Feature: Sport and Human Rights
No.48
September 2006
 
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Quote - Cheri Blauwet
 

"To overcome conflict and misunderstanding, we need communication. To communicate, we need a common language. Sport, more than any other medium, provides a language through which any group from any culture can find a common ground. It lights that spark within us all – the thrill of competition, the camaraderie of a team, the nostalgia of the game in years past. It reminds of what it is to be human, and to simply – love life.
In addition, sport also empowers the individual. Billy Jean King once said that "pressure is a privilege." Indeed, to rise up to the identity of athlete, and to feel pressure, drive, and competitive edge, empowers us to see ourselves as people who can achieve and who have the opportunity to define our own path through this life. This is especially true for people with a disability, who are still often defined by their physical impairment. Sports turns this notion on it's head and makes the individual, and those around him or her, understand that ability lies in how you view yourself and how you choose to move forward in the world. "

Cheri Blauwet
Medical Student, Stanford University
Paralympic Gold Medalist, Two-time winner of the Boston Marathon





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