EXPERT ADVISORY — February 4, 2026 — R0012
As the 2026 Winter Olympics get underway, Brock University researchers are weighing in on declining interest among young audiences and hosting challenges that could impact the longevity of the Games.
Assistant Professor of Sport Management Taylor McKee says youths once viewed athletes, like 1996 Jamaican-Canadian gold medallist Donovan Bailey, as “larger than life” national celebrities and the Olympics as top-tier sport — but times are changing.
The sport nationalism that has been deeply embedded in the modern Olympic Games since their 1896 revival “by Western European powers in the fires of European nationalism,” has waned, he says, especially among youth.
Today, high-profile athletes are a “brand” who aren’t necessarily seen as representing their country or being part of a larger effort to achieve national sport accomplishments, McKee says.
“For example, Connor McDavid is a brand as much as he’s a hockey player,” McKee says of the famed Edmonton Oilers captain who will be playing for Team Canada at the Games. “That ‘brand’ is built through highlights, media narratives and sponsorships, and it can travel across borders, so the audience connection is often to the individual star rather than to the nation on the jersey.”
Audiences consume sport in large part through products, such as team brands, fantasy sport and merchandise, he says. Nationality, as experienced in the Olympics, is, in some fashion, immaterial to the consumption of these sport products, he adds.
To bring more youth back into the Olympic fold, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) created the Youth Olympic Games, a multi-sport games experience for athletes aged 15 to 18, in 2010. But the event, which is held in the same year as the Olympics, has not been well-promoted or received much media attention, doing little to support its intended mission, McKee says.
That hasn’t stopped the IOC from taking other approaches, augmenting Olympic programming to try and draw in younger audiences. The introduction of breakdancing to the Olympic roster and development of the Olympic Esports Series are two recent examples of attempts to attract younger demographics, McKee says.
Associate Professor of Sport Management Olan Scott says including other sports such as rock climbing and ski cross can help make the Olympics more appealing to younger viewers.
He says many youths are intrigued by these and other high-adrenaline events like skeleton, luge and snowboarding.
“They don’t often get to watch these sports on TV or streaming platforms,” Scott says. “For instance, in skeleton, they are excited to see athletes go down an ice track headfirst at more than 130 kilometres per hour and see the spectacle that they do not often get to see on regular sport programming.”
The IOC continues to look at new sports and events to capture the attention of younger generations and people who may not play organized sport, he says.
“Sports vying for Olympic inclusion need to broaden the community of people interested in the Olympic Games and, in particular, to reach younger and non-sport fan audiences,” Scott says. “Traditional sports are also looking to reposition themselves to showcase their sport being played in a new manner.”
Traditional five-on-five basketball, for instance, has been in the Olympics consistently since 1936 for men and 1976 for women. An adapted version of the sport debuted at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. This popular three-on-three format, played on a halfcourt, is popular all over the world, he says.
Attracting viewers isn’t the only challenge the Olympics is facing.
A decline in interest to host the Olympics is also of concern for the longevity and appeal of the Games, says Scott.
“It’s at the point where the IOC is not even having a bid process anymore,” he says. “It’s more like a tender or negotiated agreement between a city or country and the IOC, which further reduces the amount of transparency.”
Scott says high costs of building or even retrofitting infrastructure, steep prices of admissions to events, a reluctance from taxpayers to fund the Olympic Games and the impacts of climate change are among reasons why cities and countries are reluctant to step forward.
Both Scott and McKee predict major changes for future Olympics.
“I think we’ll be seeing a stripped-down version,” says Scott. “It might be a format where one Olympics is held on every continent, and it cycles around for the next 20 years.”
McKee envisions an Olympics with events spread out over continents, with chosen locations dependent on countries’ existing facilities, climates and regional sport fan bases.
“The Olympics shouldn’t be in a position to force cities to build brand new facilities, so fragmentation might be the best of all the bad options the IOC’s got right now,” he says.
Assistant Professor Taylor McKee and Associate Professor Olan Scott, both in Brock University’s Department of Sport Management, are available for media interviews on this topic.
For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:
*Sarah Ackles, Communications Specialist, Brock University [email protected] or 289-241-5483
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