The Youth Olympic Games as an arena for Olympic education: An evaluation of the school program, “Dream Day”

The promotion of Olympic education through Olympic events has received increased attention among researchers. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) as an arena for Olympic education based on the perceptions of the pupils participating in the school programme “Dream Day” during the YOG 2016 in Lillehammer, a former Olympic city in Norway. Didactical principles for Olympic education (Naul, 2008) are adopted as an analytical framework. This is a qualitative case study using interviews, observations and personal essays of participating pupils as the main sources. Based on the findings in this paper, we argue that the YOG have significant potential as an arena for Olympic education. However, this potential is not yet utilized, and the following implications for future practices are presented. First, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) needs to put more effort into the implementation of Olympic education programmes. Second, the implementation of Olympic education programmes should be a collaboration between different groups and disciplines, including youth representatives. Third, corroborating Naul’s (2008), the pupils’ socio-cultural backgrounds have to be taken into account in order to meet the needs of the participating youth. Finally, the Olympic education programme should have a long-term perspective where the Games are used to increase the educational effect.