Due to the growing social significance of sport and its potential to develop and sustain the state's welfare ideology, sport, and leisure became a legitimate area of public policy. As Houlihan, Bloyce, and Smith (2009, p. 5) noted, "governments tend to treat sport in an extremely instrumental manner, seeing it as a highly malleable and visible, but relatively low-cost response, to a number of non-sport problems ranging from nation building to social welfare." Sport has become an important aspect of government policy intervention, as evidenced by the number of nations articulating a discrete "sports policy" with concomitant funding and support for elite and community sport development initiatives. Because of the rising level of popularity of sports, as well as the ability that sports have to bring people of different cultures together, sports are increasingly becoming a domain in which national identity and prestige may be displayed to the rest of the world. Noteworthy are the achievements that are made in international competitions, which can often have a significant impact on a global scale. For this reason, winning in sports competitions or hosting such events has evolved into a substantial source of prestige and pride for nations.
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