Sporting glory at Asian Games 2023... It’s the economy, stupid!
Wladimir Andreff showed that the probability of a country winning medals at the Olympic Games increases with GDP per capita and population. According to Andreff, the only basic recipe against sporting underdevelopment is economic development.
Flush from a 100-plus medal haul at the Hangzhou Asian Games, India’s sporting prowess is clearly on the upswing.
With its population advantage, India is at last looking to punch its weight beyond a select few sports. Where there’s a will… There’s been a gradual shift in the sporting landscape.
This has been orchestrated by factors like progressive policies, changing attitudes, and the private sector’s growing involvement.
Companies are seeking – and getting – RoI in the sporting arena, especially investing in the training and facilitating individual sports athletes. …there first has to be the way With the economy chugging, we can now afford to give sports more credit as an engine of economic expansion than just a source of entertainment.
Sporting excellence and organising big sporting events boost the economy.
But what’s taking shoot – and taking off now — is the other way around: sporting excellence happening because of economic prosperity. Indian cricket, for one, became the monster that it is today only after BCCI began unleashing its hidden economic growl.
So how strong is the correlation between a country’s GDP and per capita growth and its ability be a champion nation on track and field and mat? Social, political, geographic, climatic, and demographic factors, of course, play significant roles in countries notching up sporting accomplishments and turning them into sporting nations.
