Bel Ombre primary School celebrates World Olympic Day |24 June 2023

Mr Lagrenade reading the message of the IOC president (Photo: Roland Duval)

To commemorate World Olympic Day which is celebrated on June 23, the Bel Ombre primary school hosted various sports activities, engaging pupils to stay more active, while adopting a healthy lifestyle.

The activities included shuttle relay, road race, egg and spoon race, javelin throw, birds nest and rope skipping, along with educational activities such as quizzes and debates, promoting the values of the Olympic movement.

Present at the activity was Seychelles Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association (Socga) executive member Jeffery Lagrenade.

The event started with an opening ceremony animated by students of the school.

The school’s head teacher Stella Payet told Sports NATION that the activity was part of the Bel Ombre primary school’s engagement towards the Olympic movement, noting that it occupies a yearly slot on the school’s calendar of activities, helping the pupils to be better educated about the Olympic values, while also having fun.

“With this year’s theme ‘Let us move’, we thought of engaging more partners like the media and parents to make it more interesting than before,” said Mrs Payet.

She said they wanted to transform the way of learning, not focussing solely on academics, but to introduce other ways such as arts and sports which help the pupils to better develop social skills, remain healthy, and improve their interaction with others.

“We therefore agreed that Olympic Day was the perfect occasion to launch such activities,” said Mrs Payet, who further added that through these ways of learning, the children find their passion which will drive them to better citizens tomorrow.

Doreen Mirabeau, the school’s physical education (PE) teacher, and also head of the Olympic club, said the kids were very excited since preparation began for the event and were very enthusiastic to take part.

She said the Olympic club has been in existence for five years, but was dormant during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ms Mirabeau added that there are presently 38 pupils in the club, and every Friday afternoon, they engage in different sports activities to promote the Olympic values which are friendship, respect and fair play.

“We have an action plan for the year where the students go camping, hiking, do artistic activities, visits among others,” said Ms Mirabeau.

Also yesterday, the Seychelles Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association (Socga) hosted the traditional Olympic Day run which took place at the Roche Caïman fitness trail.

Just before the start of the run, Mr Lagrenade read the annual message of Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Neil Sirame