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22 | 6 | 2014

Brazilian Volleyball great Nalbert Bitencourt, who won Olympic Gold at Athens 2004, will be inspiring the next generation of athletes as part of the 2014 Olympic Day activities taking place in his home town of Rio de Janeiro – the Host City for the next Olympic Games in 2016.

The Brazilian Olympic Committee (COB), which is celebrating its 100^th anniversary this year, has a number of events planned to celebrate the values of the Olympic Movement. Among them will be the traditional Olympic Day run which will take place on 25 June in the Urca neighbourhood of Rio. Around 350 children are expected at the event. Among them will be 50 young runners from schools that are part of the Rio 2016 education project. After the run, the children will have the chance to speak with Nalbert about what the Olympic Movement means to Brazil.

Meanwhile, Brazilian basketball stars, Olympian Marcelinho Machado, who competed at London 2012, and his younger brother Duda Machado, will be special guests at a series of workshops offering disadvantaged children the opportunity to sample a range of sports like fencing, hockey, table tennis, archery and wrestling. The Rio 2016 brand sculpture will also be on display in the city and Rio school children will be invited to use their creative skills to portray their impressions of the Olympic Movement in an art competition as part of the ongoing celebrations.

Olympic Day is an international event marked by NOC’s all over the world on 23 June. You can find out more about the history of the occasion and the other events happening around the globe here.