Teaching material touts Olympic values

China's promotion of Olympic values in the run up to the Beijing 2022 Winter Games has taken a leap forward thanks to the publication of Olympic-themed educational materials.

The Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games on Friday unveiled three sets of teaching materials, featuring translated and original content on the history, value and impact of the Olympic movement as well as winter sports knowledge, as part of a national program to improve Olympic education for youth.

Translated from educational tool kits of the International Olympic Committee and the International Paralympic Committee, the materials are guide books for teachers at schools and instructors at sports clubs to enrich their curricula with Olympic and Paralympic-themed topics, examples and activities.

The IOC tool kit－Olympic Values Education Programme－ranges from fundamentals to educational activities and workshop organization, while the IPC equivalent, known as I'mPossible, promotes knowledge, skills and experiences to help students with disabilities defy the impossible.

The third set of materials was developed by the Beijing 2022 organizing committee and the Capital University of Physical Education and Sports as extracurricular books for students of all ages to learn general information about the Olympic Games, Beijing's preparation for the 2022 Games and winter sports knowledge as a supplement to classes.

"The launch of the books has laid a solid theoretical foundation for the Olympic education program to cover a wider range of the public, especially youth, in our country," Han Zirong, vice-president and secretary-general of the Beijing 2022 organizing committee, said at the launch on Friday.

"It combines years of efforts and a collective wisdom of our researchers, publishers and scholars to help spread the spirit of the Olympic movement."

Beginning in April 2018, the translation and compilation of the books went through over 10 rounds of revisions and have been tested by students and teachers at selected schools specializing in Olympic education across Beijing and its 2022 Games' co-host Zhangjiakou, Hebei province.

The 2022 Winter Olympics will be staged in Beijing downtown, its northwest Yanqing district and Zhangjiakou's Chongli district from Feb 2-20, 2022, before the Paralympic Games run from March 4-13 in the three zones.

Andrew Parsons, president of the IPC, expects the use of the books to help spread the message of equality and respect for the disabled community in China as a legacy of the 2022 Olympics.

"This is a fundamental part of the legacy of the Games, which we call the 'soft legacy'," Parsons said in a video. "Beijing 2022 has the ambition to bring more people into ice and snow sports, and why not people with disabilities practicing those sports as well ... it's the legacy of changing perception and attitudes."

As part of a national program to involve 300 million people in winter sports and recreation leading up to the 2022 Games and beyond, the Ministry of Education has selected 627 primary and secondary schools across the country to integrate Winter Olympic courses and training as part of their compulsory curricula.

The publication of the books will help diversify school-based physical education programs to make them more appealing to students with Winter Olympics elements, said Pei Dongguang, a professor of Olympic studies at the Capital University of Physical Education and Sports.

"It's a landmark development in the history of Olympic education in China. Our school PE classes and after-school activities could be carried out with more interesting content about Olympic winter sports."