Olympic spirit and global peace: Insights from Matt Meyer’s keynote address at UNESCO

Peace: An Olympic value, now more than ever 

This essay has been adapted into a blog from the multimedia speech given by Matt Meyer, Secretary-General, International Peace Research Association. The speech served as the basis for the opening keynote presentation on the “global context” at the Paris 2024 Conference on International Olympic Education, Sport, and Peace. The conference, co-sponsored by the UNESCO Chair for Sports, Youth, and Peace; the International Olympics Academy; the Pierre de Coubertin Committees; the International Olympic Truce Center; and the International Peace Research Association, opened on 25 July 2024, just before the start of the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics. Hosted at the Town Hall of the 7th Arrondissement in central Paris, France, the events were organized to coincide with the eve of the Opening of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. 

Introduction 

My qualifications are not as a great sports enthusiast, though I am super-excited to be in Paris during the Games. My qualifications are not like those of athletes, though I admire and salute the diversity of athletics inspiring us all these days. Instead, I am a professional peace agitator, a troublemaker, and a conflict specialist. As an internationalist and global spokesperson for the oldest and largest consortium of university and college-based peace researchers, professors, students, staff, and our invaluable community partners, I am often touted as a conflict resolution specialist. However, I prefer to think of our work as resolving as well as fomenting conflict—at least the non-violent, creative, and challenging kind. I am also a historian by discipline, with a life-long focus on contemporary Africa and Pan-African social change. We know things about conflict that the world needs to learn from. 

When my friend Marion Kiem, the UNESCO Chair for Sports and Peace in Africa, asked me to deliver this message, I shifted my calendar to ensure I could be here. History has taught us repeatedly that youth are the motor force behind most substantive, lasting, radical, and redemptive social change throughout time. The pairing of youth, sports, and peace is much more than an administrative grouping to make government ministries fill their agendas. The challenges of sports and creative competition in sports, like creative conflict in social change, are central to a conceptual understanding of how we must build a better world. Building and rebuilding our local, regional, and global movements for progressive and radical social change—the kinds that get to the roots of our society’s ills and not just the band-aid surface scratches—require a conceptual framework that motivates youth (and those of us who are privileged enough to have become former youth), that comprehends the connections between passion, excellence, and community-building, and that lives constantly within the nuances of peace and conflict and our differences and similarities. An old friend of mine, the United States feminist and poet laureate Grace Paley, used to call it becoming “combative pacifists!” 

The significance of symbols 

Let us consider a simple symbol: the olive branch. In preparation for our time together, I’ve spent the last two weeks in Greece and in the libraries of Oxford University, England. The Greek roots of the Olympics are well-documented. Let us begin to look at some of the Greek gods and goddesses at the center of some of the ancient Olympic visions. 

Eirene, harbinger of prosperity and tranquility in Greek mythology, has as her defining symbol the olive branch, an almost universal and ancient symbol of peace. Eirene’s olive branch is a socio-cultural emblem for peace, goodwill, reconciliation, healing, harmony, and fertility. Some have uncontroversially called it “a tireless symbol that continues to evoke feelings of tranquility, hope, and unity…a powerful and enduring icon of peace.” 

When we think of the symbolism of olives and peace, it is crucial to acknowledge the ongoing war crimes, crimes against humanity and violations of international humanitarian and human rights laws that have occurred before the eyes of the world. The destruction of olive trees in Palestine, the West Bank, and Gaza has been likened to the killing of an entire environment, noted as a threat to the Palestinian economy, culture, life, and lives. While we focus on the Olympic Games this week, it is essential to connect the olive branches of our peaceful Olympic roots with those other olive branches, trees, and their keepers. We need hope, life, and joy to overcome the death machines. 

Historical perspectives 

Returning to ancient Greece, another central figure is Nike, the Winged Goddess best known for victory in the context of friendly competition. The Romans called her Victoria, and her connections to Zeus and Athena placed her at the very center of all Greek-Roman mythology and empire. Nike’s connection to the Olympics, sports, peace, and justice is essential to understanding that many-thousands-of-years-old history. The Olympic Museum in Athens reminds us that competitions extended well beyond athletes – to sculptors, potters, poets, musicians, painters, and even orators. 

Today, competition and conflict often connotate negativity, but it has never been the act itself, rather the way we utilize the act. A duel to the death is very different from an arm wrestle, though both are competitions. Deciding upon which of two favorite family restaurants to go to and fighting a seemingly intractable holy war are conflicts of a completely different nature. Learning how to engage in conflict, and not just how to resolve it, must be at the very core of our peace research, practice, and work. The long history of Nike-ian, Olympian friendly competition can teach us a lot about how to make creative conflict into a productive, future-focused force. 

Lessons from the past 

From the time of the first Panathenaic Games, where victory crowns were made of wreaths of wild olive leaves, the Disc of Peace proclaimed the traditions of the Sacred Truce of Peace. Among these are the suspension of all hostilities, the declaration that the city where the Games are held be declared neutral and inviolable, and the agreement that all who wish to visit or partake in the Games be granted safe travel, even if traveling through territories at war. 

It’s fascinating to note that traditional indigenous practices from one society often mirror those of others, even without direct contact. For example, the Greek rule against biting in competitions, intended to preserve the physical sovereignty of participants, closely resembles the West African Akan principle of “Obi-NKA-Bi” – “bite not one another,” an African tradition of peacebuilding and nonviolence. 

Modern Olympic moments and their impact 

Extending into modern times, the contemporary Olympics have also provided significant lessons for peace-making and justice. As a US citizen traveling abroad during some of the most tumultuous times my country has seen in decades, the Olympic Games and the US Black human rights movement have several significant moments: 

1. The Berlin Games of 1936: Jesse Owens’s successful quest for the gold put him in direct confrontation with Adolf Hitler and the hopes and dreams of the Nazi Third Reich. 

2. The 1968 Mexico City Olympics: Characterized as a year of global revolution, African American athletes John Carlos and Tommy Smith performed the Black Power raised fist salute, which Smith later described as a “Human Rights” salute. 

3. The 1996 Atlanta Olympics: Muhammad Ali, a militant Islamicist, Vietnam-era anti-war draft-resister, and the beloved Heavyweight Boxing Champion, carried the Olympic torch at the Opening Ceremony in an act celebrated worldwide. 

These moments of Olympic human rights heroism align with the historic vision of Olympic values of peace, fair play, and internationalism. Prominent US academics and activists of African descent have long urged that any appropriate remedy for US Black oppression be brought before international bodies. The global spotlight afforded to Jesse Owens, John Carlos, Tommy Smith, and Muhammad Ali correctly places the issue of Black “American” liberation in a decolonizing, international context. 

We can also look to South Korea as beacon of hope and inclusivity for the Games: 

• In 1988, at the Games in South Korea, the Paralympics were held for the first time in the same site and venue of the Olympics. The integration of Paralympics has continued ever since, with this year’s Paris Olympics and Paralympics coordinated in more than just alliterative ways.  

• The 2018 Winter Games, again held in South Korea, saw a concrete act of old-fashioned peace-making, as the North Korean and South Korean teams both participated and marched together. It may have only been a temporary act, but it is not like our other ceasefires and truces have all been permanent ones.     

Conclusion 

As a US-born Secretary-General of a truly internationalist Peace Research Association, I assert that it is appropriate and correct for peace researchers everywhere to be present in these contentious spaces, working to spotlight the connections that can help us all build and rebuild better, more peaceful, and just communities. It is correct—now more than ever—to heed the traditional Olympic values that can aid us in our work to reshape the world. 

We need to pay attention to Pierre de Coubertin’s assertion that “the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle.” We may not always see the justice and peace we fight for, but we can vow to struggle together with love, humility, and a sense of internationalism and humanity. By finding inspiration from and giving support to new generations of scholars, activists, athletes, and citizens, and by comprehending the connections between passion, excellence, and community-building, we are surely living out Olympic values today. And we need those values, as we need peace with justice, to face a beautiful new tomorrow. 

About IPRA 

The International Peace Research Association is a global network of academics. It was founded in 1964 and promotes peace by supporting national organizations, hosting conferences, publishing and supporting the publication of peace-promoting journals. Coming up: Towards Utopias of Peace Theories and Practices of Peace, Hope and Resistance in Troubled Times, conference in Pisa, November 2024. 

For a copy of the full multimedia speech, contact Matt Meyer through IPRA.

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The information, opinions and recommendations presented in our guest blogs are those of the individual contributors, and do not necessarily reflect the values and beliefs of the International Science Council

Image by Andy Miah on Flickr