Planning and implementation of event leveraging strategy: China’s legacy pledge to motivate 300 million people to be involved in winter sport

ABSTRACT This paper examines China’s planning and implementation of leveraging, using the Beijing 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, to achieve the winter sport participation legacy of 300 million people involved in winter sport. Drawing upon interviews and documentary data, the authors findings reveal that the planning of the leveraging programme, which was politically motivated, was a centralised and government-led bid to stimulate participation and consumption within China’s winter sport industry. The leveraging programme also served broader economic, social, and political state agendas. The main implementation pathway relied heavily on the existing structures for the provision of sport and education, and, due to a lack of state resources (or facilities), support was sought from the private sector. This study further suggests that state interference to steer the direction and development of leveraging might have served as a double-edged sword: On the one hand, it provided much government-led impetus for goal setting across sectors and departments, directing extensive cooperative efforts and resources towards leveraging. On the other hand, it might not have been the most sustainable approach for increasing participation, due to the overreliance on top-down implementation and short-term policy interventions. HIGHLIGHTS The 300 Million Programme is an indicator for measuring the success of the 2022 Beijing Olympic Games. The planning and implementation of the 300 Million Programme has been an iterative process. The leveraging process is both propelled and confined by contextual features (political and cultural). State-led leveraging exerts a significant influence on resource mobilisation, goal alignment and cross-sector coordination. The sustainability of the participation legacy remains uncertain.