Ideology or reality? The awareness of educational aims and activities amongst German and Norwegian participants of the first summer and winter Youth Olympic Games

Abstract

This paper explores the awareness of the young German and Norwegian participants in the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) of the additional educational mission of this new event, implemented by the International Olympic Committee. Among the questions considered are whether the nature of the event contradicts its claimed intention to focus on both competition and education. Data were collected through a set of interviews with young German and Norwegian athletes at the Singapore YOG in the summer of 2010 and the Innsbruck YOG in the winter of 2012. The findings revealed (1) a focus on elite sport by athletes and their coaches, while the educational aims were considered secondary; (2) that it was problematic for the young participants to focus on education in a high-performance event. The overall conclusion was that the YOG have had only limited success in achieving the educational ambitions of the Olympic Movement.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. As the name of the programme was CEP during our data collection, we will use this term in the following.

2. In a personal interview with Professor Dag Vidar Hanstad at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, IOC president Jacques Rogge explained that his original plan was ‘to have medal ceremonies without national flags. My proposal was to have the Olympic flag, and no national flag on anthem, but I was out vetoed immediately by everyone, I received tons of mail from coaches, trainers, athletes, NOCs’. Consequently, he gave up this idea as ‘the podium is very important for the athletes’. (19.06.12).