Sports report findings need serious local thought

The release last week of a report showing that sports participation in Westmeath was the lowest in any county anywhere in Ireland is worrying.While there is widespread participation in sports in Westmeath, the fact is, the ESRI found, that Westmeath people were far less likely to have undertaken any sort of sporting activity - even something as simple as walking - in a seven day period than people anywhere else in Ireland.Always something of a county of extremes when it comes to statistics, Westmeath could be facing a health timebomb unless this situation changes the ESRI has confirmed, pointing out that exercise is necessary not just for social reasons, nor to combat the much-talked of obesity crisis, but to guard against conditions such as cancer and heart disease.Nationally, the ESRI found that participation in sports tends to be higher among the better educated, and the better-off, which begs the question: is Westmeath lagging behind in the wealth and education stakes? In this new more competitive jobs environment, will Westmeath fare worse than other areas? Are we already lagging behind in terms of our enjoyment of the wealth that this country has seen grow over the past few years, just at a time when wealth is decreasing anyway?It"s probably unlikely that this is the case, according to the authors. They are hypothesizing that because Westmeath became one of the commuter counties, the influx of so many new people to the area may have meant that many people now living in Westmeath aren"t yet fully participating in local community sports activities.If that"s the case, then it is clear that there may be some degree of isolation in the shiny new housing estates of Mullingar and Rochfortbridge and Athlone, and that too could be a problem.The news that participation rates are low will come as a disappointment to those who are involved in sport locally, and especially in the promotion of sport, and in coaching teams and athletes and swimmers.It may however help explain why Westmeath has consistently had difficulty in achieving significant success at GAA intercounty level: if there is a lesser tendency to get involved in sport, there will be a lesser pool to choose from; a lesser level of competition, meaning individuals don"t have to strive to achieve the high standards that might be considered the minimum in other counties.However, while it might be tempting to look solely at participation in the more obvious sports such as GAA, soccer and rugby, in fact the majority of sports participation is in solo sports, whether walking, swimming, or going to the gym. But participation in these sports was factored into the ESRI research, and Westmeath did not perform well.It may be time for some targeted promotion, within Westmeath, of the need for people to take up sport - no matter what their age, situation or ability.Whether that should be done by the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism, or whether it should be done locally by the HSE doesn"t matter. But what does need to happen is that the Westmeath Sports Partnership; local sports clubs; schools and parish groups need to get the message out there that sport is hugely important.If not, we will have a county less socialised, less healthy, and less successful than it could otherwise be.