7. Symposium Deutsch-Chinesische Akademisches Forum zu Sportentwicklung (online), 2022

Organised by the Institute of European Sport Development and Leisure Studies at the German Sport University of Cologne and supported as partner university by the Beijing Sport University the 7^th Sino-German International Forum on Sport Development was held online on December 16th, 2022. During the Forum 2022, eleven distinguished experts representing institutions such as Beijing Sport University, Central China Normal University, Chengdu Sport University, German Sport University of Cologne, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Southwest Jiaotong University, and Rhine-Ruhr 2025 FISU Games GmbH, engaged in academic discussion and exchanges on the topic ‘The Many Faces of Sport and Major Sporting Events: Governance, Infrastructure, Controversies and Legacies’. In the course of the event the forum attracted an online audience of around 100 participants who discussed the topic with the experts from both China and Germany.

During the Introduction session, the Head of the Institute of European Sport Development and Leisure Studies at the German Sport University of Cologne, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Jürgen Mittag firstly provided the background of the forum 2022. As he said, the Institute of European Sport Development and Leisure Studies has been organising international academic forums since a decade with the intention of further deepening academic collaboration and research. He hereby calls for active participation of further Chinese universities, while continuing the previous tradition of periodic forums to form a ‘once-a-year, one-German and one-China’ format.

In his opening remarks, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Christoph Breuer, the Vice-President of the German Sport University of Cologne, the Head of the Institute of Sport Management, welcomed warmly the guests. Firstly, he acknowledged the efforts of the Institute in organising this kind of international academic forum since 2012 and underlined the impact of international exchange. Moreover, he emphasized that the year of 2022 is quite special, as it coincides with the 75^th anniversary of the founding of the German Sport University of Cologne and the 70^th anniversary of Beijing Sport University (in 2023). The 41-year history of inter-university cooperation has witnessed many fruitful collaborations, and he also hoped to continue and deepen meaningful cooperation with Chinese partners. He re-emphasised that sport should be an important bridge to enhance mutual understanding, even when challenged by epidemics and international relations. Finally, he wished the Forum 2022 a success and looked forward to a return visit in 2023 for the anniversary of Beijing Sport University.

The Forum 2022 featured three key-topics, including ‘the role of universities (GSU and BSU) in research on sport development”, ‘European and Chinese Perspective on Sport Mega Events’, and ‘The Future of Sport Mega Events’.

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Stephan Wassong, member of the IOC Olympic Education Committee and the Head of the Institute of Sport History at the German Sport University of Cologne, combed through the history of the development of the German Sport University of Cologne. He showed in detail the development process of the university from an academy for teachers to a university and introduced some milestones as well as key information about the institutional set-up. As his counterpart, Prof. Dr. Shengxin Li, the Vice Dean of the School of Management at Beijing Sport University, also sorted out the history of the development of the Beijing Sport University and focused on its role in the development of competitive sports in China.

After the session on the history of the two universities, the 2022-Forum addressed the topic of mega events. During this session, four experts discussed the topic of sport mega events from the Chinese and German perspectives respectively. Dr. Christian Alfs, Senior Lecturer at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, discussed the controversial matters of human rights and labour issues as well as the post-match stadium utilisation for the Qatar World Cup from the three dimensions of sustainability, namely the economic, social, and ecological dimensions. He argued that the labour question in Qatar is not as critical as it is often stated in online-sources; most of the workers are satisfied in general. Moreover, he pointed out that Qatar needs to think seriously about the post-match utilisation of the stadiums and venues, as the distribution of them in Qatar is too concentrated that it is difficult to gather popularity and achieve the sustainable goal of post-match utilisation with only the local league afterwards instead of an international or mega event. Dr. Di Wu, lecturer at the School of Management at Beijing Sport University, gave an overview on the the legacies of the Beijing Winter Olympics, focusing on how Beijing Winter Olympic legacy promotes the high-quality development of public service systems for national fitness in Beijing. The author first introduced the effectiveness and achievements of the construction of the public service system for national fitness, and then she further explained the mechanism of transferring both material and spiritual legacies in the Beijing Winter Olympics into a high-quality public service system for national fitness. She emphasized in her report that material legacies, such as venue, infrastructure, and talent legacies, as well as those spiritual legacies, namely culture, education and volunteer spirit legacies are important part of the Beijing Winter Olympics, and these legacies work through facilities, fitness instruction, training and completions, sport information, physical fitness monitoring, and other aspects for the development of national fitness.

After a discussion of these two major sporting events of the year 2022, the Head of the Institute of European Sport Development and Leisure Studies at the German Sport University of Cologne, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Jürgen Mittag put his focus on the political reflections on sport mega events. Based on an overview on the autonomy and neutrality of sport, he delved into the evolution of their connotations throughout the history of the Olympic Movement, which offered references to the discussion on sport diplomacy. Mittag referred to the concept of ‘soft power’ by Joseph Nye and showed the audience several case studies from history. Finally, he introduced a quadripartite framework for investigating ‘new’ sport diplomacy and raised the awareness on the positive use of sport in diplomacy and politics. Backing to the sport mega event itself and its stadiums and venues, professor at the School of Physical Education at the Central China Normal University, Prof. Dr. Yuanxin Chen discussed the post-match utilisation of the football stadiums after the Asian Cup. After introducing basic information of the ten venues in terms of investment pattern, costs, number of clubs and seating capacities respectively, he highlighted two multifunctional venues with ingenious designs, namely Chongqing Longxing Stadium and Xiamen Egret Stadium. He listed four main utilisation modes of those stadiums after, including serving to professional sports clubs, fitting into the sport industry development, integrating with national fitness system and demolishing after the game. He also recognised several challenges that will be faced in utilizing those venues after the games, such as transportation, operation, and management issues.

The third panel of the conference addressed the highly salient issue of the future of sport mega events. On the beginning, Dr. Till Müller-Schoell, Senior Research Associate of the Institute of European Sport Development and Leisure Studies at the German Sport University of Cologne, focused on “strategic approaches to sport mega events from a German perspective. He stressed the relevance of new objectives for the planning and the assessment of mega sporting events’ success. Building on the widespread criticism within German society with regards to hosting MSEs an analysis of legacy and sustainability became inevitable. As a result, the federal government has developed a strategic approach to MSEs that shifts the attention away from mere international image or economic viability towards social and ecological ambitions. Conceptions for upcoming MSEs and bids to host MSEs already reflect this shift and underscore it as a precondition for public acceptance or even support. Prof. Dr. Jiang Liu, the Head of the School of Physical Education at the Southwest Jiaotong University, dedicated his talk to the topic of building Chengdu into a world-famous city of sport events. According to his observations, Chengdu has hosted many mega sporting events in recent years, and these events have been integrated to form the necessary conditions for building a “world-famous city of sport events”. He emphasised that the goal of building a world-famous events city is divided into three steps. By 2025, a world-class event system will be basically formed, and sports events will become a ’new business card’ of Chengdu. By 2030, a high-quality development in all areas and in all aspects can be seen. And by 2035, a new image of ‘park city under the snowy mountains’ will be presented, and sport will become a bridge between the city of Chengdu and the world. Later on, Yaqian Zheng, senior manager of Rhein-Ruhr 2025 FISU Games, turned her foci on this event in 2025. As the world’s largest sporting event after the Olympic and Paralympic Games, this specific event will be hosted from 16^th to 27^th July 2025 in Germany’s Rhine-Ruhr area. The speaker explained the concepts of the venue, accommodation, and transportation in view of sustainability. And she showed the way of transforming the area from a primarily industrial world to a knowledge society through the event. Corresponding to the University Games war the presentation from Fei Yang, Associate Professor, and the Deputy Director of the International Office at Chengdu Sport University. In the meantime working as the Director of Training Service Division at Sport Competition Department of the Chengdu FISU Games Executive Committee, he sorted out the organisational structure of the event in detail and showed the practical challenges during the event’s preparation and organisation.

Last but not least, the final speech was delivered by Dr. (des) Lena Hemker on “trend sports”. She first analysed the development of sport today from three different dimensions, namely history, society and economy, and proposed the concept of sport universe which includes both traditional sports and alternative sports. Later on, she analysed the players linked to alternative or trend sports by events and proposed that events can be worked on the development of alternative sports in all three dimensions.

The panel discussion after the speeches deepened some particular aspects or issues left before. Moreover, questions from the online audience have also been answered. Both experts believed that ‘a common language’ can be spoken when it comes to mega sporting events and the East and West should reject controversies and learn from each other to depend on the sustainable development of mega sporting events in the future.

The Forum 2022 was coordinated by Univ.-Prof. Dr. Jürgen Mittag, the Head of the Institute of European Sport Development and Leisure Studies at the German Sport University of Cologne and Danlin Wu, Assistant Researcher of the Institute of European Sport Development and Leisure Studies at the German Sport University of Cologne. From China, Prof. Dr. Shengxin Li, the Vice Dean of the School of Management at Beijing Sport University, contributed to the concept of this event. Danlin Wu and Xiaohu Wu served as translators of this forum.