The Olympic Spirit Inspires

Some 10,000 athletes competed with an Olympic spirit for medals and fame in twenty-eight Olympic sports. In this Olympic spirit and tradition each sport had a number of different events bringing the total number of contests over the 300 mark. The winners are now part of Olympic history.

Aquatics filled the biggest gap in the Summer Games: the absence of a swimming event longer than 20 minutes. The two-hour event was seven times longer than the previously longest swim, the 1500 meter. It gave marathon swimmers the same chance for Olympic stardom that marathon runners have had since 1896. Training for the open water swim was dangerous and in the Olympic spirit, the athletes contended with:

However, the swimmers were undaunted, their Olympic spirit high. And although there weren't waves and sharks in the new lake-like rowing basin, fresh water has less buoyancy than salt water so it was still a potential problem for the spirited swimmers during practice and at the events. They remained undaunted though - an inspiration for kids.

Can you think of ways kids and their friends can continue to emulate these athletes and further the good natured way that encourages a competitive Olympic spirit... and get children prepared to meet the challenges ahead?

One way is to give awards to all who participate in the game or sport as encouragement and inspiration. Make your own with coins of different values, bottle caps, or smiley faces which would be great to add to your kids' scrapbooks. We've listed some kids games in our pages on relay race ideas and Olympic mini games.

International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge has made it a personal project to fight obesity and encourage young people to take part in sports through The Youth Olympics - events like The first Summer Youth Olympics held in Singapore in August 2010 –. The Official Logo was Spirit of Youth.