The social impact of sports events

There is strong evidence to suggest that a connection exists between sports participation and the accumulation of social capital. Event research is also beginning to recognise that non-elite mass participation sporting events can foster a sense of temporary casual sociality, community and camaraderie within the event space, and thus, create meaningful social impact for participants.

Through analysis of data obtained via semi-structured interviews and surveys conducted with open water swimmers and observations undertaken at open water swimming events, this paper seeks to contribute to the small (but growing) body of empirical and case-specific research on the social capital potential of mass participation sports events. The research adopts Putnam’s notions of bonding and bridging social capital to interpret the social impact (if any) of open water swimming events on participants. It is the first of its kind to explicitly explore the social capital potential of open water swimming events in the UK. In so being it will develop ideas of whether social connections are temporary, delimited by the duration of the event or whether they can endure outside of the event space as broader social networks and groups.

It is argued that events can facilitate meaningful social connections, and the research analyses the durability of these social connections. Data suggests that open water swimming events can facilitate casual social interactions with individuals from outside of already bonded groups, however, evidence of bridging capital was less convincing, in that it tended to be associated with a certain type of event and where participants shared a particular identity.