The organizers of the 2016 Olympic & Paralympic Games have announced the official slogan for the summer: “A new world.” The video features, among other things, a Michael Phelps cameo from after Jason Lezak’s incredible come-from-behind swim in the 400 free relay at the Beijing Olympics, punctuating upon the word “passion.”
The message, while simple, echos powerfully across many lines.
- The Western Hemisphere, when first discovered by the Europeans, was known as “the new world” from the 16th century onward. That includes South America, where the Games will be held.
- Rio de Janeiro will be the first city in South America hosting the 2016 Olympic Games, meaning the games are embarking upon a “new world” to which they’ve never been before.
- The world around us is changing. Climate change is accelerating which is literally reshaping the planet’s land masses.
- The ways in which we interact have created a new world with a new dialogue and a new way of thinking, speaking, and acting. A rather frivolous example that will actually have a thunderous presence in Rio is that the 2016 Olympics will be the first Olympic Games with Tinder.
- The world is becoming more connected than ever, with more people on social media, and more cross-cultural exchange than ever before in history.
- Wars are changing – no longer is the enemy a clear nation with borders and citizens, they’re more nebulous and harder to define.
- There is a refugee team at the Olympic Games. A sporting event that has derived almost all of its market share on the basis of traditional nationalism now has a team made up of athletes without a nation.
The video emphasizes the Olympics’ attempt at providing a non-politicized humanitarian influence upon the world, emphasized by IOC president Thomas Bach who hopes that the games can reshape the future for Brazil’s young people. That includes initiatives like deconstructing some of the games’ temporary venues to build schools.
“We want the Olympic Games to have an impact for years if not generations on Brazilian society and provide better opportunities for the young than their predecessors had,” Bach told an audience of university students at the headquarters of the Rio 2016 organizing committee. “That’s the difference we want to make, not just two weeks of a great sporting festival.”
Watch the full video below:
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