Analysis of Alpine Skiing Population Using the SAJ Competition Data Bank and Initiatives of Regional Ski Federations
Tetsuna Fujiwara (AY 2023)
We focused on the structure of the organizations involved in ski competitions. The All Japan Ski Federation (SAJ) oversees skiing and snowboarding competitions and education. Each prefectural organization is a member of the SAJ. The SAJ determines the general direction of the policies of each prefectural ski association, but the details are left to the discretion of each prefectural ski association. The purpose of this study is to focus on this situation and clarify the efforts and characteristics of each regional association.
In this study, we limited ourselves to the competitions for which information could be obtained from the SAJ competition database, a website that allows access to information on athletes registered as members of the SAJ, and further limited ourselves to the alpine skiing competition, which has the largest number of competitors among them, and conducted a database-based survey and semi-structured interview A survey was conducted.
The research method was first used to establish personas and clarify the target of the study, followed by the creation of a database based on the information obtained from the SAJ competition database. Using the database, a survey was conducted using the R language based on research questions. Based on the survey results, target prefectures were selected and semi-structured interviews were conducted. The database-based survey provided data to answer various research questions. The typology of target prefectures was developed by focusing on the number of athletes and their age. In many prefectures, the number of athletes decreases with increasing age, but there were prefectures with characteristics of population recovery. Specifically, the three prefectures were Okayama Ski Federation, Hyogo Ski Federation, and Miyagi Ski Federation.
In addition, the value that indicates how many people continue to ski in the following season is called the continuation rate, and this value was calculated for each prefecture. Hyogo Ski Federation and Okayama Ski Federation had the fourth and eighth highest continuation rates, respectively. Interviews were conducted with two organizations, Okayama Ski Federation and Hyogo Ski Federation, using semi-structured methods.
As a result, events and initiatives were conducted with the junior generation and others, such as junior high school students and younger, as the age group to be aware of. The results were confirmed by comparing the results of the preliminary survey with the actual results. We could not find any specific measures taken by the regional federations to create an environment that facilitates the continuation of athletic activities. However, it was found that one of the factors for the continuation of skiing is to build effective relationships not only through competitions, but also through events and exchanges associated with the competitions in the local association. In addition, both the Okayama Prefectural Ski Association and the Hyogo Prefectural Ski Association have established a friendly relationship with the prefectural government, which may have contributed to the increase in the continuation rate.
(Translated by DeepL)