When it comes to sporting role models, boys and girls across Britain have only two people on their minds – David Beckham and Michael Owen.
When it comes to sporting role models, boys and girls across Britain have only two people on their minds – David Beckham and Michael Owen. Among 8-14 year olds responding to a survey by insurance company Norwich Union, more than a third of boys and girls said they had a sporting hero named Beckham as their number one. With Owen named by 12 per cent and Alan Shearer named by three per cent, all the others, including footballers, athletes, tennis players, basket ball players, motor racing drivers, skateboarders and body builders took less than two per cent of the vote each.
In the focus groups that were run as part of the research, only one female sporting role model was chosen by girls – gymnast Beth Tweddle. The rest of those chosen were men, predominantly footballers. This reveals a distinct lack of good female sporting role models that girls can aspire to.
While 58 per cent of the young people questioned said they followed their heroes because they are best at their support, 41 per cent said they liked them because they are cool, or because they are good looking.
According to Dearbhla McCullough, a sports psychologist from Roehampton, University of Surrey: “What came across very strongly is how distant young people feel from their sporting and other heroes. They feel closest to those where they can relate to the route to celebrity status.”
Just over a fifth of young people said they wanted to be like their sporting hero. According to Listening to Tomorrow’s Athletes, the survey commissioned by Norwich Union, there seems to be a strong sense that children increasingly perceive today’s role models as unattainable, virtual heroes or heroines, not realistic ones. Almost certainly this feeling is not aided by the marketing, publicity and advertising hype that creates the illusion of top sports people being out of reach and the fact that children increasingly only come across their heroes and the sports they play via electronic media viewed, or played in the privacy of their own rooms.
While 32 per cent of boys wanted to be a sports star, only 4 per cent of girls had this goal, with more hoping to be pop stars (22 per cent), actresses (14 per cent) or teachers (12 per cent). And although body builders such as The Rock (33 per cent of boys), and pop stars such as Kylie Minogue (24 per cent of girls) were admired for having the best body, just 9 per cent of boys and 7 per cent of girls dreamed of having the body shape of their role models when they were older. Perversely, significantly more children were expecting to having the fuller body shapes of Kate Winslett, Davina McCall and Ricky Gervais than those who originally chose them as having the best body shape.
“Ironically, while most young people say they want to have more contact with local sporting stars from their own area, or community, Beckham and Owen have managed to go full circle in the minds of young people. The blanket coverage they receive from reporting on their successes to their appearance in everything from advertising to chat shows has turned them into super brands in their own right giving the impression to young people that they are almost a part of their lives,” said McCullough.
David Czerwinski, head of sponsorship for Norwich Union, adds: “It is deeply concerning that there seems a complete lack of good sporting role models for girls. Athletes like Ashia Hansen, Paula Radcliffe, Denise Lewis and Jade Johnson have the potential to become these inspirational figures for young girls across the country but for some reason they aren’t being referred to by the girls that were questioned. With success this summer and in Athens next year, hopefully this will change, and even now we’re working with UK Athletics to help unearth and nurture the next generation of athletic role models – both male and female.”
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Press office contacts:
Stuart Wareman - Total Sponsorship - 020 7803 2306
Suzie Dias – Total Sponsorship - 020 7803 2416 (suzie@totalsponsorship.com)
Louise Goffee - Norwich Union - 08703 66 68 70
Notes to Editors
- Norwich Union is the UK’s largest insurer. It is a leading provider of life, pensions and investment products and one of the leading IFA providers. IFAs provide around 70% of the company’s long- term savings business.
- Norwich Union has strategic alliances with building societies and other leading UK brand names including Tesco Personal Finance and The Royal Bank of Scotland Group.
- Norwich Union’s news releases and a selection of images are available from Aviva's internet press centre at www.aviva.com/media.