Do the Youth Olympic Games promote Olympism? Analysing a mission (im)possible from a local youth perspective

Abstract

On the basis of the Youth Olympic Games (YOG), we assess if and how the youth in the communities of the YOG host cities have been influenced concerning their perception of the Olympic values (OV) and the Olympic movement (OM). Special attention of the study is paid to the analysis of intervention mechanisms which the local youth underwent (e.g. attending the YOG on-site, participating in school programmes). Our study was conducted among 1004 adolescents living in the host region three years after the Innsbruck 2012 YOG had been staged. Our analyses extend the corresponding literature by (1) showing that the YOG and the involvement of the local youth in such an event have the power of creating an interest in the OM and its events, but do not have the power to influence the young citizens’ perception of the OV significantly; (2) illustrating that the perception adolescents have of the OV depend mainly on their socio-demographic background, their a priori interest in sports events, social capital (norms, institutional trust) and the extent to which the youngsters follow the event in the different media; and (3) corroborating the hypothesis that intervention programmes (e.g. school programmes) for promoting (Olympic) values and ideals should not be single, obligatory and isolated activities. We conclude that it is not surprising that the International Olympic Committee has reformulated the goals for the YOG in the Olympic Agenda 2020, as some goals relating to the promotion of the OV might have been a mission impossible. 

Keywords:

• Competition
• education
• youth

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Correction

Highlights

• Involvement in YOG by local youth has the power of creating an interest in the Olympic movement, but does not influence the perception of the Olympic values

• Perception of the Olympic values depend mainly on the socio-demographic background, general interest in sports events, social capital and the extent of following YOG in media

• Intervention programmes should not be single, obligatory and isolated activities

Introduction

In 2007, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) launched the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) and introduced a new event format for young athletes between 14 and 18 years of age, which has been discussed controversially among scholars (Digel, 2008; Judge, Petersen, & Lydum, 2009). The YOG can be seen as a modernisation process of the Olympic movement (OM) and an answer to the criticism of gigantism, which the Olympic Games were facing in the past (Chappelet, 2002). The YOG goals, which were settled by the IOC, are strongly related to gaining the interest in the OM and its activities. Concretely, the attempt is to introduce Olympism to the youth, to debate and promote the Olympic values (OV) and to reach the youth communities throughout the world (IOC, 2011).

Even though the YOG are quite new, scholars have analysed the event from different perspectives, focusing on the peculiarities of the YOG like the educational programme (Doll-Tepper, 2014; Götzel, 2013; Krieger, 2012; Kristiansen, 2013; Schnitzer, Peters, Scheiber, & Pocecco, 2014) or new sports event formats (Schnitzer, Scheiber, Lang, Brandstetter, & Kopp, 2014). Furthermore, researchers have analysed legacy aspects related to the athletes (Peters & Schnitzer, 2015; Schnitzer, Bork, Eder, Zobl, & Schlemmer, 2017) or to stakeholder/network relationships (Parent, Kristiansen, & MacIntosh, 2014; Parent, Kristiansen, Skille, & Hanstad, 2013).

Research concerning the perception of and the impact of major (sports) events on the local population, which is a key stakeholder of any kind of sports event, can be considered as satisfactory (Balduch, Maes, & Buelens, 2011; Fredline & Faulkner, 2002; Karadakis & Kaplanidou, 2012; Shang Chun & Kaplanidou, 2017). However, only a few studies have focused their interest on the local youth. To our best knowledge, special attention to the local youth was paid solely by Leng, Kuo, Baysa-Pee, and Tay (2014) and Götzel (2013). Using the YOG in Singapore in 2010, Leng et al. (2014) focused on the change in national pride on the part of the local youth community by surveying Singaporeans two months prior to and three months after the YOG 2010. Götzel (2013) analysed the perception of the Culture and Education Programme among school pupils participating in an initiative called “World Mile Project” (WMP) on the occasion of the YOG 2012 in Innsbruck. Both studies were important contributions to this field of research, but analysed only short-term effects, as their pre- and post-event surveys were conducted in a period of a few months.

As most studies relating to the YOG and youth sports events focus on the athletes, research about the impact of (youth sports) events on the local youth’s perception of (Olympic) values is rare. Scholars debate that the OV are not stable and change over the course of time (Chatziefstathiou, 2005; Milton-Smith, 2002) and analyse Olympic education programmes in institutional settings like schools (Götzel, 2013; Sukys, Majasukiene, & Dumciene, 2017) or informal Olympic education in the context of everyday life (Chatziefstathiou, 2012). So far, only Prüschenk and Kurscheidt (2017) have analysed whether the YOG have the power to shift the perception of Olympism. Their results reveal that under 30 years old and value-oriented respondents tend to appreciate the YOG significantly more than other respondents and that, therefore, the YOG may become an opportunity for the OM to foster the OV, particularly among youngsters. However, their study was not linked to any edition of the YOG as their analysis was linked to the Sochi 2014 Games.

Summarising the literature related to Olympism (Grupe, 1997; Lenk, 1976; Naul, 2008; Parry, 1988), the OV (Chatziefstathiou, 2005; Milton-Smith, 2002) and Olympic education (Chatziefstathiou, 2012; Götzel, 2013; Sukys et al., 2017) in the context of the YOG (Götzel, 2013; Prüschenk & Kurscheidt, 2017), we found out that research is lacking regarding questions of whether and how the youth in the communities of the YOG host cities have been influenced in their perceptions of the OV and the OM. Considering this research gap and referring to the case study of the Innsbruck 2012 YOG, this paper analyses the following issues three years after the event was staged:

• − Does following the YOG influence the local youth’s perception of the OV and the interest in the OM?

• − What role do different kinds of interventions by the local youth (e.g. attending the YOG on-site, following the YOG in media, participating in school programmes) play in terms of their perception of the OV and the OM?

• − Do other important determinants influence the adolescents’ perception of the OV and their interest in the OM – and if yes, how?

Hypotheses and research concept

Based on the intention of spreading the Olympic ideals among the youth on occasion of the YOG and aiming at influencing the local youth positively, the research concept of the present study proceeds on the assumption that the local youth’s perception of the OV and interest in the OM can be influenced by staging the YOG and involving the local youth. Hence, the following hypotheses can be formulated:

• − Hypothesis 1: The participation of the local youth in the YOG at school programmes and/or attending the YOG on-site and/or following the YOG via different media significantly influences (1) the perception of the OV (H1.1) and (2) the interest in the OM (H1.2).

• − Hypothesis 2: Control variables like socio-demographic background, a priori interest in leisure activities and social capital of the youngsters significantly influence (1) the perception of the OV (H2.1) and (2) the interest in the OM (H2.2).

• − Hypothesis 3: Interaction (moderator) effects such as the combination of socio-demographic variables or social capital with the level of intervention may increase or decrease (1) the perception of the OV (H3.1) and (2) the interest in the OM (H3.2).

In order to summarise and test these hypotheses, the base model is illustrated in Figure 1 and a questionnaire was developed (the questionnaire can be obtained upon request from the authors).

Figure 1. Research model of the study. The kind of involvement in the YOG is shown in the black box.

The latent concepts of the OV and the interest in the OM had to be operationalised. Regarding the OV in the context of major sports events, the following values, based on the literature (Chatziefstathiou, 2005; Chatziefstathiou, 2005; Götzel, 2013; Grupe, 1997; Lenk, 1976; Naul, 2008; Parry, 1988; Preuss, Schütte, Könecke, da Costa, & Stam, 2016), were used in the items: “peaceful competition”, “friendship”, “role models”, “responsibility”, “respect”, “bringing cultures together”, “team spirit”, “fair play”, “striving for excellence”, “amateurism”, “environmental awareness/sustainability”, “unity of body and mind” and “being part of it”. Using a Likert scale, the interviewees were asked how strongly each value is associated with the YOG (1 = strong connection, 5 = weak connection). Therefore, the measurement level of the obtained variables is ordinal. Regarding the interest in the OM, the levels of agreement with the following statements were asked for: (1) “I have become more interested in the Olympic movement”, (2) “I followed the Sochi 2014 Games from a different perspective”, (3) I will follow the next YOG in Lillehammer 2016” and (4) “I followed the Nanjing 2014 YOG”. The measurement of the values for (1) and (1) is based on a Likert scale (1 = Strongly Agree, 5 = Strongly Disagree), while the measurement scale of (3) and (4) is dichotomous (yes/no).

In the second step, we identified variables potentially influencing the OV and the interest in the OM. These are (1) socio-demographic variables, (2) general interests and leisure activities and (3) social capital. Social capital as defined by Putnam (2000) considers the value of relationships among individuals, social networks, common norms and trust. The control variables were collected using approved items from questionnaires such as the European Values Study (2008) as well as the European Social Survey (2014), and social capital was operationalised using approaches from the literature (e.g. Hauser, Perkmann, Puntscher, Walde, & Tappeiner, 2015).

The local youth was exposed to the YOG, as they lived in Tyrol during the event. However, their individual level of involvement in the event was quite different. Local youth either followed the YOG via the media (e.g. newspaper, social media), on-site (e.g. competition, ceremonies) or via official school programmes such as the School Sports Challenge (SSC) and/or the WMP. The SSC aimed at encouraging the local youth to learn and practice winter sports (e.g. free of charge sports programmes were organised for school pupils), while the WMP invited school classes to join international school-twinning projects, where pupils from Austria learned about the culture of another participating country and vice versa (IYOGOC, 2012). Others might have been aware that the YOG had taken place, but had not been involved in the YOG at all. The latter is the smallest possible level of involvement in our sample and was set as the reference category for the following analyses. Whether someone attended various initiatives was asked with a simple dichotomous question (yes/no).

Data

To ensure a representative sample of the youth living in the host region, we approached the adolescents via the school authority. Before conducting the research, the questionnaire was approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Innsbruck. The schools were informed about the aim of the study by the school authority. If a school was interested in participating, the researcher scheduled an appointment for the survey with the respective teacher(s). School pupils under the age of 18 were asked to have their parents sign a permission form. After a pretest, conducted in a school two weeks prior to the actual survey, a representative sample of 39 schools in the region of Tyrol (with respect to school type and districts) was selected.

The study was conducted between 6 February and 9 April 2015, three years after the YOG 2012 had been hosted. An online survey was carried out in the computer labs of the different schools. It took the respondents at most 25 minutes to complete the questionnaire.

In total, 1004 pupils were reached via the survey; 57% of the respondents were girls and 43% boys. The youngest participants were 11 years old (n = 15), the oldest were 20 years old (n = 12) and the average age was about 15.2 years. Most of the participants (91%) were between 13 and 18 years old. Of the respondents, 83% lived in the area surrounding Innsbruck and in the various counties of the State of Tyrol (while 17% lived in the host city Innsbruck). Of the survey participants, 15% had a migration background, which is in line with the official statistical data issued by the State of Tyrol (Amt der Tiroler Landesregierung, 2015).

Results

Latent concepts are employed on two different levels: as part of the control variables (“social capital”) and as components of the core interest of this paper (OV and “interest in the OM”). To obtain these concepts, a principal component analysis (PCA) was applied. A PCA is a statistical procedure that converts a set of possibly correlated variables into a set of linearly uncorrelated components called “principal components”. Variables with a component loading of more than 0.5 in absolute value are assigned to a specific component.

Additionally, a categorical PCA (CATPCA) considering the appropriate measurement levels of the items (i.e. not assuming metric variables) was computed to test the sensitivity of the results. As the findings of both PCAs did not differ significantly, we discuss the results of the PCA which is generally more common (results regarding CATPCA are available from the authors upon request).

Table I gives the detailed results of the PCA regarding social capital. The percentage of missing values was very low (1.8%), and the respective cases were excluded from the analysis listwise. The Bartlett’s test of sphericity was highly significant (p < .000). The Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin criterion was 0.7. The overall explained variance amounted to 61%. The communalities are the proportion of variance accounted for (VAF) by the principal components. They are reported in the last column of Table I and range between 38% and 83%. The VAF differs for the individual items, but on the whole, the communalities are satisfactory. As dimensions for social capital, we obtained the components “institutional trust”, “trust in organised sport institutions”, “norms”, “networks” and “ethics” (Table II).

Table I. PCA for the components institutional trust, norms, trust in organised sport institutions, ethics and networks

Items	Components					Communalities
	Institutional trust	Norms	Trust in organised sports inst.	Ethics	Networks
Trust in government	0.90	−0.03	0.11	0.10	0.00	0.83
Trust in local government	0.90	−0.03	0.09	0.11	−0.03	0.83
Trust in EU	0.75	−0.08	0.21	−0.17	0.01	0.64
Honesty (cheating at school)	0.00	0.84	−0.04	0.02	−0.10	0.72
Honesty (fare dodging)	−0.11	0.75	−0.05	−0.08	0.25	0.65
Trust in IOC	0.00	−0.02	0.87	0.10	0.04	0.76
Trust in FIFA	0.30	−0.11	0.77	−0.03	0.01	0.70
Tolerance (homosexuality)	0.09	−0.09	−0.09	−0.80	0.15	0.69
Trust in church	0.16	−0.21	0.06	0.66	0.16	0.54
Friendship (close)	0.00	0.06	0.05	−0.16	0.76	0.61
Friendship (contacts)	0.03	0.00	0.06	0.15	0.71	0.52
Trust in police	0.40	−0.36	0.05	0.18	0.23	0.38
General trust	0.15	0.00	0.23	0.14	0.11	0.11
Explained variance	19.21%	11.37%	11.41%	9.64%	9.76%	61.39%
Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin measure = 0.7

Grey shading of the boxes indicate the loadings in to one component.

Table II. PCA for the components core OV, interest in the OM and additional OV

Items	Components			Communalities
	Core OV	Interest in OM	Additional OV
I have become more interested in the Olympic Movement	0.12	0.82	0.19	0.73
I followed the Sochi 2014 Games from a different perspective	0.05	0.80	0.21	0.69
I will follow the next YOG in Lillehammer 2016	0.19	0.79	0.14	0.68
I followed the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games	0.00	0.62	-0.03	0.38
Peaceful competition	0.70	0.08	0.16	0.52
Respect	0.71	0.11	0.25	0.57
Bringing cultures together	0.72	0.03	0.06	0.52
Team spirit	0.70	0.08	0.16	0.52
Fair play	0.75	0.06	0.08	0.57
Striving for excellence	0.74	0.02	0.08	0.56
Role models	0.54	0.19	0.42	0.51
Responsibility	0.55	0.15	0.48	0.56
Friendship	0.55	0.15	0.48	0.56
Amateurism	0.03	0.01	0.72	0.52
Environmental awareness/sustainability	0.12	0.24	0.79	0.70
Unity of body and mind	0.35	0.15	0.55	0.45
Being part of it	0.35	0.21	0.25	0.23
Explained variance	24.38%	14.95%	13.93%	53.27%
Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin measure = 0.9

Light grey shading of the boxes indicate the loadings in to one component, dark grey shading indicate similar loadings in two components.

For the PCA with the items designated to operationalise the OV and interest in the OM, 0.8% of the values were missing and again excluded listwise. The Bartlett’s test of sphericity was again highly significant, the Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin criterion was 0.9 and the overall explained variance was 53%. From the 17 items, 3 components were extracted. The component named core Olympic values comprised the items “peaceful competition,” “bringing cultures together,” “team spirit,” “fair play”, “striving for excellence” and “respect”. The respective communalities ranged between 52% and 57%. The second component interest in Olympic movement comprised the variables “I have become more interested in the Olympic movement”, “I followed the Sochi 2014 Games from a different perspective”, “I will follow the next YOG in Lillehammer in 2016” and “I followed the Nanjing 2014 YOG”. The communalities for these variables ranged between 38% and 73%. Finally, the component additional Olympic values summarised “amateurism”, “sustainability” and “unity of body and mind” (the communalities ranged between 45% and 70%). The loadings of “friendship”, “responsibility” and “role models” are close to 0.5. These three items cannot be clearly attributed to one of the two components (core Olympic values or additional Olympic values). Therefore, they should be interpreted as factors weakly contributing to both dimensions. The item “being part of it” does not load on any of the three dimensions. While the component core Olympic values summarised the common values of the OV as discussed in the recent literature on Olympism (e.g. Chatziefstathiou, 2005; Götzel, 2013; Naul, 2008; Preuss et al., 2016), the additional Olympic values component can be described as a more abstract concept of Olympism, which was either not familiar to the youth (e.g. “amateurism”) or tackled newer concepts of Olympism (e.g. “sustainability”). As the items of the component core Olympic values represent the values of Olympism as discussed in the literature very well, we analyse only this component and the interest in the Olympic movement further.

In order to investigate the impact of our control variables and the dimensions of social capital on the two Olympic components (OV and OM), a multiple linear regression analysis was applied. The set of components and independent variables was checked for multicollinearity; for this purpose, the variance inflation factors (VIFs) were computed. Residual diagnostics were performed in order to check the statistical assumptions (e.g. outlier diagnostic and homoscedasticity).

The estimated regression coefficients (RCs), their significance and R-squared goodness-of-fit statistic as a quality measure are provided in Table III. All items not having at least a weakly significant influence (p < .1) on one of the two components are not further discussed.

Table III. Results of the multiple linear regression analysis.

Categories	Items components	Core OV	R² = 0.198		Interest in OM	R² = 0.413
		RC	Sig.		RC	Sig.
Socio-demographic Background	Age^a	0.094	0.000	***	−0.098	0.000	***
	Living in urban areas	0.020	0.879		0.069	0.553
	Gender^b	−0.255	0.005	**	0.001	0.991
	Family situation	0.161	0.151		0.013	0.890
	Only child^c	−0.166	0.107		0.181	0.043	*
	Income of parents	0.099	0.243		−0.071	0.336
	Migration background	−0.206	0.149		0.019	0.880
	Living in Innsbruck	−0.074	0.627		0.146	0.274
Leisure interests	Sports participation	0.104	0.262		0.102	0.208
	Single sports activities	−0.115	0.177		0.050	0.501
	Club sport activities	0.143	0.143		0.141	0.098	*
	Media consumption	−0.011	0.465		0.017	0.200
	Interest in sports events	0.129	0.009	**	0.400	0.000	***
	Interest in cultural events	0.045	0.302		0.060	0.115
Social capital	Institutional trust	0.071	0.066	*	0.094	0.005	***
	Trust in organised sport institutions	0.175	0.000	***	0.072	0.059	*
	Norms^d	−0.146	0.001	***	0.015	0.681
	Networks	0.017	0.688		−0.019	0.612
	Ethics	−0.063	0.166		0.032	0.424
Involvement level	Involvement LIVE	−0.110	0.441		0.555	0.000	***
	Involvement MEDIA	0.278	0.039	**	0.353	0.003	***
	Involvement SCHOOL	−0.320	0.132		0.238	0.198
	Involvement LIVE, MEDIA and SCHOOL	−0.024	0.892		0.791	0.000	***
	Involvement LIVE and SCHOOL	0.014	0.909		0.392	0.000	***
	Involvement MEDIA and SCHOOL	−0.010	0.962		0.604	0.001	***
	Involvement MEDIA and LIVE	0.112	0.543		0.334	0.038	**
Interactions (moderator effects)	Interaction LIVE: trust in organ. sport institutions	−0.069	0.044	**	0.037	0.213
	Interaction MEDIA: trust in organ. sport institutions	−0.055	0.175		−0.006	0.863
	Interaction SCHOOL: trust in organ. sport institutions	−0.073	0.080	*	−0.016	0.653
	Interaction LIVE - gender	−0.002	0.968		0.038	0.300
	Interaction MEDIA: gender	0.032	0.426		−0.045	0.197
	Interaction SCHOOL: gender	−0.078	0.081	*	0.039	0.317

***highly significant (p < .01); **significant (p < .05); *weakly significant (p < .1).

^a− younger, + older.

^b1 = girls, 2 = boys.

^c0 = siblings, 1 = only child.

^dBased on the questionnaire answers with the algebraic sign – reveal a higher degree of tolerance towards homosexuality.

Grey shading of the boxes indicate statistically significant influences of items/components to OV and OM.

The statistical assumptions of the model are fulfilled, thus no severe multicollinearity (all VIFs are smaller than 2.3) and homoscedasticity can be assumed. Nevertheless, heteroscedastic robust standard errors were computed and the results did not change qualitatively. The explanatory power of the individual regressions is satisfactory.

Discussion

We hypothesised that the YOG involvement of the local youth may significantly influence the perception of the OV (H1.1) and increase the interest in the OM (H1.2). Our findings (cf. Table III) reveal that only the item “following the YOG in the media” has a significant influence on the perception of the OV, while all other levels of involvement do not. For the H1.1 – apart from the positive influence of “following the YOG in the media” – no statistical evidence was found. In contrast, the involvement in the YOG positively influences the interest towards the OM; the local youth following the YOG have gained interest in the Olympic events and activities. Interestingly, the results reveal that following the YOG only via school programmes does not significantly influence the interest in the OM. H1.2 can be approved apart from the lacking evidence for the school programme participation effect.

In regards to the control variables, eight controls have an influence either on the OV or the interest in the OM. While it is difficult to influence the perception of the OV by intervention mechanism (e.g. single events), the personal background of the youth plays an important role. Our findings reveal that the perception of the OV is positively influenced by age, gender, interest in sports events, trust in institutions and sports organisations as well as norms. Therefore, H2.1 can be approved. A similar picture can be seen in regards to the influence of personal interests and settings towards the interest in the OM. The results reveal that the interest in sports events influences the interest in the OM as well as trust in policy-makers for staging events (e.g. urban regime). Younger adolescents as well as siblings seem more likely to gain their interest in the OM than others. Finally, youngsters practising their sports in clubs are more likely to pay attention to the OM. In relation to H2.2, we see that a priori factors play a crucial role in the development of an interest towards the OM.

Finally, we tested interactions to understand whether or not certain variables reinforce influencing effects. We mainly concentrated on the relationships of trust in sports organisations (as well as gender) and the different levels of involvement. While no interactions influencing the interest in the OM were statistically significant (therefore H3.2 must be rejected), the following interactions influencing the core Olympic values were revealed. Firstly, distrust in sports organisations and an obligatory involvement in an event (via school projects) may negatively influence the core OV. This causality may also work in relation to live attendance. Finally, male youth school pupils actively following the YOG in the media seem to be more open-minded towards the OV. In regards to 3.1, our analysis reveals statistical interactions, demonstrating positive and negative influences on the perception of the core Olympic values. Therefore, H3.1 can be approved.

The YOG as a single sports event are not able to increase the perception of the OV, but have the power of gaining a general interest in the OM and events organised in the Olympic context. These findings are in line with the empirical results of Götzel (2013), who found that interventions on occasion of the YOG may create a gain in interest towards the OM.

The results reveal that the way in which pupils are involved in an event plays a crucial role. Youth following the YOG in the media – and therefore on a voluntary basis – are likely to learn about the OV and gain interest in the activities of the OM. In contrast, it seems that pupils attending the YOG just within school programmes – without any other form of interaction with the YOG – will profit neither from the messages of the OM nor clearly associate the OV with the YOG. The reason for that might be the lack of interest in the Olympic activities and that the obligatory participation forced in school was not able to increase the interest in the long run. These results are also in line with the study of Götzel (2013); he found that the perception of the Olympic ideals does not depend on the level of involvement.

It is not surprising that the personal background of the youngsters plays a crucial role in the perception of the OV. Boys and girls as well as younger or older adolescents need to be approached differently (e.g. type of programmes, ways of communication). Again, the results here are in line with the findings of Prüschenk and Kurscheidt (2017) and Götzel (2013) with regard to the fact that younger adolescents are more likely to be influenced by the YOG than older ones. Furthermore, the findings can partly be explained by the generally waning interest in sports among older people (Eurobarometer, 2014) and a starting decrease of physical activity of adolescents shown for the Tyrol region (Kaiser-Jovy, Scheu, & Greier, 2017) as well as in other international surveys (e.g. Züchner, 2013).

Moreover, the results show that it is easy to engage already interested young people, but difficult to engage those who are not interested in sports at all. This supports the critical voice of IOC member Richard Pound, when the IOC decided to introduce the YOG (Pound, 2007).

The results reveal that trust (in sports organisations) plays an important role in enhancing the Olympic ideals and interest in the OM. Corruption or doping scandals happening in sports may lead to mistrust and may negatively influence the youngsters’ perception of the OV and the OM.

Although the contribution of this study is evident, it is not free of limitations. The component core Olympic values summarises questions concerning how strongly a given (Olympic) value is associated with the YOG. Therefore, the OV may not indicate the extent to which the Olympic values are approved by the interviewees or the interviewees’ attitude towards them. Investigating these attitudes would be a very interesting area for future research. As the employed component (OV) gives the connection between the OV and the YOG as perceived by the interviewees, we hypothesised more precisely whether the level of involvement increases this relationship.

Of course, a variable measuring the appropriateness of the school programme for a specific school is missing. We assumed such influencing factors get averaged out by involving various school types and just increase the remainder noise. However, this may be a limitation of the study, as for example the eligibility of a school programme with respect to specific pupil types with various needs may present a decisive influencing factor. Obviously, we cannot rule out this kind of impact with our findings yet and, thus, we will leave this investigation for future research.

Conclusion

Our study shows that the YOG and the involvement of the local youth in such events have the power of creating interest towards the OM and its events. The results reveal the following patterns: the higher the involvement, the higher the interest; no effect of obligatory involvement in school programmes was found; a priori interest in sports (events), memberships in sports clubs and having siblings reinforce the interest; trust in policy-makers influences the interest in the OM positively.

If we consider the YOG as an endeavour to influence young citizens’ perception of the OV, the mission rather fails. The reason lies in the fact that the personal background of the pupils has more influence on the development of such values than single sports events do. This means that the impact events may have on increasing the adolescents’ perception of the OV is limited. However, involvement programmes on the occasion of sports events have the power to create a general interest. Policy-makers and practitioners acting in this field therefore need to analyse the target groups for such events and must approach these target groups properly. Intervention programmes (e.g. school programmes) for promoting (Olympic) values and ideals should not be single, isolated activities. Our findings show that on average the established school programmes did not lead to the desired outcome. This fact should not discourage but rather stimulate future organisers to find alternative, probably more innovative ways of engaging schools, pupils and their teachers on occasion of major sports events.

It is not surprising that the IOC has reformulated the goals for the YOG in the Olympic Agenda 2020 (IOC, 2014) after four YOG editions understanding that achieving the very idealistic goals of the YOG was per nature in some aspects a mission impossible. Nevertheless, scholars should not stop analysing the YOG and youth sports events as they may contribute to an extended interest in sports and may lead to lasting effects. Therefore, we encourage the research community to conduct other studies in this field.

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Tyrolean School Authority, the principals, teachers and school pupils for their support and willingness to participate in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The authors would like to thank the Olympic Studies Centre of the International Olympic Committee for awarding this research project to the 2014 Advanced Olympic Research Grant Programme.