Torch bearers Dinigeer Yilamujiang (left) and Zhao Jiawen set the torch into the Olympic cauldron during the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games at the National Stadium in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 4, 2022. Photo: Xinhua

Beijing has become the first city in the world to host both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games. The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics are being organized under difficult circumstances due to the continuation of the COVID-19 pandemic and regional instability around Ukraine. Their diachronic symbolism finds thus resonance. Sports practiced without discrimination can function as an education model in building a better and more peaceful world. 

It is impossible to understand the true spirit of Olympism, in other words, the philosophy of the Olympic Games, without referring to the history of Greece. 

The first Olympic Games took place in 776 BC in the Greek city of Olympia. Their first version lasted until AD 393 and was connected to the so-called Olympic truce. This meant that all conflicts had to cease for an agreed period of a few days or weeks in order for athletes, artists, and spectators to safely travel. The sacred truce was a necessary prerequisite for the organization of the Games. 

In his The History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides narrates an interesting incident. In book V, as Thucydides writes, the Lacedaemonians were excluded from the temple by the Eleans, and could neither sacrifice nor contend in the Games. The reason was that they had refused to pay the fine which, according to Olympic law, the Eleans had imposed upon them, alleging that they had brought an armed force against the fortress of Phyrcus, and had introduced some hoplites of their own into Lepreum during the Olympic truce. 

China showcased its respect for history and the role of Greece in the genesis of the Olympic values by adding special elements to the 2022 opening ceremony. 

In particular, a choir of 40 Chinese children sang the Olympic anthem in fluent Greek. This hymn, with lyrics by the famous Greek poet Kostis Palamas, was performed in 1896 when the modern version of the Olympic Games was inaugurated at its birthplace. It was declared the official anthem decades later, in 1958. 

For his part, President of the International Olympic Committee Thomas Bach referred to the Olympic truce UN resolution in his speech during the opening ceremony. This resolution was adopted by the consensus of all 193 UN member states. Bach also appealed to all political authorities across the world to observe their commitment to this Olympic truce. 

Fourteen years after the Beijing Summer Olympics, China comes again to the epicenter of world attention. It has the responsibility to organize safe Games for athletes and spectators and disseminate messages in the true spirit of Olympism. The need for international cooperation of all parts of the world and all nations without exception - as the Olympic rings and their colors denote -will be subsequently underlined.

China today is different in comparison to its 2008 self. It is more robust, prosperous and confident but preserves the same appetite to continuously succeed. Planning and hard work, the result of which has been already evident during the Beijing 2022 Olympics, are a characteristic ingredient of how the country works. It is natural for the international community to expect more from China in the direction of world stability, peace, and calmness in the years to come. Olympism ought to be the beacon. 

The author is a lecturer at the European Institute in Nice, France. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn