Oliver Percovich

GBR

Role

Founder & Executive Director

Organization

Skateistan

Oliver Percovich is the founder and executive director of Skateistan, a grassroots “Sport for Development” project, which focuses on empowering children and young people through skateboarding and education.

Percovich started skating in an empty pool at the age of six while growing up in Papua New Guinea. In 2007, he moved to Afghanistan from Australia when his then-girlfriend took a job in Kabul. Bored, he would skate in the city, and kids working on the streets would follow him around asking to try. Percovich began giving skateboarding lessons to local kids, and in 2008, he founded Skateistan on the streets of Kabul.

Today, Skateistan is an award-winning international organisation with Skate Schools and programmes running in Afghanistan, Cambodia and South Africa. The organisation is the first international development initiative to combine skateboarding with educational outcomes.

Skateistan’s programmes are for children aged 5 to 17 with a focus on girls and children from low-income backgrounds. Through its innovative programmes — Outreach, Skate and Create, Back-to-School and Youth Leadership — Skateistan aims to give young people the opportunity to become leaders for a better world.

The speakers

Using the unique power of sport to bring people together, the Olympism in Action Forum saw a range of global players, including Olympic Movement stakeholders, athletes, private and public sector leaders, NGO representatives, academics, artists and the media come together to talk on topical contemporary issues. Chosen because of their ability to effect change and their wide range of sometimes differing opinions, the speakers led lively debates and seeked to challenge received wisdom to inspire new ways of thinking.