Olympic Day is celebrated every year on June 23, 2020, and people from all over the world celebrate it by getting active. Olympians have been a source of motivation and inspiration during these trying days with their energy and positivity: their home workouts have helped everyone stay active during the lockdown due to coronavirus outbreak.
Why is Olympic day celebrated?
Olympic Day is a celebration of sport, health and being the best you can be. It invited everyone from across the world to be a part of it and stay active. Participants from around the globe will commemorate the day the International Olympic Committee was established in 1894.
What is the Olympic Day 2020 theme?
The Olympic Day 2020 theme is “Move, learn and discover” by proposing the practice of other sports, cultural and educational activities around the Olympic values, and sessions to discover new sports.
Who can take part in Olympic Day?
You do not have to be an Olympian to be a part of it. All you have to do is join Olympic channel on Instagram as Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat, the USA’s gymnast Laurie Hernandez and France’s five-time Olympic biathlon champion Martin Fourcade amongst others will be your coach for today.
Olympic Day full schedule of athlete-led live workouts
Check out the full schedule of the athlete-led workouts on @Olympics Instagram and pick your favourite athlete to work out with!
All timings are UTC on 23 June (except where noted).
10 pm (22 June): Pita Taufatofua (Tonga)
11 pm (22 June): Tyla Nathan-Wong (New Zealand)
1 am: Melissa Wu (Australia)
2 am: Yamamoto Seito (Japan)
3 am: Zhang Hong (China)
4 am: Marcus Fernaldi Gideon (Indonesia)
4 am: Jonatan Christie and Anthony Ginting (Indonesia, on the @olympicchannel Instagram)
5 am: Elizabet Tursynbaeva (Kazakhstan)
5:30 am: PV Sindhu (India)
6 am: Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi (Pakistan, on the @olympicchannel Instagram)
8 am: Zeyad Eashash (Jordan, on the @olympicchannel Instagram)
8 am: Margarita Mamun (Russia)
9 am: Cameron van der Burgh (South Africa)
9 am: Johanne Defay (France, on the @olympicchannel Instagram)
9 am: Abdullah Sediqi (Refugee Team, on @refugeeolympicteam Instagram)
10 am: Desire Operanozie (Nigeria)
11 am: Cherif Fall (Senegal)
2 pm: Hugo Calderano (Brazil)
3 pm: Mikel Thomas (Trinidad and Tobago)
4 pm: Rommel Pacheco (Mexico)
5 pm: Natalie Spooner (Canada)
6 pm: Kyla Ross (United States)
When was the first Olympic Day?
The first-ever Olympic Day was celebrated on June 23, 1948.
Portugal, Greece, Austria, Canada, Switzerland, Great Britain, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Belgium organised an Olympic Day in their respective countries and Sigfrid Edström, IOC President at the time, relayed a message to the young people of the world.
When did Olympic Day enter the Olympic Charter?
In the 1978 edition of the Olympic Charter, the IOC recommended for the first time that all NOCs organise an Olympic Day to promote the Olympic Movement:
“It is recommended that NOCs regularly organise (if possible each year) an Olympic Day intended to promote the Olympic Movement.”
What do people do on Olympic Day?
But Olympic Day now is so much bigger than a run, a workout, or a single sporting event.
National Olympic Committees are getting creative worldwide basing efforts on the three pillars of “move”, “learn” and “discover” to engage everybody – regardless of age, gender, social background or sporting ability.
Some countries have even incorporated the event into the school curriculum.