Olympic Games in Children`s Imagination

Olympic Games in Children`s Imagination is an Olympic education program conducted for more than 20 years by the Romanian Olympic Academy. In all these years, thousands of works of art made by young people between the ages of 6 and 18 were entered in the competition. Talent, inspiration, courage and fair play are among the chosen themes for the little ones. Art and sports are complemented by offering young people a chance to understand the values ​​of the Olympic movement with the help of works of art. The Olympic Games in Children`s Imagination competition has a history and cultural heritage that can become an example of good practice for other Olympic education programs. In this paper we will analyze the transformations created by this contest over time. A number of these works have become known throughout the world, with some being transformed into postage stamps that are still used by the Romanian Post.

This Olympic education program has local, regional and national phases. The works that reach the national phase are exhibited for a year in the Sports Museum within the Olympic House, which contributes to raising the self-esteem for the participants. The paper involves a quantitative analysis represented by graphs and data on the number of works from a region, the number of schools enrolled in this program, the number of children participating in more than one edition, and the number of works exhibited. Also, the quality of the awarded works, other national or international awards, and the young artists are discussed.

Olympic education is a priority for the Olympic movement, so any exchange of experience or presentation of national projects and programs on this subject is important. We consider that examples of good practices such as the Olympic Games in Children`s Imagination will help to link new collaborations and will intensify development programs through art and sports.