Let the Games Begin!
Recognizing human dignity through sport
Yes, exercising is healthy, and we should probably all do more of it. But did you know that sport also plays a major role in peacebuilding and human rights protection? Today is the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace, so let’s get moving and see what good a bit of exercise can do to the world.
In the early 1970, journalists across Japan filled the newspapers with images and reports of something very unusual: two table tennis players exiting a bus together – one Chinese, one American. What’s so special about two guys getting off a bus together? Well, after roughly 20 years of no diplomatic nor economic relations between the US and China, this encounter happened to be the trigger for a complete policy shift in both countries. On that morning of the World Table Tennis Championships, the US team member Glenn Cowan had missed his team’s bus to the stadium and ended up on the Chinese team’s bus, where team captain Zhuang Zedong started a conversation with him. Two days later, the US team was invited to travel to China to have a few friendly matches between the two teams, which was later coined ping-pong diplomacy. This exchange helped people in both countries recognize each other’s nationals as equals, rather than as enemies. It eventually led to President Richard Nixon’s famous visit to Beijing in 1972 after which both countries committed to improving their relationship after decades of hostilities.
The UN has long recognized the important role sport can play in advancing international development and peace. Today is a reminder of how it can contribute to connecting people(s) and foster inclusion with its universal language that knows no cultural nor social boundaries. Since 1896, athletes from around the world came together for the Olympic Games – an intercultural spectacle that is observed in basically every country. Throughout its history, the Olympic Games were also a platform for political statements by the international community, with two pominent examples being the 1948 exclusion of post-war Germany and Japan and the 1980 US-led boycott of the Olympics in Moscow after the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan.
However, recent events like the ban of a Ukrainian athlete from the Winter Olympics and the discrimination of trans women in athletic competitions have cast a shadow on the world of sports. Vladyslav Heraskevych was disqualified for wearing a helmet that depicted Ukrainian athletes who had been killed since Russia’s invasion and raised the question of what political statements can be accepted during an “apolitical” sportive event. With the intense focus on trans women athletes in recent debates, the attacks on trans athletes (who make up about 0.001% of recent Olympians) create hostilities against a tiny minority of people who are often facing discrimination outside sports already. On top of that, even cis women are now being targeted by false allegations of being trans for their outstanding performances. Some had to undergo invasive medical examinations and there are numerous examples of women who were banned from competing because of their naturally occurring testosterone levels, turning this kind of discrimination into a threat for any female athlete who is biologically different from an idealized norm.
Sport has the power of connecting people and overcoming natural and artificial barriers. Sport is more than physical activity but a testament to the fundamental human goal of being better than who we are – something better than what we think is possible. This aspiration is fundamentally human. Instead of seeing each other based on our race, nationality, or political alliances, sport lets us see each other for the humans we are.