Now the dust has settled and the Rio 2016 Olympics are over, it’s good to look back and to reflect on what Passion for Sport achieved during this incredible sporting event.
Our aim was to provide high quality audio content for our two radio programmes, Planet Sport and Planet Sport Football Africa, share that with our radio station partners around the world and to continue building our online audiences of our websites and social media pages.
We felt it was vitally important to attend this event and report back first-hand what it is like to be in the host city for the Olympic Games. The atmosphere is amazing and we wanted to bring a sense of that to our Planet Sport and Planet Sport Football Africa listeners. Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms allow us to bring another dimension to this by using video and interactive comments fed back by those who follow us and get involved.
We interviewed Christian athletes and they told their stories to our listeners demonstrating that the Christian life is real and relevant to people in what is a tough environment to maintain your faith and Christian witness. The Australian swimmer Dan Smith (right) is one example of an athlete who despite his battle with drug addiction and crime has overcome his demons to perform at the Olympics. You can hear the full story here.
With our relatively small team of five media professionals and limited budget we are very happy with the amount we achieved and as technology continues to improve it allows us to do more with less equipment and technical resources. Mobile smart phones and city wide internet access meant we could have stories and pictures on the internet as soon as they were produced.
Feedback from our radio station partners and directly from listeners has been positive and encouraging and our hope is that we can build on that and to continue to grow on the success of our Destination Rio project.
107.8 Life FM, Adelaide, Australia: “Congrats on a great event and we really appreciated the coverage you could provide to us. We really used it as a means of “these are the stories you won’t hear on mainstream media” utilizing the testimonies, outreach stories etc. It really helped bring another perspective of the games whilst still providing the atmosphere of Rio.” Scott Curtis, Content Director
Premier Christian Radio, UK: “I’d say your content - in terms of how we’ve been able to use it – has been the best yet. I thought the interviews/testimonies were really strong and we were able to spread these across the different shows on PCR (my highlight was our breakfast team getting a bit too excited about the 1500m just because they’d played out the Asbel Kiprop interview out earlier in the day!) Marcus Jones, Group Head of News
89.9 Light FM, Melbourne, Australia: “We used the Dan Smith interview and it was simply excellent! I didn't edit out anything - used it in its entirety! It was info rich enough on the sport - but not so much that listeners who aren't complete sports geeks would get bored. Plus it was info rich on Daniel's story - perfect for our station and listeners. Thanks once again to you and your team - it meant that the message of hope was broadcast in a relevant and engaging way." Clayton Bjelan, Content Director
Cape Pulpit 729 AM, Western Cape, South Africa: “The service you provided was impeccable! We are all extremely grateful to have been able to broadcast that fantastic and current content to our listeners. Those very powerful stories have and will do wonders in the lives and souls of our listeners and absolutely glorify the Father.” Gavin Cook, presenter