The size and nature of the sport sector in Mauritius

Abstract

The researchable issue cropped up in the researcher’s mind after consultation with her supervisor and a lot of observations and reflection. Being an athlete for many years and teaching physical education and sports for more than fifteen years now, he has asked himself many times a lot of questions about the whereabouts of sports in his beloved country Mauritius. This thesis gave the researcher the opportunity to investigate the openness of the sport policy in Mauritius, i.e. what are the factors that influence our sport policy makers, the state of art of elite sport in Mauritius and the promotion of the concept of ‘Sport for All’ in the country. In the course of the study, it was found that the sport policy is influenced by the prevailing economic situation, by the number of medals won by our athletes at International competitions and by societal health issues. The study moreover revealed that the Government of Mauritius indeed invests huge amount of money to promote sports and health. Nevertheless, despite all the Mauritian Government efforts to develop elite sports and to promote physical activity and health, it was observed that there was a loophole somewhere which inhibits broad participation in both recreational and competitive sport. A comparison was made with Jamaica, a developing country just like Mauritius but with a long history of successful world-class elite athletes, in order to try to find an explanation to why sport is not that prominent in Mauritius. At the end of the thesis, the researcher suggested some recommendations for the Mauritian sport sector to boost up and become a more prolific endeavour.