Last week, the team of Olympic and World Champions of ETHNOA, implemented the “Olympic Values” programme at the IOA's facilities in Olympia. Participants were students from primary schools of the Athens College (4-6 April) and 2th Primary School of Vrilissia (7-9 April).
The children talked to the Olympic and World Champions and felt the magic that the sacred site of Olympia emits.
The most interesting part of the programme, however, was the sports part. The children, in an experiential way, participated in various sports, which excited them. Some of these sports (golf, laser run) were played for the first time. Also, through actions in which they played a leading role, the children learned to manage the negative emotions that overwhelm them after a team competition failure. During the programme, the children participated in the individual action programmes: Olympic Education, Sport and Environment and Cultural Torch Relay.
Apart from these, the children and the teachers had the opportunity to have a tour of the historical archive of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games and to see the effort that was made by all the bodies at that time to organize this great global sporting event. Finally, the children and the teachers visited the Archaeological site, the Stadium and the Museum of Ancient Olympia and the forest of Folei, where they carried out an environmental activity. The mission was accompanied, apart from Spyros Avgusti, by the teachers: Victor Mitrou and George Tzelilis (weightlifting), Nikolaos Skiathitis and Yannis Tsilis (rowing), Angelos Lemanis (sailing), Anna Charalambidou (water polo), George Chalkidis (handball), Antonis Plati (golf) and Penelope Nika (modern pentathlon). In addition, the paralympic swimming champion Yannis Kostakis and the world sailing champion Melina Pappa participated and presented their sports. The children asked a lot of questions, which were answered by both of them, linking the ideals of sport with the social skills that should be acquired from an early age. This was emphatically pointed out by both the President of ETHNOA, Mr. Georgios Alikakos, and the Treasurer of ETHNOA, Mr. Stavros Perros, in their brief speeches to the children.
The aim of ETHNOA is to bring the message to all the children of Greece: “The Olympic Values are the most valuable guides for the daily steps of our lives”!
