On 23 June, 30 days before the start of the Olympic Games in Tokyo, the sports community celebrates the International Olympic Day. Its main purpose is to unite people of all continents through universal values of the Olympic Movement - excellence, respect, friendship.

“The IOC is above all a values-based organisation, and our mission is to put sport at the service of society and to make the world a better place through sport”, said IOC President Thomas Bach commenting on the adoption of the “Olympic Agenda 2020+5” - an IOC roadmap for the next four years. 

In the June interview to the IOC Olympic Studies Centre Thomas Bach talked about the contribution the academic community makes to the dissemination and consolidation of Olympic values. We are publishing an extract from the interview today: 

- In Olympic Agenda 2020+5, recommendation 12 focuses on reaching out beyond the Olympic communities. Can you tell us what specific role the academic community has in this endeavour?

- With this recommendation we aim to engage and interact with diverse social groups, foster dialogue and leverage programmes that reach beyond the Olympic community, including cultural, scientific and educational communities.

Since the IOC was founded at Sorbonne University in Paris 127 years ago, the academic community has played an important role in the Olympic Movement. Pierre de Coubertin was, as we all know, first and foremost an educator, so from the very first moment of its foundation, there was an inseparable link between the Olympic Movement and education.

Today, the academic community still has a fundamental role in helping the Olympic Movement to maintain and popularise the Olympic ideals and advance understanding about the relevance and impact of the Olympic Movement in today’s society. On one side, university professors expose the young generation of students to the Olympic Movement and Olympic values in the classrooms. On the other side, the knowledge generated through academic research greatly contributes to addressing the key challenges and opportunities of the place of sport and the Olympic Movement in society and reminds us of the importance of our origins and values.

Let me extend my thanks and gratitude to all professors and researchers for their work and for delivering invaluable messages on key issues such as the legacy of the Olympic Games, the engagement of young people in sport, the role of sport in social inclusion, protecting the athletes, good governance or the promotion of gender balance. This important work contributes to the intellectual foundation for us to spread the ideals of sport and the spirit of Olympism in today’s world.