Keywords:
sport, Human Rights, Olympism, Pierre de CoubertinAbstract
The Olympic and Paralympic Games naturally raise high expectations about human rights due to their humanistic claims for promoting the common good through sport. The founder of the modern Olympics, Pierre de Coubertin, has often referred to the new tendencies of cosmopolitanism and internationalism. Some organizations of the 19th and 20th C, the so-called “idealistic internationalism”, used sport as a central vehicle for their “civilising mission”, including Olympic Movement. And it was in this time that Coubertin announced his idea of reviving the Olympic Games, as means of resolving international confrontations and maintaining world peace. But at the same time his Olympism has been seen as exclusionary, elitist and racist. ‘Olympic sport’ is predominantly associated with western cultural forms in the form of western codifications. Despite the ideology of ‘fair play’ and the promise of interculturalism, the way to full inclusion and the recognition of human rights in the Olympics has been uneven. Racial categorisations and discriminations, sharing characteristics with Social Darwinism, were part of the operationalised Olympism of the early century, despite ideals of racial equality and fraternity. Throughout history sport has always been a challenging discourse for the realisation of human rights. The positive side is that sport governing bodies such as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) facilitate the promotion of peace, solidarity and fraternity among the participant nations. However, an evangelical stance that sport is a cure-all in society, however, should be avoided.
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