Preliminary readings of related articles helped to identify relevant databases, as well as keywords and terms to inform the search strategy. In August 2025, we searched four databases, namely APA PsycINFO, PubMed/Medline, SPORTDiscus, and Web of Science, thereby capturing different research fields, all of which appear relevant to the topic of this umbrella review. The search string covered terms related to both elite sport (as the backdrop for societal effects) and participation in physical activity and sport (as the corresponding outcome), while specifying that the word “review” had to be part of the article's title or abstract. Terms and sets were combined via Boolean operators and carried out using adapted search strings according to the rules of each database (see OSF registration).

For inclusion, reviews had to 1) rely at least partially on empirical original studies regarding the effects of elite sport on various forms of participation (i.e., physical activity, sport, and voluntary work); 2) be published in peer-reviewed journals in English or German language since 2000, 3) follow a certain level of systematicity, characterized by using predefined databases and specified search strings. Empirical or conceptual papers were excluded, as were reviews published in books or as grey literature [e.g., (5, 22)]. With regard to peer-reviewed reviews, we did not consider those, which might relate at least partially to the role of elite sport for the general participation in physical activity and sport, but which do not allow conclusions to be drawn about the actual effects, as the result presentation remains at the stage of counting the number of articles published on the respective topic [e.g., (23, 24)]. We also left out systematic reviews focusing on the effects of mass sport events, such as city marathons [e.g., (25)], as well as those studying the impact of volunteering at elite sport events on future intentions to do so in the event sector [e.g., (26)]. The title and abstract screenings were conducted by the first and last author. Discrepancies were clarified through discussion within the whole research team. The first author then performed the full-text screening in consultation with the co-authors, followed by a reference and citation screening using Web of Science.

For each review included, the first author extracted information relevant to our research question. In regular consultation with the second and last author, data were recorded in an Excel spreadsheet, with the following topics constituting the guiding (sub)columns:

Article: bibliographic metadata

In the absence of a suitable tool for assessing the methodological quality of reviews that use narrative synthesis to report their findings, we adapted the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) Checklist for systematic reviews with meta-analysis of observational studies, originally designed to appraise evidence in health sciences (27). We only addressed the checklist questions on the validity and methodological soundness of a systematic review, as we were unable to assess either the trustworthiness of meta-analysis results or their applicability to health interventions in the context of our umbrella review's purpose. The quality appraisal was conducted by the first author. Any concerns were discussed within the whole research team.

According to the characteristics of the included review (see Supplementary Material), more than 30 databases were accessed, with SPORTDiscus and Web of Science (both n = 11) and PubMed/Medline (n = 10) being by far the most frequently used. Database searches for predominantly peer-reviewed articles were often complemented by reference screening, systematic manual journal, or grey literature searches. According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria defined in the reviews, the role of elite sport for participation in physical activity and sport was addressed almost exclusively on the basis of English-language literature. Eight reviews based their searches on predefined time frames for publications. Five time frames began in 2000, as this was “the first year that legacy plans became a requirement for cities bidding to host the Olympics” [(28), p. 715] and “the public became interested in the legacies of prominent major sporting events” [(30), p. 4]. Remarkably, different reviews highlight the increase of published research on elite sport's impact on participation in physical activity and sport after the 2012 London Olympic Games, which were the first in history to have a clearly stated goal of motivating two million people in society through the event to become more active (36–38, 40).

In view of our research objectives, the reviews, which also include theoretical and conceptual work (33, 34, 36, 37, 40), required us to cross-check the original literature to verify the empirical nature of the results presented. Five reviews focus solely on the effects of elite sport events on different aspects of participation in physical activity and sport (28, 29, 36, 37, 39). Four reviews broaden the perspective by explicitly considering sporting success and the role-model function of elite athletes (often still in the context of sport events) as separate factors influencing participation patterns (31, 33, 34, 38). In line with this event-centered research focus, all reviews that deal with the effects of elite sport on participation in physical activity and sport as only one of several societal aspects do so in the context of sport events (30, 32, 35, 40). None of the included reviews substantially concentrates on the effect of elite sport on volunteering within non-commercial sport contexts, such as in voluntary sport clubs.

In contrast, all included reviews address the impact of elite sport with regard to physical activity and sport, albeit often suffering from terminological vagueness in the use of these key constructs. Only a few reviews provide explicit information on how “physical activity” and “sport (participation)” relate to each other and can be defined and operationalized (28, 31). Some reviews indicate a difference between the two constructs, when they claim to focus on the effect of elite sport on “physical activity (rather than formal sport)” [(34), p. 76] or on “sport participation outcomes [instead of] processes leading to other behavioural outcomes [e.g., physical activity (…)]” [(33), p. 201]. However, the respective authors do not further elaborate on the close relationship between physical activity and sport. Similar shortcomings can be observed in the reviews that examine the effect of elite sport on “sport and physical activity participation” (30, 35), “physical activity and sports participation” (29), or “participation categories […] in terms of sport and/or PA” [(38), p. 2]. Other reviews primarily operate with the term “sport participation”, without clarifying its meaning in relation to the term “physical activity” used in the same manuscript as well (36, 37). Vice versa, other reviews claim to focus on the effect of elite sport on “physical activity”, without specifying the applied understanding, while also employing terms such as “sport(s) participation” in the synthesis and discussion of the empirical evidence (32, 39, 40).

Four of the 13 reviews do not provide any information on the methodological guidelines used, although they demonstrate a certain degree of systematicity. Within the other nine reviews, the PRISMA guidelines are applied most frequently (n = 4), followed by the methodological framework developed by Arksey and O'Malley (41), which is used in all three scoping reviews.

As shown in Table 1, systematic reviews perform best on the CASP questions, which are, though, specifically designed to assess the validity and methodological soundness of exactly this review type. Still, all 13 reviews state clear research questions or objectives and search for appropriate study design(s) to answer them. This also applies to those reviews mentioned above, which are more inclusive in terms of study types, as they also include theoretical and conceptual work on elite sport in connection with participation in physical activity and sport (33, 34, 36, 37, 40). The reviews predominantly report comprehensive search strategies, with the manuscripts providing more or less detailed information about the search terms used. While the reviews are all based solely on English-language publications, they draw on a multidisciplinary range of databases, often supplemented by reference screenings or systematic manual journal searches. Apart from the terminological vagueness mentioned above with regard to “physical activity” and “sport (participation)”, the reviews, more or less explicitly, define inclusion and exclusion criteria in view of their research question(s). Still, some lack precise information on the robustness of the screening process, i.e., whether such screening was carried out independently by at least two people based on the title, abstract, and full-text levels. Similarly, only about half of the reviews contain a flowchart illustrating and summarizing how the final sample of publications was reached, specifying when, why and how many publications were removed.

To assess the validity or methodological rigor of the studies, different instruments are used across the included reviews, with the Downs and Black quality index (42) being the only tool applied more than once. Six reviews do not report the use and application of any quality assessment tools, including the scoping reviews. Furthermore, many reviews provide insufficient information on data extraction and do not present key characteristics of the individual studies, such as sample size, time frame, and main results.

The included reviews consistently conclude that there is only limited evidence for a general impact of elite sport on various forms of participation in physical activity and sport in the context of elite sport events (28, 29, 32, 36, 37, 39, 40). Similar findings are also summarized in those reviews that additionally consider the separate effect of sporting success or individual athletes on participation in physical activity and sport, although it proves difficult to draw robust conclusions due to the limited number of original studies in these specific contexts (31, 33, 34, 38). When positive effects on participation patterns are reported, they are described as temporary or related to the period before elite sport events, the so-called ‘pregnancy period’ [(33); see also (36)]. In general, however, the reviews caution against the simplistic expectation that elite sport and related events will inevitably trickle down to the grass-roots level and lead to an increased participation in physical activity and sport, although they do not rule out the possibility of such outcomes. Some reviews, for example, cite single studies suggesting that hosting elite sport events can motivate socially, culturally, or financially disadvantaged groups to try new sports (30) or increase the physical activity among ethnic minorities (37).

In line with Potwarka and Wicker (38), who conclude that “certain conditions must be met” (p. 8) for an impact on participation in physical activity and sport to occur, we synthesized the success and failure conditions that mediated the influence of elite sport.

All included reviews offer a more or less critical perspective on existing research gaps. One major research gap relates to the lack of studies on the effect of elite sport on volunteering in organized sport (38). Further, the included reviews call for methodological improvements and suggest avenues for future research.

While the included reviews do not provide a systematic overview of empirical knowledge about elite sport's actual impact on grass-roots volunteering, there is still a large body of research reviewed in relation to participation in physical activity and sport, particularly in the context of major sport events. However, apart from the fact that long-term effects could hardly be investigated given the small investigation period set around those events, the reviews provide limited evidence of a genuine short-term demonstration effect of elite sport on physical activity and sport. The idea of a direct causal mechanism, whereby the public funding of elite sport will trickle down to the grass-roots level because elite sport events, athletes and teams and their performances inspire the population to increase or (re)take up their participation in physical activity and sport, must be dismissed as a far too optimistic vision of the supposedly unique influence of elite sport. Instead, this umbrella review follows the conclusion of Weed et al. [(33), p. 211] that “the demonstration effect is more likely to be a potential effect that needs to be leveraged by other supporting activities, rather than an inherent effect.”

Still, the reviews recognize not only the lack of leverage strategies through coordinated collaboration between different stakeholders, but also the lack of studies on existing measures to gather evidence of best practices as benchmarks for the feasibility and effectiveness of future initiatives. When analyzing and developing such strategies, it must be considered that age, individual skill levels in relation to elite performances, the degree of previous participation in physical activity and sport, the form of sport consumption, and the festival atmosphere created through elite sport events could be decisive moderating factors with regard to participation in physical activity and sport among the general population. Moreover, the evaluation and design of leverage strategies would profit from studies that close existing research gaps on elite sport's impact on participation in physical activity and sport. Expanding the scope of research to cover a broader range of events, sports, and population groups, and improving the study design by more thoroughly considering the influence of environmental aspects, social factors, or socio-demographic characteristics beyond age, would lead to a more comprehensive understanding of the conditions necessary for elite sport to contribute to increased participation in physical activity and sport.

Such empirical knowledge must be coupled with more theoretically informed research to better explain how elite sport's influence on getting people active is mediated by processes within and outside the individual, which highlights the value of theories of health behavior change (43). With regard to the individual, two reviews (29, 36) recommend the Transtheoretical Model (TTM), which describes behavior change as a series of stages, with awareness, contemplation, and preparation preceding actual behavior change. The TTM was initially developed in relation to smoking addiction (44), but it could also be used for analyzing the differential effect of elite sport on people's participation in physical activity and sport depending on their previous level. In this context, the review by Weed et al. (33) could inform future research, as they demonstrate the value of the TTM for locating the struggles of elite sport in addressing inactive individuals who are arguably at the start of the process of changing participation patterns.

The self-learning theory by Bandura (45), which posits that individuals learn their behavior by observing and imitating the actions of others, could also strengthen the theoretical foundation of research on the effect of elite sport on participation in physical activity and sport. To be more precise, future studies should expand on initial approaches, which explore the value of Bandura's theory for analyzing the impact of elite athletes as role models in this regard (46–48): Having the theoretical underpinning that learning processes are shaped by the factors of perceiving behavior (attention) and remembering it (retention) could help to shed more light on the relevance of constant exposure to sporting role models, through live spectating, media consumption or mentoring programs, as necessary prerequisites for imitating athletes and changing participation patterns. Moreover, building on the factor of reproduction within the self-learning theory could prompt research to address the relevance of self-efficacy, as a person's belief in their own capabilities and the resulting likelihood to follow the behavior of an elite athlete might primarily depend on the extent to which the individual perceives similarities between themselves and their role models, for example, in age, gender or skill level.

The Social Ecological Model (SEM), mentioned by Annear et al. (29) and Teare and Taks (36), would also allow for a more nuanced theory-driven analysis of the role of elite sport for participation in physical activity and sport, as the SEM account not only for individual factors, but also for the broad range of barriers that prevent certain population groups from translating any potential inspiration from elite sport into actual behavioral change. Originally, the SEM viewed human development as shaped by multiple layers of various systems (49), and was later adapted by Stokols (50) to establish its usefulness in evaluating the effectiveness of (activity-related) health promotion programs with regard to the influences on behavior occurring at multiple levels, covering intra- and interpersonal, environmental, community, and policy factors. Following, with regard to the topic of this umbrella review, the SEM “can be a useful tool for researchers to understand how leveraging initiatives can be designed to stimulate sport participation in a community” [(36), p. 8], taking into account previous findings on the individual, social, organizational, environmental, political, and societal factors that limit the participation in physical activity and sport among marginalized populations (51).

Against this backdrop of exclusionary forces affecting certain population groups, the demand that funding for elite sport must always be closely aligned with the sustainable promotion of organized sport, which is expressed in different reviews (37, 38), appears to be not far-reaching enough. This line of argument for financial support below the top of the sport pyramid needs to be extended insofar as the primary concern must be to make practices and structures in organized sport more inclusive so that participation rates of people from different economic, ethnic, or gender backgrounds can increase (52–54).

Moreover, the reviews emphasize the importance of strengthening infrastructure for physical activity and sport, while they are unable to specify the extent to which improvements to facilities in connection with elite sport events actually have an impact on overall participation patterns (39). In addition to analyzing the relevance of sport facilities, future studies in this context must further elaborate on the ways in which infrastructure programs around elite sport (events) can effectively incorporate ideas of (re-)designing public spaces, such as parks, roads, or squares. Making them more accessible, safer, and greener widens the opportunities for physical activity, especially in the residential areas of marginalized groups (55–57).

Any future analysis and development of leverage strategies should also take into account the potentially negative effects of elite sport. Apart from the competence gap, some reviews point out that elite athletes’ misconduct or lack of success may also contribute to decreasing participation rates (31, 38). Moreover, considering that the individual competence levels in relation to elite athletes and the form of sport consumption seem to be mediating factors, the perception of elite athletes might rely less on their sporting abilities, but rather on the way they present themselves on social media, which “could be used as a platform to inspire physical activity and sport participation” [(58), p. 14]. Such research could encompass comparisons of the role of various types of influencers (e.g., elite athletes, running or fitness influencers). This would allow to assess the differential impact of different potentially relevant inspirational sources on social media users and their participation in physical activity and sport (59, 60).

The above-mentioned lack of a systematic review of elite sport's influence on grass-roots volunteering does not necessarily mean that no studies are available in this regard, as it may simply reflect that existing studies have not yet been systematically reviewed. According to Wicker (12), numerous studies examine individual and structural factors influencing volunteering at the grass-roots level in general, although they lack a nuanced analysis of different volunteer roles, such as coaches or referees. For example, a person's exposure to equivalent actors in elite sport might be more decisive for their decision to volunteer at sport clubs or organizations than following elite athlete performances, as a study indicates regarding the role model function of referees in elite football on the number of referees at the amateur level (61). To draw robust conclusions about the effect of elite sport on volunteering at the grass-roots level, a potential review should also consider papers that refer to the influence of voluntary work around elite sport events on intentions to continue such activities in the non-commercial sport sector (62–64).

While this umbrella review critically examines previous research, some limitations of this review itself need to be addressed. Our language filters restricted our search coverage, so the reviews we eventually included refer only to English-language publications. Hence, the scope of the synthesized results is constrained to a predominantly Western, Anglo-American perspective. The findings may also be incomplete, as publication types other than peer-reviewed reviews with a certain level of systematicity were not considered. As a consequence, we not only disregarded a review recently published as a book chapter (22), but this umbrella review also carries the risk of ignoring newer empirical studies that have not yet been synthesized within a review.

Moreover, while our findings address the general debate over whether elite sport contributes to getting more people active, within our results and discussion sections, we have at times struggled to pinpoint and differentiate the effects of elite sport on physical activity from those on sport. The present umbrella review has arguably inherited these shortcomings from the terminological vagueness within the included reviews: They often lack clear conceptualizations of “physical activity” and “sport (participation)”, which, in turn, at least partly seems to result from empirical research not using reliable and valid instruments for the constructs of interest, between which it is difficult to make a distinction due to the conceptual overlap. While this assessment remains at the diagnostic level rather than offering a conceptual solution, there is a need for publications with a strong theoretical and methodological focus to establish a solid framework, within which studies can operate when distinguishing between physical activity and sport.