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Great Reading Games vs. Winter Olympics

Categories: Activities, Education & Teaching

January 16, 2018 by Jenny Falke

Learning Ally's Great Reading Games will end just before the 2018 Winter Olympics. Olympians and audiobook readers alike will go after the gold over the next two months and we've taken inventory of all the interesting facts and details. How does Learning Ally’s Great Reading Games, where schools read to succeed, compare to the 2018 Winter Olympics?

	Olympics	Great Reading Games
Place	PyeongChang, South Korea	All over the United States
Dates	February 9-25, 2018	January 8th – February 23rd , 2018
Awards	A record 102 medals will be awarded in 15 disciplines.	300 welcome kits were mailed out containing thousands of individual motivation trinkets for students. 13 schools will receive gift cards, headphones, Chromebooks, prize packs and more. 10 students will receive top honors and prizes. Certificates are available for EVERY student competing in the games.
Participation	A total of 89 teams have qualified at least one athlete so far. An expected 2900+ athletes will be competing.	School Goal: 1500 schools participating Student Goal: 20,000 students reading Pages Read Goal: 6,000,000
Fact 1: Interesting Rule	The NHL announces no break in the 2017-2018 schedule for participation in the PyeongChang Games. Players part of NHL teams will not be allowed to participate in the games.	ALL students in a school membership that qualify for Learning Ally can participate in the games.
Fact 2: The Beginning	October 31st, 2017 - The flame arrives in the Republic of Korea, 100 days before the Games are scheduled to begin.	November 16th, 2017 - Early sign up begins.
Fact 3: Awards	The Olympics is in the business of giving awards.	The Great Reading Games is not only in the business of giving awards but the games have been recognized for an innovation in reading honor as well.
Fact 4: Participants	From 1912-1948, artists participated in the Olympics: Painters, sculptors, architects, writers, and musicians competed for medals in their respective fields.	Watch this video to see the aspiring painters, sculptors, architects, writers, musicians, athletes, actors, engineers, educators, service professionals and MORE that will be able to compete in life because of access to learning.
Fact 5: Celebrities	The following celebrities have competed in the Olympics: Dolph Lundgren (breakout role in Rocky IV), Hillary Wolf (sister in Home Alone), Bob Anderson (stuntman for Star Wars), Jason Statham, Geena Davis, Johnny Weissmuller (original Tarzan).	The following authors/celebrities have supported the Great Reading Games: Jeff Kinney (Diary of a Wimpy Kid), Lauren Tarshis (I Survived), Robert Beatty (Serafina), Malcolm Mitchell (SuperBowl Champion).

Download a printable PDF of the GRG18 and 2018 Olympics comparison. Cheer on the readers with #GRG18 on Twitter and Instagram.

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