?The Fifth School Mini Olympics, organized by the Bahrain Olympic Committee in cooperation with the Education Ministry from March 8 to 22, is one of the initiatives that are in line with the directives of Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, His Majesty King Hamad Representative for Charity Works and Youth Affairs, Supreme Council for Youth and Sports chairman.
The Bahrain Olympic Committee is now getting set to launch the fifth edition of the Mini Olympics, which get underway on Thursday.
Over the past four years, the Mini Olympics has been very successful at all levels. The first edition was held from 22-29 April 2014 with the participation of 27 schools, including 13 schools (boys) and 14 schools (girls) competing in 4 games, namely basketball and volleyball Table tennis and athletics. The first edition saw about 400 students.
The second edition was held from April 21 to 30, 2015. The participation of private schools in addition to governor schools, and two additional games were included compared to the first edition, namely football and swimming, bringing the total number of games to 6.
In this edition, middle and high school students were allowed in all games except for table tennis and swimming, which was limited to primary and intermediate stages, and was attended by 1,200 students representing 44 schools.
The third edition, held in 2016, saw the introduction of eight sports, namely athletics, football, volleyball, basketball, table tennis and swimming, with the addition of two new games, taekwondo and aquathlon, and about 1,930 students representing 116 schools.
In the fourth edition in 2017, there were 14 games after the addition of 6 new games, namely hockey, cricket, karting, jiu jitsu, gymnastics, handball and other games such as athletics, basketball, football, taekwondo, swimming, aquathlon, table tennis, with 2,400 students representing 122 schools.
The Mini Olympics aims to discover promising talents in various sports for the future heroes, promoting Olympic values among students, encouraging sports to achieve public health, consolidating sports spirit, teamwork and volunteering among students and expanding the foundation of sports and physical activities in a sports environment.
