The IOC is the trustee, the guide and the arbitrator of the Olympic Movement, which remains relentlessly faithful to itself through its fierce independence, its universality and its perenniality. The Olympic Games are not an end in themselves, they have a meaning only if these are worthy of serving the aims of the Olympic Movement that were brilliantly defined by Coubertin and which are more than ever valid in today’s materialistic world. These words were uttered by HE J.A.Samaranch immediately he was elected President of the IOC in 1980.
The mythical spirit of the Olympic Games, which constitutes the greatest social force of our time, is indeed the opposite of confrontation, it is the desire of living in peace, the desire of a healthy life, the desire of a better world – we live in a troubled world of extremes of violence and uncertainty, but there is one thing of which we can all be sure that is the good intentions of the sportsmen and administrators who believe that it is more important to find out what we have in common rather than, what are our differences – how we can help each other, rather than how we can hurt each other, and that some progress, or at least a contribution towards progress, can be achieved by the sportsmen of the world.
Olympism is a philosophy which, together with the development of physical skills, aims at improving the mind, thus leading to the harmonious and symmetrical formation and improvement of man. Its purpose is also to educate man, forge his character and morals. Olympism recognises and extols individual effort and accepts no discrimination among nations, races, political systems, classes, creed, etc.
The Olympic Movement is open to all, its purpose is not to allow a limited few to collect gold medals. On the contrary it wants to provide the opportunity to all men, independent of their age and sex to practise sports. All kind of sports activities are part of the Olympic movement because the basic principle of effort, fair play and distinction is inherent in each of them. Sport for All gives the opportunity to persons to meet each other whatever their social level, they all have a common aim – to respect each other and to exercise sport for a healthy and better lifestyle.
The Olympic Academy covers the educational aspect of the Olympic Ideals, sports conferences and meets bring together sportsmen from every culture with the sole aim to improve sporting activities for the benefit of all; Various countries help each other through Olympic Solidarity; the architectural and beautiful environment of sport venues attracts the youths to participate in sport, while films and literature on sport contributes to the Olympic Movement as these are a means open to all to follow the Olympic spirit and ideals.
The goal of the Olympic Movement
“To contribute to building a peaceful and better world by educating youth through sport practiced without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play”.
“The goal of Olympism is to place everywhere sport at the service of the harmonious development of man, with a view to encouraging the establishment of a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity”.