subject to the research objectives and thus shall not be divulged to anyone or institutions for any other purpose without authority from the respective respondents. Lastly, the researcher shall be tasked with the responsibility of upholding copyrights in accordance with the relevant property rights regulations by acknowledging all the secondary sources that shall be used for any discussion of this work. Provisional Timetable of the Research This research study shall be based on the following tentative eight-month work plan. Activity Time Frame (in Months) Preparation of research proposal and development of theoretical framework 1st month Reconnaissance of the study area and Sampling 2nd Month Preparation of Questionnaires and booking of appointment with respondents 3rd Month Questionnaire Administration and Data collection 4th Month to 5th Month Data Analysis and review/discussion of the study findings 6th Month to 7th Month Preparation of Report and formulation of recommendations 8th Month Discussion of Study Findings and recommendations with Stakeholders 8th Month Submission of the final and edited report 9th Month References Babbie, E. (2009). The Practice of Social Research. New York: Cengage Learning. Benard, H. R. (2006). Research Methods in Anthropology: Qualitative and Quantitative approaches. Washington, D.C. Rowman Altamira. British Olympic Association (BOA); London 2012 Olympic Bid. Accessed on January 23, 2010 from; (http://www.olympics.org.uk/contentpage.aspx?no=268) Bosscher, et.al (2008). The Global Sporting Arms Race: An International Comparative study on Sports Policy Factors Leading to International Sporting Success. London: Meyer and Meyer Verlag. Fink, A. (2006). How to Conduct Surveys: A step-by-step guide. London: SAGE. Fowler, J. F. (2002). Survey Research Methods. 3rd Ed. London: SAGE. Gratton, C and Ian, J. (2004). Research Methods for Sport Studies. London: Routledge. Masterman, G. (2009). Strategic Sports Event Management: Olympic Edition. New York: Butter-Heinemann. Patton, M.Q. (1990). Qualitative evaluation and research methods. London: SAGE. Whittingdale, J. (2008). London 2012 Games: Oral and Written Evidence. London. The Stationary Office. Read More