Over 2,000 special guests turned out for a festival of sport, friendship and education in Rio’s West Zone last weekend. Transform, as the Rio 2016 education programme is known, held an event last Saturday at the Miécimo Sports Centre in Silva, Campo Grande. The sports festival brought together children, adults and the elderly – among them pupils, students as well as friends and families – to try out 27 Olympic and Paralympic sports and to hang out with the Olympic mascots Vinicius and Tom.

Roberta Martins, a physical education teacher from Rio de Janeiro’s state-school system, brought 30 students to the event. “The festival gets children curious about other sports, and makes them eager to learn more,” she said. “Transforma showed even us teachers things that we did not know. It taught us how to introduce new ideas about teaching into our classes and how to make the best use of our space and materials.

During the festival, participants could try out all kinds of sport, from the most popular, such as volleyball and basketball, to the less well-known, such as badminton, archery and goalball.

Another attraction which filled the stands of the swimming pool was the aquatic show. The crowd watched a demonstration by the Brazilian team of synchronised swimming as well as displays of canoeing, water polo, sailing and diving. And all the while the mascots, Vinicius and Tom, helped to bring the party to life.

The mascots, Vinicius and Tom, proved popular with the kids during the event (Photo: Rio 2016/Alexandre Loureiro)

Top athletes, like the sailor Kahena Kunze, the synchronised swimming twins Bia e Branca Feres and the two-time Olympic volleyball champion Giovane Gávio joined the fun.

“This is the best legacy of the Rio 2016 Games,” Giovane, the manager of the Rio Committee’s Sporting Competition, said. “Teaching people about these other sports, as well as nurturing hidden talents, will help instil important values which will develop a professional mind set. Sport is the route to transformation.”

Giovane Gávio greets some children during the Transform Sporting Festival (Photo: Rio 2016/Alexandre Loureiro)

The sporting festival was organised by the educational programme of the Rio 2016 Games in partnership with Brazilian sporting federations, with the objective of engaging the entire city in the excitement of the Olympics and presenting new sports to the general public.

The first events took place in November 2014, bringing together almost 500 people in Santa Cruz. Rio 2016 will hold four more events like this by the end of the year.