Lalitpur, June 23

Nepal Olympic Committee (NOC) marked the Olympic Day 2016 with the slogan ‘Sports is for everyone, regardless of age or athletic ability’ here at the Army Physical Fitness and Sports Centre today.

Different programmes were held throughout the country for a week by the Sports for All Commission under the auspices of NOC to celebrate the values of Olympic Movement, which champions the idea of ‘Excellence, Friendship and Respect.’

Olympic Day was celebrated in 207 nations across the world to mark the establishment of Modern Olympics on June 23, 1894. “Olympics started in ancient Greece in 776BC to end the war among nations.

It was revived in 1894 with the establishment of the International Olympic Committee on June 23. The Modern Olympics began two years later from 1896,” said Chairman of the organising committee Bishnu Gopal Shrestha.

Shrestha also read out the message of IOC President Thomas Bach. “Thank you for joining this celebration of Olympic Day. You are a part of a growing global event. Olympic Day is for everyone, regardless of age or athletic ability. The important thing is to get the couch potato off the couch,” Bach said.

NOC President Jeevan Ram Shrestha said the Olympic Day was successful in spreading the core values of Olympic Movement and to establish peace and friendship through sports.

A total of 56 events were organised in a week-long celebration. National sports associations, various schools along with Nepali Army and Nepal Police were actively involved in this programme. “This is the first time we celebrated this event on such a grand scale and we look forward to make it even bigger in coming years,” he said.

Students, representatives from different schools, Olympians, United Nations officials, film artists, national players, Army, Police, APF took part in the closing ceremony.

NOC had started the celebrations with a rally at Basantapur Durbar square a week ago.