Sports is an integral part of every community and every country you can think of, possessing immense potential to mold people’s minds and manifesting itself in myriad facets of talents and endowing the connoisseurs to bring the same to the forefront of the world. From times immemorial sport events in its varied forms have been acclaimed to bring the world powers together through an amalgamation of different cultures and the universal spirit to support their country’s unmatchable talents brought on a stage in front of millions of spectators.
As the International Olympic Committee asserts that the Olympics “have always brought people together in peace to respect universal moral principles. The Games feature athletes from all over the world and help promote the Olympic spirit”. According to the United World of Sports, a sporting organization aiming to make the world aware of the tremendous influence of world sport events on the nations, “World sporting events bring a myraid of cultures into one area to support their countries. Even though there is poverty and conflict in our world, everyone can come together through sports.”
Be it the Olympics or the World Cup, world sports events evoke motivational bliss in young aspirants, sends our adrenaline high to behold pivotal moments in the games while imbuing qualities like endurance teamwork, passion, inspiration, competition and passion among the sportsmen. However, despite the tall claims of idealization of mending fences and eclipsing cultural differences, can sports be extolled to such heights of glorification as rising above politics and motivating nations to tread the path of world peace and harmony?
With the Sochi Winter Olympics round the corner and the World Cup following it, the question of whether sports truly can vanquish politics and bring world powers to bond on a single platform comes to the forefront once again. Take the instance of Olympic Games which has proved its close association with politics time and again.
Whether it was the cancellation of as many as five Olympics due to the World Wars or the misuse of the games by various influential individuals and terrorist groups for promotional purposes the Olympics have always been a butt of politics. Looking at the other aspect of sports, too much competition among nations and different teams often lead to feelings of rivalry and consequent conflicts.
However, in spite of such political relations sports give the opportunity to vent out one’s feelings of moderate and extreme nationalism on the sports platform rather than raising weapons on the battlefield. Hence although sports may not have the power to bring in peace and invoke feelings of brotherhood among all the nations overnight, it definitely has the potential to heal wounds and resolve international issues.