INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC ACADEMY 7th JOINT - IOA

Organisational Committee and validated by the political institutions,
without the participation of any environmentalist group.
The target public to be reached by the educational projects
promoted by the TOROC are the multipliers (schoolteachers), while in
Lillehammer was every person and in Salt Lake City were the tourists.
Even so every initiative to promote environmental awareness is
valid, a conjugated project that includes different target groups and
plans of action would be more effective. The IOC policy in this sense
is neutral, they included the environment as the third pillar of
Olympism but they don’t take the responsibility to guide the
Organising Committees. Should they take part in this role?
In other words, there are several ways of promoting social
responsibility and environmental sustainable development awareness,
which also depends on the balance of theory with practice. All the
practical cases here presented showed that through their different
environmental educational projects for the Olympic Games, they had
met the theoretical background of sustainability. It remains to know
about the environmental legacy they left or they will leave to winter
sports practice and to their societies. Would it change the winter sports
practice fashion? Would it change the relationship between people and
environment?
NOTES
1 In 1972 Jürgen Dieckert wrote the first critical article on sports without
environmental requirements (published in German).
2 Agenda 21 is a comprehensive plan of action to be taken globally,
nationally and locally by organizations of the United Nations System,
Governments, and Major Groups in every area in which human impacts on
the environment. Agenda 21, the Rio Declaration on Environment and
Development, and the Statement of principles for the Sustainable
Management of Forests were adopted by more than 178 Governments at the
United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED)
held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 3 to 14 June 1992.
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