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July 29, 2021
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Given the increased interest in sports and exercise around the Olympics underway in Tokyo, events such as the Summer Games represent an unrealized opportunity to improve global health, finds a new paper from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.
“The Olympics and other mass sporting events are a missed opportunity to promote population-level health and physical activity changes around the world,” said Rodrigo Reis, professor at the Brown School and associate dean for public health. “Our challenge is translating the enthusiasm about the games into at-scale sustainable public health programs.”
Reis
The paper suggests that to capitalize on increased attention on athletics during the games, careful pre-Olympics and peri-Olympics partnerships between the local organizing committee, the International Olympic Committee, and national and regional public health agencies are needed to implement community physical activity and sports programs.