Hosting an Olympic Activity

People.  I love the Olympics.  LOVE.  I look forward to them every two years (summer and winter) and get excited for them several weeks out.  I love the patriotism that takes over the country (which is even greater coming on the heels of Independence Day).  I love hearing the inspirational stories behind the athletes.  I love hearing the different national anthems played at medal ceremonies, or seeing the hundreds of flags waving through the air.  I love those dang Visa or P&G commercials that make me get teary eyed every time.  I love the spirit of friendly competition and good sportsmanship.  I love rooting for the underdog.  And most importantly I love, that even if it is only for a few days every couple of years, and even though it is over something as simple as sports, that the world seems to come together and we are no longer fighting one another, but cheering next to each other. 

With the Summer Olympic Games getting ready to start in a just a few weeks I couldn't pass up the opportunity to put together some Olympic themed posts.

Many years ago, when I was 15 my family had a reunion that was Olympic themed.  Using many of the ideas from that family reunion I have some tips and ideas on how to throw your own Olympic activity- whether it is for your own family reunion, get together with friends, family night activity, church activity, birthday party, etc.

Aww, look at my cute family.  This is outside my childhood home with my dad, mom, me, and my two brothers.  Love my family!  I can't believe my little brother just turned 23.  When did we all grow up?  *Tear*  Okay...moving ahead.

Depending on how many people you have at your activity assign out the countries that will be represented.  Each person could be their own country, groups of 3-10 could be a country, or each family could be their own country- which is how our family reunion was organized.  My family was Italy and each family also dressed in matching colors.

  This is a fun time to get kids involved and let them have at the flags.  You can try to match the exact flag of the country or just do whatever.  In our case each family made a flag that represented them.  I think our flag was mostly dominated by soccer balls but a drawing of a book may have been squeezed in there somewhere for me.  :)

To make the flags you can use fabric rectangles, poster board, or even regular sized paper if you are doing this on a small scale.  Attaching the finished flag to a small dowel ensures you can wave it proudly through the air.

Do you watch the parade of nations?  It is so exciting to see all the athletes march in dressed in their county's best and following their flag.  I of course love cheering for the Americans and the hundreds of competitors but that actually isn't my favorite part.  Nothing gets me more than when a country is announced, in comes the flag, and following behind it is one athlete who is there to represent their entire homeland.  I can only imagine the story behind their journey.  Gah!  I'm such a baby!  I'm crying here just thinking about it!  Moving on again...

With the flags all finished you'll want to have your own Parade of Nations.  For our reunion everybody grabbed flashlights and with flags waving our entire extended family marched around the neighborhood just as the sun was setting.  I'm sure people either thought we were crazy or clearly the coolest family ever.

You can parade around the neighborhood as we did or do something as simple as walking through the house if you're doing this with just your little ones. 

Oh you can do just about anything here!  Whether you have a group of 50 or a small family of 4 there are lots of games you can play! You can play sports legitimately or create funny rules and ridiculous events.  This section is only limited by your imagination but here are lots of ideas to get you on your way.

Silly Games:
- Cottonball Shot-put: Have you ever tried to watch grown men chuck a cotton ball as far as they can?  You really should have that opportunity at least once in  your life.
- Q-Tip Javelin:  See above reason.
- Paper Plate Discus Throw: Again, you'll want to see it.
- Equestrian Run: Each team has to provide a person for a horse and a rider.  Set up many obstacles to jump over, climb under, run around, etc.
- Relay races
- Potato sack race
- Water Balloon Volleyball: two people each hold onto an end of a towel to catch and throw the balloon over the net.
Target Shooting: Use water guns to knock down your targets or see who can hit the bulls-eye.  Especially funny if you have another team member holding the bulls-eye.
Rhythmic Gymnastics: Each group draws a song out of a hat and has a short time to prepare their routine.  I think each family at our reunion was given 30 minutes.  Every member was required to participate.  Each family was also randomly given a bag full of props that had to be incorporated into our routine.
- Obstacle Course
- Hula-Hoop Contest
- Tug-of-War
Fencing- Two people each standing on a stump has to knock their opponent off using pool noodles.
Competitive Eating- how many marshmallows can your team member fit into their mouth?  How high can a person throw a grape and still catch it in their mouth?
Board Game Tournament- bust out that Scrabble board or that Connect Four game and let the competitions begin.

Traditional Games:
- Basketball
- Soccer
- Kickball
- T Ball
- Volleyball
- Badminton
- Bocce 
- Croquet

 

At the end of your event you'll want to have a closing ceremonies and hand out the awards.  You can create medals for everyone who participated or hand out special awards for those people whose "performance" really stood out.  Mostly meaning those people who were so fun to watch and had everyone cracking up.  Need a printable for medals?  Well make sure to come back on Wednesday when I'll have a whole host of Olympic themed printables!

At our family reunion each family was given a little wooden plaque that had our picture on it, the year, and a very brief description of the reunion to keep as a souvenir.  It still sits on my parent's bookshelf in their office.

Using some of these ideas you can easily put together your own activity worthy of a gold medal!