Event
Change the Game
UNESCO mobilises sport as a platform for advancing the causes of education, culture, intercultural dialogue, and human rights. Sport can be a powerful lever for personal and collective development, accelerating equity, inclusion, harmonious coexistence, peace, and health. Its prominence in the media and popular culture, and the influence of athletes and role models in major sporting competitions, make it an ideal pedestal for discussions on the rules of community life and the major challenges facing our collective humanity, from ethics to climate change.
Fit For Life
UNESCO has launched the "Fit For Life" initiative to bring together under a single banner all the organisation's activities in the field of sport – from the International Anti-Doping Convention to physical education and sports programmes to social inclusion through sport. Through this initiative, UNESCO intends to place sport at the heart of the sustainable development of our societies. In cooperation with its 194 Member States, UNESCO is committed to making sport accessible to everyone, everywhere.
The athlete portraits presented here reflect both the excellence of a sporting career that underlines the values of surpassing oneself, and careers of social commitment that demonstrate the power of sport as a vector for change. Sport remains largely under-used – sometimes even denigrated or ignored – in its function of social transformation and its role in collective training and community cohesion. It enhances physical and mental well-being, can help transmit values such as respect and team spirit, and helps deconstruct stereotypes that perpetuate inequality. Through sport, we can make a difference.
UNESCO and the Olympic and Paralympic Games
UNESCO aims to contribute to the promotion and achievement of the principles of Olympism through education, science and culture by setting new initiatives and encouraging better cooperation with regard to inclusivity, cultural diversity, human rights, and the education on peace through sport.
Athletes who changed the world
For over a century, the history of modern sports has been marked by the commitments of elite athletes who have made the choice, and often taken the risk, to speak out publicly on subjects such as the fight against Nazism, the rejection of racism and discrimination, gender equality in sports and society, the inclusion of people with disabilities, democracy, the fight against doping, the rejection of homophobia, and more recently, ecology.
An exhibition by Gilles Aaron Smadja in partnership with Vinci Construction – Groupe Verrecchia – GA – Lamotte – DG Group and Legendre.
