Kids in Rio de Janeiro will soon be shouting “en garde” and attempting half-nelsons, after fencing and wrestling became the latest new sports to be introduced to the city’s schools thanks to the Rio 2016 education programme, Transforma. On Wednesday (29 April), physical education teachers from public and private schools across Rio were trained in how to coach these two traditional Olympic disciplines.  

“Through a series of training sessions and teaching materials we provide to teachers, many schools have already started to incorporate new sports into their routines,” said Mariana Behr, Rio 2016’s head of education.

Dozens of teachers attended the latest course, in the Vila Kennedy neighbourhood in the north of Rio, where they also learned how to promote the Olympic and Paralympic values to pupils. By the end of the year, a total of 18 courses will have been offered, training educators in how to coach various Olympic and Paralympic sports.

“In every place around the world where wrestling is popular, it starts being practised in schools,” said Flávio Cabral Neves of the Brazilian Wrestling Federation, who helped train the teachers. “It’s a very easy sport to practise, you don’t need much equipment, just a teacher who is trained to coach, and then to create a culture of the sport.”

Earlier this month, Transforma, was expanded beyond Rio de Janeiro state, reaching a total of about 275,000 youngsters. As well as introducing new sports, the programme promotes the Olympic and Paralympic values and brings pupils and teachers closer the Games.

Teachers were shown how to train the movements of fencing without equipment (Photo: Rio 2016/André Redlich)

Transforma is scheduled to be expanded to other regions of Brazil this year, while teachers from across the country can also download teaching materials and lesson suggestions from the programme’s website.