A celebration of athletes in the prime of life, the Olympic Games are no exception to the general trend of competitions born in the last century, with (television) spectators who are increasingly older. But is this irremediable?
“We want to bring young people into sport.” This is the roadmap – a little ambitious – that Thomas Bach set for himself in 2016, when he introduced new sports such as breakdancing and skateboarding to the Olympic Games, more marketed towards young people. “With all the options they have, we can’t expect them to automatically come to us. We have to go out and get them.”explained the IOC President. The task is going to be a big one: between Sydney 2000 and Rio 2016, the average age of Games viewers worldwide rose from 45 to 53. And between 2012 and 2016, the audience experts cited by the Wall Street Journal observed a 30% drop in 18-34 year-olds watching TV. Should we conclude that young people are shunning the Games?
“The crux of the problem is that the economic model of the Olympics is based on television”says Belinda Wheaton, a sociologist at the University of Waitako (New Zealand) and author of a study on the subject. “PAmong the key indicators, the ones most closely monitored by the channels, there is the audience share of the young public, 18-34 year olds.” So yes, Paris 2024 looks like a steamroller of audiences that sweeps away all the competition in its path, but these few euphoric days do not erase the overall trend. The audience figures for Rio thus showed a massive disaffection of millennials (young people born between 1984 and 1996), underlines the specialist agency StatsPerform.
Things have not improved with Generation Z, which is even more allergic to cathode-ray mass events. “We are engaged in a race against time, to not disappear from the world of young people”acknowledged Sebastian Coe, the big boss of world athletics, in January The World. “We are in competition with all these outside influences that occupy their time and which, honestly, are sometimes more exciting and more in tune with their lives.”
This is evidenced by the interest in the Games, which varies from 26% among 25-34 year-olds to 43% among those over 65, according to a study by the Center for Digital Future in 2018. “It’s not that young people are no longer interested in sport, on the contrary, their interest has rarely been so high”tempers Michael Neuman, a sports marketing consultant at the Playfly agency. However, some Olympic disciplines that have remained in their original state find less favor in their eyes than others, considered more spectacular and more fun. “It’s part of the IOC’s tactic, but it’s worked so far especially at the Winter Games, with the addition of snowboarding in Salt Lake City.”points out the expert.
At the Paris Olympics, skateboarding, BMX and 3×3 basketball make up the “youth” package set up at Place de la Concorde. Emilien, wearing a rider’s cap, looks a little out of place among the tricolour jerseys that filled the skatepark for the street event on Monday 29 July.
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The 24-year-old from Clermont is more at ease in the world of skaters than among Olympic fans. “I am a regular at the International Extreme Sports Festival [le FISE]in Montpellier. The Games attract a really different audience”he assures, sizing up the supporters who are having fun, tricolour flag in hand, towards the refreshment bars. In Montpellier, “we are parked along the [fleuve] Lez, there are steps, and also places where you sit on a slope, it can really be the mess…”Emilien says. “That said, I was pleasantly surprised by the Olympic atmosphere! Even if it remains a little nice for my taste.”
His parents, who travelled to Paris, preferred to go and see a more “suitable”. And his regular friends from FISE remained on the banks of the Lez: “at 120 euros per seat [pour les JO]it calms”.
On the wrong side of the gate, Bastien, a 26-year-old from Le Mans, is hanging around the skatepark but won’t go in. “Tickets for urban sports went very quickly. It’s a shame, it’s a real change from traditional sports, it gives a new lease of life to the Gameshe believes. I’m also interested in it, I’m a big fan of the X-Games.” The IOC has openly taken inspiration from these kinds of counter-Olympics, with urban sports, to try to rejuvenate its audience. Without removing certain aspects of the great Coubertin circus, such as the classification by nations.
The curiosity effect is working at full capacity. Smoking a cigarette at the foot of the skatepark’s tubular stand, Mathilde, Adrien and Alexis, all just over 25, admit straight away that they came as tourists. “We’re not big fans. I was watching the opening ceremony when I changed my mind about these Games.”recognizes the young woman, who immediately “connected to the site” to take places. “I I said to myself: ‘but this is actually cool’. I had only seen the ‘it’s going to be a mess on public transport’ side.”
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This is undoubtedly one of the collateral effects of the Paris Games: to generate interest in sport. Gabriel Attal even openly dreams of a “generation 2024”in the columns of The Team. LThe 25-34 age group is the most represented age group among ticket buyers (31%), according to figures released in February by Paris 2024 and relayed by The ParisianA statistic that can also be read the other way around: the oldest monopolize two thirds of the tickets.
Most of the spectators at the Games have a few white hairs, and are often accompanied by younger people. Like Hugo and Arthur, 20 and 15 years old, who we met at the exit of the Colombes stadium, where the field hockey events are taking place. The eldest caught the Olympic bug with Rio and Tokyo. “There was no way I was going to miss Paris.” With his brother, he goes from site to site: field hockey, but also rowing, beach volleyball, table tennis, archery, and 3×3 basketball. The two youngsters are chaperoned by their mother, who takes care of the housekeeping.
The age of the public is perhaps linked to the communication of Paris 2024 on ticketing: need to buy packs a year in advance, prices felt to be prohibitive… It discouraged many 18-34 year olds, many of whom barely know what tomorrow will bring, let alone the day after tomorrow… Like Guillaume, who decided at the last minute: “We were watching the Games this weekend in front of the TV, I thought ‘hey, skateboarding must be fun’, and I went to see the cool events that were still available on the site.” “Never mind the price, it’s the opportunity of a lifetime”smiles the one who, by his own admission, “pecks” usually the Games on TV.
“If the Olympics ever take place in Rome or Berlin, I could make an effort. In a few years, when I have a bit more money.”
Guillaume, a spectator of the skateboarding eventsto franceinfo
In Rome, Berlin, and all over the world, young people are also following the Games on social media. At least, that’s what the IOC said on July 28, boasting of record audiences on its Instagram, Tiktok and other accounts, with “700 million commitments”.
Statistics that leave expert Belinda Wheaton skeptical. “A bit like the figure of three billion people who watched the Tokyo Games, these are statistics manufactured to seem incredible, she points. But does that mean that these images were viewed intently, rather than in between scrolls? I’m not sure that these numbers prove much.”
An indicator reveals another reality about the interest shown by the younger generation in the Games: sprint superstar Noah Lyles is followed by only 1.3 million people on Instagram, and pole vault king Mondo Duplantis by 900,000 fans. Ridiculous figures compared to the counter of glorious former athletes like Usain Bolt (14 million followers) or Michael Phelps (3.5 million), not to mention footballers or influencers outside the Olympic sphere. With 9 million fans, only American gymnast Simone Biles, who won three titles in Paris, can compare.