Thursday, March 28th, 2024
Categories
News

Location, Location, Location

With the Olympics around the corner, Jeffrey Wimer shares his current, and timely, research project.

Location, Location, Location—that common real estate phrase bantered about when renting, buying or selling property is also the basis of research being conducted by Dr. Jeffrey W. Wimer, Department of Wellness and Sport Sciences. But rather than renting an apartment or selling a house, Wimer is examining firsthand how the location of Olympic stadiums and the large-scale infrastructures necessary to support the games influence wellness endeavors long after the games have ended and the fans have gone home.

Dr. Jeffrey Wimer at Red Square in Moscow, Russia.

“The location where people live influences health,” said Wimer. Factors such as air pollution, access to medical services, even the natural environment all play a role in everything from preventing cancer to lowering heart disease. What is less known is the public health legacy of hosting an Olympics. In other words, how is one’s life altered, either positively or negatively, by living near an Olympic venue?

“The promised benefits of new jobs and increased tourism all build enthusiasm leading up to an Olympiad, but research is sparse when it comes to knowing much about the public health residues after the flame has been extinguished,” stated Wimer.

In order to complete his research, Wimer visited Moscow last month, the host city for the 1980 summer games boycotted by the United States due to the former Soviet Union’s incursions into Afghanistan. He also recently returned from Barra da Tijuca, a neighborhood located 50 minutes from Rio de Janerio, which will host most of the venues for the 2016 summer games. While in Rio, Wimer also attended the United Nations conference on sustainability known as Rio+20 representing the non-governmental organization Servicios Ecumenicos Reconciliacion y Reconstruccion headquartered in El Salvador. In past years he has traveled to Berlin, Mexico City, Munich, Barcelona, Atlanta, and London, the host cities for previous Olympics.

Wimer in Copacabana Beach.

In just a few weeks, the Olympics will begin anew in London’s East End, an area once known for landfills, overcrowding and high crime. Much of the location has been rehabilitated to support the thousands of athletes and millions of visitors in ways similar to how a run-down area in Atlanta was transformed into Centennial Park for the 1996 games. Like Atlanta, London officials are planning several sustainability projects for after the games and anticipate their regeneration efforts will help improve the lives of people who live there.

Wimer explained, “Renewing urban areas in the name of Olympic prosperity is not seamless. In fact, it sometimes creates unintended effects such as gentrification, a term used to describe low-income residents being displaced by more affluent people who are able to pay higher rent and expensive mortgages necessary to live in the renovated properties.” In Rio for instance, Wimer said, “Brazilian slum areas known as favelas are located along the major highway route in-between the swimming venue and the future site of the Olympic Village. Many favela residents already have been affected by the government’s continuing effort to clean up the future Olympic city.”

As a faculty member in Millersville University’s sport management master’s degree program, Wimer noted that his international research and travel experience provides students’ with a frame of reference for understanding the multiple complexities that comprise wellness and sport sciences. He is currently working on a statistical model that will predict ways in which post-Olympic environments both facilitate and create barriers to healthy lifestyles.

Leave a Reply