Excellence, friendship and respect. Courage, determination, inspiration and equality. The Olympic and Paralympic values are already being promoted to 177,000 students in 349 schools in the state of Rio de Janeiro, thanks to Transforma, the Rio 2016 education programme.

On Saturday (21 March) the latest group of ‘young agents’ – the programme’s student leaders – were officially qualified at an event on Ilha do Governador, an island in Guanabara Bay. About 320 students, aged 13 to 17, from 40 schools will join the 1,448 young agents already at work in their schools.

“The young agents are the leaders of the Rio 2016 Games in schools,” said Mariana Behr, Rio 2016’s Head of Education. “In training, they learn all about the Olympic and Paralympic values. We also work with them on mobilisation and leadership skills. When they go back to their schools, their mission is to spread the spirit of the Games among their friends and teachers.”

The students receive training, including presentations on the history of the Games, and learn how to play Olympic and Paralympic sports, such as rugby, badminton, taekwondo, volleyball,  wrestling, goalball and visually-impaired football. For many of the youngsters, it is their first contact with such sports.

Students learned how to play football 5-a-side, the Paralympic sport for the visually impaired (Photo: André Redlich)

“I was only familiar with football and volleyball before,” said 16-year-old Thamara Holz of Collechio State College in the Bangu neighbourhood. “I didn’t know about these other sports, like badminton and visually-impaired football. I’d never even heard of the Pralympic Games. I tried to play football with my eyes covered and I couldn’t even kick the ball. We want to take these new sports into our schools and I think everyone will be interested.”

Sixteen-year-old Raquel Boechat, who attends Heitor Lira State College in the Penha district, revealed how Transforma has changed her attitude towards sport. “In my school, no one is interested in sports,” she said. “Students don’t bring their medical approval letter on purpose, so that they don’t have to do physical education classes. I too don’t like it, because I’m overweight and I feel embarrassed. But today, after all that we’ve learned, I have begun to feel interested. I will speak with my classmates about how we can have more sports in school.”