To promote the dissemination of the values and ideals of Olympism, as well as for the development of Olympic education, the Mexican Olympic Academy (AOM) has established eight Study Centers on the subject, whose main task includes the defense of Olympic philosophical principles. at the national level to strengthen the institution towards the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Currently, the Olympic Games include the martial arts of Judo and Taekwondo, while Karate participated in Tokyo 2020, and after being left out in Paris 2024, the World Federation of the specialty has once again undertaken its fight to return to the jousting Olympic, while Kickboxing has taken important steps towards its inclusion.
The creation of a study center consists, among other things, in the inclusion in its curricular enrollment of the teaching and research of the Olympic movement as a whole, which includes its history, values, the Olympic Games, the selection processes of Olympic venues.
The president of the Mexican Olympic Academy, Carlos Hernández Schäffler, commented that currently eight institutions already have such study centers, the first being the Universidad Panamericana Campus Aguascalientes (instituted in 2012); Autonomous University of Chihuahua (2013) and the Autonomous University of the West of Sinaloa (2013).
As well as the Meritorious Autonomous University of Puebla (2013); the Center for Higher Studies of Cultures, in Michoacán (2014); the Iberoamerican University Campus León (2016); the Meridiano University in León, Guanajuato (2020) and the Anáhuac Campus Querétaro University (2022).
He stressed that given the rigidity of its internal regulations, it has been difficult to get the highest house of studies, the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN) to agree to the creation of Olympic Study Centers.
“We are in talks with the hope that in this year 2023 five more centers will be created, which would be the Autonomous University of Baja California; La Salle University, in Saltillo; the Autonomous University of Guerrero, the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico and the YMCA University of Mexico City,” explained Hernández.
He added that the centers created and those that are about to emerge have to receive the go-ahead and approval of the International Olympic Academy located in Greece and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Switzerland.
“Olympism is an educational vehicle that is how the French educator Pierre de Coubertain conceived it, and the Olympic Games are not only a four-year sports competition, but also as a means of internationalizing and popularizing sport.
“The essential function of Olympism is to aspire to have a better, more peaceful, more competitive humanity through sport, which in turn serves to relate to each other and a source of health,” he specified.
The Mexican Olympic Academy was created in 1984, ordered from the IOC to the National Olympic Committees around the world and is the school of Olympism of the Mexican Olympic Committee (COM).
Collaborates with the COM for the dissemination and teaching of Olympism, with all kinds of educational programs, both from schools and universities (private and public), promoting the creation of institutions dedicated to Olympic education, such as the aforementioned Olympic Studies Centers. .
Photo: Courtesy.
