Social Impacts of International Sport Events – Based on Experiences from European Youth Olympic Festival 2017 Győr

Abstract

Social impacts of international sport events can be defined as the way the sport events changes the collective and individual values, pattern of behaviour, structure of the community, the way and quality of life. The paper looks into the opportunities and ways to involve the citizens of the organizing city and making them committed towards the international sport events. Additionally it seeks answers to the question, how sport facilities related to European Youth Olympic Festival (in the following EYOF) could increase the sport economic activity of the City of Győr? Between 1998 and 2002 and especially since 2010, the Hungarian Government handles sport as a priority strategic sector. During the planning phase of EYOF one of the main goals evolved was the widespread inclusion of the citizens of Győr. In case of the infrastructural investments and facilities they were not just built for the EYOF but for post utilization. The objective of post utilization is to increase the medium and long term participation of the citizens of Győr, and thus serve health prevention. The quantitative study consisted two surveys with the participation of 1337 residents of Győr. The results of the research taken before and after the event, showed the change in the citizen’s perception towards EYOF in accordance of their experiences during the event. The qualitative research included interviews with professionals and field-research. In the study we identified the implemented actions of the organizing city in order to involve the urban population as much as possible. In case of infrastructural investment we investigate if there was any improvement in the sport activity of citizens.