Cambridge IGCSE Global Perspectives (0457): Topic: Sport and recreation — Study Guide

This guide uses the topic Sport and recreation from the Cambridge IGCSE Global Perspectives (0457) syllabus for examination in 2025, 2026 and 2027, Version 2 (published April 2025). Sport and recreation is on the topic list in section 3; the skills you practise with it are set out in section 2 (assessment objectives) and section 4 (details of the assessment). The syllabus says the topic list is for all components, so this topic could be the context of the Component 1 Written Exam, or the topic you choose for your Component 2 Individual Report or Component 3 Team Project. Knowledge of this topic is not assessed. This page shows you how to use the topic to practise the skills that are.

Pair this guide with the Sport and recreation revision notes and the Sport and recreation practice questions. For the whole course, use the Global Perspectives hub and the 0457 checklist.

Coverage

Syllabus reference	What you must be able to do (from the document)	Where assessed
Section 3, topic list	Sport and recreation is one of the topics; the topic list is for all components	Components 1, 2 and 3
Section 3, key terms	Use the syllabus meanings of issue, perspective, research, evidence and argument	All components
Section 2, AO1 Research, analysis and evaluation	Research global issues, their causes and consequences and possible course(s) of action; use evidence to support claims; analyse and evaluate evidence, reasoning and sources; develop a line of reasoning	Components 1, 2 and 3
Section 2, AO2 Reflection	Consider different perspectives objectively and with empathy; justify personal perspective(s) using evidence and reasoning	Components 2 and 3 (0% of Component 1)
Section 2, AO3 Communication and collaboration	Present arguments, evidence and perspectives clearly with structure; include citations and references; contribute to the Team Project	Components 2 and 3 (0% of Component 1)
Section 4, Component 1	Understand bias, claim, fact, generalisation, opinion, prediction, value and vested interest; analyse and evaluate use of evidence and language	Component 1
Section 4, Component 2	A global issue that divides opinion; a global research question as the title; local and/or national and global perspectives; causes, consequences and one proposed course of action	Component 2
Section 4, Component 3	A local issue; research into different perspectives; a planned and completed action; measuring its success	Component 3

Why sport facts earn no marks

Section 3 of the syllabus states: “Knowledge of content is not assessed in this syllabus.” For the Written Exam, section 4 adds that candidates are “not assessed on their prior knowledge and understanding of the topic or global issue presented in the source material”.

So knowing records or the rules of a game earns nothing by itself. Marks come from the skills the syllabus names: research, analysis and evaluation, reflection, communication and collaboration. Sport suits them well: it mixes money, pride, fairness and local life, and it produces confident predictions (“the Games will pay for themselves”) that you can test.

What the topic covers

Use working definitions and say where they come from.

• Sport: organised physical activity with rules, often competitive. Whether it must be physical is debated (see esports below).
• Recreation: activity done for enjoyment in free time, such as walking, cycling, swimming or using a park.
• Grassroots (community) sport: everyday participation in local clubs, schools and parks.
• Elite sport: top-level competition by professional or national-team athletes.
• Mega-event: a very large international event, such as the Olympic Games or a football World Cup.
• Legacy: the long-term effects an event leaves behind, such as venues, transport, debt or changes in participation.

The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, agreed in 2015, states: “Sport is also an important enabler of sustainable development.” That is a value claim by a global body. It tells you what the UN believes sport can do, not evidence that it has done so.

Finding issues at global, national and local level

The syllabus defines an issue as “an important subject or problem for discussion”. Sport and recreation is the topic; an issue is a specific problem within it that people disagree about.

Level	Example issues within Sport and recreation
Global	The cost and legacy of hosting mega-events; doping and fair competition; equal pay and media coverage for women’s sport; whether esports count as sport; the environmental footprint of international events
National	Whether public money should go to elite medals or community sport; time given to physical education in schools; gambling sponsorship in sport; ticket prices for national events
Local	Playing fields sold for housing; the cost of club membership; safe cycling and walking routes; access to facilities for disabled people; litter and noise around venues

Strong answers link the levels. A decision by an international body to award an event (global) leads a government to spend public money (national), which may mean a new stadium, new transport or the loss of a local park (local).

Perspectives: who thinks what, and why

The syllabus defines a perspective as “a viewpoint on an issue based on evidence and reasoning”. AO2 asks you to “consider different perspectives objectively and with empathy”. Explain why a group holds its view, not only what the view is.

Groups that often appear in sport sources:

• Athletes: care about fairness, safety, pay and careers.
• Fans and spectators: care about ticket prices, access and the experience of the game.
• Residents near venues: care about noise, traffic, rents and whether they gain anything.
• Governments: weigh national pride, tourism and health against cost.
• Governing bodies (international and national federations): set the rules and award events; they also earn money from them.
• Sponsors and broadcasters: have a vested interest, meaning a financial stake in the outcome.
• Taxpayers and community groups: ask whether the money could do more elsewhere.

Worked example (fictional). The council of the fictional city of Dunmere wants to bid for a continental athletics championship.

The council’s perspective is that the event will bring visitors, improve the city’s image and inspire young people to take up sport. Its reasoning rests on a value of growth and national pride. A residents’ group near the planned stadium holds a different perspective. Members fear higher rents and the loss of a park they use every day, and they point out that the event lasts only ten days. Their view rests on a value of local wellbeing over the city’s image. Both sides use reasoning, so the disagreement is really about whose interests should come first.

The paragraph names two groups, gives the reasoning for each, and identifies the values underneath.

Causes and consequences

AO1 asks you to research issues, “their causes and consequences”. Sorting causes by type keeps your analysis clear:

• Economic: cost of clubs, kit and travel; who pays for venues; sponsorship and TV money.
• Social: gender expectations, family time, safety in public spaces, culture.
• Political: government spending choices, planning rules, decisions by governing bodies.
• Environmental: loss of green space, climate, pollution near venues.
• Technological: screens and online gaming; data and equipment in elite sport.

Worked chain: the cost of hosting mega-events (a global issue).

Cause	Consequence
Bids are made years in advance with optimistic budgets	Final costs can be far higher. Montreal hosted the 1976 Summer Olympics, and the debt for its Olympic Stadium was not fully paid off until 2006, about 30 years later
New venues, villages and security are expensive	Some regions decide the cost is not worth it. In July 2023 the Australian state of Victoria withdrew from hosting the 2026 Commonwealth Games, saying the estimated cost had risen to A$6–7 billion
Organisers look for cheaper models	The 2026 Commonwealth Games moved to Glasgow in a smaller form, with 10 sports, existing venues and no athletes’ village

Notice how one consequence becomes the cause of the next step. When you explain a consequence, say who is affected and how. “It costs a lot” earns little. “Taxpayers in Quebec were still paying for the stadium three decades later, money that could not be spent on other services” earns more.

Judging sources and evidence

Section 4 says Written Exam candidates “will benefit from an understanding of the following: bias, claim, fact, generalisation, opinion, prediction, value and vested interest”. Sport sources are full of them, especially bid documents, club press releases and fan forums.

Questions to ask of any sport source:

• Who produced it, and do they gain? Bid committees, sponsors and clubs selling memberships all have vested interests.
• Is it a prediction? Claims about visitors, jobs or a “legacy” are predictions, which cannot be checked yet.
• What counts? “Jobs created” may mean ten-day temporary jobs. “Participation” may mean playing once a year or every week.
• Is there a “before” and a comparison? A rise in participation after an event may have happened anyway.
• Is one example being stretched into a rule? One star athlete’s story is testimony, not proof of a national pattern.

Worked example (fictional). The Dunmere bid committee says: “Hosting the championship will create 40,000 jobs and inspire a generation.”

This claim comes from the bid committee, which has a vested interest in winning public support. “Will create” is a prediction, so it cannot yet be checked. The figure is not broken down: if, say, 31,000 of the 40,000 jobs lasted only for the event, just 9,000 would be lasting jobs, under a quarter of the total. “Inspire a generation” is an emotive slogan rather than evidence; it gives no measure of what inspiration means or how it would be tested. The claim is therefore weakly supported until independent figures are available.

Real examples to practise with

Use these as research starting points or practice material. They earn no marks on their own.

• Doping and fairness. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) was set up in 1999 to coordinate anti-doping rules across sports and countries. It shows a global course of action on fairness; critics debate how consistently rules are enforced in different countries and sports.
• Equal prize money. The US Open tennis championships began paying men and women equal prize money in 1973; Wimbledon did so from 2007. These are examples of change by organisers, often after pressure from players.
• Gender balance. The International Olympic Committee allocated an equal number of athlete places to women and men for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the first time this happened. Equal places at the elite level do not show what happens in local clubs, which is a good evaluation point.
• Esports. Esports were medal events for the first time at the Asian Games held in Hangzhou, China, in 2023. Some argue this recognises skill, teamwork and a huge global audience. Others argue that sport should involve physical exertion and worry about screen time.

Courses of action and their effects

AO1 includes researching “possible course(s) of action”. In the Written Exam, candidates “assess actions in response to the global issue and explain their judgements with reasons and evidence”. In the Individual Report you must propose a single course of action and explain how it could be put into practice and what its impact would be.

Judge any action using the same criteria: effectiveness (does it tackle the cause?), cost and who pays, fairness (who gains and who loses?), side effects, sustainability (will it last?) and who acts (individuals, clubs, councils, governments or international bodies).

Actions to practise judging include hosting events in existing venues, holding a public vote before a city bids, protecting playing fields in planning law, and paying part of club fees for lower-income families.

Worked evaluation paragraph (knowledge → application → analysis → evaluation).

Opening school sports halls to the public in the evenings is one way to raise participation [knowledge]. In a town where families say there is no affordable facility nearby, it uses buildings that already exist, so the cost is mainly staff and cleaning rather than construction [application]. This tackles the cause directly, because the barrier is access rather than interest, and it reaches families who cannot pay for private gyms [analysis]. However, it may not help people who work long hours or feel unwelcome in a school setting, and someone must pay for supervision every year. On balance it is a cost-effective first step, but it works best alongside reduced club fees, which deal with the second main barrier [evaluation].

Ideas for the Individual Report

The syllabus says the global issue “should be one that divides opinion”, and your question needs local and/or national and global perspectives. Possible questions:

• Should countries spend public money on hosting international sporting events?
• Should governments fund medal-winning elite sport or everyday community sport first?
• Should esports be included in major international multi-sport games?
• Should international sporting bodies consider a country’s human rights record when awarding events?

Take the first question. A host-city resident may focus on rents and disruption (local). A national government may stress tourism and pride (national). An international governing body may stress shared values and the income events bring to the sport worldwide (global). These perspectives are clearly different, which is what the syllabus asks for. Your teacher will confirm whether your question is manageable.

Ideas for the Team Project

The Team Project needs a local issue and an action your team can carry out and measure.

Local issue	Possible action	How to measure success
Families say sports kit is too expensive	Run a kit-swap day at school	Number of items donated and taken; short survey of users
Litter left in the park after weekend matches	Clean-up plus a poster and bin campaign with the clubs	Bags of litter collected before and after
Students who use wheelchairs are left out of break-time games	Teach an inclusive game such as boccia to mixed groups	Number of students taking part each week; feedback
Few safe walking routes for younger children	Map safe routes and share them with parents	Number of maps given out; follow-up survey

Each team member should research a different aspect, such as a different perspective, as section 4 describes. Collect “before” data before you act, so you can measure the change.

Common errors

• Writing what you know about a sport instead of using the source in front of you.
• Treating a bid committee’s figures as facts rather than predictions from a source with a vested interest.
• Calling a source “biased” without naming who gains or quoting the loaded words.
• Assuming that a rise in participation after an event was caused by the event.
• Proposing an action without judging its cost, fairness or side effects.
• Picking an Individual Report question with only one sensible answer, such as “Is exercise good for you?”

Where to go next

Read the component guides: Written Exam, Individual Report and Team Project. For more skills practice, use the Written Exam practice questions and the Written Exam revision notes.

Official syllabus

Cambridge IGCSE Global Perspectives (0457) syllabus for examination in 2025, 2026 and 2027, Version 2 (published April 2025), published by Cambridge International. Sport and recreation is listed in section 3; the assessment objectives are in section 2 and the component details and command words in section 4.