United States Sports Academy - "America's Sports University"

The XIX. Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City 2002 seemed to be a great success for the Salt Lake Organizing Committee (SLOC). Consequently, Research Team Olympia from the University of Mainz/Germany had favorable conditions for an empirical investigation of the spectators at the biathlon venue “Soldier Hollow”.

The survey investigated the interest in and image of Biathlon, the reason of visiting the Games and Biathlon, the future of the Olympic Games and the cultural Olympiad. The research team Olympia did a similar survey at the Sydney Olympic Games in Sydney 2000 at the Modern Pentathlon. Here a particular interest was given to the significance of the cultural program at the Olympic Games.

A total number of 1 130 spectators (45% female, 49.9% male and 5.1% no answer) at the biathlon competitions answered the questionnaire. The researchers only used the time before and between the competitions (male / female competition) for doing the survey. Most of the spectators came from the Salt Lake City area (55.1%). From outside the USA, the tourists mostly came from Germany (3.5%), Norway (2.7%), Canada (1.6%) and Sweden (1.4%). Sixteen nations were represented in the survey.

More than a fifth (21.3%) of the questioned were regular spectators of Olympic Games, so there has been a high number of “experts” being part of the investigation. A high number of well-educated persons, 54% were college graduates, took part as well.

Many of them were open minded for artistic forms they passed while walking around the Olympic venues. So more than 28% were able to describe which works of art struck their interest. Only 12.6% said that visiting cultural events was unimportant.

Visiting cultural events
_	N=	%
Very important	198	17.5
Important	393	34.8
Less important	308	27.3
Unimportant	142	12.6
n.a.	89	7.9

In total, 44.9% of the biathlon spectators did attend a cultural event. Most of them saw at least one further event. This is in fact a much higher attendance of the “Cultural Olympiad” than in Sydney 2000 (29%).

Categories of visited cultural events
_	N=	%
Opera/ballet	26	2.3
Museum/exhibition/visual arts	208	18.4
Theatre	47	4.2
Music/concert	296	26.2
Dance (modern dance)	64	5.7
Events	252	22.3

Some very interesting responses resulted from the relationship between the cultural program and the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. An impressive high amount did see coherence between sport and arts. A large percentage of spectators (83.5%) agreed with the statement “The Olympic ideal combines sport and art.” Just 6% denied a relationship.

Relationship between cultural program and the Olympic Games
_	N=	%
The Olympic ideal combines sport and art	944	83.5
Every Olympic athlete ought to know about Olympic history and Olympic ideals	927	82
It brightens up the host city	564	49.9
Cultural events and exhibits traditionally belong to the Olympic Games	278	24.6
There is no relationship at all	68	6

The researchers also asked about the sources information about the cultural program that was promoted: Before the Olympic Games

• In Salt Lake City

The chart of examples below shows that mass media provided information well, but the publicity of travel agencies and even at the local tourist sites (posters e.g.) could have been more effective.

Sources of information and promotional material about the cultural program (before the Olympic Games)
_	N=	%
Magazines and newspapers	472	41.8
Television and radio reports	498	44.1
Travel agency	24	2.1
No information at all	151	13.4
Sources of information and promotional material about the cultural program (in Salt Lake City)
_	N=	%
Newspapers	463	41
Program guide	394	34.9
Poster and placard (e.g. in hotel)	138	12.2
Travel guide	112	9.9
No information at all	167	14.8

The empirical investigation shows a high growing interest of Olympic spectators and tourists in the Olympic Arts Festival. In comparison to Olympic Games in the past the frequency of persons who did agree to the statement: “The Olympic idea combines sport and art” have been:

- Barcelona 1992: 39.9%

- Atlanta 1996: 23.1%

- Sydney 2000: 72.1%

- Salt Lake City 2002: 83.5%

However, the spectators asked were very different groups due to the fact that mainly national spectators attend the Games.

The empirical results show that the spectators are aware that the Olympic Idea combines sport and art. However, only half of the spectators rate the cultural Olympiad in Salt Lake City as very important or important and 44% of the biathlon spectators visited cultural events. This research is part of a long term research project on cultural Olympiads that started in Barcelona 1992. Various publications were made by the Research Team Olympia ( www.sport.uni-mainz.de/Olympia)