The project Olympic Month organised by the National Olympic Committee of Lithuania (LNOC) for the fifth year in a row has attracted record interest. 2,800 primary school classes, or over 55,000 pupils from all Lithuanian municipalities joined the initiative to promote healthy lifestyles.

The aim of the project is to promote physical literacy, to help pupils discover healthy lifestyles and physical activity as a fun and rewarding activity, and to introduce them to the Olympic values and principles of respect, friendship and excellence.

The children were invited to exercise, interact with the Olympians and deepen their knowledge on physical activity, healthy nutrition, quality rest and emotional health. Each October week will be dedicated to one of four subjects: physical activity, healthy nutrition, emotional health and quality rest.

The teachers in the participating schools were provided with all the methodological material and guidance on how to conduct physical education classes, how to integrate the project’s activities and content into other classes, and how to conduct activities in-between classes.

The project is under the patronage of the First Lady of the country Diana Nausėdienė.

Olympic champion and LNOC President Daina Gudzinevičiūtė is delighted with all the project’s objectives having been implemented.

“This is one of our most popular projects and it is growing in popularity every year. With the help of teachers and parents, we are trying to get children interested in healthy lifestyles, to inspire them to move more, to recognise their own emotions and make friends with them.

We are extremely grateful to the First Lady for her sincere support in promoting children’s physical activity and the development of Olympic values in Lithuania. Her attention inspires even greater enthusiasm in us and, more importantly, also the educators, whose contribution is of extreme importance in helping children to become fond of movement,” said Daina Gudzinevičiūtė.

The participants had the opportunity to meet and talk to the Olympians judo fighter Sandra Jablonskytė and triple jumper Diana Zagainova, as well as rower Viktorija Senkutė and kayaker Simonas Maldonis, who have secured their tickets to the Paris Olympics.

Traditionally, at the end of the project, the patron of the initiative Mrs. Diana Nausėdienė drew lots to find out which of the participating classes won the prizes established by the organisers.

The organisers of the Olympic Month project are the National Olympic Committee of Lithuania and the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport.