Don’t cancel the Olympics – they’re needed more than ever

In the middle of a global pandemic, sport is way down the list of priorities for governments and citizens. The world has been hit by a scourge that has brought economies to the point of collapse. If the pandemic has proved anything it’s that nations need to know each other, to work together and ultimately to share the answer to the challenge.

But, in fact, the level of division in today’s world is shocking and depressing, particularly so given the unique nature of the challenges we face. But divided we stand, whether as a result of strong-man politics, the toxicity of social media, environmental degradation or pervasive inequality.

At a time when travel has stopped and billions are confined to their homes, how do we bring the world together?

We had a shaft of hope in the creation and deployment of the Covid-19 vaccines. Later this year, the recently approved Oxford/Astra Zeneca shot will become the first western-developed pharmaceutical to be rolled out in large numbers across low- and middle-income countries. The principle is simple: if one is not safe, nobody is safe. If we leave the developing nations behind on immunisation, it will spell disaster for recovery across nations, everywhere.  

Global cooperation is possible and, in an increasingly divided world, more important than ever.

There is one other event taking place this year, which historically has brought the world together under one roof, on one screen and throughout the news like never before – the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Every four years the world is given a chance to gather together with one objective – to cheer their athletes, their success story, on to gold. The unity around the spectacle and the fact that every nation takes part is bigger than the individual sportsmen and the separate nations.

The Olympics can do more for global unity at this time than politics – and this is why they must go ahead.  

The very first time I attended the games, I was taken by their power to unite countries under one “banner” – shared humanity. Different colour flags wave around the world in those two weeks every four years to the same end – competing in a single event and celebrating one another.  

The true contribution of the games is far beyond individual athletes or economic gain, but a moment of truce. A period in which all of our insurmountable, interwoven problems are largely forgotten and we are fixated on feats of human achievement.

Why does that matter now? Are people not dying and economies facing collapse?  

At its heart, the Olympics is an event with representatives from every nation on earth. Separated usually by politics, conflict and mistrust, we come together at the Olympics for something that on the face of it may seem like a moonshot idea.

The Olympics provide an example of what people can do and the differences they can set aside when united. Around 2,800 years ago, a truce was declared among warring groups in ancient Greece, allowing contestants to compete and then return peacefully to their respective countries. This concept was revived by the International Olympic Committee in 1992 and called the Olympic Truce – since then host cities have created initiatives to pursue peaceful solutions to conflicts.

If not conflicts, then what else? Neither the global financial crisis of 2008 nor the climate crisis garnered effective, international collaboration in the pursuit of a collective good, until the potential miracle of the Paris Agreement – soon to have the USA back in the fold. 

With new variants of Covid-19 delivering a fresh wave of human tragedy and economic and social destruction, the only solution to tackling our shared challenges is global cooperation and universal appreciation of our destiny as the human family.  The 2021 Tokyo Olympic Committee slogan for the games is “Hope lights the way”. We all need hope right now. We need ways to move forward – not just in time, but to a better world. The Olympics are a symbol of global unity and they might just have the power to bring humanity together again – at a time when it matters most of all. They must go ahead.

Kate Robertson is co-founder of not-for-profit One Young World