Abstract des Autors

The aim of this study is to identify the categories which young 12 to 19 year old people, students of the Faculty of Physical Education and Sport and Czech Olympians associate with the OG, changes in their evolution, how they are informed about the Olympic Principles, including the subjective importance they give to them and their sources. The used questionnaire: “Olympic Questionnaire”, including the Czech version, was created and standardized in the project “Sportive Lifestyle, Motor Performance of Youth in Europe”. The frequency of participation of the respondents in sports and physical activities was classified by the COMPASS method. The
respondents were 12–19 year old young people (1274 boys and 1090 girls ) according to the principles of the quota sample, 177 students of the Faculty of Physical Education and Sport and 212 Czech Olympians. The evaluation of the quantitatively structured data was carried out by the methods of descriptive statistical analysis. The qualitative data, open questions, were analyzed and classified into a system of categories compatible with national and international projects. The results of this study confirmed the hypothesis that young people in most cases associate the OG with sports competitions, sports and sportsmen rather them with the Olympic Principles. Older respondents associate them with the principles of fair-play, ekecheria – peace during the period of the Games and also with the existence of negative phenomena: commercialization, the influence of mass media and doping. No positive and significant relations between physical and sports activities (organized and competitive ones) on one hand and a wider spectrum of associations on the other hand with the OG were confirmed. The most significant sources of the creation of knowledge and points of view in the respondents about the OG and Olympism are mass media. In the case of the Olympians the most important sources are newspapers, magazines and radio broadcasts rather than the television. Radio broadcasts are less important for students than printed media. Trainers and coaches influence people who practice sports in an organized way, but not all of them; we registered their highest influence in the Olympians, especially in women. The results of this study will be used in plans of study programs, in the improvement of educational programs for elementary and high schools as well as in Olympic Education in general. Verf.-Referat