Divisions are intensifying across the nation, with a recent poll finding that over half of Americans fear the U.S. is on a path toward civil war and two-thirds believe that American democracy is under serious threat. More than ever, both politicians and everyday Americans need a reminder that we are still one country, and that competition without guardrails quickly becomes something else entirely.
While not erasing complicated geopolitical realities, the upcoming Winter Olympics from Feb. 6 to Feb. 22 in Milan, Italy, can be a reminder of the power of unity. Sports can offer a counterweight to divisions at home and abroad. Rather than a distraction from politics, they can be an example of how to do it better. On the world stage and in our own communities, athletic participation shows us the value in finding common ground.
As we watch the world’s great athletes gather in Milan, we should carry the Olympic spirit beyond our television screens and into our Little League fields, school gyms, community leagues and even our most contentious civic spaces. Our legislators should carry that spirit into the halls of Congress and their state capitols. We should apply its lessons of rivalry without hatred and national pride without resentment to how we live alongside one another at home.
The Olympics began in ancient Greece over 2,000 years ago as an opportunity for the citizens of Greek city-states to come together, display their athletic prowess and trade truly violent conflict — ubiquitous at the time — for rules-based sport. Rulers instituted the “Olympic Truce,” ensuring safe participation for the duration of the games.
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The first modern Olympic Games took place in 1896 in Athens, Greece, mirroring the spirit of unity, cultural exchange and excellence exemplified by their historical predecessor. Beginning in the 1990s, the United Nations General Assembly even revived the tradition of the Olympic Truce, adopting a resolution before each Summer and Winter games that calls on member nations to suspend hostilities during the Olympic period.
The Games do not deny conflict, of course, but they show how it can be bound. And they reveal how sports can be a diplomatic language when politics fail.
A recent example comes from the 2018 Winter Olympics, when North Korean and South Korean athletes competed together on the same women’s ice hockey team and marched under the same Korean Peninsula flag in the opening ceremonies, amidst ongoing political tensions between the two nations.
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Sports serve diplomatic ends by bringing countries together and facilitating conversations. Such meetings don’t resolve disputes head on, but they lower threat perception between rivals and reopen channels of communication. They show us how common ground can be found even with people very different from ourselves.
North Koreans and South Koreans have vast cultural differences, but they also share a history, language and a desire for dignity for their people. Teamwork on the ice briefly brought these shared interests into focus.
Viewers can likewise find common ground with their fellow countrymen from watching athletes of all different backgrounds compete together. It’s natural to feel patriotic watching your country’s great athletes walk together, compete and raise the national flag in victory. Global sporting events show how a shared national pride can flourish and rise above prejudice or divisions.
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Competing fiercely while respecting rules is consistent with American constitutional values. The principles we can learn in sports — discipline, respect for our adversaries, fair play, restraint in victory and defeat — carry over in other elements of our lives. These same habits make elections hard-fought but respectable, with the most rough-and-tumble matches ending in a handshake.
While a sports event with the global scale of the Olympics or World Cup only takes place every few years, what happens among nations during the Games reflects what is already happening — quietly — in American communities every weekend. At Little League baseball and softball fields and Friday night high school football games, church leagues and rec centers, our children learn how to compete without hating their opponents, how to follow rules even when emotions run high and how, by working as teams, we can achieve more than by ourselves.
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Just as the Olympic village is a microcosm of the globe, a 12-and-under girls basketball team is a microcosm of a local community. Different backgrounds, different beliefs, different family stories, all bound together by love of the sport and shared rules and goals.
Sports create civic habits that are so needed in our civility-starved world: restraint, respect, discipline and team-focused cooperation. Whether in our small towns or on the world’s stage, shared athletic rituals sustain our nation and remind us that all Americans play for the same team, under the same flag.
In times of great division, our leaders need reminders that another way is possible. Polarization is not inevitable. Civility can wane, but it can also flourish.
It’s important that we protect the global institutions that allow us to compete without hostility and participate in the local ones that do the same thing. The next time you watch a global sporting event or participate in a local one, remember that the spirit on display is not reserved for the world’s greatest athletes. It’s a model for how free people, at every level of society, can live, compete and still recognize one another as fellow citizens.
