After the end of the 2nd International Session for Olympic Medallists, a new era of common action between the International Olympic Academy and the elite of the global and Hellenic sports will take place within the framework of the evaluation and the propagation of the educational values of the contemporary Olympism. The 2nd International Session for Olympic Medallists was hosted from the 14th to the 20th of July in Ancient Olympia and welcomed 51 participants from 26 countries. The basic subject of the session was “Olympism” and its special subject: “The social and professional life of athletes during and after elite competition”.
The Olympic Medallists, Ms Sofia Bekatorou and Ms Guin Batton (GBR) as well as Professor Manfred Lämmer (GER) and Professor Kostas Georgiadis pointed out, each from his own perspective, the journey as well as the role of an Olympic medallist from the Ancient times until today. They also underlined the obvious and hidden aspects of such an important personality which, from one hand consists a social, national as well as an international idol and on the other hand an athlete – role model in the framework of the Olympic Education, capable of strengthening the educational perspective of the Olympic Games.
On the other hand, in relation with the structure and the organization of the Youth Olympics 2010, during the works of the 2nd International Session for Olympic Medallists (as well as the Session of Young Participants and the one of the delegates of the National Olympic Academies) a question that will certainly contribute to the general questioning everybody shares about this new Olympic institution has risen. This question relates to the model of the athlete who will come out of these Games, but also to the procedures which will be followed in order to create children-champions, whatever that means for the young people who will participate in the Games.
“We wholeheartedly support the initiative of the International Olympic Committee for the establishment of this new institution. The role of the International Olympic Academy is to underline and to offer a solution to concerns, which have been intensified because of the doping and the commercialisation of sports.
I would like to reassure you, personally, as the President of the International as well as the National Olympic Academy that we intend to stress the qualities of the Olympic Medallists and the important social role they play through the Olympic Education programs that we support” underlined in his speech during the closing ceremony in Ancient Olympia, addressing to the participants, the IOA President, Mr Isidoros KOUVELOS.