THE OPENING ceremony of this year’s Saddleworth Village Olympics will be a prouder moment for one local man than most.
For this year will be Scott Chapman’s first as the organisation’s new chairman, as he takes over from Stephen Hewitt.
Mr Chapman worked as a PE teacher for several years before stepping down after an injury.
With his two children now taking part in the Olympics themselves, he began volunteering as a team manager in Diggle before later becoming a committee member for the Games.
Now he is its head, he understands how important the event can be.
“It will be good,” Scott told Saddleworth Independent of the opening ceremony. “But I’m a little bit nervous, obviously.
“I’ve had some experience coaching sport and organising sport, so I thought I’d offer up my help – and this is where I’ve ended up!
“I’ve always loved sport. I love getting my children involved as much as possible and doing lots of different things.
“Being a PE teacher is about getting people to participate. I know it’s a competition, but the most important thing is getting as many children as possible to participate in different sports and maybe picking it up and playing into adulthood.”
Now in its 41st year, the Village Olympics is expected to welcome more than a thousand young athletes across twenty different sporting events, aged between seven and 14-years-old.
The opening ceremony will kick off at Saddleworth School at 9am on Saturday, September 5, before touring through venues across the region for the following two weeks.
This year’s schedule will include a host of team and solo sports, including basketball; cricket; football; swimming; tug of war; and more.
For the first time, both the racketball and dodgeball events have expanded to include Year 7-8 and Year 9-10 categories respectively.
“Something as big as this is incredibly rare, isn’t it?” Scott added.
“It’s not just something we do over the summer when [the children] aren’t in school. It’s activities that people can take into adulthood and feel better for doing it.
“The schools have been fantastic. They let us use their facilities, and they make sure we get priority over September. There’s a real sense of community there.”
As Scott prepares to take over, current chairman Stephen now says his own career has been “brilliant”.
“It started backed in 1985, with some parents at the time who wanted to put sporting events on for children. Over the last 41 years, it’s grown to over 10 sports,” he said.
“I think it’s been a great success, not just because it’s been going for 41 years, but you look at some Olympians and sporting people like George Ford, who plays for England – he opened the ceremony last year, and he took part as a child.
“You’ve got a couple of swimmers who took part for Great Britain at London 2012, and most recently we’ve had Hannah Diamond, who plays for England in under-21s netball.
“They all started to do these sports at school, which has led them to go on to great success.”
While this year’s special guest has yet to be revealed, the pair are keen to emphasise that this year is hoped to be their biggest yet – especially as they have reached their “maximum capacity” for local venues for the time being, according to Scott.
Despite its size, the Olympics has still remained entirely volunteer-led, and relies on community donations to stay afloat.
In partnership with fundraising charity SuperKind, the organising committee are now asking parents to make a recommended donation of £10, if they can afford to do so.
“These games don’t run themselves,” Stephen added. “It’s all down to the sponsors, all the businesses from Oldham and Saddleworth and all the parents and grandparents. It’s imperative that we keep [the Olympics] going.
“Of course, there is a cost-of-living crisis and the prices are constantly going up with what’s going on in the world – but we want to continue putting these games on so the children can get involved and continue to develop, whether recreationally or seriously.
“I hope this event continues to frow and become even bigger and better over the years, and I’ll still be around. It’s time to step back and let other people have a go.”
Registration is now officially open for this year’s Village Olympics. Children who have taken part before will need to be re-registered, along with the sports they plan to take part in.
Registration details and further information about the Games is available here.
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