Participation in sport, knowledge of Olympic facts and assessment of Olympic values in Czech young people
Abstract
The aim of this study was to find out how 12-19 year-old Czech young people (1274 boys and 1090 girls selected according to the principles of the quota sample), differently involved in sports, know the facts of the Olympic movement and assess its ideals. In conformity with this aim the article came to the conclusion that: participation of young people in sports positively affects their knowledge about the facts of the Olympic Movement, Young people's knowledge of the facts of the Olympic movement surveyed in 2008 is not different from that of their counterparts' reported in 1998, The order in which young people evaluate Olympic values (their desirability and reality) did not change over the period of 1998 - 2008.
The "Olympic questionnaire" has been used for the assessment of the knowledge of Olympic facts and Olympic ideals. The frequency of the respondents' participation in sport and physical activity was measured by means of the COMPASS methodology.
The results confirmed the hypothesis about the positive impact of participation in sport on the knowledge of the Olympic facts of the respondents. The comparison of the selected young people's knowledge of Olympic facts in the years 1998 and 2008 in persons of the same age and gender confirmed that there was rather a consensus than differences between them.
Conformity in the assessment of the most desirable and real Olympic ideals was found in values which are associated with sport performance: competition, physical fitness, sportsmanship, etc. On the other hand the real impact of some ethical Olympic values like honor, cultural understanding, broadmindedness, nobility, modesty etc., was assessed as less significant.