This study explores how participation in an elite youth sport event may foster the development of social responsibility early in life, drawing on retrospective semi-structured interviews with thirty former Youth Olympic Games (YOG) athletes. Interpreted through the lens of Positive Youth Development (PYD), the study examines how athletes’ experiences of the YOG contributed to both personal and social development. The findings show that athletes understood social responsibility in relation to doping-free sport, gender equality, safety in sport, environmental sustainability, and community engagement. Participation in the YOG was also perceived as promoting values such as integrity, caring, and contribution that extend beyond athletic performance and align with PYD’s five Cs: competence, confidence, connection, character, and caring. In addition, Olympism emerged as a complementary cultural framework through which athletes interpreted responsibility, emphasizing values such as friendship, fair play, respect, and cultural exchange. The study contributes theoretically by demonstrating how PYD can help explain the role of elite youth sport in shaping social responsibility. The findings also underscore the importance of the YOG educational program and suggest that national sport organizations may adopt similar approaches to promote social responsibility within youth sport. Limitations include the relatively small sample size, reliance on retrospective interview narratives, and the unique context of the YOG, which may constrain generalizability. Nevertheless, the study highlights the potential of youth sport, when guided by PYD principles, to prepare young people for active, responsible, and socially engaged roles beyond sport.
This article examines the evolution of disability sport policy in Hong Kong, interrogating how a policy domain rooted in colonial rehabilitation medicine has been reshaped by rights discourse and elite performance imperatives. Drawing on a qualitative documentary analysis of policy texts, strategic plans, and official reports spanning five decades, and guided by an integrated framework combining the social model of disability and the capability approach, the analysis traces a nonlinear trajectory across four phases, showing how policy logics have accumulated rather than replaced one another over time. While policy discourse has progressively incorporated rights-based language and global norms, implementation reveals persistent and constitutive tensions among welfare legacies, performance-driven investment, and the technical framing of barrier removal. The resulting hybrid model has expanded capabilities for elite athletes but faces enduring challenges in achieving universal participation. This uneven distribution of capability expansion represents not a transitional phase on the path to full inclusion but a stable governance settlement, in which elite performance operates as a substitute for systemic barrier removal, while simultaneously diverting attention from its absence. The Hong Kong case illuminates broader dilemmas in translating global inclusion norms into local welfare settlements, demonstrating that the strategic absorption of rights discourse into performance-oriented governance can produce a hierarchical inclusion that elevates the visibility of disability without necessarily transforming the structural conditions of marginalization. The article thus contributes to international debates on disability sport policy by revealing the conditions under which elite success and systemic exclusion can coexist.
This research evaluates the personality of Cristiano Ronaldo, a renowned football player widely regarded as a global sports idol, who has a growth mindset (GM) and is disciplined. The study also examines the social, cultural, and psychological forces that shaped these character traits and explores ways to draw on this experience to teach them to young people. The study employed a qualitative approach, using a case study method. A collection of official televised, filmed, and video interviews with Cristiano Ronaldo, published on reputable media and sports platforms, was analyzed using thematic analysis according to the Braun and Clarke model. The results show that Cristiano Ronaldo’s GM and self-discipline (SD) are shaped by the interplay of psychological, social, and cultural factors, including early childhood experiences, modest family circumstances, high self-motivation, and a competitive mindset grounded in challenge and self-affirmation. The results also indicate that his SD is manifested in his strict commitment to training, time management, emotional control, continuous learning, and the pursuit of performance improvement and long-term goals. In addition, the study reveals that Cristiano Ronaldo’s personality offers a clear and practical educational model of the principles of GM and SD, grounded in his belief in the possibility of continuous improvement through effort, perseverance, determination, persistence, practice, and learning from mistakes. The study concludes that global sports role models who demonstrate consistent behavior and discipline can serve as effective educational tools.
The Big Six clubs in the English Premier League (EPL) made investments of more than £3.19 billion to acquire players in 2025. This is a staggering number that raises a fundamental question: How are these investments making money in return? Existing research has examined fan identification and purchase behavior separately. It could be said that there is a lack of a comprehensive understanding of the pathways linking fans’ emotional responses to transfers with revenue generation. This study aims to fill that gap. We investigate whether social media engagement directly drives commercial revenue or whether it works indirectly through mediation by first building purchase intention. The distinction seems to hold significant strategic implications for clubs. The theoretical foundation is grounded in Social Exchange Theory (SET), Self-Expansion Theory, and Global Consumer Culture Theory (GCCT), which leads to the development of a structural model that tests six hypothesized relationships among fan sentiment, social media engagement, purchase intention, and commercial revenue. Methodologically, Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) with formative measurements was chosen. Survey data from 359 Big Six clubs football fans were studied to map, both direct and indirect influence pathways. The formative approach allows us to better capture the multidimensional, composite nature of each construct rather than treating them as single-dimensional. This analysis sequentially examines how emotional reaction to player transfers and fan sentiment through digital behaviors and purchase decisions ultimately affect commercial revenues. The findings aim to deepen the theoretical understanding of the fan-to-buyer conversion process while providing evidence-based guidance to the clubs for optimizing their transfer investment strategies.
The sport industry has faced numerous crises involving ethical misconduct, ranging from sexual abuse and corruption to match-fixing, doping, and financial mismanagement. Despite the implementation of governance principles and compliance mechanisms, many institutional responses have been superficial and largely ineffective. We argue that both academic and practical approaches have focused too narrowly on prevention, often neglecting the critical importance of examining and addressing past failures. This article introduces the concept of Aufarbeitung, a German term rooted in confronting the legacy of the Nazi regime, as a more holistic approach to dealing with ethical misconduct in sport. Lacking a clear theoretical foundation, we first develop a model of Aufarbeitung by drawing insights from disciplines beyond sport. The process begins with an investigation asking: What happened? How could it happen? How was it addressed? On this basis, institutions can adequately handle the past, meaningfully manage the present, and shape the future. We test our model against five diverse cases of ethical misconduct in sport, analyzing how institutions have responded, and the roles played by victims, secondary victims, perpetrators, bystanders, and other stakeholders. These case studies demonstrate the model’s potential to broaden perspectives and enhance institutional learning. Our findings suggest that effective responses to ethical misconduct require more than governance reforms. They demand a deep cultural engagement with past wrongdoings. Aufarbeitung offers a valuable foundation for developing more comprehensive and sustainable strategies in sport ethics. To move forward, sport organizations must first confront and learn from their past.
