Sport Sustainability

The sport sustainability working group was charged with exploring the benefits of offering flexibility for Olympic sports to manage their operations in a customized, efficient and creative manner. Typically, these sports are managed by NCAA rules originating from football and basketball issues, having unintended negative consequences for Olympic- and Paralympic-sport athletes and coaches.

As part of the sport sustainability focus area, project work was conducted with the College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America, the College Gymnastics Association, the men’s gymnastics sustainability committee and the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. Specifically, UCCS contributed a multipronged research study across the collegiate men’s gymnastics landscape, which found the relationship between recruiting expenses and team performance was only moderate. The study also found many varsity programs leverage their club/camp structures to support varsity operational costs. Meanwhile, project work with the CSCAA leveraged existing survey data from coaches and athletes. The data reflected a strong need to modify the swimming and diving recruiting process to start after the conclusion of the junior year in high school.

As a result of the gymnastics and swimming and diving research findings, the sustainability group focused on amending existing policies to drive sport-specific efficiencies and spur sport growth.