The Youth Olympic Games: Analyzing Institutional Performance in an Olympic Context
Ivan, E.
Abstract:
The 1st Youth Olympic Summer Games (YOG) took place in Singapore from August 14-26, 2010 with participation of 3,530 elite young athletes ranging in age from 14 to 18 years old. These Games were followed by the first Youth Olympic Winter Games hosted by Innsbruck, Austria in 2012. Does the introduction of these Games represent good sport policy, good sport practice or merely a crass attempt to further commercialize and promote the Olympic brand image to youth?
Although academics and sport officials in their critical analyses of the YOG are cautious about this newly introduced event, the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) background ideational abilities – i.e. the process by which the YOG has become communicated and accepted – has skipped their attention. This paper utilizes discursive institutionalism as a theoretical framework to analyze available primary and secondary sources, documents, reports, personal interviews, and official communications on the first Youth Olympics. There is a serious disconnect between the initial idea and the institutional manner in which the IOC is developing this Olympic event. The paper also advocates for establishing an independent review mechanism that can provide feedback on the IOC’s performance related to Youth Olympic Games.
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APA citation
- Ivan, E., 2014. The Youth Olympic Games: Analyzing Institutional Performance in an Olympic Context. International Journal of Social Sciences, III(2), pp.50–67.