Olympism is a set of principles, ideas, visions and challenges. Coubertin described it in not completely systematic terms as a philosophy of life with the principles of a cult of effort, eurhythmics and a love of exercise, but also as a state of mind (Naul, 2009). Consequently, as far back as the end of the 19th century, in his philosophical, psychological and educational musings, Coubertin already understood that sport and exercise were becoming important actors in culture as well as a means of educating and communicating across of different civilisations. Besides the original ideas of Pierre de Coubertin, Olympism is enriched by other ideas and objectives in the Olympic Charter. These comprise reflections on the development of the Olympic Movement, sport and culture as well as their mutual relationships (Georgiadis, 2003). Nonetheless, they also include reflections on applying the results of academic research. Two different approaches have been pursued in incorporating Olympism into curricula at Czech universities for training experts in physical education and sports. At other universities and faculties, the implementation of Olympism is not yet systematic, and is influenced by specialists operating in the fields of philosophy, sociology, ethics, aesthetics, etc. In cooperation with NOAs and OSCs, universities should focus part of their research and educational capacities on current issues concerning the Olympic Movement. Olympism, the principles, values, and relationship of Olympism to sport and culture should be an integral part of professional training for future teachers, coaches, managers, etc. The results of research activities in Olympism should be subsequently a predicate of education programmes and systematically developed in university concepts of Olympic education programmes. They may be applied as a separate educational subject or as a set of selected Olympic themes included in the content of education for social science and sports subjects. Cooperation between Olympic institutions and universities is beneficial not only for the development of a deeper and more comprehensive interpretation of Olympism in historical and contemporary reflections, but also for the development of sports and social sciences as well as for sport itself and its relationship with culture. Today, without the ideas and principles of Olympism, it is not possible to assess sport in its complex and rapid development or to assess the evolution of society in the 20th and 21st centuries.

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.