With seven sports - biathlon, bobsled, curling, ice hockey, luge, skating and skiing - and a record number of 109 events across 15 disciplines, there is a lot of excitement building around the 2022 Winter Olympics! Here is some background information about the Olympics that you might not know and a great way to inspire your own workout. 

The three values of Olympism are excellence, friendship and respect. They constitute the foundation on which the Olympic movement builds its activities to promote sport, culture and education with a view to building a better world. The original values of Olympism as expressed in the Olympic Charter were to “encourage effort,” “preserve human dignity,” and “develop harmony.”

Over time, they have evolved and are now expressed in more contemporary terms as:

• Striving for excellence and encouraging people to be the best they can be.
• Celebrating friendship, which is quite unique to the Olympic Games – an event that brings people together every few years.
• Demonstrating respect in many different manners: respect towards yourself, the rules, your opponents, the environment, the public, etc.

This is the idea of setting your rivalries aside. There is more that unites us than divides us.

Our fitness staff at Franciscan Health Fitness Centers strives for ways to get our members engaged so they too can excel as a FHFC Olympian. This month we want to encourage you to lace up your shoes, step up to the podium with your Olympic efforts and track your progress. Pick up a flyer for the February Olympic challenge at the Fitness Desk. Spend the month of February improving your strength and speed with our Fitness tips/bodyweight exercises. At the end of the month, test yourself again! List your beginning and ending results on the form and turn it in by March 5, 2022. Anyone that improves in 3 or more categories will be entered in a raffle to win a prize! We look forward to singing the anthem with you!

The Olympics can be seen on NBC from February 4-20th.

Our thanks to Betty Durochik, Franciscan Health Fitness Center Program Specialist, for writing this blog.