Culture and Education Programme vital in educating young athletes

one of the innovative elements of the YOG where the objective is to share the Olympic values with the young athletes as well as with youths around the world and to discuss important themes linked to the practice of sport as well as to global societal challenges.
Among the organisations at the Winter Youth Olympic Games is the International Committee for Fair Play who are teaching the athletes on the issue of fair play.
According to the committee, fair play is a complex notion that comprises and embodies a number of values that are fundamental not only to sport but also to everyday life.
Building on them is the first step towards becoming an ambassador of fair play.
Among those values is respect, friendship, team spirit, fair competition, sport without doping and respect for written rules such as equality, integrity, solidarity and tolerance.
Project member for the CIFP, Gabor Szelle, said fair play is more than just abiding to the written rules.
“It’s something that has to come from inside the person. It doesn’t only apply to athletes.
“The most important thing is to have values of integrity, solidarity, friendship and respect. It’s part of human life,” said Szelle.
CIFP was formed in 1963 and has an important educational role to play in supporting fair play, promoting a better understanding of fair play values and preventing adverse behaviours and they are working with participants at the on-going Innsbruck 2012 Winter Youth Olympic Games.
“We are making interviews with the athletes and coaches.
“The coaches know what fair play is. With the young people some do to some extent know what it is but sometimes it is hard to put it into words.
“We have witnessed cases where athletes are good to formulate in words what fair play is. They have started to understand and we have received good answers,” said Szelle.
In order to honour and direct attention to acts of fair play performed either within or outside the sports world, CIFP annually awards Fair Play Prizes to personalities who have proved to be excellent ambassadors of fair play.
The CIFP president, Jeno Kamuti, said there is need for National Olympic Committees to promote fair play at national level starting from an early age, as it is a continuous process.
“This is an age where these kids still have not been affected by too much negative information. This is the right time to give more and more positive experience and carry this within themselves. It enriches their lives.
“They will take these values into the communities. For those participating, especially the younger athletes, what they experience here will carry on.
“They will carry it through their entire life. It is something no one can take out of them,” Kamuti said.
Kamuti said the CEP programme is an important part of the YOG as the Games are not only about competition.
“Sports skills may not be as high like at the senior competition but the fact that they take part and learn means just much, not only to the athletes but also other participants because they all have something that they can carry on with themselves, something they can bring home.
“After the first Youth Olympic Games there was a lot of criticism about what YOG can give to sport life but I think this YOG has proved that even if world records are not broken, it has more value than if it was a simply sporting event because it is not only about sport but also education.
“It gives something positive and adds something to everyday life. This is something that is good,” said Kamuti.