Major study into elite sports culture in the Netherlands: what is the current state of affairs? | Sports other
A year ago, a large-scale study of top sports culture in the Netherlands started. Reasons were misunderstood in multiple sports, but the study did not focus on transgressive behavior. NU.nl lists exactly what is being investigated and what the current state of affairs is.
It is the largest study of elite sports culture in the world. According to lead researchers Marjan Olfers (professor of Sport and Law at VU University Amsterdam) and Anton van Wijk (criminologist and psychologist at research agency Verinorm), such an ambitious project has never been started in this area before. “It’s probably the most probable research I’ve ever done,” said Olfers.
The research addressed two main questions about elite sports culture. These are: what is a healthy elite sports climate? And what characteristics determine whether a top sports culture is good?
The researchers look at the answers to many different factors. This includes financing (does a sport that involves a relatively large amount of money have a different culture than a sport with few resources?), training methods (do you train individually or at a central location such as the Papendal sports centre?) and commerce (what does a commercial team do with a sport?).
The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS) is financing the research. In October 2021, then State Secretary Paul Blokhuis commissioned an analysis of the Dutch top sports analyses. The deceased leader of the ChristenUnie was shocked by stories about misunderstandings in sports. The sample example is a research about humiliation, intimidation, insults and a culture of fear in gymnastics.
“We have signals that not only gymnastics is at issue, but that it occurs across the board,” Blokhuis said more than a year ago in a debate in the House of Representatives. “What’s a gold medal at the Olympics worth? That’s the whole story.”
Furthermore, the removed investigation into transgressive behavior. Such reports can only be made after abuses have taken place. The researchers hope that their results can actually help prevent undesirable behaviour. “If you know the top sports culture, you can change better and offer better solutions,” said Olfers last September.
Next Friday in a second update on the research, she and her colleagues will also name the good elements of top sport. “We have the development to zoom in very much on the negative sides and they are often very sad. But top sport can of course also be very beautiful.”
The researchers will not suspect indications of undesirable behaviour. “We don’t do research into it, that makes it a bit complicated,” says Olfers. “But we can report abuses to us or forward athletes to an agency that could investigate their case.”
The plan is to fully screen about twenty sports. The research started last year with judo, ice hockey, volleyball and cycling. Six sports have been added this month: table tennis, snow sports (skiing and snowboarding), fencing, archery, curling and athletics. It is the intention that major sports such as football, hockey and tennis will also be included.
Each sport gets its own report. The results of the first four lessons should be included sometime in the last few months. Come in the autumn of 2024 with the final conclusions and recommendations based on all sports. “Then we put a skewer in all those reports,” says Olfers.
The choice for athletics in the ‘second phase’ of the study is independent of recent stories about transgressive behavior in sport. fidelity NL NRC last October that participants experienced intimidation, verbal aggression and bullying at Papendal. “There is no connection between those stories and our choice,” says Olfers.
The research mainly relies on questionnaires and interviews. Athletes and coaches are asked to discuss – anonymously – a standardized list of about two hundred questions. In addition, the researchers watch training sessions and competitions and follow each sport, including interviews with those involved.
At the request of the athletes’ committee of sports umbrella organization NOC*NSF, former athletes have recently also been allowed to work with. “It concerns athletes who stopped no more than two years ago,” said Olfers on Friday. “Because we are researching the current elite sports culture, not that of the past.” This expansion of the research, which has been approved by VWS, means that the results of the first four sports are not yet known.
The percentage of athletes who cooperate can still be increased by the researchers. “Compiling the questionnaire takes about forty minutes and we notice that it is perceived as long,” said Olfers.
Participation in the first four sports is around 30 percent. “Although that image is partly distorted, because we are not quite ready yet and we do not want to save athletes if they have a medical competition. We are committed to encouraging athletes and coaches to participate.”
Pieter van den Hoogenband will help to surprise and work for athletes. The former top swimmer and current chef at the Summer Olympics has been an ambassador for the research since the beginning of this year.
“I will mainly focus on the suggestion of athletes to participate in the study,” says Van den Hoogenband. “An optimal culture is extremely important for optimal performance. That is why it is very important for the entire top sport that the largest possible group of athletes complete the questionnaires.”
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