After Beijing 2008: The Need for Sports to Foster Cooperation as well as Competition in an Increasingly Global World

Abstract

For the People's Republic of China the Beijing Olympics were an enormous success. China's athletes performed exceedingly well. So did many other athletes. The magnificent Opening and Closing Ceremonies offered to the rest of the world perspectives on a country that for decades had been virtually closed. Much now has been written about these matters. Much also has been written about whether the compelling official slogan of the 2008 Games – ‘One World, One Dream' – was chosen to advance the values of the Olympic Spirit (Unity, Friendship, Harmony, Progress) or more as an assertion that China soon would become the dominant world power. However, little attention has been given to whether various forms of sport might be used to bring people from many countries into friendly contact so that they might share human experiences and learn more about each other and different cultures. Is ‘Serious Sport' the only form of sporting activity with which the twenty-first century should be concerned? Or can more sporting activities be used to fulfill ideals that groups like the YMCA once sought to foster? These are central questions raised in this article.