The true value of a new Olympos

In November, DUB published an article titled "Olympos’ renovation is a complex puzzle," describing all the issues encountered on the road towards a new Olympos in 2028. Several parties had their say, but one important side of the story remains untold.

What’s missing, not just in the article but in the broader dialogue about Olympos 2.0, is the voice of student sports itself. Every year, because of a lack of space, thousands of students cannot join a student sports association, even though they want to. 

Just to illustrate my point, 5,500 students play sports with one of the associations housed at Olympos. Every year, 2,000 students are told there is no place for them. That’s over a third of the total number of athletes. And let’s not even mention the individual athletes who work out at Olympos without being a member of an association…

Not just a real estate story
According to the current plans, we'll have to wait and see whether all these students will be able to find a place. A painful situation, especially considering we know that sports are so much more than just playing a game together.

Sports don’t just improve people’s health, they also offer an outlet for students constantly dealing with the pressure to perform and various forms of stress. Unfortunately, the main focus of current negotiations seems to be the financial aspect of this real estate story. 

That’s an important topic for sure, but since we need to make a decision soon, it's crucial to look at the whole picture. What do sports do for students and what does the university gain from it as well? That aspect is hard to convey in monetary terms, so it has been barely mentioned in the conversation. We should strive to prevent a situation in which the final decision will be made in an office, without a clear image of why sports matter so much. 

Improved study results
The Human Capital Model, developed by Knowledge Centre Sports & Movement, aptly shows what sports provide. The model describes 79 effects of sports based on scientific literature, after being tested by Radboud University and Mulier Institute. 

First and foremost, there are the physical benefits: through sports, students reduce the chances of getting cancer, diabetes, and heart failure, not to mention it improves the quality of sleep as well. Sports even reduce the desire for smoking because the body makes its own substances. 

Moreover, sports provide intellectual benefits, which aren't insignificant for life at a university. Recent research by Groningen University shows that exercise improves cognitive functions and long-term exercise improves study results. The blood flow to the brain increases, leading to better memory, concentration, and attention, which contributes to better grades.

Personal development
While at university, students don’t just learn the materials required by their study programmes. They also develop into adults who can function independently in our society. Exercise contributes to this personal and emotional development as it encourages leadership, purpose, determination, autonomy, honesty, and respect for others. 

Socially, the learning possibilities are extensive too. Lifelong friendships are formed, but there’s also an increased sense of community and citizenship. Young people learn to handle rules, norms and values, even when those deviate from their own convictions. As a general rule, their confidence grows and they collaborate more. 

Moreover, organised sports bring individuals with different socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds together, which leads to an increased understanding of people with different perspectives, a skill that is essential in contemporary society, as proven by the recent parliamentary elections in the Netherlands. 

It’s even been convincingly shown that sports can contribute to reducing depression symptoms. After all, sports can provide a distraction, put people in an upward spiral, and even give them more self-confidence and structure. Sports simulate the release of important hormones, which means those who practice sports suffer from less stress. Young people even become more satisfied with life, a crucial factor now that mental health issues have never been greater in this age bracket. 

Missed opportunities?
What this all boils down to is how unfortunate it is that the conversation about Olympos 2.0 often focuses on money and construction-related difficulties, when we should be talking about missed opportunities for students. Opportunities they don’t have because they cannot exercise with their peers at the association they’d like to go to. 

That means we need more fields and sports halls, as a soon-to-be-published independent study on student sports, conducted on behalf of the university, shall demonstrate. If the university cannot finance this expansion by itself, collaborating with other parties at Utrecht Science Park as well as with the municipality – which, in our opinion, is jointly responsible for students, given they are citizens of Utrecht – could lead to an even more beautiful Olympos. 

Tuesday, March 26, would be a great day to start. That’s when the municipal council will hold a meeting about student sports taking place at Olympos. All parties involved will get together to brainstorm about opportunities for student sports. We call on them to have a positive, constructive conversation, without immediately looking at obstacles. Would you like to join this conversation? You can sign up on the municipality’s website (page available in Dutch only, Ed.).