The project has already been billed as benefiting around one million schoolchildren after being pioneered in Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais, as well as capital city Brasília, but it is now hoped to benefit as many as seven times that number. 

Organised jointly by Rio 2016 and the Ministry of Education, the platform will offer courses and training for teaching professionals in Portuguese, English and Spanish.

This will help educate Olympic values in young people, it is hoped, but the primary benefit will be a sporting one, allowing youngsters to take up new sports and learn more about how to live a healthy lifestyle.

As well as hockey and golf, this has included the Paralympic sport of goalball being included on the Brazilian education system for the first time.

“The kids were resistant at the start, thinking that I wanted to stop football, but I explained that I only wanted to introduce new sports,” said Lucia Helena da Silva, head of the Lieutenant General Napion Municipal School.

“Luckily I have a group of teachers who showed a lot of interest and today we have badminton, rugby, shot put and five-a-side football for the visually impaired in school.

“And during the Games, when the kids and teachers are watching the sports, they will understand them and their rules, and be able to say they have already played them.

"The kids enjoy it so much that they have even stopped insisting on football all the time.”

In order to get some first-hand experience of what is to come, around 200 participants from seven schools in the host city also enjoyed a visit to the Volleyball World League Finals staged at the Maracanãzinho Olympic venue last month.

“We are using the biggest sporting event in the world to construct an educational legacy,” added Rio 2016 education manager Vanderson Berbat.

“And during the Games, when the kids and teachers are watching the sports, they will understand them and their rules, and be able to say they have already played them.”

Da Silva added: “When we chose the ‘young agents’ to lead the initiative, we did not only choose positive leaders, but also negative ones.

“Over time, the positive leadership exercised influence over the negative and values such as respect and friendship became more valued."

Registration for the project as it increases its scale can be done via the Rio 2016 Education Programme website here.

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