ISSN: 1543-9518

Fundraising in Sports: A case study

Author: Francisco J. Quevedo1

Corresponding Author:

Francisco J. Quevedo

72 Maple Street

Watchung, NJ, 07069

[email protected]

929-208-5289 


1Department of Marketing, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Newark, NJ 

Dr. Quevedo is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Rutgers University. A UMass Amherst ’78 graduate, he got his doctorate, MBA, and CAGSB at Pace University. He taught there, and at NYU before joining Rutgers full-time in 2020. He worked corporate and developed his family’s businesses in insurance, tourism, sports, and agriculture for 33 years until returning to academia. He has taught college for 15 years and done consulting for Fortune 100 firms, NGOs, and governments in nine countries. He has worked with nonprofits for 20 years. He researches brand management and nonprofit marketing, publishing 12 articles and chapters since 2019. He received an Award for Teaching Innovation in 2023 and coordinates the CM3A consulting center at Rutgers. 

ABSTRACT

Nonprofits in general long for fundraising guidance, market and donor research, and strategic planning support from academia. Within this sector, US amateur sports could represent a $60.5 billion segment, which receives but a small portion of total donations. To help close the gap, this paper presents a case study that can serve as a model to optimize nonprofit performance based on an amateur sports organization, which combines three related studies: a time-series analysis of nonprofits in the US showing that revenues depend largely on awareness and income, and points to the need to choose the right target and put the message out to raise funds; a donor survey which showed that, individually, decisions to give are based mostly on pride, pity, PR, personal interest, and pleasure, and points to the need to craft the right appeal; and a cross-sectional, six-country analysis of a proposed structure and processes that represents the underlying theory for this paper, which showed how networking, fiscal leveraging, and a coherent narrative, supported by the proper strategy and organization, generate external influence and revenues, thus emphasizing the need to follow proper procedure to achieve the desired results. A deep dive into the scientific literature sets the stage to analyze 17 years of experience in the WSKF Sports Foundation, part of a worldwide organization that spans over 110 countries and a million members, and raised up to $3.3 million at its peak in 2015, winning 266 world medals between 2007 and 2017, thereby providing a blueprint for fundraising in sports that can extend to most nonprofit organizations.

Key Words: sponsorship, strategy, process, model, medals, nonprofit, WSKF, foundation

INTRODUCTION

This paper points to the most pressing needs of nonprofit organizations. An unpublished survey of the Center for Marketing Advantage, Advancement, and Action of Rutgers University, working with the membership of the NJ Center for Nonprofits, pinpointed the demands of private foundations; fundraising, marketing and donor research stand out as the most urgent requirements of NGOs, followed by specifics like digital marketing and communications, market research, and strategic planning. Tracking 17 years of nonprofit research and amateur sports experience, we aim to present a tested and proven model to optimize nonprofit performance with the support of three specific research studies and a wide search of the literature.

The proposed model is supported by a cross-sectional test of Koschmann, Khun & Pfaerrer’s theory (23) done by Quevedo (33), a time series analysis of the US nonprofit sector by Quevedo & Quevedo-Prince (36), and a national survey that studied the driving motives to donate by Quevedo and Lee (35), which extended prior research by Quevedo and Gopalakrishna (34) on consumer preferences applying them in the nonprofit field.

The WSKF Venezuela Sports Foundation, part of a Japanese karate federation, the World Shotokan Karate-do Federation, that spans over 20,000 clubs and over a million members in more than 100 countries, served as the basis for a six-country analysis that showed how networking, leveraging, and a coherent narrative, deployed on the shoulders of the proper strategy, organization and processes, generate external influence (press coverage and lobbying power), and lead to substantially more revenues for the organization.

These studies and experiences showed that choosing the right target, designing the right appeal, and following the right approach, strategy and processes, will boost press coverage and drive fundraising. It is not just about saying and doing the right things, nonprofits must do the right things correctly.

A key paradox in amateur sports is whether funding follows medals or medals follow funding. In the case of the WSKF Sports Foundation, winning seemed to be the key to fundraising. Winning in one championship leveraged the next championship cycle. Looking at other causes, however, we must ask, should they generate social benefits to raise funds or raise funds to generate benefits? This chicken-and-the-egg paradox (Illustration 1) is paramount in sports, since medals increase media coverage and provide bragging rights to get more funds, but then funds, and training of course, are the means to get those medals, but it may not be necessarily true in other scenarios.

Illustration # 1: Medals and Funds – A Virtuous Circle in Amateur Sports

BACKGROUND

The youth and amateur sports industry is booming. The sector’s direct spending impact was valued at $39.7 billion in 2021, says a Sports ETA’s industry report signed by Clement (6). Wintergreen Research predicted that this market would grow at a compound annual growth rate of 8.9% until 2028. The NCAA generated a record $1.22 billion of revenue in 2022 from March Madness ticket sales, merchandise and television broadcast rights. Indeed, CBS and Turner Sports will pay the NCAA up to $19.6 billion over a 22-year contract term said Morones (31). These elements can add up to a $41 billion industry which depends in good part on fundraising to survive. However, sports are but a minuscule part of the philanthropic market and dynamics, so small that they do not make the charts. Certainly, more research support is needed to develop the sector. Unfortunately, marketing literature is unable to provide meaningful guidance because scant research attention has hampered a fuller understanding of why people help, as Bendapudi, Singh & Bendapudi found (2).

Chart 1: Nonprofit Revenues in the US

The professional sports market on the other hand is projected to reach close to $85 billion this year and that may not consider royalties for branded sports clothing and memorabilia according to Statista (39). Based on these figures, we could be looking at an umbrella sports market of $126 billion in the US alone, and perhaps as much as $500 billion worldwide by extrapolation (based on US vs. world GDP). 

METHODS

Sargeant and Shang (2010) emphasized that the need for a comprehensive model for fundraising has never been greater (37). Accordingly, we aim to provide a blueprint for funding amateur sports based on both theory and practice, leaning on three specific research studies, a deep dive into the scientific literature, and 17 years of successful fundraising experience with the WSKF Venezuela Sports Foundation, and 20 years of foundational work overall. Furthermore, we aimed to answer the question “will the right target and message, the right appeal and the right approach drive fundraising success, or do we need credentials and credibility upfront to attract sponsors?”

Illustration # 2: Kushman’s et al (2012) Model for Nonprofits

The WSKF Venezuela Sports Foundation raised up to $3.3 million (at the official rate of exchange) in its peak year, 2015, when its national team won 66 world medals in Tokyo, and received 73 press mentions which reverberated throughout the web internationally. These results speak for themselves. Its model was in use since 2008, and was replicated in Japan, the US, Canada, Panama, Spain, Ireland and other countries where the organization is present. A cross-sectional study, covering six countries, tested how much a gap in the execution of the appropriate model will affect  fundraising results.

Data Analyses

Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS version 29.0.2.0 (IBM). Multiple regression was combined with factor analysis in the time series modeling of the US nonprofit sector. Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated, as were the significance and p-values once the best fitting variables were identified. The donor decision model was determined through multinomial logistic regression, considering the extensive use of categorical variables. Cronbach’s alpha, Pseudo-R2 coefficients, significance and Chi-square values were calculated as well. Compare means was used in the cross-sectional analysis of six countries represented in the WSKF Sports Foundation to validate variations in their results. 

Prior Research Studies

Traditionally, the largest source of charitable giving in the US are individuals, not corporations, with $268.28 billion in donations which represent 71% of total giving, followed by foundations ($57.19 billion or 16%), bequests ($28.72 billion or 9%), and corporations ($18.46 billion or 5%). The average annual household contribution to nonprofits stood at $2,974, according to Statista (42). The majority of charitable dollars go to churches (32%), schools and colleges (15%), human services (12%), grant-making foundations (11%), and hospitals in general (8%). Sports does not make the Top 5 in this report.

List says that the nonprofit market revolves around three major players: (1) the donors, who provide the resources to charities. These can be corporations, public institutions, individuals, and non-government organizations (NGOs); (2) charitable organizations, which attract and allocate resources; and (3) the government, which decides on the fiscal framework for individual, corporate and NGO contributions, shapes the supply of grants to the various charities, and decides which public goods it will provide directly (28).

This proposal feeds from three research studies and 17 years of fundraising experience with the WSKF Sports Foundation. First, a predictive model of the US Nonprofit Sector based on time-series analysis showed that Nonprofit Revenues (NPR) depend largely on Public Awareness, as measured by TV coverage, and on Disposable Personal Income (DPI), specifically: NPR = – 4401.542 + 528.327(DPI) +23.121(TV Coverage) + Ɛ (36). Pearson’s R came up to 0.935, significance levels were at 0.001. Confirmatory Factor Analysis reaffirmed the fit of the equation, with an R² of 0.87. These findings indicate that nonprofits must first choose their targets well. Then fundraisers must put the message out, if they wish to get funds.

The question is “what should nonprofits say?” The second reference comes from a survey of 615 respondents, using their alma mater, the ASPCA, St. Jude’s Hospital for Children, a local homeless shelter, and their church as references; considering pride, pity, PR, personal interest, and pleasure as the driving motives, testing which appeal worked best to communicate a Nonprofit Organization’s message to generate funds. These were called “The 5-Ps of Fundraising” (35). Based on the pseudo-R2 coefficients generated by Multinomial Logistic Regression, the model reflected a predictive ability of 49.7%. All criteria were statistically significant. The pleasure of giving was the strongest driver, coming out as an underlying motivator in the donating decision. Different social causes respond differently to alternate fundraising appeals, therefore, determining which appeal works best is key to success. Ignoring the key drivers in the decision to donate may lead to being both ineffective and inefficient. These findings tell fundraisers how to craft the right appeal.

The third study would show how to deliver the right appeal to the right target, and how to operate a nonprofit organization successfully. Looking into the literature, Curry, Rodin and Carlson proposed that organizations that operate on transformational approaches to fundraising have fared significantly better than those which operate on a more transactional basis, and that the greater physical proximity of the donor base of an organization would positively impact fundraising (7). Wallace said that predictive modeling has concentrated on big-donor analytics, largely aimed at the identification of potential donors (43). Nonetheless, Koschman et al. (23) presented a more detailed model for optimizing the performance of Nonprofit Organizations (Illustration 2), which in hindsight, was being used by the organization under study years before it was published. Their model became thereby the underlying theory for this case study.

Indeed, Harris says that case analysis is a valid learning tool for research in fundraising for sports (15). Accordingly, we tested the Koschman et al. (23) model on the WSKF Venezuela Sports Foundation, part of a Japanese federation that spans over 20,000 clubs and more than one million members in more than 100 countries throughout all the continents except Antarctica, using six countries (the US, Panama, Spain, Ireland, Canada, and Venezuela) to find cross sectional illustrations of how the “meaningful participation” of members, the “centripetal forces” generated by the organization and its environment, and the consolidation of an institutional image through a “coherent narrative,” worked on the basis of “authoritative texts,” to use the original labels (23), generated “external influences” and led to substantially more revenues for the organization (33). These findings in sum tell fundraisers to follow proper procedure, a solid strategy, detailed plans and professional processes to achieve the desired results, given the choice of the right target and an appropriate message and appeal.

Although a better understanding of nonprofit dynamics and of the factors that affect fundraising efficiency is essential to charity managers, policy makers, and private donors, research has focused more on the micro than the macro view, says Yi (46), and not quite on the “how to” of organizational performance. Guy and Patton say that nonprofit marketing should begin with a basic understanding of motivations and donor behavior rather than merely adopting prefabricated marketing techniques (14). Sure enough, to be competitive, charitable organizations must rely on carefully formulated promotional programs, but there is an urgent need for research to identify the prevalence and effectiveness of different messages, according to Leonhardt and Peterson (27), who add that more than 55% of all NGOs appeal to selfless consumer motives (i.e., altruism), which is appropriate. However, an important experiment revealed that appealing to more selfless vs. less selfless (i.e., reputation) motives results in consumers having a more favorable attitude toward the charitable organization. So, there is more to donating than just the desire to help, and there is more to fundraising than just asking for money to those who have it. Consumer involvement, for instance, is found to have an important effect on the decision to donate; selfless appeals promote a more positive attitude among consumers with low involvement, but not for those with high involvement with a charitable cause (e.g., animal welfare).

Furthermore, Cao  found that psychological involvement with charities affects donation intentions; seeing a picture of a sad vs. a happy person increased intentions to give among participants with lower levels of psychological involvement, whereas the reverse was true for highly involved participants (3), hence the importance for NGOs and CSR executives to understand the nature and behavioral context of their operations. Huber, Van Boven, & McGraw combine what they call the internal and external influences on donor behavior (18), pointing in the direction of this paper and related research. Donor behavior has been disaggregated by researchers like Fajardo, Townsend, and Bolander into two components: donation choice and donation amount. Donor-related appeals have a greater effect on choice, while organization-related appeals have a greater effect on the amount pledged or donated. This could lead one to conclude that presenting both types of appeals in a solicitation is ideal (10).

On an individual level, the vast majority of donors are enthusiastic and positive about the organizations they give to, and about charities in general says Wooden (45). Leonhardt says that people give money to feel the “glow” associated with being the kind of person who helps a worthy cause (26). Kemp, Kennett-Hensel, and Kees studied emotions like pride and pity in charitable appeals, focusing on sex and gender as potential emotional collateral variables (21). Utility-based models that focus on the effects of lifetime, recency, seasonality, and appeals also show that fundraising attempts should emphasize commitment rather than amount, as stated by Kim, Gupta, and Lee, (22). Sectorial research by Kamatham, Pahwa, Jiang and Kumar focused on education’s 75% success rate studied how different appeals affect fundraising; sophistication of the appeal has a positive effect on fundraising and the amount donated. Providing information on the state of a project has a positive effect on donations, corroborating reinforcement models of donor behavior; individuals share a burden when supporting charitable causes and donate at least as much as the minimum donated (20). At the strategic level, Krug and Weinberg’s Merit Axis Model links the mission of the organization, the money raised, and merit as a standard for nonprofit management (24). Pride, pleasure, and personal interest were linked by Third to the legacy effect in the college and universities context, pointing to relational fundraising and the application of CRM to nonprofit marketing (41). A unified conceptual, behavioral, and econometric framework for optimal fundraising can combine approaches from Economics, Marketing, Psychology, and Sociology, said Haruvy, Popkowski,  Leszczyc, Allenby, Belk, Eckel, Fisher, Li, Ma, Wang, and List (16), which is the intention of this paper, considering the need for developing a comprehensive model of giving behavior and nonprofit organization performance.

Although the marketization of nonprofit activities, given by the introduction of marketing practices like sales of POP and different goods and services, competing for consulting contracts, donor relations management (the philanthropic version of CRM), and social entrepreneurship has drawn criticism, according to Eikenberry and Drapal (8), fierce competition for funds and a tighter economy have given rise to innovative fundraising methods like web-based crowdfunding and what is called Cause Related Marketing or CRAM by Chaney and Dolli (5).

Little research has been published about the perhaps circular correlation between medals and funds raised. Slater’s study relates medals and press coverage (38) which in turn supports fundraising. A cross-sectional study covering Belgium, Finland, Japan, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom by Funahashi, Shibli, Sotiriadou, Mäkinen, Dijk, and De Bosscher relates funding with sporting success (12), which seems logical. Funds allow athletes and teams to train and eat, even to rest properly, and of course to compete and classify, thereby increasing their chances of success in top-tier events. Another report by Hogan and Norton, published through the National Institutes of Health found a high direct correlation between medals and funds (17). Although correlation does not imply causation, definitely the more funds, the more medals (and vice-versa, we would add).

Fundraising will continue to be vital for sports programs and facilities to operate. However, the climate for fundraising has become more competitive as more organizations chase the same discretionary dollars, and donors become more demanding. In order to cope, fundraisers will need to readjust their strategies. Fundraisers must understand all fundraising-related elements such as the event’s purpose, target markets and donors, and methods and strategies to be employed, said a 1996 editorial in the Journal of Social Marketing. Indeed, Stier and Schneider claim that fundraising is one of the major responsibilities of sport managers in the 21st century (40).

The Case of the WSKF Sports Foundation

As mentioned, prior research showed that the secret to fundraising success lies on selecting the right target and getting the message out there (36), based on the right appeal (35), to set in motion the most effective model of nonprofit performance (33). Indeed, Koschmann et al. (23) suggested that a proper combination of networking, leveraging and communication, based on a clear strategy, and following well-targeted processes, will generate optimal press coverage and influence, and -of course- funds.

Illustration # 3: The Winning Strategy

At the WSKF Venezuela Sports Foundation, applying the Koschmann et al. (23) model, something it did four years before it was ever published, meant (1st) leaning on the athletes and their parents to network and target corporations to gain access to their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs, (2nd) leveraging fundraising efforts on the Law for the Development of Sports which created a 0.5% sports tax on profits and allowed corporations to channel half of that directly to projects accredited by the Ministry of Sports, and (3rd) appealing to pride and PR interests, considering that Charity Sport Event (CSE) fundraisers are often confronted by the donors’ lack of interest, even though those events can provide participants with a meaningful experience, as stated by Filo, Fechner and Inoue (11). The message was carried by a top-of-the-line institutional DVD presentation, a quarterly newsletter, a website, direct and digital marketing efforts, and through an aggressive media management strategy that used timely press-releases, many of them sent from Tokyo, the common championship site, to gain immediate exposure.

This strategy, born out of a Shihan-kai meeting in Cyprus in 2010, blended well with Kaplan and Norton’s (19) map format, which kicks off from an organization that strove to muster the  support of parents, athletes, and instructors to execute the fundraising process, by reaching out to the right target with the proper appeal and press support, and achieve the desired financial results, as seen on Illustration 3. The leading KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) were medals won and funds raised primarily, but press coverage was extremely important for fundraising, since it reinforced the pride and PR appeal, as were the dimensions of the donors’ database. Donor relationship management leaned on the newsletter, BUDOtips, and as many as 73 media mentions per championship cycle.

The fundraising process was detailed, starting with the identification of all possible sources of funds, since it is not all about sponsorship. Indeed, McKeever and Pettijohn stressed that nonprofit organizations derive half of their revenues quid-pro-quo (30), as Graph 1 shows; in terms of sports organizations, this 50% may come from ticket sales, broadcasting rights, advertising, memorabilia and fees charged, among other internal sources. Additional funding may come from government or NGO grants, private and corporate donors, even multilaterals; depending on a single source is myopic as Levitt (25) would most likely define it. Accordingly, the first question that nonprofit managers must ask themselves is “are we doing the things we need to do to get money, or should we be getting money for the things we do?” Some nonprofits miss this benchmarking and go straight to asking for donations without considering the monetization of things that they can do or sell to generate funds. In case of WSKF, this meant monthly fees, sales of sporting goods and memorabilia, special training sessions, and events like national and regional championships.

Chart 3: Structure of Nonprofit Revenues

Based on a clear understanding of nonprofit market dynamics and the supply of funds, and considering the Sports Law, corporate and government targets were identified, and a unique appeal was tailored for each segment. The operational planning began when all decisions had been made and defined, otherwise it could have turned into a map without destination. The organization would pursue its financial objectives through traditional fundraising means, grants, events, and crowdfunding. The technical arm, the WSKF organization, would be the one to charge fees and hold events, collecting money from attendance and participation, under foundational guidelines.

Illustration # 4: The WSKF Fundraising Process

A growing database of corporate donors was informed and nurtured with a newsletter called BUDOtips which circulated throughout the organization. A survey of athletes, parents, and instructors generated the structure of the magazine which was then tested against donors’ expectations. Four sections were created: “Budo,” dealing with principles, for the parents who sought discipline and principles for their children, and who represented over two-thirds of the membership; “Technique” for the athletes who wanted to improve their performance; “Management” for the instructors who wanted to run their clubs profitably; and “News” for the donors and for everyone; the Editorial was just an introduction and an invitation to read, as seen on the cover page below.

A growing database of corporate donors was informed and nurtured with a newsletter called BUDOtips which circulated throughout the organization. A survey of athletes, parents, and instructors generated the structure of the magazine which was then tested against donors’ expectations. Four sections were created: “Budo,” dealing with principles, for the parents who sought discipline and principles for their children, and who represented over two-thirds of the membership; “Technique” for the athletes who wanted to improve their performance; “Management” for the instructors who wanted to run their clubs profitably; and “News” for the donors and for everyone; the Editorial was just an introduction and an invitation to read, as seen on the cover page below.

Illustration # 5: The WSKF Newsletter

The results of these concerted efforts were evident. Formal fundraising began after a lack of funding left the 2005 championship cycle dry. 14 medals were won in 2007. The WSKF Venezuela Sports Foundation was created in 2008, leading to 24 world medals in Tokyo the following year. As the organization learned and matured, the medal count skyrocketed to record-breaking numbers, 50 in 2011, 42 in 2013, a record-breaking 66 in 2015, and 60 in the following cycle, 2017. Eight medals were won by a small team in the World Cup held in Cyprus in 2010. Winning led to press coverage which peaked at 73 TV, newspaper, radio and digital mentions in 2015, which reverberated throughout the web, nationally and internationally.

Chart 4: The WSKF Venezuela Medal Count

rage of 158 days younger than those athletes who win bronze medals.  Together, these results suggest that the results are generally consistent across males and females as well as Summer and Winter Games.    

DISCUSSION

The predictive model points fundraising and communicational efforts toward deep pockets (36), which implies choosing the right target and putting out the most appropriate message; research into donor choice (35) leads to crafting the right appeal to carry that message; and testing Koschmann et al.’s communicative framework (23, 33) guides nonprofits to follow the right strategy and proper processes, supported on networking, leveraging on legal and fiscal incentives, and on the proper media strategy. Indeed, the strategy of the WSKF Sports Foundation, knowingly or not, and ahead of its time, blended these three theories and put them into practice, combining this theoretical framework with the Kaplan and Norton’s (19) strategy map format by adapting the organizational perspective to create a network of athletes and parents to reach out to corporate donors, crafting fundraising and sports operations to leverage on the Law for the Development of Sports, and fitting the customer perspective to the media strategy, and vice-versa. The financial perspective was led by the Balanced Score Card with metrics like revenues and average sponsorship level per athlete. The Strategy Map represented in and of itself a vital authoritative paper, along with the fundraising process flowchart. Moreover, it added an interesting twist, using world championship success and feedback to fuel fundraising, as medals triggered press coverage which in turn attracted sponsors, and then their sponsorship allowed the teams and athletes to train, compete and win more medals. This created a virtuous cycle. To feed the flame, the Foundation added reverberance by hosting a “Dinner with the Champs” upon returning from Tokyo, where the press and the donors would share photo-ops with the athletes in their colors and with their medals, while receiving plaques for their support, which added more press coverage and PR opportunities.

The Foundation continued to multiply its branding efforts by adding non-sports philanthropy to its credentials, networking with several organizations like Mayor’s Offices, corporate programs (CSR), and private foundations to help the needy, thereby positioning its brand at a national level and squeezing the most out of the athletes’ medals’ appeal (Illustration 6). Again, this added more press coverage. Indeed, the WSKF Venezuela Sports Foundation showed that theory, when put into practice, gets the most out of the strategy.

CONCLUSIONS

Theory says choose your target well, craft the right appeal, and execute the right strategy correctly, following proper procedure, through a well laid out fundraising process. Strategizing will require a detailed situational analysis and brainstorm, blending the theory and the best practices into your initiatives. Choose your KPIs well; funds, medals, or outside of sports, social impact, and press coverage should be the strongest drivers; medals add leverage, they lead to press coverage, press coverage attracts sponsors and triggers pride and PR opportunities; and sponsorship allows athletes to train and participate in world events, which leads to medals, as the virtuous cycle makes another rotation. Be relentless and thorough in the execution of the strategy; and whenever and wherever possible, widen your networking circles. The more, the merrier!

Limitations and Further Research

Although the Pearson coefficient of the first study is outstanding, the donor choice research could use additional criteria like peer influence and personal commitment with the social cause to increase its predictive ability. This would make it “The 7-Ps of Fundraising” and should raise the model’s pseudo-R2. The cross-sectional study is pretty straightforward, but it also showed that not every country has such a favorable fiscal framework for sports as Venezuela, which enacted legislation that taxes corporate earnings to fund the development of sports. They finance the construction of sports complexes, sporting events, and national team competitions, both nationally and internationally. Corporate donors can channel one half of that tax directly to accredited projects; this benefits the leveraging aspect of Koschmann et al.’s model (23). Nonetheless, there are always tax incentives and breaks for donors and fundraisers in just about every country we analyzed; in the end, what donors are looking for are meaningful projects that are properly organized and well presented. Credibility is a must, and feelings and appearances matter.

It should be also mentioned that the Venezuelan socio-economic and political situation today may not be conducive to achieving the same 2007 ⎯ 2017 results that were analyzed here. Funding has been politicized, the economy has shrunk 80%, and the exchange rate has gone from Bs. 10 per US dollar, in August 2018, to Bs. 119,144,000,000,000 or 119.14 today, after the regime erased eleven zeroes from the currency to hide the mega-devaluation and hyper-inflation.

APPLICATIONS IN SPORT

Rarely has a combination of theory and practice been put together to recommend fundraisers how to balance strategy and operations; not one or two but three research studies support this paper; 20 years of foundational experience leverage them; raising up to $3.3 million a year in funds and winning 266 world medals in 10 years prove it right; an organization spanning over 110 countries and over one million members, make this a unique learning opportunity. The underlying theoretical model calls for networking among people and organizations, leveraging on legal and fiscal incentives, and communicating the right message to the right target, working on the shoulders of a clear strategy, a lean and mean organization, and a consistent fundraising process, to generate press coverage and lobbying power, and ⎯ultimately⎯ funds. The theory says choose wisely, and indeed strategy is all about choice: identify the right target, craft the right appeal, and do the right things correctly, which demands a fine-tuned organization and processes.

Now, to the question, “do we need to win medals to raise funds or raise funds to win medals?” Well, yes, credentials help fundraisers win support but in the absence of medals, the operational model and the right choices should cast a net that is wide enough to generate revenues and attract volunteers, but in the absence of results, in startup nonprofits, the founders’ accolades, and networks, can help. But appearances matter, that is why the WSKF Sports Foundation leaned on its website, a top-of-the-line DVD presentation, and its newsletter, all of which seemed bigger than life, to reach the target before the medal count skyrocketed and a virtuous cycle was created. Momentum did the rest.

It is important to remember that one half of nonprofit revenues are quid-pro-quo, coming from things nonprofit organizations do or sell (see Graph # 1). Hospitals recover medical costs, universities charge tuition, and the WSKF Sports Foundation collected fees from its membership. Income cannot depend solely on donations or grants. Nonprofits must make an effort to add to their revenue streams by monetizing their activities, something not always remembered, as our consulting efforts at Rutgers University have shown us. Private foundations struggle with lack of resources and specialized skills, but solutions are at an arm’s length.

Social Implications

The Nonprofit Sector in general, which represents 5.4% of the US economy, can benefit from  strategies that are supported by data and research, plus decades of fundraising experience at the same time. Amateur sports fundraising in particular, a $60 billion industry, can surely profit from a fresh perspective.

Eather, Wade, Pankowiak, et al.’s research suggests that community sports programs, supported by fundraising, can significantly enhance social capital and promote social cohesion by increasing trust, improving social networks, and fostering a stronger sense of community amongst participants, providing opportunities for community members –athletes, coaches, volunteers, and supporters– to interact, build relationships, and develop a shared identity (8)

Supporting fundraising in amateur sports through scientific research goes beyond securing financial resources. It fosters community spirit, enhances social connections, and provides numerous positive social and psychological benefits for both participants and volunteers. These benefits contribute to stronger, healthier, and more cohesive communities says Wheatley (44). Ultimately, if the nonprofit sector does indeed pick up the slack of governmental failure, Matsunaga and Yamauchi’s theory (29), then anything that benefits philanthropy will benefit society as a whole.

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2025-09-10T15:45:29-05:00January 21st, 2026|General, Olympics, Research, Sports Management, Sports Studies|Comments Off on Fundraising in Sports: A case study
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Relative Age Effect Among Olympic Medalists: Evidence from Ten Summer and Winter Olympic Games held between 2000 and 2018 

Authors: Christiana E. Hilmer, Michael J. Hilmer1

Corresponding Author:

Christiana Hilmer, PhD 

5500 Campanile Drive 

San Diego, CA 92182-4485 

[email protected] 

619-301-9388 


1Both: Department of Economics, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 

Christiana E. Hilmer, Ph.D., is a Professor of Economics at San Diego State University in San Diego, CA.  Her research interests include the economics of sports, applied econometrics, labor economics, and resource and environmental economics.   

Michael J. Hilmer, Ph.D., is a Professor of Economics at San Diego State University in San Diego, CA.  His research interests include the economics of sports, labor economics, and the economics of education. 

ABSTRACT

This study examines the Relative Age Effect (RAE) among 4,453 individual Olympic medalists from ten Olympic Games (five Summer and five Winter) held between 2000 and 2018. We analyze athletes’ birth quarters and ages at the time of competition to assess patterns by gender, event type, and medal outcome. Using descriptive statistics, regression analysis, a Pearson 𝜒2 test, and a logit model, we find that athletes in judged and combat events tend to be younger, while those in skill and endurance events tend to be older. Gold medalists are, on average, younger than bronze medalists and more likely to be born in the first half of the year. These results confirm the presence of RAE at the highest level of sport and suggest that early developmental advantages persist among Olympic medalists. The findings have implications for athlete development systems and elite sport selection criteria. 

Key Words: Athlete Development; Birth Quarter; Elite Sport, Logit Analysis, Pearson 𝝌𝟐 test 

INTRODUCTION

The Relative Age Effect (RAE) refers to the phenomenon in which individuals born earlier in a selected period, typically a calendar year, tend to benefit from developmental advantages over their younger peers within the same cohort.  These advantages may include earlier physical growth, cognitive maturity, and better access to competitive opportunities.  This concept was described by Barnsley and Thompson (3) in Canadian youth hockey, where players born in the first half of the year were disproportionately over-represented.  RAE has since been documented across various sports, including professional baseball (Thompson, Barnsley, and Stebelsky (14)), elite youth soccer (Glamser and Vincent (7)), youth swimming (Costa et al. (5)) and basketball (Werneck et al. (17)).  Extensive empirical evidence over the last three decades has confirmed its presence in multiple athletic and academic domains (Musch and Grondin (11); Patiño et al. (12)). Researchers have also explored alternative approaches to identifying RAEs by comparing athletes’ relative ages at the time of competition (Zetaruk (18) and Longo et al. (10)). Yet little is known about whether RAE endures at the pinnacle of sports performance. 

Many past studies have focused on youth and amateur athletes, where selection systems, age-based groupings, and physical maturation exert considerable influence.  However, less is known about whether RAE persists at the highest levels of athletic achievement.  The Olympic Games, which represent peak international competition, provide a valuable lens to explore whether early developmental advantages have long-term consequences that extend into elite performance.   

The Olympic context introduces additional layers of complexity.  Events vary widely in physical demands, skill development, and peak performance age.  For instance, judged events such as gymnastics and ice skating often feature younger athletes (Zetaruk (18) and Cummins (6)) while skill and endurance events, such as archery, cross-country skiing, and the marathon typically feature older athletes (Longo et al. (10)).  Seasonal differences between Summer and Winter Games, and gender specific trajectories, also warrant attention. 

Although prior research has examined RAE in Olympic contexts, findings have been mixed.  Baker et al. (2) find evidence of the RAE in skiing, snowboarding, and Nordic combined, find no evidence for figure skaters, and report an atypical pattern in gymnastics.  Joyner et al. (9) find evidence of RAE across multiple sports but note variation by gender and season.  Raschner et al. (13) analyzed data from the first Winter Youth Olympic Games and found evidence of RAE in both genders and across strength, endurance, and technique-related sports.  This study differs by focusing exclusively on Olympic medalists – those who reached the highest level in their sport – to determine whether RAE persists not just in participation, but in podium success. 

This study analyzes 4,453 individual medalists from ten Olympic games (five Summer and five Winter) between 2000 and 2018. We classify events into six categories (timed, judged, skill, endurance, strength, and combat), and examine both the athletes’ age at the time of competition and their birth quarter. The central research questions are (1) Are Olympic medalists disproportionately born in the earlier quarters of the calendar year? (2) Does the probability of winning a gold medal vary by birth quarter? and (3) Are athletes’ ages at the time of competition systematically associated with event type, gender, or Olympic season? This study expands the literature by analyzing RAE by event type among Olympic medalists across both Summer and Winter Games. 

METHODS

This study examines 4,453 medalists (gold, silver, and bronze) from ten Olympic Games held between 2000 and 2018 – five Summer Games (Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, Beijing 2008, London 2012, Rio de Janeiro 2016) and five Winter Games (Salt Lake City 2002, Turin 2006, Vancouver 2010, Sochi 2014, PyeongChang 2018).  Data were compiled from official Olympic databases during 2019.  Athlete biographies were consulted to ensure accuracy regarding birthdates, event categories, and medal results.  Medalists disqualified as of December 2019 due to doping violations were excluded from this analysis.  

Athletes were categorized by type of event into six mutually exclusive groups: timed/weight/measured, judged, skill, endurance, strength, and combat. Hilmer and Hilmer (8) apply these same categories to investigate the presence of confirmation bias in judged events at the Olympic Games.  The first category is timed/weight/measured, where competitors start together and medal winners are determined by that individual competition (henceforth referred to, for lack of a better term, as “timed events”), such as the 100-meter dash, canoe, and downhill skiing.  Judged events rely on subjective scoring either fully (ie, figure skating) or partially (ie, mogul skiing).  The next category is skill events such as archery, shooting, and table tennis.  The fourth category is endurance events that take a relatively long time to complete, such as biathlon, cross-country skiing, and the marathon.  Strength is the fifth category of event, which includes weightlifting, shot put, and hammer throw.  The final category of events is combat, which includes boxing, judo, taekwondo, and wrestling.  Team sports were not included in this analysis because we are interested in an individual’s age and birth quarter at the time of competition.  A team is comprised of a variety of individuals with various birth dates, which makes it difficult to isolate the impact of birth quarter and age at the time of competition.  Thus, team events such as soccer, softball, basketball, and relays are excluded from this analysis. Age was calculated in days at the time of competition, and birth quarters were based on the calendar year: Q1 (January-March), Q2 (April-June), Q3 (July-September), and Q4 (October-December). 

Table 1 presents the breakdown of the medal winners for each of the Olympic Games held between 2000 and 2018.  The Summer Olympics have the bulk of the athletes, with 78% of the medal winners, while 22% of the medal winners compete in the Winter Games.  The number of athletes winning individual medals has increased steadily over the years.  Individual sports added to the Olympic Games during this time were skeleton in 2002, BMX racing in 2008, and golf in 2016. 

The dependent variables are either type of medal, gold, silver or bronze, and how old the athlete is in days at the time of competition.  The independent variables are quarter of birth (Q1 = Jan-Mar, Q2 = Apr – June, Q3 = Jul – Sept, Q4 = Oct – Dec), gender, season, and event type (timed, judged, skill, endurance, strength, combat). Table 2 presents the percentage of competitors in the types of events, medals earned, and quarter of birth, broken down by male and female medal winners and Summer and Winter Games.  As evident from Table 2, the timed category has the most competitors with 45% of the medal winners, ranging from 40% in the Summer Games to 60% in the Winter Games.  Skill, Strength, and Combat award all of their medals in the Summer Games.  Judged events comprise 10% of the medals, while skill has 11% of the medals.  The endurance category has 7% of the medals overall but it is an important component of the Winter Games, with almost a quarter of the medals earned falling within this category.  

Under random distribution, one would expect medals to be evenly divided among the three categories. According to Table 2, bronze medals account for 36% of the overall awards.  Similarly, we would expect the athletes’ birth quarters to be split evenly, with each having 25% of the medal winners if there is no presence of RAE. The first quarter has the most medal winners at 26%, while the last quarter has the least amount of medal winners at 23%, which is a statistically significant difference with a z-score of 3.07 and a p-value of 0.0022. 

Table 3 provides means and standard deviations for how many days old the medalists were when they competed in their event.  The average age of a medalist is 26.3 years old with a standard deviation of 4.8 years, with men at an average of 26.57 and with women at 25.94.  This is similar to the finding of Longo et al. (10), who analyzed all competitors from the 2012 Summer Olympics and found men were an average of 27 years old and women were an average of 26.2 years old.  Awosoga and Chow (1) find that the peak age for a track and field athlete is just under 27 years old, that finalists were on average 16 months older than the average competitor, and medalists were just one month older than the average participant. On average, the youngest medalists are those who compete in judged events, while the oldest medalists compete in skill and endurance events.  This holds across males and females and for the Summer and Winter Games. The age of the medalists is distributed fairly consistently between gold, silver, and bronze medals with the gold medalists being around 100 days younger than either silver or bronze medalists for the entire sample.  Males are older than females by 228 days while Winter medalists are older than Summer medalists by 241 days.   

Figure 1 is a kernel density function that depicts the age in days of the medalist by the type of event.  A kernel density function is a non-parametric method for visually representing the distribution of the data. Unlike a histogram, it is a smooth representation of the probability distribution function (Weglarczyk (16)) and is more informative than summary statistics because it shows the entire distribution of the data.  Judged events have the youngest athletes with the mass of the distribution primarily in the lower end of the age distribution.  Endurance has the bulk of its mass to the right of all of the other distributions, while skill events exceeds all of the other events at the very top of the age distribution.  Figure 2 compares the distributions for males and females.  Females have more medalists at the lower end of the distribution but the distributions are nearly identical at the top end of the age distribution.  Figure 3 is a kernel density function for the Winter and Summer Games.  The distribution for the Summer Games lies to the left of that for the Winter Games, suggesting that Summer medalists are younger than Winter medalists.  

RESULTS

Table 4 provides our first look into the presence of an RAE within Olympic medal winners with a two-way table between birth quarter and type of medal.  The Pearson 𝜒2 test statistic for differences among the categories is 14.12 with a p-value of 0.028.  The Cramér’s V p-value of 0.0398 suggests that the observed association between birth quarter and medal type is unlikely to occur by chance.  Taken together, these results suggest that there is a statistical relationship between birth-quarter and type of medal.  The expected count is in parentheses and suggests that gold medal winners are over-represented for the first and second quarters of the year.  All statistical analysis for this paper is performed in STATA.    

Another option for analyzing the birth quarter of a medalist is to empirically assess whether it impacts their probability of winning a gold medal.  To accomplish this, we estimate a logit model of the form 

                      

 

(1) where gold is 1 if athlete i received a gold medal and 0 if they earned a silver or bronze medal, Q1, Q2, and Q3 are the quarter of their birth of individual i, with the fourth quarter as the omitted category, and εi is the error term.  The marginal effects are the change in the probability of the athlete winning a gold medal relative to the omitted category 

Table 5 presents the marginal effects from the logit model in equation (1).  Athletes who are born in the second quarter are 4.3% more likely to win a gold medal relative to those born in the fourth quarter at a 5% significance level.  Athletes born in the first and third quarters are not statistically more likely to win a gold medal than those born in the fourth quarter.   

In addition to examining how birth quarter impacts the medal received, we perform an empirical analysis to assess if the age of the athlete, measured in how many days old they were when they competed in their event, statistically differs for gender, type of Games, category of events, and medal type.  The most inclusive model takes the form: 

+  εi                            (2)

where εi is the error term. Each of the explanatory variables is binary with the value being 1 if the individual has the characteristic in the named variable and 0 otherwise.  For example, the variable male will equal 1 if the athlete is male and 0 if the athlete is female.  The omitted categories for this model are female, Winter, timed events, and bronze medal.  This model is estimated using multiple linear regression with robust standard errors. Because all of the independent variables are binary, this regression model tests for differences in means between the explanatory variables, holding the other included variables constant. 

The first column in Table 6 presents the results for the general model. These results suggest that, on average, males are older than females by 262 days, while Summer medalists are an average of 230 days younger than Winter medalists.  Judged medalists are on average younger than timed medalists by 1090 days, skill medalists are older than timed medalists by 1002 days, endurance medalists are older than timed medalists by 848 days, and combat medalists are younger than timed medalists by 245 days. Gold medalists are an average of 151 days younger than bronze medalists and silver medalists are not statistically different in age than bronze medalists.

The results found in the initial model generally hold for models that estimate male and females separately. The statistical significance for event type for the model with only males is similar to the general model, but the magnitudes differ.  For example, skill medalists are an average of 1,369 days older than timed medalists for the male-only model, while the difference was 1002 days for the full model. The other difference is that gold and silver medalists are not statistically different in age than bronze medalists.  In the female-only model, athletes who medal in judged events are an average of 1,374 days younger than those who medal in timed events, while in the full model the difference was 1090 days.  Female skill medalists are an average of 560 days older than female timed medalists while endurance medalists are 891 days older than timed medalists.  Strength and combat medalists are not statistically different than timed medalists in age.  For females, gold medalists are an average of 225 days younger than bronze medalists. 

Summer and Winter Games models estimated separately follow a similar pattern to the general model in the first column.  In both the Summer and Winter Games, males are statistically older than females, judged medalists are statistically younger than timed medalists, and endurance athletes are statistically older than timed athletes.  In the Summer Games, skill medalists are statistically older than timed medalists and combat medalists are statistically younger than timed medalists.  Summer athletes who win a gold medal are an average of 158 days younger than those athletes who win bronze medals.  Together, these results suggest that the results are generally consistent across males and females as well as Summer and Winter Games.    

Discussion

Our findings affirm the presence of the RAE among Olympic medalists in terms of both birth quarter and competition age.  A Pearson 𝜒2 test for a difference between birth quarter and medals found a statistically significant relationship between the two variables.  We also found that athletes born in Q2 are more likely to win a gold medal relative to those born in Q4.  This echoes patterns identified in youth and elite-level sports by previous researchers (Joyner et. al., 2017; Musch and Grondin, 2001).  These results suggest that the developmental advantages conferred by earlier birth within a competitive cohort persist even at the highest levels of sport. 

The variation in age across event types aligns with existing literature suggesting that events with aesthetic or acrobatic elements, like gymnastics or figure skating, tend to feature younger athletes (Zetaruk, (18) and Cummins (6)), while events requiring cumulative physical or technical development, such as endurance or skill-based events are dominated by older competitors (Longo et. al (10)).  This supports evidence of distinct developmental trajectories across Olympic disciplines.  These findings contribute to a broader understanding of how structural factors such as age-grouping policies and youth sport calendars may contribute to influence athlete development long after initial talent identification.  This finding may support a revision of the youth categorization system and selectors to mitigate the effects of RAE.

We can interpret these patterns using the Developmental Systems Model (Wattie et al., 2015), which posits that RAE arises from interacting individual (e.g., birthdate, maturation), task (e.g. sport type), and environmental (e.g. selection policies) constraints.  Our findings reflect all three of these inputs. From the individual perspective, older athletes may possess more maturity and resilience.  From the task perspective, certain disciplines favor youth, such as gymnastics and figure skating, while other disciplines favor experience, such as equestrian and long-distance running.  From the environmental perspective, qualification systems often reinforce early selection biases that persist all the way up to the Olympic Games.   

This study has several limitations.  Our data only includes athletes who received medals at the Olympic Games, allowing us to examine RAE for those who have achieved the highest pinnacle of their sport.  The broader population of Olympic participants may not exhibit the same patterns as medalists.  Another caveat is that team events and relays were omitted, despite the possibility that such formats may dilute or amplify RAE effects due to different selection or substitution dynamics.  Finally, the analysis does not account for cross-national or cultural variation in athlete development systems, which could meaningfully shape RAE patterns.  Future research should address these gaps by examining a more comprehensive athlete pool, including non-medalists, and incorporating institutional and cultural context.

CONCLUSIONS

This study provides evidence that the RAE persists among Olympic medalists in the Summer and Winter Games held between 2000 and 2018.  Medalists in judged and combat events tend to be younger, while those in skill and endurance events tend to be older, confirming widely held beliefs about athlete development pathways.  Additionally, athletes born in the second quarter of the year are statistically more likely to win a gold medal than those born later in the year, reinforcing the influence of birth timing, even at the elite level.

Our results demonstrate that the effects of age-based selection advantages are not confined to youth or amateur competition but may have enduring implications for performance outcomes at the pinnacle of sport.  These insights underscore the importance of re-evaluating current age-grouping structures in sport development systems.  Policymakers, coaches, and sporting organizations should consider how age-based selection mechanisms might inadvertently limit long-term talent development by favoring relatively older athletes.  By acknowledging and addressing these structural biases, it may be possible to create more equitable opportunities for younger athletes within a given cohort, ultimately enhancing both inclusivity and performance sustainability. 

APPLICATIONS IN SPORT

To mitigate the impact of RAE, sporting bodies and youth development programs should consider pilot programs that rotate cutoff dates or cluster athletes by biological age rather than birthdate alone (see Wattie et al. (15) and Cobley et al. (4)).  Musch and Grondin (11) suggest varying cutoff dates for different sports, allowing youth participants to choose the sport with the most favorable cutoff date for them.  Raschner et al. (13) suggest a limit on the number of participants by each birth year across two-year age groups. Future research could explore how the dynamics of RAE evolve over an athlete’s career trajectory and examine whether similar effects are observable in non-medalists or team events.    

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  17. Werneck, F. Z., Coelho, E. F., de Oliveira, H. Z., Ribeiro Jr., D. B., Almas, S., de Lima, J. R. P., Matta, M., & Figueiredo, A. J. (2016). Relative age effect in Olympic basketball athletes. Science and Sports, 31(3), 158–161. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scispo.2015.08.004
  18. Zetaruk, M. N. (2000). The young gymnast. Clinics in Sports Medicine, 19(4), 757–780. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0278-5919(05)70236-2
2025-08-26T10:08:11-05:00December 23rd, 2025|General, Olympics, Research, Sports Health & Fitness, Sports Studies, Sports Studies and Sports Psychology|Comments Off on Relative Age Effect Among Olympic Medalists: Evidence from Ten Summer and Winter Olympic Games held between 2000 and 2018 
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The Globalization of Professional Basketball: Context and Competition Matters in the NBA, WNBA, and Olympics

Authors: Howard Bartee, Jr., Ed.D.1

1School of Public and Allied Health, Division of Kinesiology and Physical Education, Prairie View A & M University, Prairie View, TX, USA

Corresponding Author:

Corresponding Author:
Howard Bartee, Jr., Ed.D.
Prairie View A & M University
700 University Drive
Prairie View, TX 77446
[email protected]
770-314-4415

Howard Bartee, Jr., Ed.D. is an Assistant Professor of Health and Kinesiology-Sport Management at Prairie View A & M University in Prairie View, TX.  His research interests include sports management and communication, sports analytics, and organizational behavior within the context of health and kinesiology. With nearly twenty-five years in higher education, Dr. Bartee has served in administrative capacities and previously taught sports management and sports administration courses at Houston Christian University in Houston, TX and Belhaven University in Jackson, MS. Dr. Bartee has further spearheaded initiatives related to sports career services, student advisement, and program and curriculum development. 

ABSTRACT
The role of professional basketball has evolved through the years given socio-historic and current perspectives involving the NBA, WNBA, and Olympics.  Such perspectives have shaped the context and competition for globalization and the subsequent impact and implications for the broader basketball industry.  

Key Words: athletic competition, sports history, international ambassadors

INTRODUCTION

Professional basketball for both men and women, as a globalized sport, has grown tremendously from the days of the peach basket on the basketball court to now being played in a virtual environment of NBA 2K video games.  Globalization refers to global, international merging of diverse national economic, socio-cultural, political, and technological forces into a single and coalesced society (14).  Internal and external forces have influenced the expansion of the game and which, in effect, draw attention to professional basketball leagues and the Olympics in understanding how they have impacted these outcomes. 

From a practical viewpoint, while the careers of LeBron James (NBA), Kevin Durant (NBA), Steph Curry (NBA), Tina Charles (WNBA) and Diana Taurasi (WNBA) may have reached a twilight stage, when considering their careers in totality, their contributions to professional basketball arena and the broader public of media and related markets informed globalization given their appeal across the world stage.  When considering the emerging careers of Jaylen Brown (NBA), Victor Wembanyama (NBA), Caitlin Clark (WNBA), A’ja Wilson (WNBA), and Angel Reese (WNBA) launch, their emerging careers offer a unique opportunity for the professional game of basketball within the United States to (re)define a model for how to expand globally within the current state of professional basketball and the role of the Olympics. 

Thus, using sociohistorical and current perspectives and demographical information, the following questions guide this exploration:  

  1. What is the impact of the WNBA and NBA, post-1992 Olympics to the present, for the globalization of the game of basketball? 
  2. What implications do the globalization of professional basketball hold for WNBA, NBA, and the broader Olympics?

These questions provide the context for understanding how the game of basketball and some marketing aspects has evolved given expanding technological aspects and the unique comparisons between the different eras of growth since 1904.(13) These questions show how competition within the NBA and WNBA contributes to overall globalization and marketing outcomes. (1). Using the implications of both context and competition, these questions offer a broader understanding of the impact of the globalization of basketball and how it informs the future state of the game, the players and related marketing components (9).

Context Matters for the NBA and WNBA and Olympics Demographics as Globalization Impacts

A View on the 1992 to the 2024 Olympics on Men’s Basketball for Globalization

Context matters for globalization of men’s basketball, particularly given how the 1992 Olympics for men brought forth a new playing field of competition.  The competition that became apparent was focused on the United States closing the gaps between amateurism, professionalism, and international competition. With the convergence of these three concepts came the entrance of NBA players into the Olympics Games as well as the first steps toward globalization.   According to Olympic history, “in 1992, for the first time, NBA players were allowed by FIBA to represent the USA and all other countries in national team competition” (7). At the time, the 1992 U.S. team was considered the greatest team ever assembled as they dominated the 1992 Olympic tournament, led by Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, on their way to winning the gold medal. Photo #1 features this team of NBA professional players competing on the international scene changed the game of basketball forever.  (2)

Photo Credit: Bill Bender The Sporting News) Inside the ‘Dream Team’: A complete roster & history of USA’s 1992 Olympic men’s basketball team | Sporting News

And so, from the 1992 Olympics to the 2024 Olympics, globalization of basketball has increased on various levels, both domestically and internationally.  The resulting impact of these changes has resulted in different responses from different nations. It is important to note that not all countries are excited to release their valuable athletic resources for the capitalistic society of the NBA in the United States, yet there are many countries that do support the globalization movement to a more diverse marketplace of professional basketball.  

To that end, when it comes to the global sports marketplace, professional basketball has grown as indicated by the countries represented. This has allowed new players and fans to enter the game. One of the most important entrances into the NBA was that of Yao Ming from China being drafted by the Houston Rockets in 2002 as the #1 pick and later a global ambassador for the 2008 Olympic Games.  During these years, following the Beijing Olympics until 2012, basketball competition highlighted the effect of how global inclusion started affecting the outcome of games as the European league players were competing more closely with NBA players.  The progression of basketball globalization moved to whole new levels not only based upon player competition in the Olympic Games, but also, based upon player entrance into the professional ranks of the NBA.  Over the last sixteen years, the team has won gold in 2012, 2016, 2021 (during the pandemic years, following postponement in 2020), and most recently, in 2024.  With the influx of new players, fans, and corporate sponsors, especially since the 1992 Barcelona Olympics until the 2024 France Olympics, consideration of different aspects of this globalization are provided. 

As a result, what is of interest to note for the NBA teams is that the countries now performing well on the Olympic stage are also sending players to the NBA through the draft.  The impact of this new wave of draftees is not only influencing the Olympics, but it is also influencing the draft classes, as history shows us.  For example, the NBA and the Olympic Games have both seen shifts in roster makeups and globalization efforts over the last 32 years, since the 1992 Dream Team played in Barcelona, Spain. In the following Figure 1, there is a state-by-state visualization of the birthplace of U.S. born NBA and ABA Players. Figure 1 is as follows:

From countries abroad to the United States, a basketball “rite of passage” is being seen in the total number of draft picks being selected between U.S. Born NBA and ABA Players in comparison to those non-U.S. Born basketball players. Figure 1 shows the top 5 states are as follows:  California (443), New York (440), Illinois (302), Pennsylvania (250), and Texas (211).

As a result, Figure 1 provides the foundation for understanding how opportunities could be provided through the NBA draft on a worldwide scale, particularly given the relationships or networks that can be established within each of these countries.  These contacts help to create a context for toward globalizing efforts. And while these networks or relationships do not guarantee NBA stardom or a roster spot, they do provide a glimmer of hope and expanded area for recruitment.  This hope extends for not only the individual players, but for their countries, communities, families, and friend, which, in effect, is an upside trend of a new global basketball marketplace is emerging.   Table 1 particularly identifies the birthplace of non-US born NBA and ABA Players.  Table 1 indicates the following:

I

Table 1, according to (16), shows most of the non-US born NBA and ABA players are born in the top three (3) countries of Canada (n=54, France (n=38), and Germany (n=27). Table 1 also shows the gap existing between the birthplaces of those coming from larger countries compared to those coming from smaller countries.  What can be surmised from Table 1 is that while the competition gap has gotten smaller, the challenge to enhance greater roster structures has become increasingly important.  Owners, general managers, and coaches are feeling the need to scout not only the colleges of America, but they must also scout the high schools and the international leagues of the world.  The increased attention on these different talent pools is not only affecting NBA business locally, but it is also affecting NBA business globally.  Particularly within this structure, global scouting is being shown through current NBA rosters.  The NBA is experiencing expanded growth internationally. Table 2 particularly identifies the countries of those players from the different countries.  Table 2 is as follows:

Table 2, according to (11), shows that the majority of the players come from the country of Canada with the next highest number of players coming from the country of France.  A number of countries have only one player that comes from there.  Table 2 identifies the frequency in which foreign players (N=125) were on opening day NBA rosters during the 20232024 season.  The table reveals that 20.8% of the players were from Canada, while 79.2% of the players were from 39 other countries. In effect, it can be surmised that over a period of one season, Canada had more players on 2023-2024 Opening Day NBA rosters as compared to the other 39 countries represented on the 2023-2024 rosters.  Table 3 shows the nationalities of the

NBA All Star players.  Table 3 is as follows:      

Table 3, according to (11), identifies the frequency in which foreign players (N=7) were on the NBA All-Star rosters during the 2023-2024 season.  The table reveals that 27% of the player appearances were from seven countries, while 73% of the player appearances were from the United States during this same period. As a result of these findings, it can be assumed that over a period of the most recent NBA All-Star Game, players with a primary United States nationality had more All-Star game appearance in the 2023-2024 season as compared to the other7 foreign countries and 7 foreign players represented during this same period inclusive of the Eastern and Western Conferences. Context matters.

A View on the 1976 Olympics on Women’s Basketball for Globalization

Context matters, too, with regards to women’s basketball.  Starting in 1976 at the Olympics and continuing in 2024, there has been tremendous growth in the sport of women’s basketball.  During these past forty-eight years, the United States has led the world in the number of gold medals received during Women’s Basketball Olympics competition.  With this level of dominance, the United States and women’s basketball players have evolved since winning a silver medal in 1976.  Their first year of competition included players Luisa Harris, Nancy Lieberman, Ann Meyers, Cindy Brogdon, Susan Rojcewicz, Nancy Dunkle, Charlotte Lewis, Gail Marquis, Patricia Roberts, Mary Anne O’Connor, Patricia Head and Juliene Simpson and Photo #2 features this Women’s Basketball Olympic Team. (5)

Photo Credit: Bill Bender The Sporting News) Inside the ‘Dream Team’: A complete roster & history of USA’s 1992 Olympic men’s basketball team | Sporting News

These players were coached by Cal State Fullerton Head Coach Billie Moore and assisted by Stephen F. Austin Head Coach Sue Gunter in the first year of Olympics competition to their current eight Olympics gold medal winning streak in 2024. Photo #3 highlights the women’s basketball team winning in 2024. (6) 

Photo Credit: Mark J. Terrill/AP (2024 USA Women’s Basketball Team) US women win eighth straight Olympic basketball gold medal – CSMonitor.com

Table 4 highlights the 2024 Olympics Team comprised of players from across the country and is shown as follows: 

Source: Kyle Irving (The Sporting News) USA women’s Olympic basketball roster: A’ja Wilson, Breanna Stewart headline 2024 U.S. team for Paris | Sporting News

Table 4 shows that the majority of the women’s basketball players came from the Las Vegas Aces.  Only one player came from the Connecticut Sun and the Seattle Sun.  Table 5 highlights the coaching staff for this Olympic Team and is shown as follows:

Table 5 shows a diversity of coaches that was inclusive of both university and professional areas.  This integrated approach certainly allowed for a broadened perspective on coaching to be enacted.  Notwithstanding, with the passage of Title IX in 1972 and the growth of women’s basketball in the United States between 1972 and the bicentennial year of our nation’s founding in 1976, a team was able to be fielded for the Montreal Olympic games in Canada.  Though the team from the Soviet Union would win the gold medal in 1976, there was stiff competition as the United States finished with the silver medal and the team from Bulgaria would win the bronze.  Consequently, the evolution of women in basketball emerged in various ways within the country and beyond.  Context matters.

Competition Matters for NBA and WNBA and Olympics Demographics  as Globalization Impacts

A View on The Team and Medals Received in Men’s Basketball for Globalization

Competition matters as part of globalization and impact for the NBA.  History shows that since 1936, the United States has led the world in the number of gold medals received during Men’s Basketball Olympics competition.  As Table 6, Table 7, and Table 8 show, excluding, 1940 and 1944, in which Olympic Games were not held and noted as N/A, the United States has won 81% of the gold medals, three countries, the old Soviet Union (17.3%),  Yugoslavia (17.3%) and France (17.3% )have won 52% of the silver medals, and two countries, Brazil (13%) and

Lithuania (13%), have won 26% of the bronze medal.  With this level of dominance, the United States and its’ basketball players are a cut above the rest in terms of Olympic basketball and international participation in both men’s and women’s basketball.   More specifically, Table 6 indicates that the men received a substantial number of gold medals.  Table 6 indicates the following:

Men’s Olympic Gold Medals Since 1936 (N=21)

Table 6, according to (10), shows how the United States has won substantially more gold medals than any of the other competing countries. No other country has come close to the United States in receiving gold medals in basketball.  Table 7 highlights the silver medals received by the United States since 1936.  Table 7 is as follows:

Table 7, according to (10), shows that a three-way tie existed between France, the Soviet Union, and Yugoslavia with having four (4) medals.  The United States has received one (1) silver medal along with the countries of Canda, Croatia, and Serbia.  Table 8 highlights the number of bronze medals received since 1936 by different countries. Table 8 shows the following: 

Table 8, according to (10), shows that the countries of Brazil and Lithuania have received three (3) bronze medals.  The United States has received two bronze medals along with the countries of the Soviet Union, Uruguay, Yugoslavia, and the one listed as N/A.  Thus, the composition of the medals received by the United States is clearly at the gold level with less medals being received at the silver and bronze levels.  Table 9, however, provides insights into the competition experienced by those who were part of the NBA finals.  Table 9 is as follows:

Table 9, according to (4), identifies the frequency in which players with foreign nationalities (N=6) were on NBA Finals rosters during the 55 years of NBA Finals MVP selections from 1969 to the most 2024 season.  The table reveals that 6 of the 35 (17%) of the MVP Finals MVPs were from France, Greece, Nigeria, Serbia, U.S. Virgin Islands, and Germany, while 29 of the 35 (83%) were of United States nationality.  As a result of these findings, it can be assumed that over a period of 55 years of NBA Finals from 1969-2024, pre-

1992 and the Olympic Dream Team in Barcelona, all Finals MVP’s were of U.S. Nationality, while post-1992 and until most recently, in 2023, there six individuals that have won the coveted title of NBA Finals MVP as a direct result of globalization of basketball.  Table 10 shows the following outcomes in the competition from those involved with the NBA Finals and their background:  

Table 10, according to (4), indicates how the players came from the San Antonio Spurs the majority of the times which indicates a priority of producing MVPs might be emphasized within that organization. These players primarily came from the U.S. Virgin Islands which also might indicate a pipeline being utilized to recruit players from that area.  Nevertheless, with globalization, competition matters.   

A View on The Team and Medals Received in Women’s Basketball for Globalization

Competition matters, too, for women’s basketball when considering globalization.  As Tables 11-13 show aggregately and collectively, the United States has won 77% of the gold medals, while two countries, Australia (23%) and France (15%) have won silver medals with eight countries winning at least one silver medal each to make up the remaining 62% of medal recipients; whereas two countries, Australia (23%) and Russia (15%) have won bronze medals with eight countries winning at least one bronze medal each to make up the remaining 62% of medal recipients. Table 11 highlights the United Sates in comparison to other teams. 

Table 11 is as follows: 

Women’s Olympic Gold Medals Since 1976 (N=13)

Table 11, according to (10), indicates the Soviet Union as only having received one gold medal since 1976.  The United States Women’s Team has had ten (10) gold medals within this time.  Table 12, however, highlights the silver medals where Australia had the highest number of silver medal at three (3).  Table 12 is as follows:

Women’s Olympic Silver Medals Since 1976 (N=13)

Table 12, according to (10), shows several countries with only one silver medal. Some of those countries include China, Australia, South Korea, Spain, and others.  Table 13 highlights those countries that have received bronze medals since 1976.  Table 13 is as follows: 

Women’s Olympic Bronze Medals Since 1976 (N=13)

Table 13, according to (10), indicates Australia with the highest number of bronze medals.  Russia has received two (2) silver medals while several countries received one (1) bronze medal.  What becomes evident is the consistency of the United States as the recipient of gold medals throughout the years.  Australia is identified as the country that is next in terms of the medals received since this time. Competition matters.

Shared Implications on Context and Competition Matter:   The NBA, WNBA, Olympics, and Globalization for Basketball

Context and competition have shared implications for globalization when considering the NBA, WNBA, and the Olympics. From historic Olympic, NBA, and WNBA games to the more recent Olympic, NBA, and WNBA games, it remains important to continuously consider the sociohistorical and current impact upon the globalization of the game of basketball.   Both the NBA and WNBA markets are continuing to evolve into the vision first spoken by late NBA Commissioner, David Stern vision of globalization and during the WNBA’s first president, Val Ackerman, service as a U.S. representative to the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), to grow the game of basketball.  Currently, as it stands in 2024, the economic, social, political, and technological changes that are taking place are evident as the game of basketball is part of the global sports industry, that is worth $484 Billion Dollars in 2023, according to The Business Research Company in April of 2024, with an expected market growth rate of 6.1% over the next five years from $484 Billion in 2023 to an estimated $862 Billion in 2028.(15) Such financial outcomes collectively shape the context and competition for professional basketball.  

Furthermore, the Olympics Games of 2024 has provided a unique example of how much the game has grown ever since the 1992 Dream Team of NBA Players entered the competition.  Through the vision of the late NBA Commissioner, David Stern, and the continued efforts of current NBA Commissioner, Adam Silver, the game and competition continued to improve. This year’s Olympic Game Gold Medal Games was another example of how far globalization has come as the United States of America competed in the Men’s and Women’s finals again the host country of France, with each of these games featuring players from not only globally, but from the NBA in the Men’s Gold Medal Game and from the WNBA in the Women’s Gold Medal Game. 

To that end, from both context and competition stances, the game will continue to build upon the past success of this year’s Olympic Games as it was viewed globally by millions.  With almost 400 million fans in 2024, basketball continues to expand across the globe.  For example, this year’s Men’s Olympic Games gold medal game averaged 19.5 million viewers on NBC and Peacock, which according to the (3) in the New York Times (2024).  According to LeBron James in that same article regarding the United States Olympic Games Gold Medal Game, “we got our moment…it’s a basketball world and everybody loves the game; we just hope that we continue to inspire people all over the world”.  As one of the most recognizable figures in the game and the first active NBA billionaire player, LeBron James, along with Kevin Duran, Steph Curry and the 2024 Olympic Gold Media winning team of NBA superstars, the U.S. Team was able to capture the gold and continue in the legacy of past U.S. Olympics teams made up of NBA superstars. 

Additionally, from an WNBA perspective, the U.S. Women’s Olympic Team, led by WNBA MVP, Aja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces’ and her fellow WNBA and Olympic teammates was able to win the gold medal over France with “a peak viewership of 10.9 million for the final half hour of the one-point affair” (8).  With the growth of women’s basketball on the collegiate level, through the emergence of budding stars, Caitlin Clark (Iowa) and Angel Reese (LSU), they are now in the WNBA, with Clark, with the Indiana Fever and Reese, now with the Chicago Sky and will potentially be in the 2028 Olympics to help extend their record eight straight goal medal streak started in 1996. As a result, the future is very bright with the new stars emerging in the NBA, WNBA and Olympic games, while the old guard passes the torch to the next generation.  Therefore, as the past is cherished, the present is held and the future is embarked upon, basketball is changing because of the demographic makeup of National Basketball Association (NBA), Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) and Olympic team rosters in 2024 and beyond (12). Context and competition matter.

            In closing, since the founding of basketball at Springfield College by Dr. James Naismith in 1891, for both men and women now, the pathways into the globalization of professional basketball has expanded from a small college to larger colleges and universities to professional leagues to countries from across the world.  With there being no boundaries, the opportunities for globalization remain limitless. Thus, the success of individual teams led by those individual basketball players born outside of the United States has not only led to an increased fanbase, but also has allowed the Olympic game talent to become more talented.  As “Table 1: Birthplace of non-U.S. Born NBA and ABA Players” and “Table 2: NBA Rosters from a Global Perspective, 2023-2024” show, the nationalities of players have grown exponentially, while at the same time, selection of MVP’s has grown as well.  The cities of Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, Milwaukee, and Denver, which now boast NBA Finals MVP’s have all represented their counties well, along with those respectful induvial players.  

            When considering both context and competition, with the U.S. dominance in both Men’s and Women’s Gold Medal games, the next four years will offer interesting perspectives to consider as countries seek to close the talent gap between those teams that have and those two teams that have not.  These are tremendous efforts, particularly since 2020/2021 during the pandemic when the teams of the NBA and WNBA, had to play in the bubble, the unintended yet, resulting, outcome has led to higher medical protocols and concerns for those participating then and even now.  In effect, many will wonder how globalization will influence context and competition for the next four years.  With the Olympics coming to Los Angeles in 2028, it will be critical that those involved in sports stay encouraged as the games continue to grow as the growth will foster itself as new markets come aboard.   Moreover, as new forms of gaming enter the technical arena, having knowledge of the past histories allows one to be able to learn the necessities for current and future matters of context and competition, particularly given the rise of e-sports and related virtual gaming.  By learning the game through e-sports and video games, participants can utilize their movements into today’s face to face games.  Strategic planning and coaching sessions help to make today’s understanding of the globalized basketball game in a more reflective and projected manner. Within these types of sessions, learning about the world of gaming offers more engaging and relevant experiences.  Such sessions create the platform for further advancing the globalized game of basketball for engaging professional and amateur worlds.  With the popularity of the NBA and WNBA and the Olympics being at an all-time high, understanding the globalization of basketball, particularly given the implications and impact of context and competition, becomes important for how the future game of professional basketball is shaped for future generations

REFERENCES

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  3. Deitsch, R. (2024, August 11). U.S.-France men’s basketball final averages 19.5 million viewers, most watched gold medal game since 1996. Retrieved on September 1, 2024 from https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5694751/2024/08/11/usa-france-basketballolympics-viewership/
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  11. NBA. (2024). NBA rosters feature 125 international players from 40 countries. Retrieved on September 12, 2024 from NBA rosters feature record 125 international players from 40 countries | NBA.com
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2024-12-03T15:53:49-06:00December 20th, 2024|Contemporary Sports Issues, General, Olympics, Research, Sports Exercise Science|Comments Off on The Globalization of Professional Basketball: Context and Competition Matters in the NBA, WNBA, and Olympics
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The Youth Olympic Games Educational Program: Through Experiential Learning Theory Lens

Authors: Jannicke Stålstrøm 1,2 , Marina Iskhakova 3, Alex C. Gang 4, and Zack P. Pedersen 5

Editor’s Note: The entry for Jannicke Stålstrøm has been corrected. Due to formatting limitations, the author’s full title is omitted from the Authors Line. Please note that the author’s earned title is Jannicke Stålstrøm, OLY. Also, the subtitle is now included in the same typeset as the main title.

1School of Sport Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway

2Faculty of Education and Social Work, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

3Research School of Economics, Australia National University, Canberra, Australia

4College of Education, Washington State University

5Department of Kinesiology & Sport Management, Texas Tech University

Abstract

Purpose: The Youth Olympic Games (YOG), the largest international sport event for young athletes, allows athletes to take part in an Olympic educational program. These programs have never been examined through the lens of Experiential Learning Theory (ELT). The purpose of this study is to provide in-depth analysis and evaluation of all YOG educational programs design by date (2010 – 2020) through the lens of ELT and to uncover the areas of where the strengthening of the programs impact is feasible and encouraged.

Methods: A thorough YOG documents analysis was performed on the six YOG`s educational programs by examining the place and role of each of the four elements of ELT and how prevalent they were.

Results: Results of our analysis show that YOG educational programs are not properly balanced and that concrete experiences turned to be the mostly and overly covered in the six games by the price of other critically important ELT stages. Reflective observations and abstract conceptualizations come into play sporadically and also only in later games, although still underwhelmingly. Active experimentations are covered through media activities in most of the games and the whole potential of the stage is due to be fully utilised.

Conclusions: YOG educational program impact on YOG athletes could be significantly enhanced by embracing and sufficiently incorporating all 4 ELT stages into the program design and delivery.

Applications in Sport: This study highlights the potential of ELT as a theoretical tool for addressing the impact learning and change the educational program can have on the YOG participants. The performed document analysis suggests on how learning can be enhanced for the YOG athletes. Suggestions for the future YOG educational program designers are formulated and provided.

Keywords: Educational Program, Youth Programs, Olympic Education, Experiential learning, Young Athletes

Examining The Youth Olympic Games Educational Program Through Experiential Learning Theory

The educational purpose of the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) is delivered to the athletes through the YOG educational program (IOC, 2016, 2019), founded on the concept of Olympism (Naul & Binder, 2017). The YOG was established to be more than a sporting event, whereby through the Olympism perspective and Olympic values (i.e., excellence, friendship, respect) young athletes could be instructed on topics like healthy lifestyles, doping issues, global challenges, and their potential role as sport ambassadors (IOC, 2011). Additionally, the YOG was intended to reignite Olympic ideals, which were perceived to be lacking in the contemporary Olympic Games (Naul, 2010, p. 23). The IOC hoped that the YOG athletes would carry positive values throughout their sporting event, and in their working and private lives (IOC, 2011).

Therefore, the Olympic movement saw the YOG as a way of instilling health, sport, and social values, in addition to Olympism (Parry, 2012). To accomplish this, the educational program was crucial for the IOC and the YOG, given that the young athletes are at such an important developmental stage in life. YOG educational programs have been modified to meet the four learning pillars stipulated by the IOC and the YOG Organizing Committee (i.e., learning to know, to do, to be, and to live together; YOGOC). Each YOGOC exercised its autonomy to establish various educational formats, which reveal limited consistency from one YOG to the next. Although the educational programs of the YOG carry significant importance in instilling positive values in the lives of young athletes, its effectiveness is hindered by inconsistencies within the learning formats and the network of partner organizations. This reveals an absence of a reliable mechanisms capable of adequately scrutinizing the foundations of the programs as well as their learning potentials. Reflecting on the need to better understand the educational programs, we suggest that Kolb’s Experimental learning theory (Kolb, 1984) is a valuable theoretical tool to assess and strengthen learning for the athletes who are in a critical developmental stage. According to Newman et al. (2018), historically this method of ELT programming and its related practises have found to be effective when working with youth (Conrad & Hedin, 1982; Gosen & Washbush, 2004; Kolb & Kolb 2008). Therefore, the IOC and the YOGOC educational program developers have the opportunity to implement experiential learning methods to increase youth athlete’s knowledge (Kolb & Kolb 2009a). Additionally, these programs have the chance to develop the young athletes’ skills on and off their field of play by highlighting their values and developing their capacities, such as contributing not only to themselves but to their communities as well (Kolb, 1984; 2015; Kolb & Kolb, 2005; 2008).

Literature Review

Experiential Learning Theory

Experiential learning theory (ELT) highlights the critical role that experience has on impacting learning and change (Kolb, 1984; 2015). ELT defines learning as a continuous process of adapting to an environment by acquiring new information, challenging existing knowledge, and re-learning/integrating new knowledge into action. Kolb (1984) defines it as “a dynamic process whereby knowledge is created through transformation of experiences” (p. 41). This theory postulates learning as a holistic process for the student (Kolb & Kolb, 2009b) adapting to the world, which requires the integrated functioning of the total person, such as thinking, feeling, perceiving, behaving, and interacting (Kolb, 2015). Some educational sport studies applying ELT have shown success with this model (Bethell & Morgan, 2012; Sato & Laughlin, 2018). Additionally, more studies within the broader spectrum of sports, encompassing areas such as sports education, management, psychology, and sociology, have utilized Experiential Learning Theory (ELT) to gain a deeper understanding of the influence of sporting activities on individuals, groups, and organizations (Newman et al., 2017). Although most of the existing research has focused on evaluating the educational potentials inherent in diverse sport activities, scholarly inquiry has swiftly expanded to encompass sport-related learning platforms (e.g., sport internships, sport-for-development programs) that leverage sport as a mechanism for effective learning (e.g., Brown et al., 2018; Sattler, 2018). It is noteworthy that ELT has not been applied in the context of the YOG or the Olympic athlete (Cisek, 2023).

Ultimately the holistic nature of ELT will fit well with the complexity and holistic nature of learning in the YOG educational program formats. Indeed, the way in which athletes conduct their learning through the YOG educational programs (i.e., activities), shapes the course of their professional and personal development. The YOG educational programs offer an ideal immersion environment that facilitates intense experiential learning by impacting athletes and their multifaceted professional and personal development (see the full details in Appendix 1).

We suggest that the YOG’s educational programs are designed and capable of bringing participants through the four stages of the experiential learning cycle identified by Kolb and Kolb (2005), as shown in the ELT framework in Figure 1. The ‘concrete experiences’ are the cornerstone of each of the YOG educational program offerings, and are where the students (i.e., athletes) can participate in new learning (Sato & Laughlin, 2018). Furthermore, the ‘reflective observation’ stage is facilitated by reflection and feedback sessions to review the experiences (Kolb & Kolb, 2015). The ‘abstract conceptualization’ is enforced by analytical reflection during the duration of the program through the post-event stage. ‘Active experimentation’ occurs during the post-event stage and is where the individuals’ (i.e., athletes) experiences are formed through the realization of increased cultural abilities according, to Kolb et al. (2015).

Figure 1. Application of Experiential Learning Theory framework to YOG educational program (YOG EP). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development.

This completes the ELT cycle when new knowledge is applied to real-life tasks for the participants (Chan, 2012; Roark & Norling, 2010; Sato & Laughlin, 2018). Kolb (1984; 2015) claims that learning occurs through the combination of grasping (i.e., taking in information) and transforming (i.e., interpreting and acting on the information) experiences. Foundational experiences provide opportunities for observation and reflection for the YOG athlete. Reflection leads to new ideas or modification of old ideas. Changing ideas lead to new implications and form the basis for experimentation. The process of actively testing ideas through experimentation creates new experiences and the cycle continues for the athlete. The continual process of experience, reflection, thought, and action creates new knowledge and new behaviour (Sato & Laughlin, 2018). This means that athletes’ learning abilities must be involved in a continuous and cyclical learning process which focuses on experience and reflection in a holistic perspective (Kolb & Kolb, 2005). Additionally, according to Kolb et al. (2001), the learner can enter any of the four stages in the learning cycle, although for effective learning all four abilities of the ELT must be present. Arguably for a young athlete who takes part in one YOG in their life over a time of 10-14 days, it may be challenging to “act and reflection at the same time in a new environment and take some experience” (Lehan, 2020, p. 243). Although with the right implementation (and some previous learning experience in the athlete’s own life) the transition of the programs activity and learning has the potential to be meaningful (Lehan, 2020).

Therefore, through a document analysis we demonstrate which facets of ELT are most utilized, thereby allowing suggestions on how the educational programs of the YOG may benefit in the future with the implementation of a holistic ELT approach.

YOG Educational Themes and Principles

The educational programs that the YOG constructs for the athletes at each of the Games are based on Olympism and Olympic education (Naul & Binder, 2017; Staalstroem, 2021), and are optional for any of the athletes. These Olympic learning activities are grounded in five key educational themes (i.e., Olympism, skill development, well-being and healthy lifestyle, social responsibility, and expression) and are carefully selected by each host nation’s YOGOC in cooperation with the IOC (IOC, 2015). The skill development theme encourages athletes to develop new skills throughout life and in doing so also forge positive friendships based on mutual respect. The well-being and healthy lifestyle theme not only focus on athlete-centric health issues but also goes beyond the athletes’ immediate needs as they are encouraged to develop healthy living habits which will always remain with them. The social responsibility theme introduces the athletes to the idea of being role models in society for not only sport but also for environmental and/or humanitarian issues by drawing on the positive experiences they have gained from participating in the YOG education program. The expression theme encourages the athletes to fully appreciate that their pursuit of excellence in sport and life is a valuable contribution to society. Therefore, it is important for the athletes to be able to share their experiences in a responsible manner across all mediums (IOC, 2015, pp. 60–62; Staalstroem, 2021, p. 8).

Based on UNESCOS educational strategy and recommendations (IOC, 2008, p. 106), the IOC developed the YOG educational program learning strategy to address the five key themes with four fundamental learning pillars, conceptualized as the “4 pillars of Education.” These four pillars are classified as learning to know (e.g., educational sessions), learning to do (e.g., educational activities), learning to be (e.g., educational forums), and learning to live together (e.g., synergetic events consisting of celebrating cultures and traditions). Here we can see that the IOC and YOGOC program developers can set the athletes up for the opportunity to challenge their learning with activities that combine different learning modes representing Kolbs learning cycle. Through these four pillars there are opportunities to accommodate the different learning preferences for each individual (Kolb & Kolb, 2022).

Each YOGOC had to ensure the five themes were introduced through fun-filled activities to provide learning and development opportunities blended with sports and culture (IOC, 2012). The educational programs have continually developed into a more focused educational learning program for the elite athletes (IOC, 2019). Furthermore, the educational activities in the program are divided into two parts (IOC, 2015). First, the IOC includes a number of activities for the athletes which involve international partners such as the World Anti-Doping Agency, for example. Topics covered by these activities include Olympism, Olympic history, fair play, anti-doping, anti-betting, injury prevention, ethics in sport, abuse in sport, sexual harassment, healthy body image, athlete career management, the environment, humanitarian issues, peace, children’s rights, and social media. The second group of activities are proposed by the YOGOC with content based on the expertise of the local national organising committee and their partners.

Reflecting on the gap in current literature as described above, this study utilizes ELT to conduct a systematic analysis of all YOGs educational programs offered since their introduction in 2010. The following research question was established to guide the researchers through the research process:

RQ: How can the educational programs in the six YOG (and the way they evolved over time) be assessed and advanced through the experiential learning theory?

Methodology

Materials and Design

Before starting this section, a personality statement: It is important to acknowledge when this article was in its infancy one of the researchers is a three-time Olympian and had been involved in several YOGs in various roles over a decade (coaching and attaché). This researcher`s positionality influences this research including the choice of topic. Therefore, detachment and objectivity were a requirement for producing reliable knowledge during data collection (Bowen, 2009). Additionally, the rational for choosing one method was to suggest ELT in a practical setting for future research to add more value to the program.

To examine the research question stated above, a document analysis was conducted, which included all documents published by the IOC (see Appendix) that provided critical information (e.g., formats, designs, activities) on the educational programs implemented at the six previous YOGs. Viewed as a qualitative research method, document analysis entails a systematic process to review and assess both printed and online documents (Bowen, 2009). Documents are comprised of words and images that are created and shared independently from researchers’ involvement and interest in the YOG and its Olympic educational program. Scholars, such as Atkinson and Coffey (1997) consider documents as social facts to indicate that their usage and dissemination are compounded upon socially organized contexts. Through utilizing document analysis as the methodological lens, researchers aim to examine documents to elicit meaning and establish empirical knowledge (e.g., Corbin & Stratus, 2008) about the YOG educational programs activities over the six games in the history. While document analysis is often used in conjunction with other qualitative methods (e.g., interviews, participant observation) for the purpose of triangulation, it can be employed as the sole method, if its limitations are properly addressed. A common critique on employing a document analysis as the only method is related to its tendency to incur biased data selection and limitations on retrievability (Yin, 1994). However, these constraints were mitigated through applying a rigorous data collection strategy, wherein official documents and articles related to all YOG educational programs were collected in their entirety. Moreover, employing a document analysis is a suitable method to this research context, as it offers a sound way of tracking changes and developments of the phenomenon under scrutiny, which aligns with researchers’ intention to observe how the YOG educational programs have evolved over time.

Procedure

We used various databases to start with (e.g., PubMed, Google search, Google Scholar, EBSCOhost) searching for Youth Olympic Game AND education /educational/ program / programme and focused it inn on the Olympic World Library. To secure a comprehensive pool of documents to review and analyse, researchers identified official documents in the first round of the YOGs’ educational programs published by the previous YOGOCs and the IOC. The screening process excluded non-English documents, all per review articles (as non has used ELT in any YOG studies), Paralympic Games and duplicates.  Such an approach allowed the researchers to include a diverse focused range of documents (e.g., YOGOCs’ official report, IOC documents on candidature procedure, event manuals, press release on educational programs, post-event reports, program description, YOGOCs’ pre-event promotion materials).

Through data extraction and analysis, we followed a thorough review of documents, data were organized into distinct formats from each YOG according to the activities held, and by reflecting on the research question. The use of thematic analysis enabled identification of emerging themes within each YOG context. This process entailed two authors individually coding the refined data and subsequently engaging in discussions to actively share their interpretations until a consensus was reached, which, in turn, ensured intercoder reliability (Creswell, 2012). Each author carefully examined the data and conducted coding and category construction (six YOG in total) to uncover formats used. They represented various contents from each of the six YOGs’ educational activities, which were then scrutinized through the four elements of ELT.

Results and Discussion

The YOG educational programs have constantly evolved since their inception in Singapore 2010, as they have become more complex and ambitious regarding what they hope to accomplish. Based on the analysis, a shift away from philosophical cantered objectives to more practical elite athlete focused, and individual personal development objectives has occurred over the course of 10 years. Within the following sections, the results of the document analysis and the specific educational formats offered by the YOG are introduced and then compared based on their fulfilment of ELT criteria.

YOG Singapore 2010 Educational program

Singapore held the inaugural YOG in 2010 focusing on the Olympic movement, athletes’ development, and their roles and responsibility in sports practice and society (IOC, 2011, p. 5). During the 13 days, 3,524 athletes from 205 nations were exposed to the five key themes implemented through 50 different activities in seven educational formats described hereafter (IOC, 2012, p. 7; SYOGOC, 2010). The activity, ‘Chat with Champions’ consisted of athlete role models sharing their experiences and mentoring athletes during competition and at other activities. The forums offered different topics for athletes to share the athlete role models’ experiences of excellence, friendship and respect, in addition to answering the young athletes’ questions in a talk show format. ‘Discovery Activities’ were interactive exhibitions and workshop activities that were held for athlete to learn about important topics to use in personal development. ‘World Culture Village’ was a booth area hosted by local Singaporeans where athletes were able to interreact with cultures of the countries represented in the YOG, and included dancing, singing, body paining and traditional games. ‘Community Project’ was where athletes could participate in activities together with local organizations to learn the importance of social responsibility and to be inspired to take part in their own local community at home. ‘Arts and Culture’ was a group of activities aimed at celebrating Olympic themes such as youth, culture, and friendship through the mediums of dance, art, and music. ‘Island Adventure’ was utilized for athletes to learn the values of mutual respect, friendship, and teamwork in sport through confidence building courses with water activities and other challenging physical activities. Finally, ‘Exploration Journey’ was a “green day” experience with a terrarium workshop and garden tour, as the athletes learned about the ecosystem.

YOG Innsbruck 2012 Educational program

Innsbruck 2012 in Austria, the inaugural games for winter sports, aimed to deliver lasting benefits and develop enthusiasm for sport among young people, building on the Olympic Spirit and using the Olympic values of excellence, respect, and friendship for the 1,022 athletes representing 69 nations (IOC, 2016, p. 4). Athletes were introduced to the education program by young ambassadors and athlete role models. The Innsbruck program delivered 27 activities based around six formats, described hereafter (IOC, 2012, p. 9: IYOGOC, 2012). An innovation at Innsbruck 2012 was the introduction of the Yogger, a USB device with information about the program and activities. The Yogger was created to build awareness of the education program and thereby increase attendance (IYOGOC, 2012). An activity called ‘Media Lab’ was available for athletes to become educated on how to create media content (including four workshops), how to express themselves, and how to safely use social media. ‘World Mile Project’ educated athletes on tradition in art, sport, music, culture, lifestyles, clothing, language, and famous personalities. Interactive workshops and exhibitions by the IOC’s partners on global topics were utilized. ‘Sustainability Project’ taught athletes about environmental issues and sustainable developments, such as being waste wise, saving water and electricity, mountain awareness, and minimizing nature risks. ‘Art Project’ allowed athletes to share experiences and express themselves through modern art, music and dance. A ‘Competence Project’ was used to facilitate interaction between athlete role models allowing them to educate the athletes on aspects that professional athletes need to balance and be aware of. Finally, a ‘Youth Olympic Festival’ educated athlete through teambuilding activities in hopes for new friendships and networking.

YOG Nanjing 2014 Educational program

The slogan for Nanjing 2014 in China was “Share the Games, Share our Dreams” for all the 3,759 athletes from 202 countries (NYOGOC, 2014). The vision of Nanjing YOG was “to praise young people, advocate for a balanced development of blending education and sport, and to raise awareness about Olympic spirit and the Olympic values of excellence, friendship and respect,” (IOC, 2016, p. 2) which all linked back to the core of the YOG. The 50 educational activities in five different formats are described below, “embodying the Olympic values” (NYOGOC, 2014, 2015, p. 17). The program was introduced to the athletes in a “Let’s Get Together” gathering to inspire them to be active and magnify their learning opportunities (NYOGOC, 2014). At Nanjing 2014, the Yogger innovation from Innsbruck 2012 was upgraded to online access. Nanjing 2014 also introduced the Learn and Share environment to describe the areas where the educational activities took place (NYOGOC, 2015). The ‘Youth Festival’ activity was used to educate athlete through experiencing different traditions and cultures with sport activities from the Chinese culture in dance, music, opera, and martial arts. ‘Boost Your Skills’ combined forums, discussion, mentoring and sharing to allow athletes to learn more about social issues through being exposed to global issues, workshops on fair play and peace promotion among others. This activity emphasized the importance of a supportive network to help athletes maintain a dual career, with a stronger understanding of time management to help them throughout their daily life as young athletes. ‘World Culture Village’ again hosted booths about cultural diversity around the world. ‘Discover Nanjing’ allowed athletes to visit interesting historical and cultural attractions, as athletes visited the famous Ancient City Wall. More trips were used to educate athletes on not just the Chinese culture but the importance of taking care of the environment as well. Finally, ‘Digital and Social Media’ was an activity for media training by experts, and the introduction of new technologies.

YOG Lillehammer 2016 Educational program

Lillehammer in Norway hosted the second YOG for winter sports in February 2016, with 1,060 athletes from 71 countries and the slogan of “Go beyond and create tomorrow”. The Lillehammer YOGOC wanted the educational activities to be the foundation of the YOG to offer the sports community the option “to share experiences for the local young people, athletes and other participants, equip them with the key skills to become sports champions on the field of play, and life champions off the field of play” (IOC, 2016, p. 6). The 33 interactive activities once again centred on the five key themes and were delivered by five formats summarised below (LYOGOC, 2016). The ‘Your Career’ activity allowed athletes to see what they would need to know after their sporting career had come to an end by teaching them about time management and networking. ‘Your Body and Mind’ educated athlete on injury prevent, clean sport without doping, safe sport, in addition to the emphasis on understanding the importance of motor skills, mental training, and good nutrition. ‘Your Stories’ gave insights into athletes on how to tell their own story (via media training). Finally, ‘Your Discovery’ educated athletes on Norwegian winter sport culture through the Olympic history.

YOG Buenos Aires 2018 Educational program

Buenos Aires hosted in 2018 with the motto feel the future. Doing so by implementing the vison to bring sport closer to the people in sport, cultural and educational celebration by celebrating younger and more urban games (BAYOGOC, 2018). It was also an event with a focus on gender equality with participation of 3997 YOG athletes with equal gender split from 206 nations. During these Games the educational program and formats had been developed further by representatives from the IOC and Olympic stakeholders by having less locations and comprised of activities that are focused on the athletes’ sports career and individual development” (IOC, 2018a, p. 97). The Athlete365 digital platform was also being actively seen for the first time at the games with hands on activities incorporated in Learn and Share education program area, Athlete365 Space,  a program geared towards conveying the importance of clean (non-doping) athletes, good sportsmanship, and fair play in sport. ‘Performance Accelerator’ educated athlete on how to be responsible by learning more about injury prevention and strength training techniques. ‘Gamechangers Hub’ was a media training activity on how to maximize digital and social media in professional and personal lives. This activity allowed athletes to understand the best way to express their point of view and how to create awareness about themselves. ‘IF Focus Day’ was an activity with selected objectives linked to the young athlete’s development of new abilities and skills for personal and career development using the Olympic values of excellence, friendship and respect. ‘Chat with Champions’ was again introduced by having young athletes interreact with Olympians on personal, sport, and professional endeavours.

YOG Lausanne 2020 Educational program

The city of Lausanne held the 2020 YOG with the slogan “Start Now.” This was now the third winter YOG in the history, with 1788 athletes from 79 nations competing in the city of the IOC headquarters in Switzerland. For the first time we see that the education program is called “Athlete365 Education Programme” with activities that link to the IOCs Athlete365 universal digital platform developed by athletes for athletes in cooperation with the IOC (IOC, 2020a, p. 181). It incorporated Olympians, five educational formats, and around 20 educational activities (LAYOGOC, 2020; IOC, 2020b, pp. 3-6).

The activity named ‘Awareness’ educated athletes on how to be responsible young ambassadors of their sport by playing without doping, fighting against corruption, and learning to prevent abuse. Additional components of this activity allowed athletes to be taught how to balance sport and education, time management, and networking. The ‘Health for Performance’ activity educated young athletes to be aware of how to develop their performance, learn about injury prevention, and who to talk to in tough situations. ‘Game Changer HUB’ educated athletes on how to produce and show their own video content and prepared them to participate in a live TV show on the Olympic Channel. ‘Chat with Champions’ and ‘IF Focus Day’ were again introduced, highlighting the perceived benefit and success of running these types of educational program activities.

Using the Educational Learning Theory (ELT) as its foundational framework, this research rigorously investigates the extent to which the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is effectively accomplishing its objectives, delineated through the five fundamental themes that underpin the educational programs during their implementation. With new and former Olympians, it is important to continue to inspire development and monitor the YOG athletes’ educational needs as it is a valuable place for learning and sharing knowledge. The next section discusses the key application of the theoretical ELT (Kolb, 1984, 2015, 2022) concept to the YOG educational program.

YOG Educational Programs Comparison and Evolvement

The investigation revealed an imbalance in experiential educational activities within the YOG and that were offered to the 15,157 athletes, as this part of the ELT process was absent from most of the Games. It was also discovered that experiential educational YOG activities were not fully balanced as a majority of the formats and activities were the activities that utilized concrete experiences. Reflection observations became more prevalent with each iteration of the YOG, as was the same for abstract conceptualizations. The only active experimentation came from the ‘Game Changer HUB’ (former media and social activities), which obviously saw enough success and was easy enough to facilitate that it was worth incorporating in two separate Games. Although the athlete can enter Kolb’s learning cycle at any time, this activity shows opportunities to align new knowledge out in real life (Kolb, 2015). While the concrete experiences are clearly covered, as the other components of ELT are examined, demonstrated by the presence of certain dimensions are missed, indicating a gap between what has been seen as successful and beneficial constructions of ELT and what is currently utilized. The mapping of 6 YOGs educational programs formats across corresponding ELT components is presented in Table 1.

Table 1

Mapping of learning formats for YOG EP 2010-2020 through the lens of ELT.

YOGFormatCorresponding ELT Components
  CEROACAE
Singapore 2010Chat with Champions**  
 Discovery Activities*** 
 World Culture Village*   
 Community Project*** 
 Arts and Culture*   
 Island Adventure*   
 Exploration Island**  
Innsbruck 2012Media Lab****
 World Mile Project*   
 Sustainability Project*** 
 Arts Project**  
 Competence Project*   
 Youth Olympic Festival*   
Nanjing 2014Youth Festival*   
 Boost Your Skills*** 
 World Culture Village*   
 Discover Nanjing**  
 Digital and Social Media****
Lillehammer 2016Your Actions*** 
 Your Career*** 
 Your Body and Mind**  
 Your Stories****
 Your Discovery*   
Buenos Aires 2018Athlete365*** 
 Performance Accelerator*** 
 Gamechanger Hub****
 IF Focus Days*   
 Chat with Champions**  
Lausanne 2020Awareness*** 
 Health for Performance*** 
 Gamechanger Hub****
 Chat with Champions**  
 IF Focus Day*   

Note: CE = Concrete Experience, RO = Reflective Observation, AC = Abstract Conceptualization, AE = Active Experimentation.

Active conceptualisation sessions (like sessions or activities capable of stimulating analytical reflection or challenging the current stereotypes and mind views) unfortunately are fragmented and cannot be described as equally represent in the curricula. With respect to the active experimentation stage, initiatives like Athlete365 activities in later games created actual opportunities for athletes to continue the developmental journey on the Athlete365 digital platform after the YOG. Meaning, the IOC have an opportunity to continue to influence the experiential learning to increase athlete’s knowledge (Kolb & Kolb 2009a). The only suitable example which we identified was the Gamechangers Hub format during 2018 and 2020, where the opportunity for reflection, awareness of unique selves, and experimenting with new conceptualizations was minimal. Still, though, active experimentation was undervalued and not utilized properly. We could conclude from the mapping in Table 1 above that predominant attention is given to unique memorable and diverse experiences, and to some extent physical tests for health and injury training prevention, with a slowly increasing number of reflection and conceptualisation opportunities.

Theoretical and Practical Applications

ELT has been employed in many academic disciplines, such as studying abroad (Iskhakova et al., 2020), music education (Russell-Bowie, 2013), physical education (Bethell & Morgan, 2012), sport psychology (Sato & Laughlin, 2018), engineering (Chan, 2012) and hospitality (Fallon & Daruwalla, 2004), including outdoor education (Roark & Norling, 2010) and global leader development (Fey, 2020).

Furthermore, previous results have demonstrated that when university courses utilize the ELT framework, students develop a deeper knowledge of the subject matter (Bethell & Morgan, 2012), increase their sense of competence in target skills (Roark & Norling, 2010; Iskhakova et al., 2020), gain a better understanding of the link between theory and practice, and achieve greater personal development (Sato & Laughlin, 2018; Chan, 2012; Fallon & Daruwalla, 2004; Russell Bowie, 2013; Fey, 2020). Despite the high potential that ELT has, as previously discussed, it has scarcely been utilized in in the context of Olympic athletes (Cisek, 2023).

The current investigation examined ELT and discovered a lacking adherence to each of the dimensions in this theory by the YOG educational programs, as is critical for learning to occur (Kolb, 2015). This novel finding aids literature pertaining to ELT as the document analysis clearly indicates the dimensions of the theory that are more heavily, or easily, incorporated in YOG educational programs. The goal of this investigation was to examine the application of ELT in a practical setting, in the YOG context, thereby allowing future researchers to evaluate which facets of the theory (Kolb, 1984, 2015) are underutilised and can be enhanced in the YOGs context. Utilizing a document analysis, Table 1 was constructed to illustrate and map the learning formats of past YOG educational programs through the lens of ELT. Examining each of the four stages of ELT (Kolb, 1984, 2015) in the context of the YOG educational programs indicates an underutilization of certain key stages across all YOGs programs. With the benefits that are derived from a full utilisation of ELT, it is posited that further incorporation of activities within certain stages would make the YOG educational programs more impactful in both the short and long term. In ELT studies development and change is essential, as the programs should be flexible and creative as they explore ways of facilitating athletes’ learning effectiveness (Kolb, 2001; Kolb, 2015; Sato & Laughlin, 2018). Demonstrably, at the inception of the YOG in 2010 very few reflection opportunities existed in the educational program, juxtaposed to the current prevalence of this activity.

As Sato and Laughlin (2018) state, a successful integration of ELT allows athletes to take control and responsibility of their learning, instead of passively receiving experience and knowledge. Kolb (2015, p. 299) call this to take active ownership and responsibility of their learning cycle. Therefore, more ‘reflective opportunities’ at each timepoint should be created. With a greater emphasis on experiential activities, accommodations such as time for in-depth reflections should be implemented. More ‘abstract conceptualizations’ and ‘active experimentations’ should be incorporated and facilitated. An increase in these stages means athletes will be given more opportunities to assimilate their lived experiences and reflections into abstract concepts, thereby challenging and evaluating their own world views and values and advancing own development for a long-term horizon (Kolb & Kolb, 2009a; Kolb, 2015).

If the IOC (2019) wants the YOG to be a steppingstone for these athletes before the Olympic Games and a developmental platform that focuses on the holistic athletic development, the IOC should implement Kolb’s theory to a greater extent.

Limitations and Future Studies

As majority of studies, our study is not free of limitations. The first limitation relates to the methodology. While novel findings pertaining to the usage of certain stages of ELT were discovered, the benefit of these activities were not measured. As the analysed documents were produced by the YOGOC and the IOC, understanding from the educators, administrators, and athletes viewpoint are not observed. While the methodology was purposefully selected to accomplish the desired analysis (Bowen, 2009), this limitation is present. Furthermore, there may have also been selected educational learning activities that were adjusted when they were presented. We suggest future scholars to examine the unique impact of the YOG educational programs through various other lens, such as other learning theories, social theories (Parent et al., 2019), personal development theories, and cultural theories.

Disclosure statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare. 

Appendix 1

A description of the 14 core documents that were included in the data analysis.

TitleAuthor (year)Document typeDescription
Singapore 2010 YOG. Blazing the Trail.SYOGOC (2010)ReportThis official document describes the beginning of the YOG -2010 games. Presentation of the games with sport, education and culture, to go beyond the games.
    
IOC. Factsheet: YOG.IOC (2012)DocumentDiscusses birth of the YOG, its vision, programs, and five educational key themes.
    
Innsbruck 2012 YOG. Be part of it.IYOGOC (2012)ReportReport on the implementation, management and delivery of the first Winter YOG
    
Chef de Mission Manual. Nanjing 2014 Summer YOG.NYOGOC (2014)ManualDescribes policies and procedures for the YOG-2014, with information on learning program and five educational key themes.
    
YOG Event Manual. 7th Edition. May 2015.IOC (2015)ManualContains the main requirements for planning, organisation and staging of the YOG, including its learning program.
    
Share the games share our dreams. Official Report of the 2nd Summer YOG Nanjing 2014.NYOGOC (2015)ReportThis is the official report from Nanjing YOG 2014 presents the events timeline with sport, culture, and education.
    
The YOG learn and share beyond the field of play. Factsheet YOGIOC (2016)DocumentThis updated factsheet version brings up the vision and mission with culture and education in the YOG. With the learn and share activities concept it states the five key educational themes through formats with educational activities from the four first YOG in the history (2010-2012-2014 and 2016).
Lillehammer 2016 YOG. Be part of it! Go Beyond. Create tomorrow.  LYOGOC (2016)ReportThis is the official report of the Lillehammer 2016 Winter YOG. This report tells a chronological story step by step with texts and images through the games to includes sport, culture and education.
    
Buenos Aires 2018 Third summer YOG.BAYOGOC (2018)ReportThis document is the official report of the Buenos Aires 2018 with imagery and texts that takes the reader through its history from the torch relay, to celebrate of sport and urban games with activities.
    
IOC. Chef de Mission Manual Buenos Aires 2018 YOG.IOC (2018a)ManualContains the main requirements for planning, organisation and staging of the Buenos Aires YOG for the NOC. It includes the learning program among other detailed information on game time aspects.
    
IF focus day booklet Buenos Aires 2018 YOG.IOC (2018b)BookletContains the educational activities International Federation, in coordination with Buenos Aires 2018 YOG Organising Committee have develop for athletes to strengthen personal and career development.
    
IOC. Factsheet: The YOG compete, learn and share beyond the field of play.IOC (2019)DocumentProvides a description of the YOG as a steppingstone in the young athletes learning pathway, in sport and beyond their sport. It explains how the IOC contributes with learning activities, and how the YOGOC has some flexibility within a now more athletes centred formats then previous YOGs. The document states some facts on all six YOG`s educational programs. (2010-2012-2014-2016-2018 and 2020).
    
IOC. Lausanne 2020 Chef de Mission ManualIOC (2020a)ManualContains main requirements for planning, organisation and staging of the Lausanne YOG for the NOC. learning program among other important aspects of the games to prepare the athletes for.
    
Athlete365 Education Programme. Lausanne 2020 YOGIOC (2020b)DocumentPresents the Athlete365 educational programme to the athletes and their entourage during the Lausanne 2020 YOG.


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2025-07-09T16:00:03-05:00August 23rd, 2024|Olympics, Research|Comments Off on The Youth Olympic Games Educational Program: Through Experiential Learning Theory Lens
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The impact of risk factors on Olympic travel intentions

Authors: Bonnie Tiell1 and Elizabeth Athaide-Victor2

1 United States Sports Academy and Tiffin University School of Business

2 Tiffin University School of Criminal Justice and Social Sciences

Bonnie Tiell, Ed.D.
2696 South Township Rd 1195
Tiffin, OH 44883
[email protected]
419.357.1381

Bonnie Tiell, Ed.D., is a Professor of Sport Management at Tiffin University in Ohio and the U.S. Sports Academy. She has coordinated an academic experience with Olympians at every summer Games since Athens 2004.

Elizabeth Athaide-Victor, PhD., is a Professor of Forensic Psychology and Psychology. Her research interest includes jury behavior, jury cognitive processing, child sexual abuse litigation, toxic tort litigation, juror competence, and juror bias.

The impact of risk factors on Olympic travel intentions

ABSTRACT

This study explores perceptions of risk-related factors that may discourage travel to the summer Olympics. Specifically, the research analyzes the degree to which risks related to environmental concerns, instability, and personal limitations impacted travel intentions to the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and the 2020 Games in Tokyo, Japan which were held without spectators due to a global pandemic.

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to analyze the degree to which risk-related factors significantly impacted Olympic tourism intentions.

Methods: Almost identical surveys were administered in the United States (U.S.) and the People’s Republic of China approximately two months before the opening ceremony for the 2016 Rio Olympics and again before the originally scheduled 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The only change to the updated 2020 instrument was replacing the Zika virus with Covid-19 as one of the variables measured. Analysis of Variances (ANOVAs) and Dunnett’s Planned Comparison were used for the statistical analysis. 

Results: The study herein represented an analysis of 882 responses including 728 usable surveys from 2016 and 154 from 2020. Risks that related to instability and environmental health that were uncertain in nature were perceived to be greater deterrents to Olympic tourism than known risks related to personal limitations. When conducting paired comparisons of risk factors that would deter travel to the summer Olympics, 17 significant differences were found between the mean scores.

Conclusions: Perceptions of travel risks that are uncertain or unable to be controlled are typically a greater deterrent to Olympic tourism than risks that are certain and seemingly able to be controlled.        

Application in Sport: Understanding the types and degree to which risk factors influence travel intentions to the summer Olympics or a mega-event can assist organizers in framing communications with potential visitors and local businesses.

Key Words: tourism, Zika, COVID-19, Environmental risks, instability, terrorism, mega-event, nationality, sport travel, personal limitations related to travel, travel health

(more…)
2024-01-05T15:50:06-06:00January 5th, 2024|Olympics, Research, Sports Studies|Comments Off on The impact of risk factors on Olympic travel intentions
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