The legendary hockey player, participant of three Olympic Games, former captain of the Latvian Hockey National Team and winner of the National Hockey League (NHL) Stanley Cup, Sandis Ozoliņš, visited the live broadcast of the Olympic Hour, who told the new generation about his career, life experience and lessons learned. On the other hand, at At 11.00, more than 150,000 registered participants and all other interested parties took part in the Vislatvia exercise.
Sandis Ozoliņš shared his experience, revealing that he was motivated to play hockey by the sense of community in this sport, the excitement and popularity. As the athlete himself told – during the career of a professional athlete, life is lived in a different dimension, there are completely different dynamics and other rules, while after the end of the career, one has to overcome a transition period in order to get to and adapt to the real life in which the rest of society lives. Sandis Ozoliņš has participated in the Olympic Games several times, the last one being the flag bearer in the opening ceremony, and he describes this experience as indescribable, admitting that what he sees on TV cannot be compared to the feelings at the epicenter of the opening ceremony: “The feeling of euphoria, which is difficult to explain, fantastic togetherness the feeling when you realize that you are one of the few who can enjoy it.”
Jānis Pētersons about the Olympic hour and day: “We all have the opportunity to come together and get excited about something cool, healthy and good. On the Olympic Day in Vistula, the little schoolboy has the opportunity to exercise together with the high school student, and that’s what sport is meant for – to get positive emotions either by doing sports and moving together, or by following the sports results of others.”
This year, 150,000 participants from 780 venues (educational institutions, including kindergartens, socially responsible institutions) had registered for the Olympic Day exercise. The All-Latvian exercise complex for children of kindergarten age was created together with the heroes of Tuta’s affairs, Lapsiņa and Fenek, for this exercise the composer Rudolfs Macats wrote the song Bronze, Silver, Gold. On the other hand, for school-age children, as well as for everyone else, an exercise was prepared to Markus Rivas and ZeBrene’s song – Discuss more. The movements for the exercise complexes were developed by experienced trainers Dinārs Zāħers and Monta Lībeka-Wilgerte.
Olympic Day is the only worldwide event organized in honor of the anniversary of the founding of the International Olympic Committee. In the world, Olympic Day is celebrated on June 23, but in Latvia, Olympic Day is celebrated on Friday, which is closer to April 23 – the anniversary of the founding of the Latvian Olympic Committee.
