As the blare of the Olympic theme played in the background, athletes from 24 countries, led by the traditional first country of Greece, filed into the gym at Covington Elementary School.

More than a month after the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, second-graders took up the torch and competed in the IV Covington Elementary Olympiad, led by second-grade teacher Stephanie Bennett.

The end of a month-long study about the event, students selected countries and studied their country’s customs, language, money, food, culture and geography and made a flag in order to represent their country in the Olympic games, said Bennett.

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Cole Chitwood’s mother, Ashley, said students learned teamwork and sportsmanship.

“They learned that the Olympics bring athletes of countries together to compete, even though those countries may not get along with each other,” she said.

She said the studies continued at home with family Olympic night as homework. Four events were scheduled for that night, including how many breaths it takes to blow a pencil across the room and then blow a penny across the same distance; how many pennies could be stacked on a pencil; and how many coins could be dropped in a bucket.

Each family then had to come up with a fifth competition. The Chitwoods chose to see how long each family member could stand on one foot. Her whole family, including husband Clayton, kindergartener Caden, first-grader Corbin and Cole, competed.

Anna Jenkins, Peyton Jenkins’ mom, said their fifth sport was putting a penny on your thumb and flipping it. Devon Monte, Gregory Schwaner’s mother, said her family decided to see how far they could jump and how far they could stretch.

Diane Smith, grandmother of Brinn McDonald, cheered her granddaughter and McDonald’s friends by waving computer-made flags with the athletes’ names on them.

The second-grade competitors showed off their skills in six events — bean bag toss, sit-ups, broad jump, basketball, jump ropes and the shuttle run. Athletes competed as a team in each event, and the big medal winner of the day was Italy, with three medals total. No individual medals were given.

The competitors wore shirts with the Olympic five entwined rings, painted by moms. The students made the flags for the opening ceremonies. As an afternoon snack after the games and lunch, the students were bringing food from their countries, such as grapes, juice and bread.