Lyudmila Strutinskaya-Fedorova, a mathematics teacher at Gymnasium No. 5 in Sochi, Elena Barkova and Arina Barkova, English Language teachers at High School No. 72 in Krasnodar, and Natalya Afanasjeva, head of physical education at the Zheleznogorsk children's home were presented with certificates by President and chief executive of Sochi 2014, Dmitry Chernyshenko.

The contest is the first event in the comprehensive programme for the preparation and certification of primary and secondary school teachers, which is a part of the Sochi 2014 Olympic Education System.

Some 34 teachers from 10 Russian cities were nominated.

The competition included the invitation to develop an extra-curricular Olympic lesson on the "Values of the Olympic and Paralympic Games" - the first of four lessons planned for the 2010-2011 academic year.

These lessons will give pupils a systematic introduction to the key aspects of the Olympic and Paralympic movements, including the process of preparing for the Games and the special features and overall purpose of the Sochi 2014 Games.

The winners were chosen on the basis of their innovative approaches to the generation of the content for the Olympic lessons and their development of new methodologies.

"Today's pupils will live in a new Russia, a country which is going to host a range of major international sporting events," said Chernyshenko.

"We are pleased that thanks to our enthusiastic teachers we are already shaping active leaders in our Olympic Education System who will be capable of addressing the challenges of involving the younger generation in the Olympic movement."