Syracuse media library

From the earliest days of the modern Olympic Movement, the educational and social value of sport were promoted by Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic Games.

Inspired by the Ancient Greeks’ focus on the development of character as well as mind and body, and by the English educational system in which sport became part of the school curricula, Coubertin developed his own vision of how to make sport education an integral part of the school routine. He was convinced that the character of the young could be critically developed through the individual experience of sporting activity and extended from there to life as a whole. Since as early as 1900, and not exclusively in schools, he had been encouraging the idea of making sport accessible to adolescents and even to older people as a newly discovered part of a complete education of body, will and mind. Both the Greeks and Coubertin also emphasised the importance of joy. Indeed, prominent Greek philosophers argued that joy was the most important human virtue and should be one’s priority to thrive in life. Coubertin argued that the joy of effort was the secret to becoming “Olympic”. He argued that sport without joyfulness was not sport.

After the success of the first Olympic Games in Athens, Coubertin saw the opportunity for the Olympic Games and the Olympic Movement to be a useful pathway for the creation and expansion of friendly relationships through mutual understanding, with the vision that the educational and social value, which sport was believed to develop, should not be experienced by the Olympic athletes alone. The Olympic Games and the athletes should encourage citizens across all age groups and social classes to engage in sport in their leisure time. Coubertin did not use the term “Olympic education”, but referred initially to “sporting education”, which was the title of the book he published in 1922, “Pédagogie sportive”. Referring to schools and sports clubs, Coubertin said: “It cannot be enough that this Pédagogie Olympique (…) should only have the opportunity to be celebrated in the eyes of the whole world every four years. It also needs its ‘permanent factories’”.

In 1969, Rudolf Malter defined Olympism as the entire collection of values which, over and above physical strength, are developed and taught through participation in sport. Martinkova (2012) also argues that there are inherent values in sport gained through mere participation, but insists that it is the role of the teacher and coach to teach the added values of sport. The term “Olympic education” officially first appeared in sports education and Olympic research in the 1970s (N. Müller, 1975). Culpan and Moon (2009) state that “Olympism is a culturally relevant, critical and experiential process of learning an integrated set of life principles through the practice of sport”.

In the Olympic Charter (2020), the Fundamental Principles of Olympism are defined as “a philosophy of life, exalting and combining in a balanced whole the qualities of body, will and mind. Blending sport with culture and education, Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy of effort, the educational value of good example, social responsibility and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles”.

Believing that the Olympic Movement should not deviate from its educational objectives, Coubertin wrote shortly before his death: “I have not been able to carry out to the end what I wanted to perfect. I believe that a centre of Olympic studies would aid the preservation and progress of my work more than anything else and would keep it from the false paths which I fear”. His wish came true in Berlin in the form of the International Olympic Institute (IOI), which existed between 1938 and 1944. Later, in 1961, the International Olympic Academy (IOA) was founded, in ancient Olympia (Greece), and which to this day professes full commitment to Coubertin’s values, attracting hundreds of participants from around the world to its educational sessions each year. Over the years, many institutional initiatives and programmes to promote Olympic education have been created, exposing millions of children and young people to Olympic education each year. Besides the IOA, nowadays the Organising Committees of the Olympic Games (OCOGs), National Olympic Committees, National Olympic Academies, the International and National Pierre de Coubertin Committees, the Pierre de Coubertin School Network, academic Olympic Studies and Research Centres as well as cultural organisations such as Olympic museums run regular and systematic educational initiatives. Some countries have also included Olympic or Olympism education in their official national PE curriculum (e.g. New Zealand, Algeria, Ukraine).

For the OCOGs, this topic also has increased focus as they are required to develop and implement an education programme about sport and Para sport, the Olympic and Paralympic Games and values to schools throughout the host country. Such programmes typically refer to a variety of initiatives or practices associated with the educational values, which are the pursuit of excellence, joy of effort, fair play, respect for others, and the balance between body, will, and mind.

Among other important programmes highlighted on this page are the IOC’s “Olympic Values Education Programme (OVEP)”, a series of free and accessible teaching resources which use the symbols of the Olympic Games and the themes of Olympism, and draw on the lore of the ancient and modern Olympic Games to disseminate a values-based curriculum, and I’mPOSSIBLE, an education programme developed by the Paralympic movement, to disseminate the Paralympic values to young people throughout the world. It aims to challenge and change the perceptions of how young people perceive people with an impairment, thus bringing about a more inclusive society.

On this page, we have put together for you a wide range of official and academic publications that let you delve deeper into the various programmes and learn about their methodologies and impacts. The publications listed are just a selection of the resources available; be sure not to miss the link to the full list of all publications we have for you on the topic at the bottom of the page. We hope it meets your interest and facilitates your research on this important topic.