The 13th International Session for Educators of Higher Institutes of Physical Education was organised from 1st to 7th July 2019. Fifty-nine educators from 49 different universities arrived in Athens and departed the following day for Ancient Olympia. The works of this year’s Session focused on “Olympic Truce as an Educational Tool for Peace”.The IOA President, Isidoros Kouvelos, in his opening address mentioned that “... the Session for Educators is perhaps the Session which offers the greatest contribution to the educational role of the Academy, since outstanding teachers are participating, whose chief duty is to educate the younger generation and shape through their programmes the correct, the balanced character, the ‘decent and honest’ person of ancient Greek philosophy, the model for which Olympism strives.”University professors from all over the world attended the Session.

Eight eminent lecturers were invited to share their knowledge with the participants who were vividly participating in the discussions after the lectures were concluded.Professor Katerina Mouratidou, from Aristotle University, was the first lecturer and spoke about peace education as part of human rights education.She underlined that: “One of the fundamental aims of education is to produce students who are defenders of peace, in other words, to ‘initiate’ them into a society whose citizens can be productive, freely share their interests and concerns, use their time creatively, enjoy human rights and deal with confrontations without the use of force.” Professor Dr Daniel de la Cueva, from the Higher Institute of Catamarca, took the floor after her and focused on education for peace in the Youth Olympic Games. He stated that: “It is important to reaffirm the need to recognize education as a right of all children and youngsters – but also the need to broaden the focus of that right, together withthe vision of education itself.”On the 3rd of July, the participants and the lecturers were guided to the archaeological site and the Museum of Ancient Olympia and were thrilled to see the birthplace of the Olympic Games.

In the afternoon, Professor Dr Ana Žnidarec Čučković, from the University of Kinesiology, Zagreb, presented the handbook “Inclusive and innovative approaches to PE and Sport Training”, followed by Mr John Dorber, Migration Consultant for the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport, Council of Europe, who described the role of Sport in the facilitation of the inclusion of migrants: a European perspective. He said: “The Council of Europe is the continent’s leading human rights organization, based on the values of human rights, the rule of law, and democracy. The promotion of diversity is a permanent priority of the Council of Europe’s Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport since its conception.

”On the 4th of July Mr Thomas Gil from the International Committee of Francophone Games, spoke about the history of the Games and gave an overview of the most recent ones. Professor Dr Li-Hong Hsu from the National University of Sport of Chinese Taipei, talked about the role of sports in social peace giving examples like the 1971 Ping-pong diplomacy, the 1995 Rugby World Cup and the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics. Professor Dr Stephan Wassong from the German Sport University Cologne, gave a speech about Pierre de Coubertin and Internationalism. “Coubertin had profound knowledge on the ancient Olympic Games. Their tradition and reputation motivated him to think about their revival. But Coubertin did not want to introduce a mere copy of the ancient Olympic Games. His objective was to come up with a modern concept of the Olympic Games based on educational objectives; one of them was the strengthening of respect between nations.”The last lecture of the Session was given by Dr Yoav Dubinsky, University of Oregon, on the subject of “Olympic Movement: Nation branding and public diplomacy”. He underlined that: “The international exposure, the focus on culture, and peaceful values in sports make the Olympic Games as useful political and branding tool for governments and countries...

People from different religious beliefs, genders, orientations, political affiliations, sexual orientations, and races, all stand together on the same field regardless of their social identity.”Along with the lectures and the workshops, the participants were divided in six discussion groups, one French speaking and five English speaking groups in order to discuss issues related to the lectures’ topics and draw their own conclusions. Overall the Session run smoothly and all the participants and the lecturers left Olympia with a sense of fulfillment.The lectures and the short presentations of the participants were interesting and opened new horizons for the Olympic Education.