O.6.2-4 Please stop claiming that elite sport influences the general population to practice physical activity!

PURPOSE: The Paris 2024 Olympic Games Organisation Committee claims that “another impact of the Games on society is reflected in the increase in the practice of sports”. Decision-makers and policymakers still use the trickle-down effect to legitimize spending public money to support elite sport events and/or to finance elite sport programs/athletes. We therefore wanted to investigate if this effect was not a myth. METHODS: We conducted structured Boolean searches across five electronic databases (Pubmed, JSTOR, Web of Sciences, Sportdiscus, and PsycInfo) from January 2000 to August 2021 using the following equation: ((“elite” OR “high level” OR “performance”) OR (“Olympic*” AND *Games”) AND (“sport” OR “athletes” OR “players”)) AND ((“physical activit*” OR “sport” OR “exercise”) AND (“participation” OR “practice”)). We also conducted manual searches using the reference lists of the recovered records. Peer-reviewed studies in English were included if the effects of hosting elite sport events, elite sport success, and elite sport role-modelling on physical activity (PA) or sport practice in the general population were measured. RESULTS: We identified 12,563 articles and included 36 articles. Most studies used data from the United Kingdom (n = 10), Australia (n = 5), Canada (n = 4), and multiple countries (studies using data from several countries) (n = 4). Seven articles investigated more than one effect of elite sport. Most studies investigated the effect of hosting elite sport events (n = 27), followed by elite sport success (n = 16) and elite sport role-modelling (n = 3). Most studies did not observe an effect of hosting elite sport events, elite sport success, or elite sport role-modelling on PA/sport practice in the general population. We also did not observe any evidence of elite sport effects according to the age range, the geographical scale, or time. CONCLUSIONS: There is no evidence supporting an effect of elite sport in increasing PA or sport participation in the general population. Decision-makers and policymakers should not use the tickle-down effect of elite sport to legitimize spending public money to support elite sport events and/or to finance elite sport programs/athletes. They should invest in other strategies such as those recommended by the World Health Organization.