Kuczynski: Sports Education Crucial to Peruvian Success

(ATR) Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski says sport must be reintroduced to primary education in Peru to teach the important values of fair play and honesty.

"Here in Peru, other than football, sport has had a checkered career because the public education system, 15 years ago or 25 years ago, eliminated sport from the curriculum, gym and civic education was also eliminated," Kuczynski said in his keynote address to the IOC Session in Lima, Peru.

"We have to bring this back because a child that doesn’t practice some kind of sport is not having a healthy body with a healthy mind. The International Olympic Committee meeting here is very important as a symbol of the importance of a well rounded education."

The Peruvian President said that the revitalization of sport in school is not just important to improve results in international competitions, it is absolutely necessary to instill the values of fair play and honesty that can transfer outside of the field of play.

"The first is the notion of fair play because sport teaches you that you lose and you shake hands with the winner, or you win and you shake hands with the loser but you are still friends," he said. "You could have had a fight on the field or the ring or the court or the swimming pool or the steeplechase, but at the end of it, a sporting person respects his opponents."

Kuczynski said this lesson is particularly important in a world that is all too often embroiled in hatred.

"That I think is very bad and you see that in the world today unfortunately there is way too much hate, there is way too much discrimination and not a sense of fair play, and in that sense you know the Olympics and all the Games that are around them like the Pan American Games that we will have here in a couple of years are terribly important."

The President follows this with a perceived slight at U.S. President Donald Trump, calling out the "alternative facts" that can be misleading in an age of instant information.

"These aren’t facts at all, they are propaganda constructions which have existed in history over the centuries but I think they are becoming way too important today," he said. "I think we have our duties as responsible people, leaders of countries and ideas, to fight against alternative facts, made up facts and you have seen that in recent, very well known elections around the world, with I think some very questionable results.

He related this to cheating in sport and the need to teach honesty and respect for competition.

"The second issue that I think is related to sport is telling the truth, because in many situations in sport you see the problem of, did anybody cheat? And of course, doping is also part of that problem. So in sport, you are told and taught to tell the truth and if you don’t, in the end there are bad consequences and you become discredited."

Kuczynski concluded by discussing the need for his country to improve its environmental standards and circled back to the need of a reformed and improved education system.

"We have to make an enormous effort in education, if we don’t do that and pay our teachers properly, and have gyms and civic education we will not move forward," he said. "It’s a matter of great debate around the world, what is the best system of education? But I firmly believe that a central part of education is the issue of sports, fair play, telling the truth and learning discipline."

IOC President Thomas Bach thanked President Kuczynski for his efforts to host the Session in Lima despite the floods that put its status in doubt earlier this year.

"Your presence here today is a great expression of your commitment to sport, the Olympic Games and IOC, and the values for which we stand," Bach said, noting his presence and speech at the Opening Ceremony of the Session on Sept. 12.

"We will never forget your determination to organize this Session here in Peru despite the great challenges the Peruvians had to overcome at the time and I would really like to repeat the congratulations already expressed during the opening ceremony, to the Peruvians, to you Mr. President for the way in which the Peruvians overcame these challenges just a couple of months ago."

Once the Session leaves the Peruvian capital on Sept. 16, President Kuczynski and sport leaders in Peru will turn their attention to hosting the Lima 2019 Pan American Games. Construction on the Pan American Village began on Sept. 13 with a traditional ceremony that President Kuczynski attended.

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Written by Kevin Nutley

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