Paris 2024: More youthful Games
As the Paris 2024 sports programme shows, youth-oriented sports are here to stay.
Remaining on the programme after their Olympic debuts at Tokyo 2020 were skateboarding, surfing, sport climbing, BMX freestyle and 3X3 basketball, all of which proved hugely popular on social and digital platforms.
Surveyed on the inclusion of the first three of those on the Tokyo 2020 programme, 71 per cent of younger age groups were more likely to agree that they made the Olympic Games more appealing, with 81 per cent of audiences saying they enjoyed watching them.
That appeal with younger viewers and spectators was reflected by massive increases in social followers for some athletes after Tokyo 2020. By way of example, women’s street skateboarding silver medallist Rayssa Leal of Brazil saw the number of people following her on social media jump from 630,000 in June 2021 to nine million by that September.
The young stars of breaking expected a similar surge when they strutted their stuff at Paris 2024, with tickets to events having already sold out in a matter of hours. Breaking enjoyed a successful Youth Olympic Games debut at Buenos Aires 2018, where the sight of B-Boys and B-Girls going head-to-head in individual duels was an instant hit with young audiences and spectators.
For its part, sport climbing also resonated with young people at Paris 2024 and pulled in the crowds at Le Bourget Sport Climbing Venue, which will continue to serve local residents now that the Games are over. Some 39 per cent of the 25 million participants in this mixed-gender sport are under 18.
Fast-moving, dynamic, and an iteration of the street version of the game, basketball 3X3 is the world’s leading urban sport and a guaranteed winner with young people, having earned its place on the programme on the back of the huge crowds it attracted at three consecutive Youth Olympic Games. Surfing and BMX Freestyle had similarly loyal followings among younger generations, while few sports have the power to captivate youth like skateboarding, which had evolved from its underground, alternative beginnings to become a widely accessible and massively popular Olympic mainstay.
The Paris 2024 youth vibe was enhanced by the decision to stage the breaking, BMX freestyle, skateboarding and 3X3 basketball events at one central Paris location: the urban park at La Concorde. Very much the youth hub of the Games, this 30,000-capacity temporary venue kept the fans entertained between events with a vibrant programme of concerts, exhibitions and sports demonstrations.
The central role now enjoyed by these sports and events on the Olympic stage was the fulfilment of Olympic Agenda 2020’s commitment to engage with youth. Addressing that commitment at its launch, IOC President Thomas Bach said it was not enough to encourage more young people to watch the Olympic Games. The ultimate aim was to include sport on more school curricula around the world, and deliver its many educational and health benefits to as many children and young people as possible.
Nationwide initiatives across France, like the annual Olympic and Paralympic Weeks and Generation 2024, were achieving that goal and improving children’s fitness and wellbeing.
The latter was a joint Paris 2024 and French Ministry of National Education and Youth initiative that has millions of French primary schoolchildren engaging in 30 minutes of exercise every day.
Active design was another key component of the programme, with playgrounds across the country being redesigned with the goal of making schoolchildren more active. It was hoped that 1,500 such playgrounds would be created across France in the years to come, potentially inspiring the country’s future stars of youth-oriented sport.