An Olympic Adventure in Anime
A Quick Film Review
What's one great way to weave Japanese culture into Olympic education? Use anime!
Through The Olympic Channel's five-part series "Heroes" released earlier this month, viewers can quickly learn about a handful of figures from the ancient Olympic games. With each episode at about five minutes, it's a quick and fun way to help get into the Olympic spirit.
The heroes she comes across include Leonidas of Rhodes (winner of three foot races in four Olympiads), Milon of Croton (six-time wrestling champion), Kyniska of Sparta (credited as the first female champion), Ageas of Argos (who ran home immediately to celebrate his running victory), and Pherenike of Rhodes (a mother who trained her son to box and watched him compete live).
It's quick, it's charming, and it's a good introduction for children (and some adults!) to some of the prominent names of the ancient Games. My wish is that there were more, longer episodes. Luckily, more information on the ancient Olympic Games can be found on olympic.org/ancient-olympic-games.