Olympians call to action for Olympic Day - 23 June 2017

23 | 5 | 2017

With one month to go until Olympic Day, Olympians around the world are preparing to get active on June 23 to mark this global day of celebration.

Sports, cultural and educational activities based around the Olympic Day pillars of Move, Learn, Discover are being organised in communities worldwide to promote the role of the Olympic Movement in supporting healthy and active lifestyles for people of all ages and the use of sport as a catalyst for social development.

WOA is encouraging Olympians to get involved and help support this important day, which commemorates the founding of the International Olympic Committee in Paris in 1894.

Olympians, if you have not already done so please get in touch with your National Olympians Association (NOA) to see how you can help spread the spirit of Olympism on Olympic Day.

We’ll be running our Olympic Day countdown again this year and would love to hear what you are up to so get in touch with Sarah van Ballekom on sarah.van_ballekom@thewoa.org and we can promote your events and activities on our website and social media platforms.

On the day make sure you post photos of yourself in action using the hashtag #OlympicDay and tagging @worldolympians in your posts so we can share with the wider Olympic Family.

Last year we shared inspiring stories from a number of NOAs and NOCs as part of our Olympic Day countdown – from hosting official Olympic Day runs to promoting cultural and education activities in association with NOCs and other sporting bodies, our NOAs were busy helping people get active and embrace the Olympic values.

In Croatia, the Croatian Olympians Club joined forces with national sporting and Olympic bodies to stage a series of 10 separate Olympic Day events up and down the country. Zimbabwe’s NOA emphasised the connection between sport and social action by working with the Zimbabwe Olympic Committee to bring Olympic Day activities to one of the country’s most underprivileged neighbourhoods on the outskirts of the capital, Harare.

In Cambodia, Olympians led the country’s Olympic Day run, while in Britain, the GB Olympians Association took part in a schools rugby tournament in the city of Coventry to celebrate the conclusion of the 2016 World Fit programme. In Slovenia, the NOA worked in close collaboration with its NOC on events aimed at bringing children and young people closer to the Olympic values through nationwide initiative ‘My Olympic Challenge’, and in Uganda, activities aimed at inspiring young leaders through sport brought together more than 8,000 youth in the capital Kampala.

Elsewhere, Angola Olympians came together to raise awareness for sickle cell anaemia; Australian Olympians visited schools around the country as part of the Australian Olympic Education programme; while in Germany, German Olympians joined more than 3,000 children and young people at a mass Olympic Day event in the city of Cologne.

We look forward to hearing about your plans.