In February 2023, the "Beijing-Zhang Winter Olympics Development Report 2022" published by China Culture and History Publishing House was officially released to the public. It has been 20 years since the first Olympic report came out in 2003 and the tenth Olympic report was released to readers.
On the morning of May 11, 2023, at Beijing International Hotel, the premiere ceremony of the "Beijing-Zhang Winter Olympics Development Report 2022" was held here. More than 30 experts and scholars including Jiang Xiaoyu, former executive vice chairman of the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee, and ski veteran Shan Zhaojian, attended the event.
20 years of perseverance, the original intention is very clear. It is to make a contribution to promoting Olympism and the Olympic spirit in China.
First, it is highly compatible with the Healthy China Initiative
Olympism is a philosophy of life and philosophy of life that balances and enhances the qualities of body, mind, and spirit. This philosophy advocates that through strengthening physical fitness, tempering will, and cultivating noble sentiments, people can achieve all-round development in the three aspects of body, mind, and spirit. This is highly consistent with the World Health Organization's definition of health. According to the World Health Organization, "health is not only the absence of physical illness, but also mental health, good social adaptation and morality". Olympism pursues a healthy individual with a high degree of unity of personality health and body, mind and soul.
If combined with reality, it is also easy to draw conclusions. Adolescents who have been engaged in sports for a long time are generally sunny and rarely have mental illness. Since the psychology is full of sunshine (which is important in the moment), it also creates good conditions for social adaptation. This is true for young people, but also for middle-aged people and the elderly.
Therefore, promoting the spread of Olympism in China is in line with the direction of healthy China's actions, which is highly consistent with it, and is conducive to cultivating groups with healthy personalities and noble spirits.
II. Building a Harmonious Society Respect is indispensable
The three core values of Olympiadism are excellence, respect, and friendship; by pursuing exemplary educational values and respecting universal basic ethical principles, the ultimate goal of modern Olympism is to make sports serve the harmonious development of people, and through the combination of sports and cultural education, promote the harmonious development of people's physical quality, morality and spirit, and promote the establishment of a society that upholds human dignity and equality.
Respect is at the heart of building a harmonious society. Respect includes respect for power, respect for chiefs and leaders; Respect should also respect rights, respect the rights and interests of every Chinese citizen enshrined in the Constitution, respect thousands of ordinary workers, and respect their ordinary and indispensable work. Without respect, there can be no harmonious development.
In China, respect is an act that needs to be strongly promoted. In particular, how to make public power always have a reverence for civil rights; have a fundamental respect for civil rights; There is a basic respect for ordinary workers throughout society, including their work; It is still the content that the whole society needs to work together and strive for.
Respect is not limited to external performance, not only a ceremonial content, but more importantly, it needs to be guaranteed by a series of institutional construction. If there is no guarantee provided by institutional construction. "Respect" is difficult to become a universal follower in the whole society, and respect may become a fool, which is not conducive to the construction of a harmonious society.
Third, the emphasis on participation is of great significance
The principles of equal participation, fair competition, fairness and openness, friendship, and struggle advocated by Olympism are of universal significance in all aspects of human life. Taking the principle of equal participation, for example, the most important thing in the Olympic Games is to participate rather than win. Coubertin further extended on this basis, "The important thing in life is to struggle rather than win, and to do our best instead of defeating others," stressing that the process of competition and struggle is more meaningful than the results of competition, and participating in the Olympic Games itself is more meaningful than victory. It laid the ideological foundation for the popularization and broad participation of the Olympic Movement.
The idea of focusing on participation is also important for China today. China is a socialist country, and if the people do not widely participate in political and social life, not only will it be difficult to embody the "society" of socialism, but the whole process of democracy will lack a foundation and become a source of water. Without the extensive participation of the people, the government's public policies will certainly be difficult to reflect the basic morality and fairness characteristics of public policies, and "people first" will lack a realistic basis for existence.
Fourth, "equality" should not become a scarce resource
The spirit of equality embodied in Olympism is the embodiment of one of the three most important values of freedom, equality and fraternity in human society in the field of sports. The promotion and dissemination of the Olympic spirit of equality is an important reason why the Olympic Movement can attract different colors and ethnic groups to come together.
The spirit of equality, including officials and the people, leaders and the masses, rich and poor, although the status and wealth are different, but personality is equal, the basic public services and products provided by the government to every citizen should be equal, and should have universal characteristics, especially public services such as medical security should be developed equally. If so, it will be conducive to narrowing the income gap of Chinese residents and conducive to the healthy development of society.
The great German philosopher Hegel said: "Only when a nation has some people who pay attention to the sky can they have hope; A nation only cares about what is under its feet, and that has no future. The Chinese nation, since ancient times, there have been some people who look up to the stars, although the number may not be large, but they are the hope and future of the nation. Carrying forward the Olympic spirit and making efforts for the widespread spread of Olympism in China is an action to look up at the stars.
It is precisely the universal significance of Olympism that has a positive impact on all aspects of China's social life, so promoting Olympism has become the original intention and driving force of the Beijing Olympic Economic Research Association and even the Beijing-Zhang Winter Olympic Research Center for 20 years of unremitting efforts since its establishment.
For a country and a host city, the success of hosting an Olympic Games is of course important, but what is more important is to promote the Olympic spirit, so that the values of freedom, equality and fraternity universally advocated by human society can be widely disseminated in the host country and host city; By enhancing physical fitness, tempering the will and cultivating noble sentiments, the body, mind and spirit can be comprehensively developed. This original intention is indispensable and in line with the Healthy China Strategy. Actions in favor of a healthy China must be unswervingly and persistently.
【About author】Chen Jian, Olympic expert, director of the Beijing-Zhang Winter Olympic Research Center, special researcher of the China Economic System Reform Research Association, executive director and secretary general of the organizing committee of the China County Economic Development Conference, member of the China Private Economy 50 Forum, executive director of the Healthy China 50 Forum, and executive director of the (Yanqi Lake) Health Development Forum