Olympics: Can Gen Z Be Drawn While Keeping Traditions?

The Olympics has been the world's premier sporting event for more than a century.

Throughout this time, the Olympic Movement has faced many challenges, but what is often overlooked is how it has continually needed to evolve since the first modern games in 1896.

Today, arguably the most significant challenge for the Olympics is maintaining its appeal to modern audiences, particularly Generation Z.

To meet this challenge, the Olympic movement is undergoing something of a reinvention: adding new and unconventional sports in the hope of appealing to younger people, who are thought to have markedly different tastes.

The question is, will it work? And could there be unintended consequences?

Gen Z and sport

Generation Z, born between 1997 and 2009, are widely considered to be distinct from their predecessors as the first digitally native generation.

Although the exact age range of Generation Z is subjective, they are defined by an upbringing coinciding with the advent of social media and smart phones. Thus their relationship to technology is thought to influence their preferences, attitudes and behaviours.

One such difference is their relationship with sport. Generation Z is considered less avid viewers of sports than older generations.

A recent study found Gen Z views entertainment content at a significantly higher rate (48%) compared to sports content (23%). This contrasts sharply with older generations, such as Baby Boomers (1946-1964), who have a higher sports viewership at 41%.

However, Gen Z's apathy toward sport should not be overstated.

While they may watch comparatively less of it, sport still plays a key part in their lives. The difference lies in how they consume it - primarily online, in shorter forms or highlight packages, while they are also more inclined to follow individual athletes than teams or leagues.

How is the Olympics catering to Gen Z?

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has, in recent times, added a suite of new sports to the Olympic programme in an effort to attract younger viewers.

This saw the Tokyo games feature a record number of total sports (33) and events (339), which included the non-traditional sports of skateboarding, sport climbing, and surfing.

The Paris games retains these new sports, while debuting breaking, known to many as breakdancing.

Support for these new inclusions appears high among the younger generations.

According to a recent YouGov survey, a significant proportion of Gen Z respondents indicated their likelihood of watching the Paris games increased due to the specific inclusions of breaking (30%), skateboarding (31%), sports climbing (32%) and surfing (24%).

This positive trend carried forward to Millennials (1981-1996): breakdancing (32%), skateboarding (34%), sports climbing (32%) and surfing (33%).

Balancing tradition and modernisation

The Olympics must perform balancing act when introducing new sports. Can it modernise the games to attract new audiences, while at the same time preserving the traditions and prestige that have developed over 128 years?

From one perspective, the IOC could learn from the widely studied "new Coke" fiasco, which offers a cautionary tale of well-loved products over-adapting in response to perceived trends.

Concerned that younger customers appeared to prefer Pepsi's sweeter taste, Coca-Cola altered its 99-year-old recipe in 1985 to produce "new Coke". The move sparked fierce backlash from loyal customers and resulted in Coca-Cola reintroducing "Coca-Cola Classic" after only 79 days.

History, however, also demonstrates that sport has evolved successfully to changing cultural norms and tastes.

ESPN's launch of the X Games in 1995 offers an instructive example.

The X Games identified and capitalised on the popularity among younger audiences of extreme sports that sat outside the sporting mainstream: skateboarding, surfing, and BMX, which have since graduated to the Olympic programme.

The X Games demonstrated that when preferences of a consumer group are ignored, these consumers will seek alternatives.

Unintended consequences

While the integration of unconventional Olympic events may attract younger viewers, it may also risk disillusioning older, existing audiences as per the "new Coke" case study.

In the same YouGov study we referenced earlier, 36% of Baby Boomers expressed the inclusion of skateboarding made them less likely to watch the Olympics. A similar sentiment was held towards sport climbing (31% less likely) and surfing (29% less likely).

However, their strongest ire is towards breaking, with 45% stating its inclusion makes them less likely to watch the Olympics overall.

The sentiment among Baby Boomers may be that these new sports lack the purity, tradition and Olympic legacy of more established sports, and their inclusion undermines the prestige of the competition.

Generational shift

Although Baby Boomers appear displeased with these new additions, the IOC will no doubt be attuned to the shifting balance of power between generations.

Within the Australian population for instance, Gen Z (16.6%) are nearing Baby Boomers (18.5%) in population size. When Gen Z is coupled with its successor Alpha (2010-today), and Baby Boomers with its predecessor Silents (1925-1945), their shares of the Australian population are now 33% and 24% respectively.

So as this generational shift continues, it is the preferences of the young that are more likely to be prioritised in the strategic direction of the Olympic Movement.

For now, the IOC is likely to tread a careful tightrope, balancing innovation with tradition.

Trial and error, along with detailed viewer analytics, will be used to ensure it adapts quickly to a changing environment and satisfies the most people.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.