Co-funded by the European Union and ran by the HOC, the "Kids Love Sports" programme aims to provide an opportunity for 4,000 children to visit the historic venue in the Greek capital within the next two years.

The HOC says children will learn about the history of the Panathenaic Stadium, courtesy of an organised audio tour, and practice sports under the guidance of athletes.

The arena hosted the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the first modern Olympics in 1896 and staged four of the nine sports.

HOC President Spyros Capralos, an International Olympic Committee member, said sports had proven to be one of the most powerful tools to promote effective integration and social inclusion.

He also hailed the IOC’s support of refugees and referred to the participation of a Refugee Olympic Team at Tokyo 2020.

"Ι would like to point out that the International Olympic Committee has been doing a lot of work on this front. In 2017, IOC has launched the Olympic Refugee Foundation in its commitment to support refugees around the world," said Capralos.

"In 60 days from now, a Refugee Olympic Team will participate for the second time, following the success of Rio 2016, at the Olympic Games of Tokyo.

"We do hope that some of the children participating in our programme will become, one day, great athletes and might be among the future Olympians."

Georgia Papathanasiou, programme manager for the Kids Love Sports initiative, thanked the representatives of the Greek Ministry of Migration and Asylum for their cooperation with the HOC.