The Culture and Education Program - Overview

Hey folks,

Let's start first things first by letting me give you a short introduction what the Youth Olympic Games' Culture and Education Program (CEP) is all about. After all, the Young Ambassador Program was designed to promote the CEP to all the athletes participating in the YOG.

During the inaugural YOG in Singapore, the phrase "Giving the champions of tomorrow the skills they need today" was coined. This gives you, in a nutshell, a pretty good idea of what the CEP is all about. Let's just put it this way: Even as a young athlete, you most likely know how to speed down a hill on a pair of skis (Ok, I guess there might be more to skiing than just that. Anyway, you get my point!). However, there might be other things you don't know that well: What kind of food should you eat? How do you combine you sporting career with your schooling? How do you speak in front of a camera without sounding like an utter jerk (if you find that one out, please give me a call!!)? And maybe most importantly: What kind of advice can people that already know what it feels like to make it as an athlete give to you ?

Concerning the speeding down the mountain part, athletes are usually covered pretty well. They got their coaches to teach them the right technique, their physios to keep them fit and some even have the luxury of a psychologist to keep them focused. But what about the questions mentioned above? For all these, the CEP comes into play. The Innsbruck 2012 CEP consists of 6 different activities, covering a total of 5 subjects: Olympism, Well-Being and healthy lifestyle, Skills Development, Expression and Social Responsibility. In those 7 activities, athletes will have opportunity to find answers to all those questions stated above.

All those things are taught via workshops, discussions, interactive lectures and plenty of hands-on activities. No worries, I will put online a detailed description of all the different things to do in Innsbruck at a later date. For the time being, I just want to give you a brief outlook: There are going to be "Chat with Champions" sessions, were athletes can meet Olympians and ask them all the things they want to know. One environmental awareness activity is going to take place on top of the "Nordkette", where the guys can learn more about how to protect the alpine climate. And one of my favourite sessions is definitely going to be the cooking workshop, where athletes can learn how to cook delicious and healthy meals appropriate for their respective sport. Oh yeah, let's not forget the dancing workshop, where the guys can just have a splendid time! Rumor has it that the workshop is going to be led by Mr. Sascha from Russia himself ;)

As you can see, there will be plenty of things going on besides the sporting events. Of course, athletes have limited time at their hand, so they won't be able to attend all the CEP activities there are. However, if they just check out one or two of them, they will already have learnt something that will come in handily in their future career. Besides, I promise that they will have a real blast doing so. But more on that on a later date.

So long,
Flo