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The Olympic Spirit Inspires
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Go for the gold
Encourage your kids to emulate the athletes with good-natured competitive Olympic spirit.
Host cities spend years preparing for the Olympics. Most athletes spend a lifetime preparing for it; how else could they go for the gold?
- Past Olympics are now a part of history
- Emulating the Olympic Spirit
- More Olympics are on the way; more Olympic Spirit to see
- Coming Events
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Past Olympics are now a part of history
Some 10,000 athletes compete with an Olympic spirit for medals and fame in twenty-eight Olympic sports. In the Olympic spirit and tradition each sport has a number of different events bringing the total number of contests over the 300 mark. The winners are part of Olympic history.
In 2008 Aquatics filled the biggest gap in the Summer Games by increasing a swimming event from 20 minutes to a two-hour event (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: 
- Icy waters
- Big waves
- The absence of lane lines
- Collisions between swimmers
- Dangers presented by sharks, currents and jet skis
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, however, 'stayed the course', so to speak - an inspiration for kids.
Emulating the Olympic Spirit
 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?
We've listed some kids games in our pages on relay race ideas and Olympic mini games.
Another 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, or bottle caps, or smiley faces which would be great to add to your kids' scrapbooks. We found this article durng the 2012 Olympics with event ideas allowing children of different skill levels to all have a chance at winning and great suggestions for awards. Check it out.
More Olympics are on the way; more Olympic Spirit to see
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.
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Listed below are coming Youth Olympic Games (YOG) obtained through multiple news sources
YOG:
- 2014 (Summer YOG) - Nanjing, China, Asia - August 16 - 28
- 2016 (Winter YOG) - Lillehammer, Norway, Europe - February 26 - March 6
- 2018 (Summer YOG) - Bidding Host Cities: Buenos Aires, Argentina; Glasgow, United Kingdom; Guadalajara, Mexico; Medellín, Colombia; Poznan, Poland; and Rotterdam, Netherlands. The host city is due to be elected in June 2013.
- 2020 (Winter YOG) - Lake Placid, New York, U.S. is "leaning towards 2020 Youth Games Bid"
Olympiad Winter and Summer Games:
- 2014 (Winter) - Sochi, Russia, Europe - February 7 - 23
- 2016 (Summer) - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, South America - August 5 - 21
- 2018 (Winter) - PyeongChang, South Korea, Asia - February 9 - 25
Check back now and then for updates.
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