Over the past 10 days, the Winter Youth Olympics have been taking place in Lausanne, Switzerland. This is the third winter edition of the Youth Olympics, the brainchild of former IOC President Jacques Rogge. They still haven't caught on (this might be the first time some of you are finding out about the very existence of the Youth Olympics), and I'm not sure they ever will. And, frankly, the Youth Olympics are a little confusing.
The main purpose of the Youth Olympics is to give younger athletes exposure to the Olympic brand, and they also include cultural and educational events. But, let's call the Youth Olympics what they really are--a testing ground for different sports and events (and areas). And those that work just might find their way into the big boy Olympics.
We'll see some of these new events that started at the Youth Olympics in Tokyo. That's where they did the test run for 3x3 basketball and skateboarding. And it's where break dancing made its "Olympic" debut in 2018 and will be seen again in 2022 before we see it at the Paris Games. (Needless to say, I'm lukewarm about break dancing's inclusion on the Olympic program.)
They've also tried out plenty of newer events in the winter version. The main example I can think of is monobob, aka one-person bobsled, which will be the second women's bobsled event in Beijing. And a ton of the IOC's new favorite thing--the mixed team event--were seen in the Youth Olympics before graduating to the main event.
I can somewhat understand some of these new and mixed-gender events. One of the IOC's biggest problems with the regular Olympics is that the audience isn't young enough for them. The Youth Olympics were started as an attempt to appeal to these younger viewers and athletes, which is why these newer events, which are, in their opinion, much more TV- and spectator-friendly.
And, in a way, it makes sense that they're trying them out at the Youth Olympics first. They have the traditional events, too, but the athletes more likely to try something new are the younger ones. And if the younger athletes are the ones doing these different events, start them off in the Youth Olympics before moving them up to the regular Olympics when the athletes who do them get older.
But, here's the problem, some of these events are way too gimmicky and will never be in the actual Olympics! That I think is part of the reason the Youth Olympics will never catch on in the way the IOC hopes. They're viewed as a quaint little mini-Olympics (usually in a place the Olympics themselves will never go, especially in the Summer) where the IOC does these new and different things. It's because of these events, though, that nobody takes the Youth Olympics too seriously.
For example, they had an eight-team 3x3 hockey tournament in Lausanne. This replaced the skills competition, which featured at the first two editions of the Winter Youth Olympics. The teams were designated by color and made up of individual players from countries that don't have a national team in the regular tournament.
It's cool that they're giving these players who otherwise wouldn't the chance to participate in an Olympic competition. But it's also really tough from a viewer's perspective. People know countries. It's much harder to take a rooting interest in the "Green Team." And hockey's not the only sport where they do it. In the Summer Youth Olympics, they have a track & field relay that includes every athlete in the competition randomly put onto a team where they all run 100 meters.
These events will never be in the regular Olympics! Yet they're all over the place in the Youth Olympics! I don't understand it! It's not like the mixed team events, which have actually proven to be quite popular and still fit naturally. Mixed-nationality events, however, wouldn't work in the regular Olympics, the entire point of which is competition between countries. In fact, we often see tennis players change doubles partners in Olympic years simply because they have to play with a partner from their own country.
In one way, these mixed-nationality events make the Youth Olympics unique. Nowhere else are you going to see hockey players from Italy and Argentina playing on the same team. And I get that it's part of the experience. That may even be the entire point, and if it is that's fine.
If that is the point, though, the IOC then needs to decide what the purpose of the Youth Olympics is. Are they a testing ground for new events and other ideas to see if they work before implementing them when the entire world's watching every two years at the main event? Or are they something else?
Because if they're a testing ground, I'm not sure the mixed-nation events have a place. Sure, they promote camaraderie and are probably a lot of fun for the athletes, who may not even speak the same language yet suddenly become teammates. But they aren't even shown on TV! And if they aren't on TV, how are they going catch on in the mainstream (or with the casual Olympic fan)?!
There are plenty of other things about the Youth Olympics that don't make too much sense to me, but I'll table those for another day. After all, there are two editions of the regular Olympics before the next Youth Olympics in 2024, which will take place in Dakar, Senegal (the first Olympic event ever staged in Africa). The mixed-nation team events, though. They've gotta go!
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