Watching sports on TV is good for morale

The Olympics begin in three days and this 2024 edition is expected to bring together more than 4 billion viewers from 160 countries in front of their screens. Studies show that watching sports on TV increases well-being and helps fight depression.

In jargon, scientists call watching sports on television “passive sporting commitment”The effect on the mind is not as powerful as doing sports yourself, but it does exist.

Indeed, watching competitions live from your sofa, in front of your TV or on the internet, improves mental well-being, reduces feelings of loneliness and anxiety… This has been demonstrated in two large studies: one from the University of Cambridge, published last year and which involved more than 7,000 men and women over the age of 16, the other Japanese, published in 2021, which involved more than 21,000 elderly people.

The benefits of this “passive sporting engagement” are explained by emotional experiences and social interactions. All of this is obviously also true for those who watch competitions from a stand. But even in front of a screen, the authors explain that the pleasure of watching performances that are out of the ordinary, the feeling of belonging to a group when you are a supporter as well as the conversations during or after the event, all contribute to increasing the feeling of well-being. And the observation is valid as much for spectators of football as of baseball, races, figure skating or sumo competitions…

For athletes, watching competitions on screen also helps improve their performance. It’s proven. When watching videos, the visual-motor neurons are activated in the athletes’ heads. When an athlete is trained to make a move, dribble with the ball, for example, the brain activates the neurons involved in this action in the head. This has been demonstrated by medical imaging techniques, this helps enrich the motor repertoire of the athlete’s brain. But for this activation to work, you have to be used to performing the move you’re watching on the screen, so video training from your couch works, but only if you’re also making an effort and sweating a little alongside.