Tuesday Talk -- IOC Sport for All Chair Says "Everybody Must Take Part"

(ATR) Sam Ramsamy tells Around the Rings this week's 14th World Conference on Sport for All will not center on science, academics or research. "It’s an activity," he says, "and everybody must take part."

ATR spoke with Ramsamy before arrival in Beijing to pick his brain on the importance of exercise, the legacy of London 2012 as well as what he calls the "pyramidal structure" of sport.

Around the Rings: I understand the philosophy behind Sport for All, but the IOC only has so many commissions. Why such focus on this initiative, particularly within the Olympic Movement?

Sam Ramsamy: Sport for All is the basis for all exercise activity that leads to recreational sport that leads to sport for disabled people that can eventually also lead to sport for the elite. If we did not have a Sport for All basis, we would not have the elite athletes coming out because it’s a pyramidal formation. The base of the pyramid is Sport for All. It’s a wide base, and one goes higher up on the base until one gets to the pinnacle, which is not only representing their respective countries at the Olympic Games but doing well at the Olympic Games.

ATR: How would you assess the practical impact of the Jyväskylä declaration one year out from its adoption at last year’s World Conference on Sport for All?

SR: The recommendations that have come out of Finland are very academic, and we felt that Sport for All must not only remain in the hands of scientists and researchers. It’s an activity and everybody must take part.

Therefore, we moved the emphasis totally out of academic and scientific presentations of data to explain to the National Olympic Committees, the international federations and other community groups that activity is as important and as crucial and as essential as anything coming out of academic study. That’s what we are concentrating on now.

Our conference is now a division between academic study, scientific study and explaining to the ordinary person on the street what they could do to exercise themselves. In the end, Sport for All is something that is an activity that we should all take part in because it benefits everybody and it’s a reality, a vision through different programs we have such as Olympic Day, the Olympic Solidarity programs and other activities.

Also, it pursues the promotion of health, fitness and wellbeing, which again aims at human beings leading a healthy life, and a healthy life means living an exercising life.

ATR: How do you ensure the goals and recommendations coming out of this week’s conference in Beijing are not only implemented but advanced upon going forward?

SR: What we will do this time is disseminate the conference activities that will take place in Beijing down to international federations and down to all the National Olympic Committees, so that everybody benefits out of whatever is going to happen.

I believe that after Beijing, we will see a resurgence of activity. As we talked about with the pyramidal structure of sport, you start at the base and move upwards to elite sport, but the pyramidal structure also has a reflection downward like one would see in the water because not everybody can go higher up to elite sport, and we want everyone participating as much as possible.

Participating means not only must sport be healthy, sport must provide joy. That is the wonder that we want to bring in. You don’t only participate because you want to keep healthy. You participate because it’s conferring other social benefits and communal benefits. We want parents to get involved with children, and that’s not happening.

For instance, when we look at all sports activities in the world, stadiums are getting bigger and bigger. In football you get 22 people kicking a ball in the middle of the field and another 60,000 people watching them. We’d like those 60,000 also to get involved in activities of one type or another. That is our aim.

ATR: Getting kids off the couch and onto the playing field has long been touted as a major legacy of the London Olympics. How do you see this playing out post-Games?

SR: We are very encouraged with what is happening at the London Olympic Games because part of the legacy is to get school kids taking part in sport activities. Of course, when they get interested in sport, that’s going to last a lifetime.

For instance, one of the people who’s going to address us at the conference in Beijing is Sir Keith Mills, the deputy chair of the organizing committee for London 2012, so there are close relationships with what we’re doing.

ATR: Is there any sort of quantitative index you know of to measure overall athletic activity among a given population? Which countries are truly living according to the Sport for All ideal?

SR: The Nordic countries are doing quite a lot of work. Finland, in fact, is very actively involved in this. Cardiovascular disease is one of the illnesses that can be a result of physical inactivity, and because Finland offers so many Sport for All activities, its prevalence of cardiovascular illness is one of the lowest, if not the lowest, in the world. That’s a heightened example of what is happening with Sport for All.

Interview conducted by Matthew Grayson.