As young people tune out, can Olympics vault over the generation gap?
- IOC frets about ageing TV audience for Games, as well as legacy of Olympism – its promotion of sports as key to a balanced lifestyle and harmonious development
- While it has teamed up with social media platforms and is experimenting with esports, experts say current situation may just reflect a natural cultural shift
Our Tokyo Trail series looks at key issues surrounding the 2020 Olympics, which are scheduled for late July.
“I’m not excited about the Olympics as I lack interest in sports in general,” said the English literature student at Goldsmiths, University of London.
Others of a similar age feel a similar way. Francis Huang Shao-hsuan, 25, a furniture designer from Taiwan, said the Games were mostly good for small talk on lunch breaks.
And Crystal Pang Wing-sze, 25, who works in communications at a Hong Kong university, said: “There’s a feeling of it not having anything to do with me.”
03:13
Inside China’s gymnastics school that churns out Olympic champions
It’s clear the Olympics has a young-people problem – and analysts say the mode of delivering sports programmes to them needs to change.