Sport is one of the most important social, cultural and economic phenomena in today’s world. Its strength lies not just in the spheres of competition or of entertainment, but also in its ability to manifest and bring into play universal values such as respect, reciprocity, cooperation and merit. Sport represents a global language, whose effects encompass community-building, education, and even relations between states.
Underlying the practice of sport is a multifaceted conception of competition: while “cum petere” means “to seek, to strive together in the same direction”, implying a high form of regulated cooperation, the word “athlete” originates from ἆθλον, meaning struggle. “Agonismo” (in Italian) means competitiveness, and the word comes from from ἀγών, meaning physical and/or intellectual competition. Competitive sport, based on shared rules and equal conditions, fosters and values excellence without producing exclusion. It promotes a merit-based hierarchy that is as compatible as possible with true and extensive equality. This value system finds its highest expression in the Olympic movement, which for more than a century has offered a model of peaceful coexistence based on mutual recognition and unconditional respect for human dignity.
On the social level, sport performs a structural function in strengthening cohesion and collective well-being. Abundant empirical evidence shows that widespread sports practice correlates with better indicators for quality of life, psycho-physical health and social capital. Where sport has a widespread presence – through infrastructure, clubs and public policy – communities are more resilient, inclusive, and safe. It is no coincidence that the Italian Constitution recently recognized the educational and social value of sports and its ability to foster well-being, thus explicitly sanctioning a principle that strengthens the link between sport and citizenship.
From this perspective, sport assumes a crucial role in education and inclusion policies, especially in urban settings experiencing marginality and inequality. Local regeneration projects that include sport as a social safeguard show that the practice of sports can help rebuild trust, a sense of belonging, and shared identity, especially among young people and in multicultural communities. Indeed, sport offers an “inclusive tribe” with the ability to accommodate multiple identities, basing them not on conflict but on cooperation and respect for the rules.
Alongside the social dimension, sport today is a powerful economic driver. It fuels complex industrial supply chains, moves public and private investment, generates employment and makes a significant contribution to gross domestic product. Major sporting events, and in particular the Olympics, are a focus, for the few weeks of their duration, of unparalleled global attention, reaching billions of people and creating an economic, media and symbolic impact that no other institution can match. However, such events also pose significant challenges in terms of sustainability, legacy, infrastructure, and governance, and require advanced managerial skills and a long-term vision.
In this context, the role of the media and of digital platforms is central. Sport has become an integral part of the attention economy and is being transformed into a permanent ecosystem of content, data, and relationships. The digital transition and the use of artificial intelligence and analytics are redefining not just athletic performance, but also sport’s business and governance models, opening up opportunities for democratizing excellence and reducing the gaps between countries and territories.
However, it is at the international relations level that sport performs one of its most strategic functions. Historically, sport has acted as a soft-power tool, contributing to the construction of nations’ image and identity. International competitions reinforce the sense of national belonging, while athletes and teams become informal ambassadors of values, lifestyles and productive skills and expertise. At the same time, sport has anticipated or reflected geopolitical tensions and has often shown that it is not truly neutral but deeply intertwined with politics. This is the case, for example, with sportswashing, which has affected both the modern Olympics – see Berlin 1936 – and major sporting events such as the World Cup in Argentina in 1978 or in Qatar in 2022.
Today, sports diplomacy represents an increasingly mature and structured dimension of international relations. Through multilateral initiatives such as the Olympic truce promoted at the United Nations, and through national strategies to promote sporting events and excellence, sport has become a preferred channel for dialogue even in conflict situations. Its strength lies in its ability to connect civil societies where traditional diplomacy encounters barriers, creating meeting spaces based on shared rules and mutual trust.
To conclude, sport emerges as an intangible infrastructure of contemporary society, located at the intersection of economy, culture and politics. Its ability to produce value – social, symbolic and economic – depends on the consistency between the values proclaimed and the practices adopted by institutions, organizations and leaders. In a twenty-first century characterized by systemic crises, technological transformations, and geopolitical tensions, sport offers a universal grammar for rethinking human and international relations, with due recognition that the highest competition is that which is played together and with respect for the rules and dignity of all.