Multiculturalism in sports world by

Olympic Opening Ceremony

lukefernandez2 — 2025-01-31 10:11:08 UTC

The Olympic Games are definitely one of the most long-waited sports competition by sports lovers all around the world; it unites them all together, no matter where they come from. It's also one of the major goals for a professional athlete to achieve, if not the biggest.

But the truth is that this competition goes way further than that. Not just a sports event, but it's also a perfect occasion to share different cultures with the rest of the world, so that people can be aware of what's out there, beyond the lines between our countries and its cultures.

This picture shows last year's Olympic Games Opening Ceremony in Paris. To celebrate the start of these, they decided to send a big boat for each country and put all their athletes in it, in a colourful, beautiful and meaningful celebration, where each country's team showed the colours of their flags and other culturally significant things to the rest.

Because even when as an athlete you've made it to the top, no matter what the result of the competition is, you must never forget where you come from, because that will never change. And, of course, you must do it with pride.

Cultural traditions and pride

lukefernandez2 — 2025-01-31 10:32:03 UTC

Olympic Games are not just about sending your best athletes as a country, try to get as many medals as possible and go back home, but it's also a beautiful opportunity to share your culture and with that your traditions with the rest of the world. This picture shows the 2008 Olympic Opening Ceremony in Beijing, where many different ethnic groups celebrated the start of the Olympic Games all together, bringing their culture to the asian capital. They wore traditional clothing and performed traditional dances and celebrations. Even if the main reason of its being is the competition between athletes, cultural diversity is unavoidable in a world-sized competition; but that's a good thing! People won't just learn about sport, but also about different countries' traditions. Diversity makes us all rich, different and interesting.

Representation

lukefernandez2 — 2025-01-31 10:32:44 UTC

This picture shows the 4x100m female relay in the Paris Olympic Games last summer, which consists of a race of a four women's team that represents each country.

If you feel your country represents you, then it's an honor to represent it. In this massive competition, only a few people get to do it.

Every athlete is different from each other, but a team's have their similarities, of course: they all have the same culture and traditions.

Well, all these athletes from different countries and cultures do have something in common with each other too: they all support, love and do the same sport.

So, why judge each other when, all together, we are promoting and strengthening one and the same thing we're all passionate about?

We're all people, even if we look or think differently, and we all should have the same rights to express our cultural diversity and be respected.

Different cultures, same capacities

lukefernandez2 — 2025-02-01 12:04:15 UTC

This picure shows a podium of an athletics race in Paris. The woman in the middle, Sifan Hassan, wore the hijab in her head as a protest against the controversial french rule that prohibited female athletes from wearing it, not respecting their traditions and cultures at all.

In sports or not, we all like others to respect our culture and traditions, because, at the end, that's what defines us as people.

We must always respect everyone's cultural traditions and support diversity. It doesn't hurt anyone and a lot of people put their origins first; it can mean a lot to many.

Remembering where we come from can sometimes give us the strenght and the perfect amount of pride that we need to face a hard challenge like it's an olympic competition, and no disrespect should make anyone loose their pride. Because you're not just racing, you're trying to drive to the podium a whole country, your country. Once in the podium, the truth is you didn't only drive yourself there, but also something much bigger.