Tom Hay - Office Olympics

INTRODUCTION

Step up to the mark, office athletes your time to shine has finally come; your place of work just won the bid for the first Office Olympics and the competition starts right here, right now.

Whether youre a runner, a jumper, a swimmer, a gymnast, a horseback rider or a damn fine spectator, theres something in here to get your heart pumping. Test your throwing arm and get caffeinated in Java-lin; feel wet, wild and oh-so-minty in Water Polos or turn the conference room into a place where something fun happens for a change with Blu-tackle Hockey.

Office Olympics is the ideal way to inject a bit of healthy competition and bags of energy into your office without having to sacrifice those late-night curries, and you get to experience the spectacle without wearing running shorts, getting sweaty or spraining your ankle in an unfortunate hurdling heat.

Now, stride out into the stadium (show up to work), fire up the Olympic torch (turn the lights on) and let the games commence

NB: The Office Olympics Committee holds no
responsibility for any injuries, accidents or disciplinary action
that may result directly or indirectly from participating in
these events. All players take part at their own risk and should
try to avoid breaking any bones or office furniture.

OPENING CEREMONIES

No Olympics would be complete without some grand show-stopping drama to kick things off. Get your muscle-pumping proceedings going with these ceremonious starters.

Welcome to Work

Two or more players required (the more the merrier!)

Apparatus:

• A5 paper (1 sheet per player)
• Colouring pens
• Dice
• Pencils (1 per player)
• Sticky tape
• Whistles (1 per player)

Warm-up:

Make a flag to show your support. Draw and colour your own creative flag design on a piece of paper. Alternatively, use the photocopier to enlarge one of the stock designs (see overleaf) and colour it in yourself. Using sticky tape, fix a pencil onto one side of the paper to make a flag.

How to Play:

Consider your office door as the entrance tunnel to the stadium. Each time someone walks through it its up to players to welcome them to the Olympics in the proper manner. First, decide the order in which players will perform their greeting; then decide the type of greeting players will perform and the points they will earn by asking them each to roll the dice (see scoring list below). Players must then perform their assigned greeting for the next person who enters the room. If they choose to forfeit they win no points for that round.

Scoring:

If you roll:

1 Wave your flag (score 1 point)

2 Clap enthusiastically (score 2 points)

3 Make a whooping sound (score 3 points)

4 Shout, Team [your team name]! repeatedly (score 4 points)

5 Blow whistle and clap furiously (score 5 points)

6 Sing the British national anthem and wave your flag (score 6 points)

Go for Gold:

Want to take things to the next level? Select a member of
the office whos not playing (perhaps the boss) and whenever
they walk in the room, no matter whose turn it is, every player
must perform their last greeting in unison!

Torch It

An even number of players (four or more)

Apparatus:

• Torches (1 per player)
• Washing-up bowl

Warm-up:

Every player will need a torch, so get everyone to bring them in from home (mobile phone lights and bike lights could also work). The washing-up bowl is your offices Olympic cauldron, so position it high up on a shelf or filing cabinet at one end of the room. One person will need to sit out of the game and be in charge of the lights. Divide the office into two equal-sized teams, ensuring as much as possible that teams are an equal distance away from the bowl.

How to Play:

At any point during the day the person in charge of the lights can flip the light switch in the office, plunging all the players into (relative) darkness. As soon as this happens all the players must grab their torches and turn them on. The player from each team who is sitting furthest from the cauldron must run with their torch and put it in the bowl. When theyve returned to their seat the next furthest player does the same, and so on until all team members have put their torches in the cauldron. Whichever team deposits all their torches the fastest is the winner.

Going for Gold:

If you lose to the other team, dont give up so easily. Make
the event a best of three or best of five competition so
youll have a chance to win your pride back.