In order to celebrate the three-year-mark for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Rio 2016 Committee sets its sights not only on sport, but on education as well, in a meeting that was held in its headquarters in Cidade Nova neighbourhood, in Rio de Janeiro city centre. Mediated by Ricardo Prado, Olympic medallist and President of the Rio 2016 Sports Advisory Committee, the event was also attended by physical education teachers from municipal schools and 17-year-old athlete Vitor Hugo Mourão that recently won a silver medal in the 2013 IAAF World Youth Championships in Athletics in Ukraine. The Organising Committee’s idea is to introduce Olympism – based on values such as friendship, excellence and respect – in schools.

“Respect and love are the core values we teach in our school. This year we introduced various Olympic sports such as Athletics, Fencing, Equestrian, Wrestling, Artistic Gymnastics and Trampoline to children from the age of five upwards and we followed the South American Rugby Championship. We must increase the children’s range of skills”, said Luiz Dias Junior, a teacher of CIEP (Integrated Centre for Public Education in Portuguese) Oswald de Andrade in Parque Anchieta neighbourhood, in Rio’s North Zone.

The teacher tells he created an Olympic circuit to evaluate the children’s psychomotor development when practicing various sports. As Weightlifting equipment, a broom with tins of milk powder attached to each end. For Fencing classes, swords made of newspaper and adhesive tape. The Equestrian classes take place on wooden horses. And that is an amusing way for children to play and learn.

“We could test these children’s more advanced motor coordination. At the end of the activities they would look at me with their eyes sparkling. Little Fernanda, one of the girls most interested in sports practice, asked me: ‘Sir, when can we do this again?’”, Luiz recalled, full of pride, before teaching: “One thing I don’t accept in class is the sentence ‘I can’t do it’. Children, or at least my pupils, already feel like they are part of the Olympic Games”.

Physical Education Teacher Paulo Servo da Costa, the Athletics-specialised coach who recently discovered sprinter Vitor Hugo Mourão, remembered the time when he started teaching children. At the age of 74, he celebrates the evolution of his work. Out of the 25 athletes from Rio de Janeiro that will participate in the Brazilian Youth Games for athletes aged 12 to 14 years old and the greatest Brazilian competition in the category, 14 are part of his team in Instituto Lançar-se para o Futuro (Leap towards the Future in Portuguese).

Young Vitor Hugo is the institute’s greatest discovery. He won the silver medal in the World Youth Championships, the second medal won by one of Paulo Servo’s pupils in competition – Bárbara Leôncio took gold in the 200m in Ostrava, Czech Republic.

Paulo Servo also teaches at Silveira Sampaio Municipal School in Curicica neighbourhood, in Rio’s West Zone and highlighted the importance of sport in the education of youngsters and children.

“Through sport, children learn about health, discipline and respect for their limits. Cognition works better… They learn how to lead better lives”, Paulo Servo said.

Vitor Hugo recalled his achievement in the World Youth Championships in Ukraine, when he took silver by finishing just four-hundredths behind the winner.

“It was a very important experience. I achieved a goal and now I must keep following my dreams. Athletics is my life, 24 hours a day, even when I’m not training”, the young athlete said. He already knows what he will do when he stops competing: be a physical education teacher, just like his master.