Each day is important in itself, in its momentary proof that we are experiencing life, one which our duty is to make just as livable, and worthwhile to be lived, for ourselves as for all others around us. But then again, as we are striving towards making each of our days a celebration of life, with its whole yin yang complexity, some days have extra underlying content that make them stand out more because they are also anniversaries of important things to remember, be more aware of. Especially if they are aimed at promoting goodness for us all, namely – unity and peace.

Therefore, today we might want to be aware of the fact that April 6 is the UN International Day of Sport for Development and Peace. We all know sports, healthy living can do wonders for developing individual inner peace but it can also do wonders for a more encompassing peace too, as it can break down all kinds of barriers and unite all kinds of people, communities and nations. It is a powerful vessel for carrying the message of peaceful coexistence and enlightened evolution.

Just think of some of the historical Olympic milestones of humanity.

Think of the first ever female Olympians, who participated in the 1900 Paris Games, and then think of the gender milestone reached at the London 2012 Olympics, in just a century-long blink of an eye, when Women’s Boxing made its debut at what was the very first Games in Olympic history with female athletes from every competing country.

Think of Jesse Owens. The African-American athlete who not only broke records and swept in several gold medals, but did this at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, standing taller and greater than any of the “new Aryan men” Hitler wished to prove stood above all with his Nazi ideology.

Think of Ludwig Guttman. The English doctor whose sports therapy for wounded veterans of WW II resulted in the participation of the first wheelchaired athletes at the 1948 London Olympics and eventually led to the modern Paralympic Games.

Think of the moment when North and South Korea united and their teams joined hands under a single flag at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, and then the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro where 18-year-old Yusra Mardini swam for the Refugee Olympic Team, while the first ever U.S. female athlete, Ibtihaj Muhammad sabre fenced in a hijab.

Think of those memory snapshots of every single person you ever saw experiencing an all-liberating burst of tearful joy, triumph, having overcome whatever kinds of obstacles, beating the odds. Now feel what it feels like. Like being intensely alive.

Like when we stomp together on a dancefloor around the earth, making sport of the vileness in the world… It can be done, make peace your sport.

Ode to Sport by Pierre de Coubertin

I.

O Sport, delight of the Gods, distillation of lire! In the grey dingle of modern existence, restless with barren toil, you suddenly appeared like the shining messenger of vanished ages, those ages when humanity could smile. And to the mountain tops came dawn’s first glimmer, and sunbeams dappled the forest’s gloomy floor.

II.

O Sport, you are Beauty! You – the architect of this house, the human body, which may become object or sublime according as to whether it is defiled by base passions or cherished with wholesome en- deavour. There can be no beauty without poise and proportion, and you are the incomparable master of both, for you create harmony, you fill movement with rhythm, you make strength gracious, and you lend power to supple things.

III.

O Sport, you are Justice! The perfect fairness which men seek in vain in their social institutions rises around you of its own accord. No man can surpass by one centimetre the height he can jump or the time for which he can run. His combined strength of body and mind alone set the bounds to his success.

IV.

O Sport, you are Daring! The whole meaning of muscular effort lies in one word – to dare. What good are muscles, what good is it to feel nimble and strong and to train one’s nimbleness and strength if not to dare? But the daring you inspire is far from the rashness which impels the gambler to stake his all on a throw. It is a prudent and considered daring.

V.

O Sport, you are Honour! The titles you bestow are worthless save if won in absolute fairness and perfect unselfishness. Whoever succeeds in deceiving his fellows by some ignoble trick, suffers the shame of it in the depths of himself and dreads the dishonourable epithet whim will be coupled with his name if the fraud from which he prospers should come to light.

VI.

O Sport, you are Joy! At your call the flesh makes holiday and the eyes smile; the blood flows free and strong in the arteries. Thought’s horizon grows lighter and more clear. Even to the griefstricken you can bring a healing distraction from their sorrows, while you enable the happy to taste the joy of living to the full.

VII.

O Sport, you are Fecundity! You tend by straight and noble paths towards a more perfect race, blasting the seeds of sickness and righting the flaws whim threaten its needful soundness. And you quicken within the athlete the wish to see growing about him brisk and sturdy sons to follow him in the arena and in their turn bear off joyous laurels.

VIII.

O Sport, you are Progress! To serve you well, man must better himself in body and in soul. You enjoin him to observe a loftier hygiene; you require him refrain from all excess. You teach him wise roles which will give his effort the maximum intensity without impairing the balance of his health.

IX.

O Sport, you are Peace! You forge happy bonds between the peoples by drawing them together in reverence for strength which is controlled, organised and self-disciplined. Through you the young of all the world learn to respect one another, and thus the diversity of national traits becomes a source of generous and peaceful emulation.

* English translation taken from COUBERTIN, Pierre, The Olympic Idea. Discourses and Essays, ed. by Carl-Diem-Institut, Cologne 1966, pp. 39-40.