Keen, Ron Zwerver, or Elisabeth Willeboordse are talking to them about what the Olympic and Paralympic Games meant to them, or just showing their medals. Of course they haven’t heard of the big names of Dutch sport. But that medal says it all. It takes their breath away, just like it takes my breath away to see the passion, the single-mindedness and focus with which the young students, a lot of them from Rio’s slums, take part in these Olympic clinics. For the first time in the history of the Netherlands Olympic Committee we’re not just coming to ‘take something’ from the city in which the Games are to be organised, but we’re also coming here to ‘bring something’ of our own. We’re doing so with the aid of a large number of athletes, every one of whom was happy to take part in these GEO events. Under the general motto of ‘sharing knowledge is multiplying knowledge’, hundreds of children have learned to get just a little bit better at table tennis, judo, volleyball, swimming, korfball, basketball, or running. And they have drawn inspiration from the fantastic stories of the Dutch Olympic and Paralympic athletes, such as Hinkelien Schreuder and Inge Huitzing, who understand better than most that with sport you can win much more than medals. I watched the children stare in disbelief as the Paralympic champion Marlou van Rhijn changed out of her prostheses and put on her blades for the training session she was to give - blades on which she demonstrated incredible sprinting times on the athletics course of the GEO school Santa Teresa. It was simply marvellous to watch from a distance and to see her encouraging and inspiring the children, firing them up with her enthusiasm. conhecimento com as crianças. Para mim, isso é a melhor forma de espirito olímpico. Nos últimos anos visitei uma série destas oficinas, e me deu enorme alegria ver todos aqueles rostinhos felizes quando Marleen Veldhuis, Trinko Keen, Ron Zwerver ou Elisabeth Willeboordse falavam sobre a importância de sua experiência nos Jogos Olímpicos, ou simplesmente mostravam suas medalhas. Claro que as crianças não conheciam aqueles heróis do esporte holandês, mas a medalha dizia tudo. Ficavam sem palavras, como eu fico sem palavras sempre que vejo a paixão, a motivação e a dedicação que os jovens alunos das comunidades carentes do Rio exibem quando competem nas oficinas olímpicas. Pela primeira vez na história do Comitê Olímpico Holandês, chegamos à sede dos Jogos não apenas em busca de algo, mas também trazendo algo. Algo que trouxemos com a ajuda de um grande número de atletas, que toparam todos participar destas reuniões nas escolas do projeto GEO. Unidos pela ideia de que “compartilhar conhecimento é multiplicar conhecimento”, centenas de crianças se tornaram melhores Projeto GEO / amizade, respeito e excelência < 7
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