Rousing the ‘sleeping giant’ at half-time of Paris 2024

It is half-time at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Besides being different in a lot of ways, Paris 2024 has been an eye-opener for me.

I thought I knew everything about the Olympic Games, having been actively involved (directly or indirectly) in all the Games since 1976, until half-way into the 2024 edition I am humbled by my limited appreciation of its many ‘silent’ facets.

The Olympic Truce
The Olympics scores high as a diplomatic vehicle, with its fundamental objective to foster peace and friendship amongst members of the global Olympic family – now 205-strong!

Within the Olympic charter is a ‘forgotten’ tool, a two-week period during the games dedicated in ancient times for resolution of conflicts between any member countries. During the period, called the Olympic Truce, warring members are mandated to temporarily sheath their swords, to enable the youths of the world to compete in a friendly atmosphere devoid of all common human differences.

That’s why, at the Olympic Games, participation is more important than winning as all participants are winners.

The Olympic Truce, as enshrined in the Olympic Charter, is designed to ease tension between competing athletes and countries, and to fan the embers of reconciliation and healing wherever there may be conflict or war.

With the present escalating crisis in various parts of the world, the Paris 2024 Olympics could have deployed the Olympic Truce to remind its members of their obligation to use sport to heal the wounds of hostility between ‘brothers’ in the ongoing wars in Ukraine, Gaza, the Horn of Africa, Sudan, and so on.

My first take away from the first half of Paris 2024 is that the Olympic Truce as a tool for global peace may be ‘dead’.

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