Educating young people through sport is one of the primary goals of the
      Olympic Movement. In China this goal is currently being achieved by
      providing approximately 400 million young people in more than 400,000
      schools across the country with Olympic education in the run-up to the
      Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
     

      Never before has the influence of the Olympic Games on education been more
      pronounced than at present in China, the most populous country in the
      world with more than 1.3 billion inhabitants.
     

       Reaching out to teachers and students
     

       The programme, initiated by the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games Organising
      Committee (BOCOG), in partnership with the country's Education Ministry
      and the National Olympic Committee (NOC), comprises several distinct
      components. One integrates Olympic education into the academic curriculum
      of schools in China.
     

      During dedicated training sessions, the teachers are educated on the
      Olympic values of excellence, friendship and respect, and shown how to
      incorporate Olympism into the classroom setting.
     

      In addition, a series of textbooks has been created, introducing students
      to the history of the Olympic Games, the various Olympic sports and the
      rules of play, Olympic symbols and the role of the Olympic Movement as a
      contributor to international peace and friendship.
     

      Photography, painting, poetry, calligraphy and foreign-language speech
      contests are further means used to promote Olympism in Chinese schools.
      Olympic Education Model Schools
     

      Since the launch of the programme in 2005, 556 elementary and secondary
      schools have been officially recognised as "Olympic Education Model
      Schools" – an acknowledgement for setting the best examples in providing
      Olympic education to their young pupils. The programme has revitalised the
      schools' physical education measures and generated great interest in
      extra-curricular athletic initiatives.
     

      Another element of Olympic education in China is the "Heart-to-Heart"
      initiative, which links 203 Chinese schools in and around Beijing to
      schools and athletes within a specific country represented by an NOC. By
      "adopting" a sister school in a specific country, the Chinese students
      share ideas and experiences with their new friends across the globe.
     

      A Chinese-Greek get together
     

      During his visit to Beijing earlier this month, IOC President Jacques
      Rogge had the opportunity to visit the Beijing No. 4 High School, an
      Olympic Education Model School which is also linked to the Heart-to-Heart
      programme.
     

      As a highlight for everybody, students from the Greek sister school were
      also present in order to jointly perform a Chinese and Greek Folk Sports
      Show with their Chinese classmates.
     

     "The sports arena is like a classroom" Jacques Rogge told the pupils and
      the teachers: "there we learn to live together, in society; there we learn
      solidarity and friendship; there we learn respect for others: whether one
      is a boy or girl, short or tall, young or old, from Asia, Africa, Europe,
      America or Oceania. Sport is all these things. And it is also health."
      And looking at the get-together of the students from two different
      cultures Li Binghua, Executive Vice-President of BOCOG, concluded: "This
      initiative will leave a high-level educational legacy to China".