Background: the Olympic movement associates the range of values. Some of them have a real impact; others remain at the level of desirable. Objective of this study was to find out how 12-19 year-old Czech young people (1274 boys and 1090 girls) know the main facts of the Olympic movement and distinguish between values which have real impact and those that remain rather as desire. The second aim was comparison in knowledge of Olympic facts and between values of the identical surveys carried out in the years 1998 and 2008. Methods: the “Olympic questionnaire” has been used for the assessment of the knowledge of Olympic facts and Olympic ideals. The frequency of the respondents´ participation in sport was measured by means of the COMPASS methodology. Results confirmed the hypothesis about the positive impact of participation in sport on the knowledge of the Olympic facts of the respondents. Conformity in the assessment of the most desirable and real Olympic ideals was found in values associated with sport performance: physical fitness, competition, sportsmanship, etc. The real impact of some ethical Olympic values like honour, cultural understanding, broadmindedness, nobility, modesty etc., was assessed as less significant. Conclusions: participation in sports positively affects level of knowledge about the facts of the Olympic Movement. The order in which young people evaluate Olympic values (their desirability and reality) did not change over the period of 1998 – 2008.