“No other sport is quite like Football. It undoubtedly has the capacity to break down barriers more than any other sporting discipline. Between peoples, between nations and between communities. I experienced this during my playing career, first in Britain - my country...
We live in a violent world where, even though diplomacy plays its part, a pervasive element is omnipresent. Every day, news reporters tell us about the horror of conflicts erupting everywhere in the world. When you play sport, friendly confrontation replaces armed or...
Since 2007, when I created the 'Judo For Peace' commission within the International Judo Federation, our organization, alone or in association with other structures, has been carrying out many projects with the aim to build a lasting peace in conflict zones and to...
What a year! Less than four months have gone by since the PyeongChang Olympic Winter Games, but the world has already fixed its attention on another global sporting event. The Football World Cup in Russia gives sport another occasion to show its strength and its...
High degrees of vulnerability are deeply entrenched in Nepali society and, among the diverse groups facing daily discrimination and lack of opportunities, are those citizens of the country living with disabilities. Nevertheless, sport is today serving as a platform to...
I wasn't predestined to become a pole-vaulter. I could even have missed out on athletics altogether. I began playing sport very early in life, around 5 years old, and I started with gymnastics. I practiced it for 10 years until getting to Masters level. At 15, I was...
The PyeongChang Olympic Games provided a forceful and eloquent illustration: sport can succeed where politics fail. The sight of the two Koreas walking together in a procession transmitted a worldwide message of peace and harmony. In the passage of time, there will be...
I was born in Benin, Africa. It's a poor country, with sparse conditions for playing sport and even more limited training resources. That's how it was when I was young. And things have hardly changed since then. Despite all this sport was a dream for me - the hope of...
Major sporting events don’t only have winners and losers. They don’t only have the power to bring people together in stadiums or in front of their televisions. They inspire entire generations. And they do even more than this. Major sporting events can open the door to...
There’s a special image that will always make us think of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics: two athletes - a man and a woman - from the Korean delegation enter the stadium at the opening ceremony. One is from the South, the other from the North, both holding the...
Last friday, the entire world had its eyes turned towards Pyeongchang. Everyone watched the splendid pageant of the 2018 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony with excitement and emotion. During the delegations' procession, they saw 166 Korean athletes walking in step...
What is the priority of sport for peace in 2018? Should we focus on teaching, so that sport can create social change at schools and universities around the world? Should we promote sport for peace as a top priority for policy makers and governments? Should we...