Why, or why, keened Kirsty Coventry, the president of the International Olympic Committee earlier this week, can’t we just give peace a chance?
You expected she was cursing herself for not having John Lennon playing in the background during her pre-Winter Games address that focused on Russia, ICE, the Epstein files and the “rupture” of the “rules-based international order”.
“Imagine all the people,” Coventry might have whispered to herself in the mirror in Milan-Cortina as she psyched herself up, “living life in peace”, perhaps backed with People are People by Depeche Mode: “People are people, so why should it be that you and I should get along so awfully?”
The Olympics must “remain a place of inspiration where the athletes of the world can come together and showcase the best of our humanity”, said Coventry. “We understand politics, and we know we don’t operate in a vacuum. But our game is sport. That means keeping sport a neutral ground. A place where every athlete can compete freely, without being held back by the politics or divisions of their governments.”
Can sport and the Olympics really bring about peace and change? Yes and no, depending on what you regard as lasting peace and true transformation. Are the Olympics little more than a football match between German, French and British troops on the Western Front at Christmas time? Peace, as those soldiers found out, is fleeting.
‘World’s universal language’
In 2013, Vuk Jeremić, the president of the UN General Assembly, announced a resolution had been passed to make April 6 the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace. In a speech that quoted Madiba and Tennyson’s Ulysses, Jeremić was full of the rhetoric that makes these announcements and resolutions seem so grand:
“Sport can be a powerful handmaiden [an unfortunate metaphor given the trampling of women’s rights around the world] for peace and reconciliation. It can bring us closer through shared celebration of achievements of universal appeal and attraction… In effortlessly throwing asunder all human barriers, sport is indeed the world’s universal language.”
The ability of sport to enact change comes at the grassroots level in the building of confidence, teaching of skills and greater awareness of a common goal. Sport’s true power in transformation is in baby steps that will, hopefully, grow. Peace, hate, racism and gender inequality are learnt early in life, but those baby steps are eventually covered in the dust of the power-hungry — the world’s universal language is interpreted and twisted to suit agendas.
For instance, the Board of Control for Cricket in India has the International Cricket Council on a short leash, as Bangladesh and now Pakistan are finding out ahead of the T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka. India and Pakistan players refused to shake hands during matches; Pakistan are boycotting their game in India after Bangladesh were hooked from the tournament; India refused to play in Pakistan in the 2025 Champions Trophy; and a Bangladesh player was kicked out of the IPL.
Coventry intimated Russia, who have been sent to, ahem, Coventry, might be allowed back at the Los Angeles Summer Games in 2028. Gianni Infantino wants Russia’s ban by Uefa to be lifted. On Wednesday, Italy’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, said his country had “foiled a series of cyberattacks on foreign ministry offices… and also some Winter Olympics sites, including hotels in Cortina” that were “of Russian origin”.
People are people
Ukrainian athletes in Milan-Cortina have been warned about making anti-Russia protests in a war that now has 2-million casualties. On February 14 Denmark and the US face each other in ice hockey, which has a Greenland bite to it. Peace in a time of war and aggression.
Andrew Fidel Fernando, a Sri Lankan cricket writer, had a prayer for the T20 World Cup this week: “That it will be better this time is not so much a hope, but a prayer. A plea. Because after the party ends, and the lights switch off, our love for cricket should stay undimmed.
“We cannot have our sport becoming a corrosive influence on our societies in South Asia. Because at the end of all of this, when the confetti has been cleared up and the guests have headed home, billions of us still need to live here.”
People are people, so why should it be that you and I should get along so awfully, president Coventry? Because, sadly, people are people.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.