Olympic Day – Anniversaries and Activity

Olympic Day – Anniversaries and Activity

by Philip Barker

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Kirsty Coventry celebrates her first year in office on Olympic Day. June 23^rd also marks the anniversary of the decision to revive the Games of the Modern Era in 1894.

The IOC President usually fires the starting pistol for “Olympic Day” events which now include a run in conjunction with “Let’s Move,” an initiative between the International Olympic Committee and the World Health Organisation.

It is almost 40 years since the first Olympic Day runs were established following a resolution at the 1987 IOC Session in Istanbul. “The success of the event caused Olympism to resonate throughout the world,” said the Olympic Review.

The idea of a “World Olympic Day” can be traced back even further.

It been proposed by Josef Gruss, the long serving President of the Czechoslovakian Olympic Committee at the 1947 IOC Session in Stockholm.

“Each country would organize it according to its own ideas and concepts. This day would thus actively promote Olympism,” Gruss explained.

IOC Chancellor Otto Mayer was asked to prepare a report for consideration at the 1948 IOC Session in St Moritz where the decision was taken to formally adopt the idea to “encourage the ideas and maxims of Baron de Coubertin particularly amongst the young of all countries.”

It was recommended that each National Olympic Committee should organise events each year.

“We have come here today to celebrate the Olympic Day of the World,” IOC President Sigfrid Edström said in a message for the first celebration in 1948.

“During this month thousands of young men and women are gathered in different cities to express their interest in the Olympic Movement and the development of physical culture,” he continued.

When the IOC met in London at the time of the Olympics, Mayer reported on the success of the initiative.

“He singled out the events in Lisbon and Vienna which had been particularly brilliant,” the IOC minutes recorded.

In 1978, Olympic Day in Japan coincided with the establishment of the Japanese Olympic Academy, following the example of the International Olympic Academy in Olympia.

An official Olympic Day run was first held in 1987. Some 40 countries took part. The run in Seoul, the host city of the 1988 Games attracted around 3,000.

By 1996, events were organised in 172 nations to coincide with the celebration of 100 years since the first Modern Olympics.

This year, an Olympic Day run has already been staged in Ancient Olympia. It was organised by the Hellenic Olympic Committee, the International Olympic Academy, Hellenic Olympians Association, the Thessaloniki Olympic Museum, the Hellenic Athletics Association and local municipalities.

Many other events are set to take place worldwide.

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