[2008.08.30] 伦敦奥运会：新的一天

The next Olympics
伦敦奥运会

The morning after
新的一天

Aug 28th 2008
From The Economist print edition

Measures to further sport will work better for the elite than for the masses
促进运动的举措将在体育精英中产生良好效应，但对普通民众成效不大。

WHILE lacking, perhaps, the cohesion of the men’s coxless four or the cycling pursuit team who won golds for Britain in Beijing, the unlikely quartet of footballers and pop stars led by Boris Johnson at least managed to accept the Olympic flag from China without dropping it. The whimsy of the British performance at the Olympic handover, featuring twirling umbrellas and a doubledecker bus, suggested that Britain would not attempt to match the pageantry and stadiums that cost China billions. It plans to rely heavily on what London’s mayor hopefully calls Britain’s “wit and flair”.

闭幕式上的足球明星和流行歌手，缺少了获得金牌的男子四人无舵手或自行车追逐赛选手的凝聚力，但是在鲍里斯.约翰逊的领导下，他们至少成功地从中国手中接过了奥林匹克会旗。英国在奥运会交接仪式上怪异的表演，那些旋转的雨伞和一辆双层巴士，预示着英国不太会与中国大手笔的场馆和壮观华丽攀比。它依靠的是伦敦市长所称的英国的”智慧与才能”。

As far as the sporting competition is concerned, however, Britain will give no quarter. Basking in the afterglow of the country’s most successful Olympic games in a century, Gordon Brown has big plans for developing sport in Britain. The prime minister’s initiatives include attempts to get more girls involved, funding to give schoolchildren five hours of sport a week and a return to competitive games in schools (on the wane since the 1960s). More money is also expected for community sports facilities.

至少就体育竞赛来说，英国会毫不留情。享受着英国参与奥运一个世纪以来的最好成绩，布朗萌生了许多在英国发展体育的伟大计划。首相的措施包括使更多的女孩参与进来，资助学生每个星期进行四个小时的运动，并使竞技体育回到学校中（始自上世纪60年代的衰退时期曾实行过）。同时会更多的投资于社区体育设施。

This frenzy of activity has two aims: to ensure that Britain’s Olympians repeat their success in four years’ time; and to get a generation of potatoes off the couch and onto the track. The first will be easier to achieve. The British medals in Beijing showed that well-targeted funding allied to greater professionalism brings results, and home advantage will help. But Britain’s successful coaches are much in demand elsewhere. And £100m of private-sector funding for elite athletes in the run-up to the 2012 Olympics has yet to materialise, because of the credit crunch.

这些疯狂的举措有两个目标，一来是为了在四年后重现在北京的辉煌；二来是为了把马铃薯一代从床上拉到体育场上。第一个目标较容易达到，本届北京奥运会上英国的奖牌数表明选择合适的项目予以资助，再加上更多的专业化训练可以带来好成绩，更何况四年后还有主场优势。但是也并非没有难题，在英国优秀的教练供不应求。而且因为碰上了信用危机，私人基金会为那些冲刺2012年奥运会的杰出运动员设立的1亿英镑资金还没兑现。

Inspiring non-Olympians to pull on their trainers is another matter. Research in 2002 by Maarten van Bottenburg, of Utrecht University, found no correlation between the success of a sporting elite and increased public participation in those sports. But taken the other way around, if more people can be enticed to do sports, are world-class athletes likelier to emerge?

但是激励普通老百姓进行体育锻炼就是另外一回事了。乌德勒支大学的马丁.范.博登伯格所作的研究表明专业运动员的成功与更广泛的公众参与没有关系。难道说更多的人被吸引来做运动，世界级的运动员就更容易产生吗？

Stressing competitive games at school does seem to raise the ambitions and hone the talents of the young: in Australia and Sri Lanka thousands turn out to watch schools do battle on the rugby or cricket pitch, and those countries excel at those sports. In Britain too, schools with money for better facilities produce better sportsmen: private schools educate 7% of Britons yet their old boys (and girls) won 45% of Britain’s medals at the previous three Olympics.

强制学校开展竞技体育看起来确实可以激发起人们的野心并使有天赋的年轻人提早接受磨练，比如说在澳大利亚和斯里兰卡许多人去观看学校间的橄榄球比赛和板球比赛，这些国家的这些项目就发展的好。在英国也一样，有钱兴建更好体育设施的学校培养出了更好的运动员：私人学校学生只占7%，但是他们的毕业生在过去的三届奥运会上为英国赢得了45%的奖牌。

So boosting the money for competitive sport in schools would probably produce a few more gold-medallists (and would have other benefits too). But persuading large swathes of the citizenry to spend less time watching sport on television and more time actually working up a sweat is a Herculean task. As Stefan Szymanski, of City University’s Cass Business School, points out, it is harder to build a national sporting culture from the top down than it is to propel a handful of highly talented athletes to the podium. Mr Brown is likely to find that he can bring pools of water to the masses, but he can’t make them swim.

所以花钱在学校推广竞技体育或许可以培养出更多的金牌运动员（而且将会有其他收益）。但是劝说老百姓少看点电视体育比赛，多花点时间进行真正的体育运动是一项艰巨的任务。正如城市大学卡斯商学院的斯蒂芬.萨曼斯基所指出的，建立从上至下的全国体育文化比培养几个能登上领奖台的高水平运动员要难得多。布朗可能会发现他可以为大众修建更多的游泳池，但却不能让他们去游泳。

译者：jason     http://www.ecocn.org/forum/viewthread.php?tid=13706&extra=page%3D1