Something weird happened to the link. This one should work: https://delaware.qualtrics.com/...D=SV_73WKHSJ88P5r90p

I'm offended by your insinuation that I (we) am only "participanting" in sport. For christsakes, I am competing. Just much more slowly than my peers.

As a former IRB nerd, thank you for actually doing your IRB work. I hate it when I see a researcher running a survey with no IRB approval.

Logella,
Participation is meant to encapsulate the variety of ways in which we can 'do' sport - including competition. Not everyone competes, but everyone does participate in some way. It was not meant to offend, but to be open to everyone.

Thank you for your comment,
Bri

Just so you are aware, On this forum, pink font denotes sarcasm / non-serious responses. Not everyone uses the pink when they are being sarcastic, but many do.

---

Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

Oh, rookie mistake. Thank you for letting me know! :)

Wow, that is one long survey but you definitely covered all the bases.

---

"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

The results of your survey are going to be affected by the "participation" choices you have listed. Most of us got out of school and started running, swimming, or biking in events that don't fit in your choices. I have no idea what category you would want a local 5K or sprint triathlon listed under, and that is most likely the majority of the "sport" that users of this board participated in.

---

"...the street finds its own uses for things"

Thank you for this comment. I can modify the setting examples to be more explicit for the events you mention. Thank you for helping us to clarify.

Best,
Bri

Kind of curious, what does sexual orientation have to with participating in sports? Or is this now another way to further define a specific demographic?

---

--------------------------
The secret of a long life is you try not to shorten it.
-Nobody

That's a great question. We like to gather as much demographic information as possible. Having the additional data points can help us further segment our data allowing us to better understand the sport participant and their consumption of sport. This can not only help from a marketing perspective as it relates to consumer needs/demands and/or sponsorship potential, but also from a sociological perspective as it relates to diversity initiatives and policy.

For some reason it skipped the age bracket for HS years. I went back and verified I chose participated in sport.

---

"I think I've cracked the code. double letters are cheaters except for perfect squares (a, d, i, p and y). So Leddy isn't a cheater... "

Thanks for letting me know. I'll go back to see if there's a glitch. Thanks!

I was hoping there would be a comments section on the survey to note this, but survey results for women over the age of 55 (give or take a couple of years) may be confounded by the small number of athletic/sports opportunities that were available to that demographic prior to the passage of Title IX. The section for HS sports that Leddy above mentioned as missing didn't really matter for many of us, as there were no or very limited opportunities there or in the years prior to high school. (and, no, I'm not interested in having the Title IX debate with anyone)

Very good point and this is exactly WHY we want those female athletes to participate. We are excited to explore the histories of our older female athletes for precisely this reason. The literature is mixed as to whether early sport participation influences later sport participation, so we are eager to review the data of our athletes that did not have the same access and opportunity in their youth/HS/college period. Fantastic point and thank you for sharing it!

Bri

Ah, glad to hear that. Sounds like an interesting aspect of the study. I just wanted to make sure you were aware, as it seems people either forget or just don't know how limited sports opportunities for girls and women were prior to mid-70s. Hopefully you get a large enough sample of us old ladies to give you some meaningful data; too bad I won't be able to add back in the high school section that was missing from the survey.

Heidi,
Email me - bnewland@udel.edu. We might be able to remedy that.

Thanks!

You may think I'm quibbling over semantics but as another poster pointed out, most of us don't think of ourselves as "participants" but rather as competitors; similarly, many of us, maybe not "most" but let's say over 50%, do not think of ourselves as "consumers of sport". I don't what %age of your respondents will put 6 or 7 on all those Qs about how much our sport matters to us, but i think i can say with reasonable confidence that the 6/7s positively do NOT think of themselves as participants and consumers. Sure, we have to buy new stuff when old stuff wears out, or when a product is clearly superior to what we have now, and sure we have to pay entry fees for virtually all events we do, but we do not think of this money spent as "consumption" per se but rather as almost a necessity like food and shelter. People for whom a large part of their life revolves around spending 10 to 20 hr/wk working out generally (i'm sure there are exceptions) do not think of their training and racing as "participating in sport" and/or "consuming sport." People who find it hard to sleep at night w/o at least 1 good hour of training during the day are quite different from your average "consumer".

So, perhaps you could choose different words in the future:)

---

"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."