Sustaining Olympic education beyond the games: Multilevel governance, temporal coherence, and institutional endurance

Olympic education has traditionally focused on transmitting the values of Olympism, yet its governance and sociological dynamics remain underexplored. While recent studies interpret International Olympic Committee (IOC) governance through networked governance, less is known about how Olympic education is institutionalised across levels of governance and translated into enduring policies. This article analyses the governance of Olympic and Paralympic education for Tokyo 2020 through the multilevel governance framework, revealing a multilevel system in which the IOC sets normative and contractual imperatives, national authorities embedded them in statutory frameworks, and regional actors adapd delivery to local contexts. While vertical and horizontal coordination fostered coherence, tensions emerged between the symbolic, time-limited leadership of the Tokyo Organising Committee and the enduring responsibilities of ministries, education boards, and schools. This temporal and organisational asymmetry demonstrates that legacy depends not only on programme implementation, but also on institutional endurance and continuity. Sustainability of Olympic education, therefore, requires anchoring values-based learning in permanent policy frameworks, strengthening professional and organisational capacities, and establishing durable coordination mechanisms that persist after the Games.