Building on muscles: how built environment design impacts modern sports science

Introduction

Over the past two decades, there has been a significant increase in scholarly interest in sports science. This trend is demonstrated by the notable growth in student enrolment and graduation rates from sports science programmes.1 2 Sports science can be defined as applying scientific principles to inform the practice of sports, aiming to improve athletes’ performance.3 It encompasses ‘the study of maximising competitive athletic performance’.4 These definitions underscore the discipline’s focus on optimising athletes’ performance. Improving such performance is a multifaceted challenge involving numerous variables such as physical training, mental focus, nutritional strategies and physiological resilience.5 The complexity of these variables requires an interdisciplinary approach to gain comprehensive insights and develop effective strategies for athlete enhancement.6

There is a growing interest in how (re)designing the built environment can shape human health behaviours. The built environment refers to ‘the human-made space in which people live, work and recreate on a day-to-day basis’.7 This includes all physical settings such as houses, shops, streets, parks, libraries, schools and stadiums. Many studies have investigated the influence of built environment design on physical activity,8 dietary intake9 and several health biomarkers.10 Nevertheless, current evidence primarily focuses on the general population. It is not yet clear how (re)designing the built environment may specifically enhance performance among athletes at various levels. Therefore, in this interdisciplinary paper, we discuss how (re)designing the spaces we inhabit may influence athletic performance.

The built environment design science and athletes’ performance

Athletes’ performance is affected by built environment attributes across various spatial settings, such as schools, stadiums, training arenas and athletic complexes.11–13 We categorise how built environment design influences athletes’ performance into three areas: athlete-centric training built environment design, enhanced fan and community engagement, and integrative accessibility (figure 1).

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Conclusion and future directions

Athletes in many sports have reached near-peak performance, necessitating innovative ideas for further improvement in professional competitions.25 This paper highlighted the potential of built environment design science to enhance these performance levels. Several key areas emerge that require further investigation:

• The relative impact of built environment design. There is insufficient evidence on the extent of the built environment’s impact on athlete performance. Quantifying the contribution of built environment factors compared with other performance influencers is a key area for future research.

• Financial and temporal requirements for built environment interventions. Future research is needed to examine the financial and temporal investments necessary to develop and implement built environment facilities and infrastructure. Such studies need to clarify the feasibility of built environment initiatives.

• Cost responsibility. Future studies should explore allocating financial responsibilities among athletes, local governments and other stakeholders for built environment interventions.

• Metrics for athlete performance evaluation. In built environment and health research, outcomes are typically measured by risks such as death or disease. However, for athletes, the primary outcome is performance. This difference necessitates the development of specific metrics to assess athlete performance within built environments. Future research should aim to establish these metrics, considering both traditional indicators like league rankings, Olympic medals and personal records, and potentially new metrics that accurately reflect the impact of built environments on athletic performance and health.

A major barrier to progress in this field is the lack of built environment subjects in traditional sports science curricula. This may limit awareness of the built environment’s impact on athletes’ performance. Further collaborations between sports scientists and scientists in urban design, parks, transportation, landscape architecture and environmental psychology can bridge this gap.