“Does the exceptional cause the extraordinary? The #WhiteCard campaign initiated by Peace and Sport on April6, the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace, took place in exceptional circumstances this year. The coronavirus pandemic has prevented...
“I won my first Olympic gold medal in 1992 at the Barcelona Games. I was 20 years old. I discovered the Olympic universe. I was born and lived my early years in Albania, as a member of the Greek minority group. I was completely unaware of the power that sport can...
“Life is often a succession of encounters. They intersperse our journey. They give it momentum and vigour. Our meeting with the Peace and Sport team at the end of 2018 was one of those special moments that marks a day when there was a before and after. Together,...
“For our organization, GOALS Haiti, and for all Haitians, 2020 is a notable anniversary. It marks the 10th anniversary of the country’s devastating earthquake which occurred just before 5:00 p.m. on 12 January 2010 and measured at a magnitude of 7.1. Over...
With the way I have experienced sport, I know that it is a personal development tool for all young people. If we know how to accompany them in the practice of sport, we can train responsible and committed citizens. The goal is to compete in a competitive process while...
Respect and protection of women’s rights are essential for building a peaceful and inclusive society. Sport should uphold this by fighting against discrimination, mistreatment and abuse. Violence is real and exists all the way up the ladder. The scandal in...
“Odd-numbered years have been good to us. They have written Peace and Sport’s history in capital letters. Our organization was created in 2007. Two years later, we started the Friendship Games in Africa and we launched the Champions for Peace club. In 2019, the...
“What would I have become without high performance sport? What would my life have been like without figure skating? More than twenty years after the end of my international career, I still do not know how to answer these questions. I might have been a...
“I discovered football when I was 7 years old. In Bethlehem, in my country Palestine. When I started, girls didn’t kick balls. Nobody accepted it. There was nothing for us. No teams, no coaches, no equipment. Nothing. But I insisted. In my world of barbed...
“Sport has changed my life. It has made me. It has brought me so much, including an Olympic medal – bronze – in the kayak single men’s slalom at the 2008 Beijing Games. The first Olympic medal in Togo’s history. But sport has also given me...
“I believe in the power of sport. Life has taught me that it can change things and play a crucial part in inclusion and education. I’ve always thought this. Nowadays, I still have the same belief in the strength and impact of its values. That’s why,...
“Sport has changed my life. It has totally transformed it. Forever. Today I feel very different from my childhood friends, school friends and co-workers. Sport helped me to move away from the norm. It still occupies most of my life. When I look back at my...