“Excellence, Friendship and Respect” are the IOC’s fundamental principles. This year, Olympic Week (7-11 October) will build on these values and promote them among the young participants. So, as well as the 40 or so sports initiations and normal activities, workshops entitled Values in Action will be set up. We bet that some of our budding athletes will want to take up the challenge!

Despite an already vast array of sports initiations, there is a new kid on the block this year: hockey. Let’s not forget: rowing, badminton, baseball, basketball, biathlon, bobsleigh, broomball, climbing, fencing, American football, weightlifting, handball, judo, koshiki karatedo, Nordic walking, rollerblading, cross country skiing, taekwondo, tchoukball, tennis, table tennis, archery, cycling/mountain biking, sailing, volleyball, giant table football, arts and crafts, table curling, Latin dancing, initiation to lifesaving and road safety. What more could anyone want?

From Monday to Thursday, a photo journalism workshop, Olympic Week seen through the eyes of young people, enables 12-15 year-olds to slip into the skin of a photographer or reporter for one day. They will work in pairs to track down a moment and an image that illustrate one of the Olympic values. They will be accompanied by a professional journalist and photographer. At the same time, in the comic strip workshop, the values will depicted on paper. Finally, a daily paper, 27th Olympic Week: the Gazette will be published, and can also be found every evening on the internet.

And that’s not all! Two other workshops are planned for promoting the Olympic values: Kickboxing to manage violence and Cool&Clean. The first will enable the participants to discover this combat sport where the opponent is also a partner. Rules, discipline and self-control will also be part of the game. The second workshop invites young people to discover original games, putting into practice excellence, friendship or respect.

Source: IOC