Organizing international sporting events
- Holding world athletic games
Description
Providing an opportunity and structure on an international level, for individuals and teams to fulfil their desire to compete equally and demonstrate excellence in a wide variety of athletic endeavours.
Context
Athletic competitions are rooted in ancient Greece, where they occupied a major place in the society from around 1500 BC until AD 394, when they were abolished by the Romans. The renewal of the quadrennial Olympic Games, now the pre-eminent athletic event in the world, began in 1896 in Athens. Extensive publicity is given to preparations and to the preceding events and qualifying trials, as well as media coverage of the events themselves that reaches around the globe.
Claim
In the current atmosphere of intense international tension and violent political or military conflict, international sporting competitions provide a global stage for the encounter between individuals and nations to take place in a peaceful setting where the common denominator is the discipline and commitment of all participants to the development of personal excellence in their chosen athletic field. This setting promotes a sense of unity among all participants based on the respect each has for the integrity of the motives of every other participant, and dramatizes the essential commonness of desires and aspirations among all peoples of the world.
Counter-claim
The tendency of nationalistic forces to use the competitions as a means to strengthen the sense of competition between nations or blocs represents a danger of such events, especially when a heavy emphasis is placed on the cumulative points compiled by the national delegations.
Also, because of their extremely high visibility, of have become targets of terrorist activities (such as in Munich in 1972).
The attendant stringent security measures actually call attention to the existing global tensions and conflicts that exist in the world.