Currently, many countries are experiencing a continuing decline in national sport participation, and national health problems are becoming increasingly serious. According to the ‘trickle-down’ effect, holding sports events can promote sports participation. The Beijing Winter Olympics have achieved the goal of driving 300 million people to participate in sports. However, after the past two years, the still 300 million people still participating in sports is unknown. Therefore, we investigated the sustainable development of the Beijing Winter Olympics sport participation legacy to examine the impact of sport events on sport participation. Method: A 15-minute semi-structured interview was conducted with staff members (n=37) from the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Organizing Committee (BOCOG) to explore the impact of the Games on sport participation and the post-Games development of the sport participation legacy from the event organizer’s perspective. These staff members served in different positions, including executive staff (n=26), department managers (n=6), and sport technical officials (n=5). Interviews were conducted online via Tencent Meeting, recorded, and converted to text data throughout. The analysis was conducted with a rigorous approach to ensure data validity and reflexivity, presenting participants' perspectives in an objective and critical manner. It was found that: a) the Games brought awareness of sports to more people and increased people's willingness to participate; bafter the Games, people's enthusiasm for sports decreased, with one-time experience participation occupying the majority; c) ome policies were terminated after the Games, and there was a lack of post-Games policy support; d) post-Games utilization of Winter Olympic venues remain an issue, supporting facilities are still insufficient; e) he COVID-19 pandemic may have reduced the impact of the Games, resulting in a lack of post-Games. The Beijing Winter Olympics sport participation legacy has not been sustained in the post-Games period. Sports emerged late in China. The Games boosted people's awareness, although many of the participants interviewed were positive on the development of sport participation legacy, expressing that the role model effect of sports stars can be used to help develop this legacy in the future, as well as the need for policy support, optimization of industrial services, and the establishment of an event series.
Shi et al. (2026) studied this question.