Canada, a spectator society?

This week Dean Kriellaars, associate professor in the School of Medical Rehabilitation (physical therapy) at the U of M, released a paper titled, “Canada, a spectator society: Is there a relationship between Olympic performance and population obesity?”

In a story reported on CBC.ca, Kriellaars says that the paper is intended to spark discussion. It shows “how Canada’s medal counts and obesity rates among children and adults have coincidentally both increased since 1972,” the story notes.

“I’m a very strong advocate of high performance athletics and high performance artists,” Kriellaars said in an interview.

“I believe it’s an example of great things our society can do. I think we just have to focus much more on one of our big problems, which is the inactivity of our society.”