Motivators and Constraints that Influence the Participation of Small Nations Athletes in Bobsled and Skeleton

Abstract

Abstract

Motivators and Constraints that Influence the Participation of Small Nations Athletes in Bobsled and Skeleton

Juan Jose Carlos Ruiz

Global Sport Management, Department of Physical Education

The Graduate School

Seoul National University

Bobsled and skeleton are two winter sports that, for some reason, have had captive the hearts of some athletes from small nations since the early 1930s, and even though it has been almost a century since the first small nation participated, little research has been done to find out what motivates and constrains the participation in these two sports. If we want to understand how small the pool of athletes that practice them is, suffice it to say that last season there were 300 active athletes all around the world form big and small nations.

The re-inclusion of skeleton at the Winter Olympics program in 2002 generated a small nations athletes participation boom, that brought many athletes to the tracks in the following 4 years, but as the sport evolved, the rules changed and the equipment and technology started to be a essential part of the sport, many decided to quit, others to immigrate and a few kept pushing to create a real development program for their countries.

This study is aiming to examine small nations athletes motivators and constraints using two different survey types, with different respondents providing information to verify the findings in order to answer different research question. The objective is to know the reality of the athletes and use this to generate an effective strategy to increase small nations participation starting at the youth level, all the while taking advantage of the coming Winter Olympics at Pyeongchang in 2018.

The first survey was answered by 32 small nations athletes or former athletes from bobsled and skeleton and was related directly to motivators and constraints. The results were analyzed with a T Test procedure, showing that there is always a difference in motivators for each group, with the exception of one of the factors, which is being a part of the Olympic Games, which reached as high as 92.5%. The results of the constraints study showed that there were no differences in intrapersonal barriers and also that new athletes and senior athletes are under the same constraints. Other findings claimed that not getting enough access to tracks, anxiety and unfair rules were also consistent in the T test that has been ran with all the scenarios.

The second survey was answered by key people working with small nations in bobsled and skeleton to provide the information on how to increase the small nations participation in bobsled and skeleton. The result findings indicate that technology is generating a big gap between small and big nations, considering many motivators and constraint in a consistent path with the findings of the first survey.

Sustainable programs with partnerships can be a short-term way to increase participation, followed by a change in sport rules, especially the spots available for the Olympics in order to attract more athletes to sport, and the standardization of the equipment to reduce costs and increase fairness on the competitions.