Sport can be a bridge builder in a world full of geopolitical crises. Religious, ethnic and intercultural barriers are being broken down.04/06/2024 | 43:23 minutes
Sport is about rivalry. About being better than the other, about beating your opponent. And yet it is said that sport brings people together. He builds bridges and brings people together, no matter where they come from, what they believe in, what skin color they are.
That sounds paradoxical. Especially right now. The Olympic Games in Paris are approaching. At the same time, we are shocked by wars, hatred and agitation.
The pursuit of victory unites athletes
“In competition, you do your very best to beat your neighbor,” says sports sociologist and philosopher Gunter Gebauer. “But that’s not directed against your neighbor, but rather toward the goal. And you have the goal in common.”
It says: win. This pursuit of the same goal can unite competitive athletes, explains Gebauer.
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Respectful treatment despite war – is that possible?
Jews and Arabs will compete against each other in Paris. And most likely Ukrainians and Russians too. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) wants to allow Russian athletes to take part in the games as neutral athletes – if they do not support their home country’s war against Ukraine in any way.
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Sporty togetherness at Makkabi Germany
In Germany, the Jewish sports association Makkabi and its president Alon Meyer are showing how it can be done. Jews and Muslims and people of other religions play sports together here without any worries.
The power of sport is great, says Meyer:
I believe that it can be used positively from the amateur level to the professional level.
Alon Meyer, President of the Jewish Sports Association Makkabi Germany
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Everyday life at the Olympics is hardly possible
According to the Ukrainian sports minister, over 400 athletes and coaches have lost their lives in the current war with Russia. Countless training facilities for top Ukrainian athletes were destroyed. And now Ukrainians and Russians should have a sporting competition against each other in Paris, should they meet and get along in everyday Olympic life?
Gebauer sees this critically: “If the other person is now a representative of a hostile system, then sport is no longer a bridge builder. Then sport becomes an opportunity to carry out hostilities. Then it becomes a very dangerous matter.”
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by Michaela Waldow and Benno Krieger
Graphics
Peaceful sports away from the high-performance area
Sport as an expression of system competition is a long-standing phenomenon in the high-performance sector; the Olympic boycotts in Moscow in 1980 and Los Angeles in 1984 are particularly reminiscent of this. Far away from the world sporting stage, it seems easier to use the unifying power of sport.
At club level there are always dedicated coaches, trainers and organizers who bring people together who think a lot about each other but often have little to do with each other. People play sports together, regardless of politics, religion and nationality.
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Children rarely express concerns
This apparently works very well, especially in the youth sector, according to dedicated trainers and officials like Alon Meyer. Resentments are expressed by adults, if at all; children and young people almost never express concerns.
When a ball rolls, they run, even if the coach is a “black man” like Candido Mahoche, who immigrated from Mozambique to the GDR in 1980 and is now an integration officer at SC Freital near Dresden. He calls himself a “black man” and laughs a lot. You immediately believe that he can use the unifying power of sport.
IOC emphasizes the power of sport
It is doubtful that this will work just as well at the Olympics, even if the IOC emphasizes in a recent report: “Sport and the Olympic Games in Paris 2024 this summer can play a special and powerful role in keeping the world peaceful To unite competition and make societies more inclusive.”
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