27 Jun 2022 – The Worldwide Olympic Partners joined athletes, Olympians and people around the world by celebrating this year’s Olympic Day, showing their united support for a more peaceful world.

Celebrated annually on 23 June since 1948, Olympic Day provides a moment for everyone to gather and get active with purpose. This year, as the world continues seeking togetherness, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Olympic Movement aimed to highlight the power that sport has to bring people together in peace. As part of this, people around the world were encouraged to move together for peace through a range of local and digital activities. Among those joining the celebrations and inspiring people to get active were the Worldwide Olympic Partners.

The Alibaba Group marked the occasion by hosting a week of sports-related activities for its employees in Hangzhou, Paris, and other cities in China and Europe. This included a vertical marathon team challenge that saw many Alibaba staff climb stairs instead of taking elevators between 15 and 23 June. At the group’s headquarters in Hangzhou, in southern China, more than 100 employees also participated in a 45-minute dance session on a vibrating dance floor in honour of Olympic Day.

To raise awareness about the benefits of exercise and sport, the company also invited Olympic handballer Amandine Leynaud and Paris 2024 ambassador B-Boy Lagaet to speak to employees at its Paris office about mental, as well as physical, health.

Worldwide Insurance Partner Allianz also celebrated Olympic Day with a wide range of activities. These included lunchbreak workouts and after-work running sessions, as well as a panel discussion with some of the company’s athlete employees, which was streamed online for staff around the world.

In addition, Allianz chose Olympic Day to launch its new MoveNow programme, which aims to support and inspire 240,000 young people to get active. The campaign follows research that reveals young people’s sports activities have decreased since the COVID-19 pandemic, and will feature 24 different initiatives in the lead-up to the Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024, including youth camps, sports activities and digital events.

Deloitte also marked its first Olympic Day as a Worldwide Olympic Partner by hosting two special webinars on mental health and creating a better future through sport.

The ‘Harnessing athletic resilience for better mental health’ session featured a conversation with three Olympians – who are also all Deloitte employees – as they talked about mental health and resiliency in sport. Swimmer Gordon Kozulj (CRO), rower Carmen Wearne (AUS) and gymnast Rebecca Wing (GBR) each shared some of their own experiences with stress and adversity, and some of the strategies they’ve developed to help them take care of their mental wellbeing.

The ‘Creating better futures through the intersection of sport and purpose’ webinar, meanwhile, featured the insights of more Deloitte employees who have competed at the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The session saw para-cyclist Pieter du Preez (RSA), hockey player Lisa Walton (NZL) and swimmer David Larson discuss the power of sport to impact athlete transition, wellbeing, and diversity, equity, and inclusion, and featured their unique perspectives, shaped over years in both elite sport and professional services.

The idea of celebrating an Olympic Day was adopted at the 42nd IOC Session in St Moritz, in January 1948. The chosen date celebrates the founding of the IOC at the Sorbonne, Paris, on 23 June 1894, where Pierre de Coubertin revived the Olympic Games.

The first Olympic Day was celebrated that same year on 23 June 1948 and, 30 years later, in the 1978 edition of the Olympic Charter, the IOC recommended that all NOCs organise an Olympic Day to promote the Olympic Movement.