INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC ACADEMY 7th JOINT - IOA

Tõrva, founded in 1767, in 1996 on the initiative of teacher Anne
Volver. The following events were included (Volver, Viru, 1996):
• essay contest on Olympic topics;
• drawing contest on Olympic topics;
• contest of making an Olympic mascot;
• Olympic afternoon;
• sports program.
The mentioned contests were organized in two stages. First,
students of every form selected their best for the school contest, and
during the school contest a jury consisting of teachers made the final
decision. On the Olympic afternoon the General Secretary of the
National Olympic Committee of Estonia Mr Gunnar Paal spoke about
the history and organization of the Olympic Games, Olympic heros,
and preparation for Olympic Games in Atlanta. An Olympic
knowledge quiz contest followed. There were two important results of
the Olympic afternoon. First, an opportunity was provided to enrich
the students’ knowledge about the Olympics and Olympic Movement.
The second result was seen in the school stadium during the following
period. A lot of students began to train voluntarily in order to show
their best performance in the sport program (Volver, Viru, 1996).
The culmination of the School Olympic Games was the sports
program which was held over a period of three days. The program
began with the Olympic ceremony. There was a parade of participants,
a speech by the President of the National Olympic Committee of
Estonia Mr Arnold Green. The traditional words „I declare the Games
open“ said by the headmaster of the school, the hoisting of the
Olympic flag (the flag of the century of the Olympic Games) and the
lighting of the Olympic fire. The flame was brought to the stadium
and the fire was lighted by an ex-student of the school, Helen
Novikov, who participated at the Winter Games of Lillehammer in
1994. At this point it is suitable to add that several Olympic winners
and medalists have visited School Olympic Games like Erika
Salumäe, Andrus Veerpalu, Jüri Tarmak, Jaak Uudmäe, Jüri Tamm,
Jaak Mae. The solemn Olympic oath was sworn by athletes and
judges. The President of the National Olympic Committee of Estonia,
Mr Arnold Green, presented the school with the recently published
Olympic ABC-book. The cultural program consisted of the
- 413 -