Youth Olympic Games (YOG) - Purpose, Positioning and Emerging Issues

This article discusses the purpose and positioning of Youth Olympic Games (YOG) and the emerging issues related to promoting it. It also provides strategies to solve these situations. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) started YOG to connect with the positive elements of youth and Olympic sports. YOG is positioned differently than regular summer and winter games as it offers a unique mixture of elite competition and a festival cultural atmosphere. The emerging issues related to promoting YOG include exploitation, overtraining, doping, lack of qualified coaches, and early specialization of young athletes. The strategy to solve this situation is to communicate all the consequences related to cheating, violence, and other types of abuses to the common public.

Running Head: YOUTH OLYMPIC GAMES (YOG)
YOUTH OLYMPIC GAMES (YOG)
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YOUTH OLYMPIC GAMES (YOG)
1) Describe the intention of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to start the Youth
Olympic Games (YOG).
Answer- International Olympic Committee (IOC) started the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) to
connect with the positive elements of the youth and the Olympic Sports. When Rogge proposed
this event, he cited increases in the strength of children who were dropping out of the sports and
in the childhood obesity (Kristiansen et al., 2018) Their vision was inspire the young athletes for
adapting/ the Olympic values of Friendship, Excellence and Respect. It is presented by IOC as a
platform towards upcoming participation in the Olympics that means- bringing the best-prepared
young athletes to the host nation (Schnitzer et al., 2018). Furthermore, they also though of
staging a sporting event which has both education and culture at its core. By means of this, they
hope of reaching as many people as possible so that they could encourage them for playing more
sport like rationales as well as to play in the proper manner.
2) Examine how the IOC positions the YOG differently than the regular summer and winter
Games.
Answer- The Youth Olympic Games (YOG) are elite multi-sport global event for the best young
athletes in the world belonging from the age range of 15 to 18 years from 200 different nations.
It offers a unique mixture of elite competition and a festival cultural atmosphere for these people
(Petersen et al., 2015). With the same, it also offers the young people the opportunity for the
young people to learn and to be inspired by means of sports. Furthermore, it is also to state that
learning and culture is as important as competition to the YOG. A hallmark of the event is a
unique culture and education program – “Learn & Share” – which is designed for equipping the
athletes with the skills that they need to succeed both on and off the field of play.

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YOUTH OLYMPIC GAMES (YOG)
3) Analyze the emerging issues that relate to promoting the YOG. What is your strategy to solve
this situation?
Answer- The main concerns related to YOG are linked with the exploitation, overtraining,
doping, lack of qualified coaches and early specialization of the young athletes. Also, there are
wide range of ethical issues that might take place and they include- aggression doping, physical
abuse, emotional abuse, cheating and violence. Although the Olympic sports programs has been
revised for the young athletes, there is a presence of some sports that are considered as
unappropriated for controversial, violent and harmful for human health as they demand high rate
of physical demands and technical specialization. However, there are several critiques who have
claimed that such a worldwide promotion on a youth competition is likely to fuel up more of
what is already unproductive and negative regarding the youth sport. Furthermore, as per Naul
and Binder (2017), introduction of YOG events could infuriate these issues if careful education
and messaging was not delivered. It is also to note that in order to cope up with this issue, the
managers should take proper care that all the consequences related to cheating, violence and
other types of abuses could result in are communicated to the common public.

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References:
Kristiansen, E., MacIntosh, E. W., Parent, M. M., & Houlihan, B. (2018). The Youth Olympic
Games: a facilitator or barrier of the high-performance sport development
pathway?. European Sport Management Quarterly, 18(1), 73-92.
Naul, R., & Binder, D. (2017). The promotion of Olympic education by the International
Olympic Committee. In Olympic Education (pp. 40-51). Routledge.
Petersen, J.C., Deitz, S., Leitzelar, B., Bellar, D. and Judge, L.W., 2015. Youth Olympic Games
Awareness: An Analysis of Parents of Elite Youth Sport Athletes. Global Sport Business
Journal, 3(3), pp.29-41.
Schnitzer, M., Walde, J., Scheiber, S., Nagiller, R., & Tappeiner, G. (2018). Do the Youth
Olympic Games promote Olympism? Analysing a mission (im) possible from a local
youth perspective. European journal of sport science, 1-9.