The Olympic spirit in Ferentari

Today, 27 July, there is one year to go before the Olympic and Paralympic Games are held in London in 2012. President Rogge of the International Olympic Committee will be in London to issue an invitation to Romania and all other countries in the world to send their teams to compete in the London Olympic and Paralympic Games. I will be in Ferentari, one of the poorest districts of Bucharest, playing football, basketball and fencing with youngsters from the local community, along with Romania’s Olympic athletes Violeta Beclea and Ionela Tarlea and basketball champion Svetlana Dragusin.

The London 2012 Olympics is not just for Olympians. It aims to use the power of sport to inspire millions of young people around the world, to give them hope and ambition, to encourage them to participate in sport for themselves.

Not long after I arrived in Romania last year I found the spirit of the London 2012 Olympics in a community in Ferentari. This community faces huge challenges, from unemployment, from drugs, from a lack of education and a lack of opportunity. Their answer to these  challenges? Build a sports hall. Because sport offers young people so much. It is great for physical fitness and development. But it also teaches teamwork, strategy and fair play. You learn how to win, and how to lose well, and how to recover from setbacks so that you win the next time. In short, it teaches the life skills that young people need to overcome obstacles and maximise opportunities for themselves. It’s no coincidence that when the sports hall opened, the results of pupils at the school next door began to improve.

So what better place to fire the starting gun for the London Olympics than at a community sports hall in Ferentari. I hope the community’s example will be an inspiration to young people and communities across Romania. And who knows – maybe one of Romania’s future Olympic champions will be there.