Factsheet
| Country |  The Netherlands |
| Name of Academy | Dutch Olympic Committee*Dutch Sports Federation (NOC*NSF) Nederlands Olympisch Comité*Nederlandse Sport Federatie |
| bernard.hilgers@nocnsf.nl | |
| Website | https://nocnsf.nl/en |
| Name of President | N/A |
| Contact Person | Bernard HILGERS |
| Foundation date | N/A |
| Year of accession to EOA | 2020 |
| Social media links | N/A |
Meet our members – An interview series by the EOA
The NOA of the Netherlands, formally represented by NOC*NSF (Dutch Olympic Committee*Dutch Sports Federation), was one of four institutions to join the EOA in 2021. From the NOC*NSF, Sport Heritage Curator Bernard Hilgers joined the EOA for an online discussion in November 2021 to introduce his organisation and outline ongoing projects. Although the NOA only recently joined the EOA network, the NOC*NSF has actively promoted Olympic education for the past two decades and now hopes to develop the NOA by connecting with other NOAs in Europe.
As explained to the EOA by Bernard Hilgers, the NOA is operated as a department of the NOC*NSF and is managed by the Corporate Affairs team which is responsible for Olympic Education and Heritage. As such, the NOC*NSF is responsible for decision making on behalf of the NOA. One fulltime employee is responsible for the activities of the NOA and they are supported by an Education Officer and International Relations Officer as well as additional staff from the NOC*NSF.
Current projects are focused on children aged 4-12 and are delivered in primary schools. The NOC*NSF has an Olympic Education programme which schools can follow and booklets about each Olympic games are distributed to over 3500 schools with the aim of raising awareness of and engagement with the summer and winter games respectively. An additional project is the Olympic heritage pop-up museum curated by Bernard Hilgers himself. The collection, which includes images and memorabilia from previous Olympic games, was previously exhibited in Rotterdam and can now be transported to different venues.
Looking to the future, a key priority for the NOC*NSF is the development and formalisation of an initiative where Olympians make visits to schools. This will include the provision of comprehensive training to Olympians involved with the programme to enable them to deliver impactful sessions in a more professional manner to schoolchildren. They also hope that this introduction text will lead to contact with other NOAs who would be interested in networking and collaboration.
Projects of the Academy
The Dutch Olympic Academy consists of three main parts: education, museum related activities, Olympism.
The education program
NOC*NSF began with the development of an Olympic Educational Programme almost 20 years ago. Nowadays a platform has been developed to distribute information and promote the principles and values of Olympism on the internet platform ‘TeamNL in the classroom’ (https://teamnl.org/indeklas). The aim of our Olympic Education Platform: To Inspire, To Inform, To create enthusiasm, To participate in sports. Reflecting in the context of the olympic values Excellence, Respect and Friendship.
In a Olympic Year the online platform generates almost half million visitors. During 2016 the Olympic Lessons, available on the platform, has been used by 3.500 schools in Netherlands. Totalling almost half of Netherlands primary schools population in the Netherlands.
Olympic Museum activities
Although we do not have a Dutch Olympic Museum we organise exhibitions and in 2020 we started experimenting with an Olympic Pop-up Museum which you can in the background. A portable museum that can be added to an existing sport or other event where the Olympic Games and Olympism has important value. Besides that. We also have a dream to develop an Digital Virtual Dutch Olympic Museum in the future.
Olympism
Third important item of the Dutch academy is active spreading Olympism. Our main group ambassadors which are committed to this task are our Olympians who have attended the Olympic Games in the past. They visit schools and also attend other events in which special attention is given to Olympism and the values excellence, respect and friendship. Also we have experimented with Olympism Masterclasses and specially are interested in training our Olympians to be more capable and committed to spread Olympism and reach out.
