Oregon22 Offers Students, Educators Unique Ways to Connect with Historic World Athletics Championships — Sport Oregon Voices

Sport Oregon Voices: Youth-engagement program Making Tracks offers free teaching resources for students to engage with World Athletics Championships Oregon22 coming to Oregon in July

As the start of the World Athletics Championships (WCH) Oregon22 nears the 100-day countdown, there’s a flurry of activity, and a variety of special programs taking shape.

As Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon readies to host the world in July, organizers are inviting youth from Oregon and beyond a unique way to connect with the once-in-a-generation event that will welcome more than 200 countries and 2,000 athletes to the state. The youth-engagement program, Making Tracks, allows K-12 students the opportunity to celebrate cultural diversity, global unity and the sheer excitement of the world coming to Oregon for the World Athletics Championships – the most prestigious global competition for the sport of track and field.

July’s World Athletics Championships in Eugene are truly a history-making event, marking the first time it has been held in the United States, let alone the state of Oregon. To help celebrate this unique occasion, Making Tracks is offering a convenient collection of free resources, activities and lesson plans for educators, youth program leaders, parents and caregivers that are designed to help give everyone the opportunity to connect with the event.

The heart of the Making Tracks program is a user-friendly digital activity library that offers a host of free resources for educators and program leaders, focusing on expanding beyond the sporting component of the track-and-field competition to make activities accessible and special for those who may not follow the sport yet. Making Tracks has taken a broader-lens approach to engaging youth with the World Athletics Championships, teaching what it means to host such a global event and the way in which it celebrates diversity, active and healthy lifestyles, and the unifying effect of having so many countries and cultures coming together with shared interests and goals.

“Within the digital activity library, we’ve curated a collection of content that’s really meant to be a point of inspiration for anyone, particularly in the state of Oregon, to get excited about the fact that we’re welcoming the world for this event,” said Alex Rudd, the youth program and community engagement general manager for WCH Oregon22.

The lesson plans and activities are broken up into a number of categories designed for a well-rounded and expansive learning experience. Included among those subjects are mathematics, science, social studies, language arts, visual and media arts, performing arts, physical education and sport exploration, and health and wellness. The curriculum is segmented by four different levels to cater to different age groups, providing content for kindergarten through second grade, third grade through fifth grade, sixth grade through eighth grade, and ninth grade and above. In the early planning stages, WCH Oregon22 organizers worked together with a task group of Oregon educators to plan and create the content. The a la carte offerings allow educators and program leaders the option to implement their own individual teaching frequency and choose how they’d like to integrate the resources into their lesson plans. Organizers are particularly interested in engaging as many Lane County youth as possible, with the event happening so near to them, in the epicenter for track and field in this country.

Under the Making Tracks youth-engagement program, event organizers recently kicked off a new World Wide Welcome initiative, which is aimed at getting youth up and moving as they connect with the World Athletics Championships coming to Eugene. The World Wide Welcome Youth Relay invites youth-based groups to participate in a one-mile leg of a virtual relay that will take place over the 100-day countdown to the event, beginning April 8 and concluding July 14. As part of the registration process, groups are able to select a date in which to complete their youth relay leg during the 100-day countdown.

Each participating group that signs up will be paired with one of the 200-plus nations and regions represented in the event, with their leg serving as a welcome celebration for their paired team taking part in the World Athletics Championships. Participating youth groups also are encouraged to create and send welcome-message content that will be passed on to their individual team. Preliminary registration for World Wide Welcome is open through March 25, and participating groups are able to select a one-week window in which to complete their one-mile leg. In addition, a community-based World Wide Welcome grand finale is planned for opening day of the event at Hayward Field on July 15.

In the early stages of planning, Sport Oregon played a pivotal role in the development of the overall youth-engagement program, helping to lay the foundation for Making Tracks and World Wide Welcome. Serving as community connectors, the team at Sport Oregon worked to curate the group of educators that developed the curriculum for Making Tracks, and Sport Oregon continues to support the World Athletics Championships through its marketing efforts.

According to Rudd, Phase 3 of WCH Oregon22’s youth-engagement activities are in the works, with plans to encourage area youth groups to attend the event and engage in-person as Oregon hosts the biggest track-and-field competition on the planet in 2022.

It’s not every day you have the opportunity to host an event of this scale, and Rudd and everyone at WCH Oregon22 are hoping to rally and connect as many people as possible around it, regardless of their existing relationship with the sport.

“It’s such an important moment for our state, as well as the Lane County community specifically, to be hosting athletes and people from over 200 nations,” Rudd said. “Our goal is to welcome as many people as possible to engage with this event at some touchpoint.”

For More Information on Making Tracks
For more information on the Making Tracks program, click here. Getting started with the digital activities library is free, convenient and simple.

To Register for World Wide Welcome
For groups interested in participating in the World Wide Welcome Youth Relay, preliminary registration is open through March 25 and is available by clicking here.

If You’re Going
If you’d like to attend the World Athletics Championships, which will be held at Hayward Field in Eugene from July 15-24, click here to purchase tickets.