Moorosi Tsiane
THE Lesotho National Olympic Committee (LNOC) will this year hold belated celebrations in Mokhotlong to commemorate the Olympic and Environmental Day from 25 to 26 August.
The Olympic day is celebrated in 23 June by all the countries in the Olympic family. It is meant to commemorate the birth of the modern Olympic Games and was introduced in 1894 at the Sorbonne in Paris, France. The goal of the Olympic is to promote participation in sport across the globe regardless of age, gender or athletic ability. Lesotho began taking part in the games in 1972.
LNOC head of programmes, Pulumo Nchaka, said hundreds of young and old people would participate in sporting and cultural activities.
“This day is celebrated in June but because in Lesotho the winter is too cold, it was decided that we celebrate in August,” Nchaka said.
“Every year we rotate the celebrations among the different districts to ensure that we reach every Mosotho. In 2016 we celebrated the day in Mafeteng and last year it was Quthing’s turn.
“This year we are going to Mokhotlong. People from Mokhotlong will participate in different sporting activities that will be decided by the district sports officer. We will also be engage in some environmental activities like cleaning the Mokhotlong town and planting some trees at site that will be chosen by the district administrator (DA).”
He said the aim was to teach the local communities about the Olympic values and therefore everyone was welcome to participate in the sporting activities for regardless of culture, gender and race.
“The theme for this year is ‘we move, we learn and we discover’, so while people will have different activities we will also be teaching the public about the Olympic values,” Nchaka said.