Wimbledon nearly cost me my university exemption. Throughout my educational career, my mid-year exams seemed to coincide with an international sporting event, usually tennis. The students of 2024 will have the Paris Olympics to contend with. Instead of looking at the Games as a distraction, we thought they could serve as inspiration in your classroom.

Some interesting facts about Paris 2024

  • The opening ceremony will not be held in a stadium for the first time ever. Instead, it will take place on the Seine, the river that crosses the centre of Paris.
  • Each Olympic medal will be infused with iron from the original Eiffel Tower – one of Paris’s most famous landmarks.
  • The official mascot is the Olympic Phryge, a traditional hat and one of the symbols of the French Republic. It is pronounced ‘freege’.
  • Approximately 45 000 volunteers will help at the Games.
  • Tahiti, in French Polynesia, will host the surfing events, breaking the record for the farthest competition to be held outside the host country.
  • The 2024 Games will include a Refugee Olympic Team made up of 36 independent participants who are refugees. The team represents more than 100 million forcibly displaced people worldwide and hopes to raise global awareness of the scale of the migrant crisis in Europe. It is a symbol of hope for all refugees in the world.

Below you will find a list of carefully considered discussion points based on the Olympic Games. They can be used as topics for class discussions, persuasive speeches or adapted for argumentative or discursive essays, or an open letter, editorial or blog.

  1. The 2024 Summer Olympics will introduce the sport of breaking (also called b-boying, b-girling or breakdancing) to the Summer Olympic programme for the first time. Does inclusion in the Olympics commercialise a sport that was previously considered counter-culture? Given the chance, would you advocate for any other sport to be included in the Olympic programme?
  2. Are the Olympics Games fair? The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has instituted anti-doping regulations to ensure fair play, but can there ever be a level playing field considering the massive disparity in the wealth of competing countries? Consider issues such as training facilities, financial support for athletes as well as advancements in sports technology, nutrition and training methods.
  3. The Enhanced Games is an international sports event set to take place in 2025, where the athletes are allowed to use performance-enhancing drugs. Some have called it the ‘doping Olympics’. What effect would normalising the use of performance-enhancing drugs in professional sports have on young and amateur athletes? Should ‘enhanced’ athletes have the right to make decisions about their own bodies despite the probable damage to the well-being of athletes the world over?
  4. In 1964 the IOC banned the South African team from participating in the Olympics in order to demonstrate the unified and international disapproval of apartheid. While Russia  is banned from the Olympics following its invasion of the Ukraine, Russian competitors will still be allowed to participate in this year’s Paris Olympics as ‘neutral athletes’, without an accompanying national flag or anthem. What are the pros and cons of allowing ‘neutral athletes’ to compete, compared to a total ban?
  5. When, in 2021, the Norwegian women’s beach handball team was fined for wearing shorts instead of bikini bottoms, it drew attention to the disparity between men’s and women’s sports uniforms. Female athletes often have to wear more revealing attire than their male counterparts which can contribute to their objectification and undermine their achievements. What criteria should be considered by the IOC when deciding on uniform regulations? Should athlete preference be taken into account? Should matters of social justice be considered?

 


 

If you are using the Achieve Careers English HL Programme, the following information and activities are recommended:

  • Grade 8 ENG HL: Section 1, pp. 14–21, Section 2, pp. 40–42, Section 5, pp. 104–106, p. 113
  • Grade 9 ENG HL: Section 1, pp. 10–14, Section 2, pp. 42–47, Section 5, pp. 112–114
  • Grade 10 ENG HL: Section 1, pp. 18–22, Section 2, pp. 46–47, Section 5, pp. 108–109, p. 114
  • Grade 11 ENG HL: Section 1, pp. 14–24, Section 2, pp. 46–47, Section 5, p. 105, pp. 112–115, p. 120

If you are using the Achieve Careers LO Programme, the following information and activities are recommended:

• GR 10 LO Manual – Module 3 (Skills Development)
• GR 10 LO Manual – Module 5 (Career Research)
• GR 11 LO Manual – Module 4 & 5 (Career Research & Critical Thinking)
• RAK: GR 9 LO Manual – Module 3 (Community Responsibility)
• Social Justice: GR 10 LO Manual – Module 2 (Community Service)
• Suicide Prevention: GR 9 LO Manual – Module 2 (EQ: Mental Health and Mindfulness)
• Teacher’s Flash Drive – LO Resources – folder on Careers and Critical Thinking

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