Olympia

The Olympia project was developed within the framework of the European Leonardo da Vinci program and was carried out during the period 2001-2004. It consisted in the creation of a pilot program aimed at training online sports managers and coaches.

The main objective was to develop a pilot project in designing and implementing tools and on-going distance training methodologies for managing sports facilities and organising sporting events, with Internet-based support and real time training via satellite.

Other specific objectives envisaged were:

• Identifying new professional profiles that have emerged from managing sports facilities.
• Identifying new professional profiles that have emerged from organising large sporting events and which result from the impact of these events.
• Experimenting with the application of new distance training technology such as training via satellite.
• Fostering the creation of new jobs as a result of co-operation between public and private organisations involved in sports.
• Fostering a European co-operation network for sports managers with Internet support.
• Reinforcing stable co-operation ties between European territories holding large sporting events (Barcelona 1992 / Athens 2004 / Turin 2006 / Manchester 2002).

CEO-UAB contribution to the project

CEO-UAB coordinated the first phase of the project (2001-2002). This phase consisted in the analysis of online courses offer for sports managers and the potential demand for Olympia in the partners’ countries (Spain, Italy, Holland, Romania, Greece). Together with the Barcelona County Council, CEO-UAB carried out the research in Spain, which consisted of a survey to approximately 1,400 sports managers and directors, interviews with important sports management actors in Catalonia and a focus group to deepen and give more context to the quantitative results.

During the second phase of the project, CEO-UAB was part of a working group on event management responsible for investigating and developing two “Knowledge Blocks” with interactive texts as examples of the content that would include the Olympia e-learning program. Simultaneously, three partners elaborated the contents on facilities management, and two technological partners designed proposals for the online platform to show the contents.

In the third phase of the project, once the technological and content proposal was validated, a pilot test was carried out and focus groups were organized with tutors and students in each participating country to evaluate the contents and the learning platform.