International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge said on Sunday education remained at the heart of the Olympic movement with millions of Chinese youngsters now being introduced to its values.
Rogge, who was opening the World Forum on Sport Education and Culture in the host city of the 2008 Games, said the IOC had a duty to educate the world's youth on matters such as doping and even some not directly related to sport such as HIV prevention.
"The goal of the Olympic movement is to contribute to building a peaceful and better world by educating youth through sport practised in the spirit of Olympism," he told delegates to the three-day forum in the Chinese capital.
"I am particularly pleased that this effort is being continued right now in China and that millions of young Chinese ...are being introduced to the strength and power of the Olympic values such as friendship, excellence and respect."
China returned to the Summer Games in 1984 after 32 years outside the Olympic fold and Beijing organisers have invested heavily in education programmes to spread the spirit of the movement to the youth of the world's most populous country.
Beijing Organising Committee (BOCOG) chief Liu Qi said the exposure of China to the rest of the world in 2008 would be an education in itself.
"Through the staging of the Olympic Games, we are willing to further reinforce the exchange with international friends and accelerate the development of China and Beijing to leave a precious legacy to China and world sports," he said.
YOUNG PEOPLE:
Rogge said sport and the Olympics faced a battle for the attention of young people.
"We have to concentrate on this group who are today attracted by many other leisure activities such as music, video games, the internet and movies," he said.
"We have to maintain serious efforts to maintain their interest in sport and physical activities."
He said warning athletes about the danger to their health caused by doping was a key element to the Olympic movement's education task.
"Scientists and doctors who contribute to unethical behaviour through the misuse of drugs must be stigmatised," he added. "That can be considered another form of education."
The Belgian, who made his comments at the start of a week in which the International Olympic Committee (IOC) co-ordination commission will inspect Beijing's preparations for 2008, said he had high hopes for the next Summer Games.
"In conjunction with BOCOG, the IOC intend to make the Beijing Olympics a festival of harmony and peace, education and culture and above all of sporting perfection."
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