Equity in Sport

For this assignment I will be looking at equity in the sport of springboard and platform
diving, equity effects sport participation all over the world barriers like gender, fitness, age,
location, environment, equipment, culture and body composition all take part in how likely
it is for certain people to take part in a sport.

Since diving is such a technical sport it usually requires a lot of time and training, elite
sporting programs like STIDP (South Australian talent identification program) like to start
kids off with elite training as earlier as 7, this is because diving requires a lot of muscle
memory when performing dives. Having kids start at a young age is a tactic of building that
muscle memory and getting them to perform harder dives at young ages helping them build
a career in the sport. Because diving is such a complex sport Australia doesn’t let kids start
until aged 7 but there is no age limit for when you can start after that, for example there is a
80-year-old women who competes at Mildura and age national comps every year. Diving is
evenly spread across topics of gender as it is a none discriminate sport and can be
performed by all genders; diving offers slots for all genders to compete in any event across a
competition although genders will not normally compete against each other as each event is
placed into male and female categories except synchronised where males and females can
compete against each other in teams. In diving there isn’t an essential body type and people
of all different body types are able to join in, although there are some advantages that
people may have to make them a more successful such as
- Being a short person, this makes is easier to transition in and out of position during a
dive
- Being flexible, making dives look nearer and gives the ability to spin fast to perform
more saults
- People with longer arm and flat back are able to become better at diving as it gives
them a smaller splash on entry
All sports require specific aspects of fitness, for example, cross country runners require
aerobic fitness, weightlifting requires power and diving requires strength and flexibility.

While the sport of diving is open to all people, a stereotypical diver is short and slightly built.
People with this body type are at an advantage as they have less body mass to move into
various positions while performing a dive. Diving requires
specific equipment (a 5m deep pool and springboards and
platforms) which are not found in many facilities, for
example South Australia only has one accessible diving pool.
This is one of the biggest barriers for participation in the
sport. The pool is located in the southern suburbs so
disadvantages people living north of the city as travel times
become excessive. Diving is an amateur sport as people who
dive are unable to make a living off of the actually sport,
although some elite divers are able to make an income off of
sponsorship and may receive an opportunity to attended
university for free typically where diving has higher profiles like
in the USA. in composition to sports like AFL and soccer
“typical diving body type”
where these elite athletes are full time highly paid competitors.
The sport of diving is mainly undertaken in Western and Asian countries. There are a
number of reasons why this may be the case, the first one being the requirement to be in
public in bathers. Many cultures would not find this acceptable. Another reason is that the
facilities are expensive to build and run and therefore require a society with a strong
economy.

Overall I think diving has proven to be a very diverse sport that includes people off all body
types although it Is a very small sport so facilities aren’t provided as common as they would
be if it was to be football.

My grading prior to collaboration

AC3- B+
EAR1- A-
EAR2- A+
EAR3- B

Overall: A-

Overall grade after discussion with mentor

B+

Comments:
The real strength of this assignment came from the strategic and physical activity related
breakdown of the sport. Your background knowledge of diving proved very useful when
discussing the strategies and biomechanical advantages/disadvantages that some
individuals will inherently have over others and the ways this can impact participation. The
assignment would have benefitted from further proof reading and overall quality of life
improvements which could have easily been done if more class time was spent working on
it. Overall an pressive piece of work which could have been even better if some more work
was put in.
Barker, J 2012, What it takes to be an elite Olympic athlete, pdf, viewed 28 May 2020,
<http://www.montrealgazette.com/sports/what+takes+elite+olympic+athlete/7024328/story.html>.