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It has become common for academics and sports marketing professionals to study and explain the heterogeneity and complexity of sports spectators' behaviours and attitudes, with numerous works addressing this topic But these surveys are more about fans of professional sports clubs (soccer, basketball, baseball, hockey, etc) who attend regular season games in their favourite teams' home stadium or arena. To our knowledge, very few studies have been conducted into spectators of national teams. It is these spectators who are of the focus of this paper.

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the nutritional intake and body composition of Taekwondo (TKD) athletes during a two‐week period of weight management as they prepare to make weight classification for an international competition.

Seven male, 17‐28 years old, international TKD athletes were recruited from a known World Taekwondo Federation TKD Club in London. Habitual and pre‐competition dietary intake was assessed using a three‐day and a five‐day food diary, respectively. Body weight and percentage body fat (Holtain Calipers, seven sites) were measured at the beginning of the study and 24h before competition. Body weight was also measured on the day of competition.

Energy, total carbohydrate, calcium and water intakes were below recommendations for athletes, particularly, before competition and consumption of fat and salt exceeded recommendations. Compared with baseline, the two‐week weight management period induced a significant reduction in the athletes body weight (1.2 per cent, P<0.05), however, there was no significant reduction in percentage body fat which remained stable at a very low average of 3.2 per cent (±0.8). During the 24‐h prior to weigh‐in for competition, the athletes significantly reduced their body weight by a further 3.4 per cent (2.2kg, P<0.05). The dietary analysis showed that the athletes were consuming a sub‐optimal diet both habitually and pre‐competition, which may compromise their performance and short‐ and long‐term health.

There has been a distinctive lack of literature on nutritional studies conducted on TKD athletes. This paper helps to fill that gap.

The Commonwealth Games were the inspiration of a Mr J. Ashley Cooper, who in a letter to The Times of October 1892 proposed a periodic sports gathering as a means of ‘increasing the goodwill and good understanding between nations of an Empire’. His dream became part reality in 1911, when an ‘Inter‐Empire Sports Meeting’ was staged in London to celebrate the coronation of George V. In 1928 Mr Bobby Robinson made a proposal at the Amsterdam Olympic Games to the representative nations from the Empire. He asked if they would participate in an all‐British Empire Games to be held in Hamilton, Ontario in 1930. Happily this saw the birth of the Commonwealth Games.

We conducted a national study of the Collegiate Leadership Competition (CLC), which since inception in 2015, has included over 75 higher education institutions. The CLC brings students together in collaborative institution-based teams to compete with other teams in competitions to achieve goals and practice effective leadership skills. Our goal was to assess leadership capacity growth over the course of a four-month team practice period through the daylong inter-team competition and evaluate participant leadership assessed several months later. Results suggested students made significant and sustainable gains in leader-self-efficacy and short-term gains in leadership skill and motivation to lead. Our results also indicated the team’s coach played a significant role in student leadership development.

Leadership development programs for students in educational settings are proliferating in number and design. Curricular programs range from academic minors and certificates to doctoral programs in a variety of academic homes (e.g., education, business, healthcare). Co-curricular programs often take the form of drop-in workshops, day-long experiences, alternative spring breaks, service-learning trips, and other programs housed in student affairs and administrative offices (Guthrie & Jenkins, 2018). Moreover, the number of programs has steadily increased over the last 15 years from just under 1,000 in 2006 (Brungardt, et al., 2006) to more than 2,000 (ILA Program Directory, 2021). And while there is some commonality among the approach of these leadership programs in terms of content and delivery (see Harvey & Jenkins, 2014), vast differences exist in the structure and learning goals of student leadership programs compared to other social science disciplines. A potentially fruitful area in which to explore its effectiveness in supporting leadership development is the environment of competitive teams, where individuals work together as a group to compete against other teams. The purpose of our research was to investigate the degree to which such a competitive environment might support or detract from student leadership group, employing a potentially effective example of a formal program that utilizes the innovative approach of team competitions to motivate learning (the CLC).

The paper contributes to the discussion on valuation in organization studies and strategic management literature. The nascent literature on valuation practices has examined established markets where producers and consumers are known and rivalry in the market is a given. Furthermore, previous research has operated with a narrow meaning of value as either a financial profit or a subjective consumer preference. Such a narrow view on value is problematic and insufficient for studying the interlacing of innovation and value creation in emerging technoscientific business domains.

The authors present an empirical study about value creation in an emerging technoscience business domain formed around personalized medicine and digital health data.

The results of this analysis show that in a technoscientific domain, valuation of innovations is multiple and malleable, entails pursuing attractiveness in collaboration and partnerships and is performative, and due to emphatic future orientation, values are indefinite and promissory.

As research implications, this study shows that valuation practices in an emerging technoscience business domain focus on defining the potential economic value in the future and attracting partners as probable future beneficiaries. Commercial value upon innovation in an embryonic business milieu is created and situated in valuation practices that constitute the prospective market, the prevalent economic discourse, and rationale. This is in contrast to an established market, where valuation practices are determined at the intersection of customer preferences and competitive arenas where suppliers, producers, service providers and new entrants to the market present value propositions.

The study findings extend discussion on valuation from established business domains to emerging technoscience business domains which are in a “pre-competition” phase where suppliers, customers, producers and their collaborative and competitive relations are not yet established.

As managerial implications, this study provides insights into health innovation stakeholders, including stakeholders in the public, private and academic sectors, about the ecosystem dynamics in a technoscientific innovation. Such insight is useful in strategic decision-making about ecosystem strategy and ecosystem business model for value proposition, value creation and value capture in an emerging innovation domain characterized by collaborative and competitive relations among stakeholders. To business managers, the findings of this study about valuation practices are useful in strategic decision-making about ecosystem strategy and ecosystem business model for value proposition, value creation and value capture in an emerging innovation domain characterized by collaborative and competitive relations among stakeholders. To policy makers, this study provides an in-depth analysis of an overall business ecosystem in an emerging technoscience business that can be propelled to increase the financial investments in the field. As a policy implication, this study provides insights into the various dimensions of valuation in technoscience business to policy makers, who make governance decisions to guide and control the development of medical innovation using digital health data.

This study's results expand previous theorizing on valuation by showing that in technoscientific innovation all types of value created – scientific, clinical, social or economic – are predominantly promissory. This study complements the nascent theorizing on value creation and valuation practices of technoscientific innovation.

At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Laurel Hubbard made history as the first openly transgender woman to compete in an individual sport. In the weeks leading up to and following her performance, hundreds of original news articles were written about her – few of which fully supported her participation. In this chapter, we detail our content analysis of written news media created in the weeks surrounding Hubbard's Olympic debut. Using Ahmed's (2000) theorization of the discursive creation of ‘strangers’, we relay how journalists' usage of imagery and narrative structures framed Hubbard as an ‘other’, separate from other elite athletes and undeserving of her status as an Olympian – serving to powerfully shape public perceptions of Hubbard's identity, humanity and her right to compete in the sport that she loves.

The first Australia and New Zealand semi-professional women's rugby league premiership (NRLW) was launched in 2018. This chapter charts the players' journey through the first two seasons of the competition. A questionnaire was distributed at the end of both seasons to all contracted players in each of the four clubs to capture feedback on their experiences, perceptions, challenges and suggestions for improvements. Players were asked about contracts, sacrifices, support, club culture and their views on coaching and training. The findings indicated despite significant stressors and challenges, players were highly appreciative of the chance to play in a semi-professional league, to be part of a landmark competition, and to inspire future generations of girls to play rugby league. Positive satisfaction across most dimensions of league and club practices and operations were evident in season one. By the end of season two, attitudes were changing, with data showing that players expected to obtain increases in remuneration, number of clubs, season length, media coverage and improvements in coaching, training and support services. Sports such as rugby league need to be particularly mindful of addressing issues arising, as options for women in professional team sports is growing rapidly and competition for talent will only accelerate into the future. This case study of women in rugby league demonstrates that women's experiences and perceptions are shifting from an initiation phase of gratefulness and acceptance of personal/family sacrifice for the opportunity to play semi-professionally, to having increased expectations of reasonable employment conditions and legitimacy as professional athletes.

With the trend of adaptive reuse of old buildings and the continuous development of the sports industry in China, transforming stadiums that are no longer suitable has become a pressing issue. Based on this, the basic problems of adaptive transformation of urban stadium were discussed, and the motivation and principles of stadium reconstruction were analyzed. From the sense of place context, the openness of the interface and the integrity and diversity of the environment space, the reconstruction of the exterior space of the stadium was planned. In the reconstruction of the interior space of the stadium, the use of the interior space of the stadium and the needs that should be satisfied were mainly planned. Taking Yubei stadium in Chongqing as an example, the analysis was carried out. The planning structure, functional requirements, transportation, environment, spatial integrity and diversity were studied, and the current development trend of the stadium was reflected from the planning of interior and exterior space of gymnasium. In conclusion, this study provides a theoretical basis for the adaptive transformation of the stadium, and it is of great significance.

This paper explores perspectives of elite female athletes competing at world championship sports events, hosted in extreme climatic conditions. From the athlete perspective, it examines the implications of decisions by global sports federations when selecting host cities and the subsequent impacts upon elite athletes competing in unfavourable climates.

Using an exploratory case study approach at the 2019 IAAF World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar, this paper explores insider perspectives of four elite female participants competing in the Marathon. Adopting the “elite interviewing” technique, and based on event participant experiences, the paper prioritises the perspective and “voice” of the athlete.

Four key themes emerged from the data. These were (1) the importance of training and preparation; (2) unique challenges of competition day; (3) elite athlete retrospection; and (4) prioritising the perspectives of elite athletes at international sports events. The findings highlight the challenges of managing athlete preparation and performance at world championship events hosted in extreme climatic conditions.

The sample size for this study whilst relatively small is unique. This reflects challenges accessing elite athletes, their reluctance to be interviewed, and the small pool of elite athlete talent available. Given these practical barriers, this represents a good sample size.

This paper secures unique insider access to elite level female endurance athletes competing at world championship events. The study makes a contribution to knowledge in event studies by introducing concepts of “elite event interviewing” and the “athlete-event paradox”.