Sports Participation

me maintain my status in the national team and to achieve my dream of getting sports scholarship to college. I don’t have to pick an injury as a result of equipment. So for me it is a question of the quality of the facility and not the proximity of it (19 years)

4.2.3.3 Sports Policies/Programs

Responses from participants show that they only participated in sports as a result of their institutional policies. Some of them say though they have now left those institutions they are unable to completely stay away from participation. Government provides support for sports participation by approving permits for it to take place within their jurisdiction (Hanold 2012). Athletics has always involved more males than females (Salkind 2006:124) through

mine expired in March but I was only able to renew it in June and it cost me $1040 for the annual payments for the entire family. So between March to May, we did not participate in any sports (56 years).

Participant 4 (RP) said:

I use the daily participation pass which cost me $10:25. That is really expensive given the fact that I am currently unemployed. This has limited my participation opportunities so I play when I can afford (58 years).

Participant 9 (RP) said:

I like to rent equipment…. whenever I can. It is very expensive renting these days. I have reduced participation due to money issues…. the best way is to buy them to guarantee regular participation…… but this is not the case…….’’the used and cheap gear are so hard to find… I have checked several times at value village and several garage sale but damn……..it’s impossible to find’’ (42 years).

Participant 6 (RP)

Responses from participants show that: 6 (12%) of R and 1 (5%) of E participants were influenced by stakeholder disapproval, 13 (26%) of R and 1 (5%) of E were influenced by discrimination (stigmatization, stereotyping, and biased media coverage), and 17 (34%) of R and 2 (10%) were influenced by restriction by the national health insurance which does not cover certain injuries. Please refer to table and figure 4.6 on appendix A.

Responses from some of the participants indicate that they do not have the needed support from interest groups (family, community, school, coaches, friends, and etcetera). This discouraged them at times from participating. Also, responses from participants indicate some they have suffered from various forms of discrimination such as: pay inequalities, male coaches’ preferred, unequal sponsorship among others. Some of these discrimination they identified include, stigmatisation (being tagged and humiliated in community), stereotyping (name calling), and biased media coverage (over sexualisation of female athletes, negative publicity and more attention given to the male athlete). Participants complained that there is inadequate and unequal media attention and respect given to women sports in the media. Gender is a social and cultural construct that discriminates against women in many sectors, including leisure involvement (Kozak