Study on the role of Romanian olympic champions's models in achieving olympic education

"Olympic education" is a term with a history of about 50 years, which was proposed by N. Moller. It first appeared in sports education and Olympic research in the 1970s. Does "Olympic education" signify the revival of the educational ideals of ancient Greece, or is its purpose merely to lend credibility to the marketing of Olympic symbols? This question must be answered in terms of principles, and the answer delves deep into the history and concept of the modern Olympic Movement. Its founder, the Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin, considered himself first and foremost an educator, and his primary goal was educational reform. His initial aim, limited to France and French schools, was to integrate modern sports into the school routine and thus introduce a sports education into that routine, encompassing both the body and the mind. He had learned from modern sports in England, and especially from his knowledge of public school education at Rugby, that the moral strength of young people could be critically developed through the individual experience of sports activities, and extended from there to life as a whole. Coubertin did not use the term "Olympic education," initially referring to it as "sports education," and indeed that was the title of the book he published in 1922, "Pedagogie Sportive" (Sport Pedagogy). As early as 1900, and not exclusively within schools, he encouraged the idea of making sports accessible to adolescents and even the elderly as a newly discovered component of comprehensive education (cf. Coubertin 1972). Olympic education means different things to different people. The following section provides examples of the wide variety of programs that fall under the umbrella of Olympic education. These programs have different objectives and audiences, although with a significant overlap. The Foundations Manual is based on an "education through sport" approach. Olympic education is a set of processes aimed at cultivating, through sports practice, the essential values of Olympism: self-improvement, respect for rules, equal opportunities, solidarity, brotherhood, tolerance, and peace. Sport must avoid promoting non-values, lack of fair play, doping, political influence, terrorism, etc. Based on this definition of Olympic education, aspects necessary for defining and setting the objectives of the core curriculum and the school's discretionary curriculum can be identified, especially concerning formal education (teaching, instruction). Fundamental to understanding Olympism is the emphasis on the educational aspect, "the Olympic idea cannot be understood without an understanding of its educational mission" (Gessman, 1992). Curriculum development related to values education can be traced back to the 1960s in the USA, with Lawrence Kohlberg's theory of moral development, which in his work "Fair Play for Kids" elaborated a pedagogical framework based on evolutionary approaches to morality. Starting from these premises, we attempted to maximize the inclusion of the subject of sports and Olympic education in the students' curriculum, assuming that achieving excellent results in this subject would positively impact other disciplines in the curriculum. We believed that deepening the knowledge about the biographies and achievements of Romanian Olympic champions could contribute to a better understanding of the Olympic phenomenon, primarily, while also potentially making the studied Olympians sport and life role models for students. Each student had to create a presentation about a Romanian Olympic champion based on thorough research, emphasizing primarily their contribution to the development of Romanian and international Olympism, focusing on their human qualities rather than just their athletic achievements. The study included 55 graduate students from the FMSHS of Bacau, who, in addition to creating presentations, were asked to complete a questionnaire with 30 questions. At the end of the research, there were significant percentages of students who found life models in Olympic champions.