Katie Taylor’s Gold medal performance at the London Olympics has been voted by an overwhelming 75% of the population as Irish Sport’s iconic moment of 2012.  
The boxing team had to give way though to Ireland’s Paralympians in the Team of the Year category.
38% of a 1,000 strong nationally representative poll gave the nod to Jason Smyth, Mark Rohan, Bethany Firth, Catherine Walsh, Michael McKillop and their colleagues, ahead of 23% for the Olympic Boxing team, 14% for Donegal’s footballers and 11% for Leinster Rugby, despite their winning back to back Heineken Cups.
The Sports Sentiment Index is undertaken annually by Pembroke Communications.  Katie Taylor emerged for the first time as Ireland’s Greatest Current Sports Star, garnering 53% of the vote ahead of Rory McIlroy on 16% and Brian O’Driscoll on 13%.  Those two were both previous recipients of the accolade.
While competitive sport continues to dominate the headlines, a noticeable trend to continue this year was the rise of participation sport and exercise headed by walking, undertaken regularly by 40% of the population, swimming by 22%, running by 16%, and cycling by 15%.
22% of the population play competitive sport while that number is dwarfed by the 77% that participate in order to exercise and stay fit.  12% of the population do not partake in sport at all with 14% of women and 10% of men falling into that category.
Other findings to emerge from the survey include that 89% believe Irish sporting success has a positive impact on the country’s reputation overseas, while 29% viewed a lack of future funding likely to have a damaging impact on participation. Only 12% pointed to the cost of taking part in sport as being a barrier to entry while 11% said work-life balance was a factor that prevented greater involvement.
In terms of the likely impact of these findings on commercial partnerships within sport…. [ismember] the move from competitive team sport towards participation will raise issues as to whether the balance of sponsorship investment may follow a similar path.
With such a high level of participation as opposed to merely spectating, there will be opportunities for sports that have so far not seen the rise in commercial income achieved by the larger sports with their bigger crowds and substantially higher levels of media coverage.
There will be a need for rights holders and potential sponsors to negotiate a price which reflects the potential as opposed to the certifiable benefits of involvement and that was an area that did not come through in time for this year’s running of the Dublin Marathon, run without a sponsor for only the second time in its history.
While sponsorship is now a very measurable marketing activity, sentiment such as that expressed in this survey is still an important, albeit less tangible benefit and it is in those areas that the greatest level of give and take will likely occur.
Key take away for Sport: delivering sponsor engagement with participants in sport as opposed to spectators is a key trend likely to continue over the coming years.  Established sports may need to look at modified games in order to maintain their relevance for those increasing number who play beyond the education years.
Key Take away for Business: Sporting participation is important not only for consumers of product but also for staff who see sport as an important part of their life and will be drawn towards employers that recognise its importance.[/ismember]
———-  ADDITIONAL MEMBER ONLY CONTENT  ———- 
[nonmember]If you have read the above key take-aways for sport and for business from this article, as well as the additional analysis of the relevance for commercial partnerships from the results of the survey, thank you for your membership.  If you have not you must be logged in as a member in order to do so.
[loginform][/nonmember]
[nonmember]You can sign up for membership straight away and join the many leaders in business and sport that are already part of our community. From Accenture, Microsoft and Ulster Bank in Business to the GAA, Triathlon Ireland and the Irish Sports Council in sport.
After all a key finding of the IBM poll of CMO’s was the need to discover relevant digital information sources. Welcome to Sport for Business.[/nonmember]