Innsbruck 50th Olympic Anniversary
Innsbruck, Austria
Sustainable Sports and Events (SSE) Toolkit
Vancouver, Canada
Olympic Centennial Jubilee
Stockholm, Sweden
St. Moritz Sport Tourism Strategy
St. Moritz, Switzerland
Youth Obesity Prevention Programme
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Olympic City: Nanjing
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Country: China
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Edition of the Games: 2014 Youth Olympic Summer Games
The Nanjing Youth Obesity Prevention Programme was an educational initiative built around the hosting of the 2014 Youth Olympic Games.
The ultimate goal of the programme was to prove that there is a link between the level of physical activity and healthy lifestyle choices between young City residents and the incidences of obesity. This involved a unique, never-before-taken approach combining informational interventions and increased physical activity with principles of scientific measurement.
The programme was run by the Local Organising Committee of the 2014 Nanjing Youth Olympic Games and involved engaging directly with local schools, parents, as well as with the young participants themselves. It used the platform of the 2014 YOG to attract and inspire those involved in the project.
The target group was 4th and 5th grade school students located across 32 primary schools in 16 urban areas dotted around the City of Nanjing. Classroom-based tutorials were combined with incentivised competitions such as poster design, painting and essay writing, all specifically around the theme of educating pupils on the benefits of healthy and active living. Alongside this, interventions in the form of access to increased recreational time and better sports facilities were introduced during school hours, while specific home assignments were allocated to parents through the students to instigate changes in the domestic environment.
The success of the various interventions was measured by applying scientific analysis on the levels of improvement of participants across physical and knowledge-based metrics. This process measured the results between the experimental group and a separate control group. Clear evidence was found that interventions that promoted physical activity and changes in lifestyle could help to fight youth obesity. State institutions have taken these findings and will now use them to inform relevant aspects of their public health policy.
Develop human capital and generate social cohesion
A strong focus was placed on educating the pupils through self-learning and creative expressions. Competitions in essay writing, poster design and other artistic endeavours encouraged students to take initiative in learning about healthy lifestyles and applying them in their own creative way. Students were also given the chance to be part of a radio production which focused on topics related to the programme. These were also supported by quizzes and academic tests that were administrated at regular intervals throughout the programme. This helped to build a bank of knowledge and skills within the group that can be taken forward and shared with the community as they grow older and enter into adult society.
Promote a healthy and active lifestyle
The Youth Obesity Prevention programme involved end-to-end interventions across both home and school environments to try and divert youth away from unhealthy and inactive lifestyles. This allowed the organisers to remove all possible barriers and introduce all reasonable promoters of positive behaviour amongst the participants. They were then able to test the effect of these changes on an increase in healthy activity in youth and the reduction in indicators of youth obesity. The data collected will now be used in the designing of public health initiatives centred on increasing the overall health of society within the City.
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Evaluation
The organisers recorded data across numerous separate but interrelated fields. This included the Body Mass Index of participants at various times, test scores and data related to physical activity levels, to name a few. This data set was captured from both the experimental group and a control group and the differences between the two were used to draw inferences on the level of success of the programmes various initiatives.
Academic studies and comprehensive assessment conducted after the programme led to the following conclusion: “This policy-oriented, multicomponent, school-based physical activity programme was scalable and effective in increasing physical activity and preventing obesity in Chinese children. The intervention strategies can be readily translated into large-scale obesity prevention programmes in a range of schools in China.” (Dr Fei Xu et al.)
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Key Challenges
Managing scale
To ensure that the conclusions drawn from the programme were as accurate as possible, the organisers removed every possible external influence that could cause the results to be misunderstood. This involved a huge amount of work and a great attention to detail. Every point in the lives of the students was covered, both at home and in the classroom. Furthermore, data on a nationwide level was compared alongside data from control groups to verify causation between the actions taken by the organisers and the results being obtained.
The scale of this undertaking was only made possible due to the close coordination and cooperation of the state bodies involved in the programme. Existing close ties between the organisers, the Department of Health and the school systems meant that the implementation and coordination of the programme between these bodies was very straightforward and without complication.
Generating parental buy-in
The organisers of the programme were keenly aware of the fact that to truly impact behavioural change in young children, you needed to reach them at home. While school plays a very important role in education, it is at home where the most influential factors are at play and parents are the key influencers in this. As a result, it was absolutely critical to obtain the buy-in and commitment from the parents of the students in order to generate real results. This was not always an easy proposition as many parents instinctively felt that initiatives related to physical activity and well-being were a distraction from academic work.
To help build buy-in from parents and reduce resistance to the programme, specific home assignments were delivered to parents throughout the programme. These assignments were designed to be completed at home with both the parent and the student working together. This helped build commitment from the parents as well as educate them on the benefits of involvement for their children.
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Key Learnings & Recommendations
Take a scientific approach
The scientific approach taken by the organisers was particularly helpful. Firstly, it helped to convince people of the merit of the project. Where there is much scepticism and resistance, hard data and proven facts are difficult to argue with. Secondly, methodologies and results documented using the scientific method are far easier to take and replicate for later use. The local government has already signalled the usefulness of the results obtained and intends to use these results and the data generated from the programme to explore how they can better tackle child obesity in society on a larger level.
Believe in your objective
The key result arising from the programme was the evidence of a clear link between the initiatives introduced and a reduction in the levels of obesity-related indicators in the target group. Before the programme started there was still conflicting evidence and much public scepticism about whether low levels of physical activity and adverse lifestyle behaviour could have a major influence on youth obesity. The Nanjing Youth Obesity Programme successfully dispelled these doubts and proved that with the correct application, dangerous trends in youth obesity can be successfully reversed through the promotion of physical activity and positive lifestyle habits.
More information
The full case is available in printable version on the members’ portal.
In addition to the above description, the PDF version also gathers practical information including internal and external partners involved; finance and cost; use of the olympic brand; human resources and time; and contact details.
The World Union of Olympic Cities’ team remains at your disposal for any further information and contact’s facilitation at info@olympiccities.org
Additional resources can be found through the following links:
A school-based comprehensive lifestyle intervention among Chinese kids (CLICK-Obesity)
Policy-oriented, school-based physical activity intervention to prevent childhood obesity in China
Olympic Stadium Amsterdam
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Let’s Ride
Let’s Ride
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Olympic City: Sydney
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Country: Australia
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Edition of the Games: 2000 Olympic Summer Games
Let’s Ride is a national junior riding programme designed by Cycling Australia (CA) to be a fun learning experience for kids. The programme teaches them to ride safely by developing their knowledge, skills and confidence – giving parents peace of mind.
Learning to ride safely is a skill that must be taught as children grow and gain independence. With 1.9 million Australian kids riding bikes every week, and no official programme to teach kids the necessary life-saving skills, there was a huge gap that needed to be addressed.
Cycling Australia has undertaken an extensive research and development process that led to the implementation of the Let’s Ride programme. Independent experts, representatives from state cycling bodies, potential instructors, marketing agencies and internal experts have all contributed with their own expertise in shaping the programme for maximum appeal to kids and their parents.
The Let’s Ride programme offers activities before, during or after school hours. Cycling Australia accredited instructors can come to your school to deliver the industry leading six-week program or Let’s Ride offers schools the option to deliver the skills course internally by providing the school with a comprehensive and yet easy to use package. Let’s Ride Delivery Pack contains all of the resources and content required to deliver the program.
Cycling Australia has also partnered with the Australian Sport Commission who had an existing school sport programme to help combat the increasing levels of obesity that has been observed among the youth. Through this partnership, schools can access the governmental funding to cover the cost of their students who are interested in participating in the programme.
Operationally, 30 delivery centres have been created in the different areas, of which 19 are in Sydney. Linked to local clubs and schools, these centres are mandated by Cycling Australia to handle the delivery of the programme in the various districts.
The program was piloted in 2015 and launched nationally in 2016. Since then, the program has operated in all states and territories across Australia. Having great success during this time the program is on the cusp of reaching 10,000 participants.
Promote a healthy and active lifestyle
The Let’s Ride programme provides a unique opportunity to target children and to promote cycling as a fun way to practice sport and to use bikes as an alternative means of transportation. It further offers a way to educate the youth and to encourage them to adopt a healthy and active lifestyle. Ultimately, this could help combat youth obesity, which is becoming an issue not only in Australia, but worldwide.
Develop human capital and generate social cohesion
The programme targets both parents and children. In order to make the road safer for biking, it is important to educate both these groups. For kids, knowing how to ride a bike independently does not necessarily translate to road awareness and safety. The Let’s Ride programme aims to fill this gap.
By offering programmes through schools Cycling Australia and the Australian Sport Commission created a new approach towards teaching children how to ride. The programme aims at educating children on the proper techniques and road safety measures that are needed in modern day cycling.
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Evaluation
A post participation survey is sent to the parents whose child took part in the programme. The coaches aim at finding out what the kids think of the programme by asking specific questions.
In addition, meetings are organised with the delivery centres every six months to get their feedback on how the programmes is working in the various local towns.
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Key Challenges
Defining the programme
In a typical week, one out of every six Australians will ride a bike. Biking is really popular in Australia and it is important to teach children to learn how to ride. Before defining the programme comprehensive and robust research was required to ensure the right set-up. Thousands of parents, teachers and kids were involved in the process. Independent experts also contributed in the research by sharing their knowledge and assessing potential solutions. This was a long process but a lot of crucial information and guidance were gained, which helped shaping the programme for maximum appeal to kids and parents.
Maintaining Quality
Due to the fact that the programme is delivered by various centres, it is a challenge to make sure that the programme is consistent across the country. The objective is to keep up the standards level of delivery regardless of where the programme is held. Parents and children should get the same level of response, knowledge and experience.
The online registration which coaches have to complete at the end of each session helps the governing team to monitor the progress of the various sessions taking place and therefore, if they feel that something needs to be adapted or changed, they can deal directly with the appropriate centre or coach.
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Key Learnings & Recommendations
Research, research, research!
The information gathered during the research phase of the programme proved to be quite relevant and useful. It allowed the team to know what age groups to target, how the concept of learning to ride was perceived in the market and how to build the communication strategy.
The research showed that 1.9 million out of 2.6 million children in Australia are riding bikes. However, it also showed that the majority were taught by parents who did not know the proper techniques and safety measures needed in cycling These results helped the team obtain the much needed financial support from the government.
Target the right audience
For a programme such as Let’s Ride to be successful, it is important to know who the target audience is. By conducting extensive research, this information can be obtained and used to better reach the set objectives.
The results of the research showed that parents were the most likely persons to teach their kids how to ride. This was a critical information for the development of the programme. The focus of the communication has therefore been geared towards the parents. It also helped tailor the programme for the different age groups to meet their different needs.
More information
The full case is available in printable version on the members’ portal.
In addition to the above description, the PDF version also gathers practical information including internal and external partners involved; finance and cost; use of the olympic brand; human resources and time; and contact details.
The World Union of Olympic Cities’ team remains at your disposal for any further information and contact’s facilitation at info@olympiccities.org
Additional resources can be found through the following links:
Get Set
Get Set
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Olympic City: London
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Country: United Kingdom
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Edition of the Games: 1908, 1948 & 2012 Olympic Summer Games
Get Set is the educational programme developed for the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Originally designed and delivered in the lead up to the 2012 Games, it has now transformed into a fundamental part of the legacy of the event and is aimed at keeping youth engaged with Team GB and Paralympics GB in the lead up to the next Olympics. It simultaneously aims to keep these youths involved in physical activity and educate them on the values that underpin the Olympic and Paralympic movements.
Get Set was originally run by the Local Organising Committee for the London Games. Once the Games finished, this body was dissolved as planned and the operational responsibility for the programme transferred over jointly to the British Olympic Association and the British Paralympic Association.
The Get Set programme is delivered through partner schools and youth groups and is predominantly housed online through the official Get Set website. Through this platform, pupils and schools can access content relating to over 200 different packages relating to sports and physical activity. These can be taken and applied to the classroom, the playground and even outside in the local community.
This online platform is supported by supplementary ad-hoc initiatives namely featured activities and the development of mobile applications. These additional initiatives usually involve partnering with various third parties for support and also ensures that the programme remains relevant and interesting as times change.
The programme has been one of the major success stories of London 2012 with over 24,000 schools and youth engaged on a continuous basis.
Promote social and constructive behaviour
The Olympic and Paralympic values are a fundamental component of the Get Set syllabus. The Olympic values of friendship, excellence and respect, and the Paralympic values of inspiration, determination, courage and equality underpin almost every area of course material. This helps to ensure that these values are constantly reinforced in the minds of pupils, as well as distinguishing the content from other physical education programmes.
Promote a healthy and active lifestyle
All of the material and activities associated with the Get Set programme are designed to inspire young people to become more physically active. This approach combines actual physical exercise with cross-curricular modules in health and well-being, personal development and social skills. This holistic view reflects the belief that critical areas such as self-motivation, character building, teamwork and resilience have a profound impact on the health and lifestyle choices of the youth today.
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Evaluation
The success of Get Set is evaluated on the basis of in depth research linked to the specific initiatives that make up the programme. This research is performed by the specialised research department of the programme’s delivery agency who report on key impact metrics such as trends in motivation levels, resource usage and engagement levels.
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Key Challenges
Maintaining momentum post-Games
In the first stage of the project’s life, everything was focused on the lead up to London 2012. The magic of the Games helped to generate huge momentum behind the Get Set programme. However, once the Games finished it was a struggle to replicate this. All of a sudden the next Games were very far away both in terms of time and distance and this caused a considerable ebb in the momentum behind the project.
To combat this, the organisers reframed the Get Set programme, keeping all the best parts but shifting the focus away from supporting the local delivery of the Games and towards supporting the national athletes as they prepare to travel to the next Games where they will represent Great Britain abroad.
Handing over operational responsibility
One of the unavoidable realities facing any Local Organizing Committee of an Olympic Games is that they too will come to a close shortly after the Games themselves. This meant that the project had to be handed over to new custodians in the form of the British Olympic and Paralympic Associations. The required knowledge transfer and relationship management as part of this handover and this presented challenges.
Given that the dissolution of the LOCOG was a certainty from the outset, the handover had been well planned. Furthermore, the close ties between the LOCOG and the new team meant that handover was very smooth and actually suited the new frame of the programme in the aftermath of the London Games.
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Key Learnings & Recommendations
Build a shared community
Since Get Set first started, youth have become more interconnected with increased access to better technology. This has developed a sharing culture amongst the youth of today and this has been used by the organisers to their advantage. The Get Set website has a social hub section where key learnings and best practices can be shared. During the last quad, initiatives included Google Hangouts with athletes allowing young people to hear from and talk to inspiring role models. The Road to Rio App allowed young people to log their physical activity and share their progress with their peers. This was the first set of a planned series of linked digital initiatives that will further leverage the digital sharing culture to connect with today’s youth.
Drive engagement through incentives
Organisers quickly learned that young people are far more responsive and motivated when their work is recognised and rewarded in some way. This has become increasingly incorporated into the Get Set initiatives. The Road to Rio App for example allowed users to earn badges and other exclusive rewards based on reaching milestones in their physical activity log. Such schemes are supported by the involvement of partners who are often keen to provide value-in-kind in the form of rewards as this approach can often closely match their own objectives from a commercial or social point of view.
More information
The full case is available in printable version on the members’ portal.
In addition to the above description, the PDF version also gathers practical information including internal and external partners involved; finance and cost; use of the olympic brand; human resources and time; and contact details.
The World Union of Olympic Cities’ team remains at your disposal for any further information and contact’s facilitation at info@olympiccities.org
Additional resources can be found through the following links:
The Sapporo Olympic Museum
Sapporo, Japan
Going to the Olympics
Going to the Olympics
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Olympic City: Los Angeles
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Country: United States of America
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Edition of the Games: 1932 & 1984 Olympic Summer Games
Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles
To mark the hosting of the Summer Olympic Games in 1984, the city of Los Angeles decided to create ten painted murals along the two main highways leading up to the Olympic stadium. This was part of the beginning of a larger artistic movement in Los Angeles. This movement grew quickly to become responsible for the creation of a huge number of similar murals in every corner of the City.
Over the years, many of the murals have fallen into significant disrepair. Rogue artists began to tag unsanctioned graffiti on top of the existing artwork. Many murals were completely covered as a result, resulting in a significant artistic loss for the city.
These developments led to the founding of the Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles (MCLA). The MCLA is a non-profit organisation whose mission is to restore, preserve and document the painted murals that are located at various points around the City. The organisation is composed of city and state officials, artists, public art advocates and restoration specialists.
The MCLA currently operates a restoration project, initially launched to help restore the City’s various murals, with a specific focus on those created for the 1984 Olympics. The project rapidly expanded to other murals in the city and as of today, they have restored and documented hundreds of murals in the greater Los Angeles area.
The success of the MCLA has led to the extensions of their work in the City. The organisation recently collaborated with the organisers of the Special Olympic Games, which took place in Los Angeles in 2015. Three new murals were sanctioned to celebrate the Special Olympic Games while simultaneously commemorating the 1984 Games.
The association has also become increasingly active within local communities, organising various arts workshops in different neighbourhoods throughout the City. This helps to generate public interest and involvement in the creation, maintenance and preservation of the City’s mural artwork.
Celebrate Olympism and its values
The narrative backdrop of the Olympic connection with the programme has enabled the City to raise more awareness among its citizens about its projects. This has been particularly important in informing citizens about the hosting of the Special Olympic Games for which three brand new murals were commissioned. Similarly, the Olympic link has been crucial in generating awareness amongst the local population about the educational artistic courses offered by the MCLA. The original murals created in 1984 have inspired many other artistic works that have been developed since to cover similar Olympic themes. The fact that the City’s artists are still influenced by what happened during the Games over 30 years previously are a testimony to the power of the Olympic Spirit.
Promote social and constructive behaviour
Much of the MCLA programme takes place in disadvantaged communities. The creation and restoration of murals in these areas improves the visual landscape of the neighbourhood as well as dispelling the notion within these communities that nobody cares for them. The local population is heavily involved in the project and this helps to engage these citizens, bringing together people from across different backgrounds under a common goal. The initiative brings a renewed air of positivity and harmony to these disadvantaged neighbourhoods, uniting the community under a shared environment of friendship and respect.
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Evaluation
Evaluating an artistic project always includes a more subjective component that makes measurement of the results less easy. Evaluation is based on the number of murals restored. Not only the murals dedicated to the Olympics are concerned. Success includes the spread of the restoration initiative to murals all over the city and beyond the 1984 Olympic ones.
Growing ownership of the local population on this visible and free testimony from the past also contributes to assess the success of the project. The acceleration of the identification, preservation and restoration processes of the murals also show that the people in charge of the project have improved skills and efficiency.
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Key Challenges
Selecting the targeted spaces
For the newly commissioned Special Olympics murals, the MCLA originally anticipated that there would be no major challenges in securing their preferred mural sites and finalising arrangements with the relevant property owners. In the end, it took significantly longer than expected to find and secure the walls that matched the desired criteria. This was a direct result of the preferred sites needing to be close to the Special Olympic venues and having optimum visibility. It also took longer than planned to finalise the necessary documentation and to sign the relevant agreements with owners of the properties in question.
This challenge eased as the project aged and grew. The more sites were secured the more skilled the organisers became in finding and finalising them. Similarly, the more agreements that were reached with owners, the easier it was to demonstrate the benefits associated with having the murals in the area.
Working with the artists
The MCLA encountered some issues with many of the artists that were initially selected to contribute to the projects. Some artists were not capable of working to the agreed standard and many had to be replaced in the middle of the work being performed. Artists can be very protective of their concepts and designs and trying to adapt these to conditions such as timelines, cost or other factors can generate blockages and barriers.
The MCLA quickly realised that in such instances, it was often easier to drop the existing artist and replace them with a new artist and new concept that would suit the prevailing circumstances. This was usually amicably accepted by both the organisers and the artists in question who prefer not to compromise on their original concept and vision.
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Key Learnings & Recommendations
Remain flexible
Given the unforeseen challenges faced by the MCLA, the organisation has had to adapt to numerous new situations over the course of the project thus far. These challenges were far greater than expected and they underlined the importance of staying as nimble and flexible as possible at every stage of the project. The MCLA now regards this flexibility as essential in the completion of all future projects. They devote more time for the initiation phase of their projects and have become more aware that unanticipated time delays are often a reality. They have also moved to allocate a larger portion of the budget for the initiation phase to reflect the fact that many unforeseen issues occur at this point.
Take advantage of marketing opportunities
The MCLA works with an expert marketing team to help with the communication of their various projects. The Association members worked closely with this unit and remained heavily involved in the different communication activities driven by the team. This helped to generate significant learning outcomes for many of the MCLA’s own members. Experience in the scheduling of communications and the media, the channels selected and the use of social media, for example has been generated from this partnership than can be carried forward within the MCLA.
More information
The full case is available in printable version on the members’ portal.
In addition to the above description, the PDF version also gathers practical information including internal and external partners involved; finance and cost; use of the olympic brand; human resources and time; and contact details.
The World Union of Olympic Cities’ team remains at your disposal for any further information and contact’s facilitation at info@olympiccities.org
Additional resources can be found through the following links:
