IOC: Get involved in Olympic Day (photo attached)

Updated：2007-06-26

Who hasn't heard of the Olympic Games? But did you know that, tomorrow, it will be 113 years since Pierre de Coubertin revived them in their modern form? And to celebrate this historical event, thousands of people will take part in the annual Olympic Day Run on 23 June.

How it all started

23 June marks Olympic Day - an important day in the history of the modern Olympic Games. On 23 June 1894, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, a French pedagogue who was convinced of sport's moral and educational value, began the task of reviving the Olympic Games. He set up a committee in charge of organising the first Games and created an international Olympic Movement. Hence the first Games of the modern era were staged in Athens in 1896 and the International Olympic Committee was officially created. Back then nobody could have imagined how big the Olympic Movement would become.

Mexican children having fun at the Olympic Day Run in 2005. Credit : Mexican NOC

Olympic Day Run - get everybody moving

For the last 20 years, National Olympic Committees (NOCs) around the globe have celebrated this day by organising an Olympic Day Run, amongst other events. With the support of Worldwide Olympic Partner McDonald's, the NOCs organise various sports, educational and cultural activities around 23 June. From 45 participating NOCs in the first edition in 1987, we saw 161 NOCs mobilise their countrymen in 2006.

High expectations for the 2007 edition

The plans for this year's edition are more exciting than ever. For example:

The Canadian NOC has set up a dedicated website where you can vote for Canada's greatest Olympic moment. And the Chinese Olympic Committee expects more than 3,000 people of all age groups to participate in a 1.5km fun run in Beijing, the host city of the 2008 Olympic Games. As IOC President Jacques Rogge states in his message to the NOCs: "In 2007, more than ever, sport has to be a social movement which can offer all generations, but especially young people, the chance to lead not just a healthier, more balanced life, but a better life with more meaning to it. And the Olympic Day Run is an excellent way of achieving this."