Most of you are probably unaware of this, but the Winter Youth Olympics just ended in Lillehammer. I don't blame you for not knowing. The big show, of course, takes place later this year in Rio. And NBCSN's coverage of the event was limited to hour-long nightly highlights.
From all accounts, the 2016 Winter Youth Olympics were a rousing success. Unlike Sochi, it actually felt like winter and there was an abundance of natural snow. And the atmosphere was just as great as it was during the spectacular 1994 Lillehammer Olympics. (In a nice touch, the Opening Ceremony was on Feb. 12, the 22nd anniversary of the 1994 Opening Ceremony, and the Olympic cauldron was lit by Princess Ingrid Alexandra, whose father, Crown Prince Hakon did the honors 22 years earlier.)
The brainchild of former IOC President Jacques Rogge, the Youth Olympics are still young themselves (Lillehammer was just the second winter edition to go along with two summer versions), so they have plenty of time to grow. And there are plenty of things about the Youth Olympics that make them worthwhile. But National Olympic Committees are already showing dwindling enthusiasm about them and there is little to no media coverage, which, in turn, means little fan interest.
Innovation. That's one of the Youth Olympics' biggest selling points. It gives the IOC to try out some different events other than just what's on the regular Olympic program. They're obviously the ones that have that "youth appeal" the IOC is so desperate for. In fact, some events that were given test-runs at the Youth Olympics proved to be so popular that they were added to the Olympic program alongside the more traditional events.
Athletes still represent their countries, but there are a number of mixed-team events, too. Sometimes there are even both. At the 2014 Youth Olympics in Nanjing, the final event of track & field was an 8x100 meter relay where the teams were drawn at random, putting men and women from all different teams and all different events together. (For example, you could have a female long jumper from Finland, a male hammer thrower from Japan, a female sprinter from Australia and a male distance runner from Canada all on the same team.)
As for the host cities, the Youth Olympics are intentionally smaller than the Olympics proper so that smaller cities/nations can still have the opportunity to host an Olympic event. The first two summer versions were held in Singapore and Nanjing, while the 2018 edition is set for Buenos Aires. And, as a means of keeping costs down, cities aren't allowed to build any new venues for the Youth Olympics. (Although, there's apparently no limit on the budget for the Opening Ceremony, seeing as Nanjing's was as unnecessarily over-the-top as you'd expect from any Chinese city.)
However, the Youth Olympics still haven't really picked up steam. It's too early to say that it wasn't a worthwhile experiment, and they're not going to do away with Rogge's baby when he's still involved in the Olympic Movement. But they've already tinkered with the event in hopes of making it more sustainable.
When the Youth Olympics started, they decided to hold them in the Olympic year, but the opposite season. But the youth edition has inevitably been overshadowed by other events (Summer Youth Olympics are in the same summer as a World Cup, while the winter ones precede a Summer Olympics). As a result, after the Buenos Aires Youth Olympics in 2018, the next edition won't be until 2023. Maybe that will help increase the buzz around the Youth Olympics, which could use some if they're going to survive.
It's too early to say what the future might hold for the Youth Olympics. Personally, I don't even know how I feel about them. Are they really necessary in an already-crowded sports universe? Is there enough of an audience for 14-17 year-old-athletes? But at the same time, it's great for these young athletes to get this experience of a lifetime, and they're spreading the Olympic Movement both to new places and younger faces while giving new sports and events an Olympic platform that otherwise wouldn't be there.
Or maybe they just needed to go to Lillehammer. The 1994 Winter Olympics were amazing. They weren't exactly able to recreate those memories, but they did give the Youth Olympics an Olympic atmosphere. They actually felt like they were a big deal. We'll have to wait and see if that was the start of a trend or just chalk it up Lillehammer's magic touch. One thing we do know for sure is that the Youth Olympics deserve a chance to grow. And that's exactly what they're going to get.
No comments:
Post a Comment