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Australia since 1989. Particularly in Australia there have been programs
such as:
1993 Olympic 2000 National Education Program
(to develop sportsmanship/citizenship)
1994 Network of Friendship Program (to link schools across the world)
1994 A new university subject in Sydney called "Analysis of the
Olympic Games"
1995 The Olympic Education Kit (a teacher resource distributed to all
Australian schools)
1996 The Centre for Olympic Studies at the University of New South
Wales (NSW)
1998 Training of students in the above mentioned programs
1999 Olympic 2000 Schools Strategy of NSW Department of
Education and Training School Sport Unit, AOC and SOCOG.
This strategy aims to "Provide all school students with the
opportunity to be involved with the year 2000 Olympic Games
through ongoing education programs and special strategies,
which further the Olympic ideals whilst developing a range of
understanding, skills and effective learning" (Olympic 2000
Schools Strategy). This program targeted more than 3.1 million
school children.
1999 Greek students to provide management education together with
practical experience of the Sydney 2000 Games. Graduates
returned to Athens and many of them help to organise the Athens
2004 Games.
These are only some of the programs in Australia accompanied by lecture
series, scholarships, virtual libraries, etc. (Cahill 2000). All these programs had an
educational impact on the citizens of Sydney, NSW and Australia as well as the
whole Olympic Movement.
Olympic educational programs have been implemented in many other
countries such as Canada, Germany or Norway to name just a few. Another
psychological effect is that the Games most probably motivate Australians to do
active sport themselves. 70.9% of German Olympic tourists in Atlanta 1996
and sport students in Germany (n=1012) agreed that "the achievements of
Olympic Athletes motivates people to be active themselves in sports" (data from
Messing/Müller 2000: 283, Preuss 1996).
The IOC itself has launched a global Olympic campaign called "Celebrate
Humanity". It is designed to communicate the core values of the Olympic
Movement. However, it is quite difficult to measure the impact such programs
have. Olympic knowledge and experiences certainly strengthen the Olympic
Movement. SOCOG sold its "Master Plan" of how to stage the Olympic Games for
US$ 3.5m to the IOC (dpa 22.9.99: 47). That will save the organisers of Athens 2004
time and money.
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