Top IOC and Sochi 2014 officials on Thursday’s Olympic Lesson Day visited the museum of Krasnaya Polyana’s public school № 65. The school museum features an Olympic Exhibit of athletic items belonging to legendary Russian athletes, provided by the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee. The exhibit and Olympic Lessons are initiatives within the Sochi 2014 Popular Education Program, which aims to promote Olympic and Paralympic Movements in Russia and engage the public in the preparation for the Sochi 2014 Games. Last week, the program launched "Kuban - towards the Games in Sochi!" - a campaign to build support for the Sochi 2014 Games in the Krasnodar Region.
Presiding at the event were Sochi 2014 President and CEO Dmitry Chernyshenko, Chairman of the IOC Coordination Commission for Sochi 2014 Jean Claude Killy, IOC Executive Director for the Olympic Games Gilbert Felli, President of International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) René Fasel and Mayor of Sochi Anatoly Pakhomov. Jean Claude Killy, Gilbert Felli and René Fasel spoke about the Olympic Movement, sports and the long-term positive changes that the Games bring to the host country. The IOC officials also shared their personal stories about growing up in a small mountain village and devoting their lives to winter sports. They emphasized that the Games played a crucial role in helping them achieve their success.
Jean Claude Killy presented the Vancouver Olympic Torch to champion of the Russian ski competition and participant of the 2008 World Cup in France Alina Sevrikova (graduate of public school № 65), as well as 14-year old Simon Nemilovsky, winner of regional, city and national ski competitions. The Vancouver torch will be added to the museum’s Olympic Exhibit.
Sochi 2014 President and CEO Dmitry Chernyshenko said:
“Our country has been given a unique opportunity to host the most important sports festival in the world and become part of the Sochi 2014 Games. I am confident that by joining efforts with the IOC and the national and regional administrations, we will successfully spread Olympism throughout the Krasnodar Region and produce a new generation of young people educated in Olympic and Paralympic values in Russia.”
