Engaging outsiders in sport: Transforming sport event legacy planning

The 10-year horizon for the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games presents an opportunity to lead new research into the inequities and aspirations shaping sport participation to better inform legacy plans for sustainable change. Legacy planning is the vehicle that will drive the Queensland Government’s (2022) aim of capitalising on sport and Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games as agents for positive change’ in terms of social, economic and environmental outcomes.

Inspiring community sport participation and healthy lifestyles continues to be a key focus in ‘top-down’ legacy planning for major sport events. Yet the international legacy literature challenges the assumption that sport participation will automatically increase and be sustained after a major event (Annear, 2019; Misener, Darcy, Legg & Gilbert, 2013; Kennelly, Thomson, & Toohey, 2020; Veal, Toohey, & Frawley, 2012). Existing literature suggests that poor sport participation legacy outcomes arise from a lack of early stakeholder engagement, poor or absent baseline data, and inadequately prepared community sport infrastructure and organisations (Kennelly et al., 2020; Veal et al., 2012).

In addition, there is a lack of research into how gender and intersectional inequalities (disability, culture, sexuality) across the life course can be addressed through legacy planning for sport participation. This project brings together a world-leading team of sport scholars to develop an innovative ‘bottom up’ approach that will co-create new knowledge with communities to better address future needs and maximize benefits from legacy planning for the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games. As a world first this proposal places gender inequity and embodied differences at the centre of new knowledge and practice that can deliver national and international benefits through major sport events.

The project investigates intersectional inequities affecting sport participation for girls, women and non-binary people in Queensland by working with them to envision inclusive legacies for the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Using a co-creation approach the research will identify what and how benefits can be achieved through legacy planning by engaging with diverse end-users who have historically been marginalised as ‘outsiders’ in sport. In doing so, the project will deliver evidence-based resources to i) improve engagement with marginalized groups about inclusive sport participation and ii) build capacity to sustain meaningful change for communities and organisations.

Specifically, this project draws attention to Australian women, girls and nonbinary people with diverse abilities who are disengaged or marginalised in organised sport, specifically examining the gender and intersectional based drivers of engagement, with a view to informing future sport legacy plans.

The project’s three key aims are to:

1. Generate deep insights into the complexity of sport participation – constraints, benefits and aspirations through a co-creation methodology with end-users.
2. Develop a gender lens to address intersectional inequalities and advance inclusive sport legacy planning processes.
3. Create innovative and accessible methods of engaging key stakeholders in sport legacy planning (including end-users) to develop evidence-based strategies for change.

As an interdisciplinary team working at the intersections of sport (events), health, gender and disability, we propose an innovative project designed to address our aim of contributing to new discoveries in mega-sport event legacy planning.

Two important approaches underpin the project: use of participatory, co-creation methods and life course analysis. Life course experiences contribute to age related ways of knowing the world around us, and in turn of imagining gendered futures for young and old. We will investigate how vulnerabilities and inequities are embodied at different life stages with respect to an intersectional analysis of gender and disengagement in sport.

The proposed design explores lived experience and future thinking through a multimodal approach (detailed below) in a way that addresses our aims by asking participants to reflect back, consider the present and envision different futures. We seek a deeper understanding of the multilevel ‘barriers’ to sport participation by exploring how gender and intersectional power relations play out at different life stages and through place-based experiences. Through this approach, we attend to transitions and disruptions as dynamic forces that shape the life course in gendered ways that reveal specific contexts, embodied experiences and broader patterns.

To address the aims of the project we will recruit a purposive sample who are ‘outsiders in sport’ from regional and metropolitan sites across Queensland which will be impacted by the 2032 Games. The locations chosen represent diverse geographic places, communities and dynamics of social change (including floods, bushfire risks, drought, urban density, diversity of cultures, age demographics and income levels). They are also the cities set to be transformed through the Brisbane 2032 Games, making it important to ensure people from these places are included in planning processes. For example, Logan in Queensland is one of the most culturally diverse areas of Australia, with people coming from approximately 170 different ethnic identities, speaking more than 50 different languages (Logan City Council 2017). The Logan City Council (2022) has already identified the Olympics as a significant opportunity for their community, despite being initially excluded from early plans. Similarly, Cairns Regional Council (2022) has identified Brisbane 2032 as an opportunity to drive investment in their city as it recovers from the impacts of COVID-19). Cairns also has high youth unemployment and the city’s Indigenous population if 8.9% which is the highest of any Australia city. It is planned Cairns will host events as part of the Games. In contrast, while Brisbane is the Games host community and primary site of Games investment, the city is diverse and there are many satellite communities (like Springfield Lakes) where investment and legacy advantages are unlikely to flow (i.e., legacy benefits are known to occur unevenly) without a strategic focus.

We will invite up to 80 girls and women, including non-binary and trans people, who have experience of intersectional inequalities to participate in this project. We will actively sample for diversity, including participants with disabilities, CALD and First Nations people.