Educational programme

The Barcelona’’92 educational programme called A l’escola, més esport que mai (In school, more sport than ever) was launched in 1985 —before Barcelona was nominated the Olympic host city— to disseminate the values of sport and Olympism in schools. A further aim was to increase the amount of sport done by children while incorporating Olympic- and sport-related content into teaching.

Promoted by Barcelona City Council and supported by the public and private sectors, the programme led to the improvement of several school sports facilities, provided specific training for physical education teachers, organised guided tours around Olympic facilities (a total of 1,211) and published various educational materials.

Also promoted was the “Els Dimecres Olímpics” (Olympic Wednesdays) initiative. Involving both pupils and teachers, these were sports days organised by schools themselves. Approximately 109,000 pupils took part in a total of 195 events.

In the summer of 1992, the Organising Committee for the Barcelona’92 Olympic Games (COOB’92) organised an International Youth Camp for young adults aged between 18 and 22 from 67 National Olympic Committees.

In the academic field, worthy of note is the creation of the Olympic and Sport Studies Centre at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (CEO-UAB) in 1989. CEO-UAB promotes research and dissemination activities in the field of Olympic studies, collaborates on bachelor’s degree, master’s degree and doctoral courses, and manages one of Europe’’s most important centres of documentation on Olympism.