The day before the official opening ceremonies of the Paris Summer Olympic Games, French President Emmanuel Macron and the French Development Agency, or AFD, hosted the first Sport for Sustainable Development Summit, bringing in dozens of heads of state to discuss how sports can contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals.
Speaking to Devex before the gathering, AFD CEO Rémy Rioux told Devex: “For decades, we said that sport was not that serious an issue, and probably countries, they have to deliver other investments before having the capacity to do sports.” But the message from Thursday’s summit, he said, is more nuanced. “Sports could be part of the fabric of SDGs way more ambitiously at an earlier stage, and that’s not naive.”
Before an audience of International Olympic Committee members and heads of state, global development heavy hitters such as World Health Organization head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous shared the stage with paralympians, IOC President Thomas Bach, and Spanish basketball legend Pau Gasol. Many echoed the Olympic motto: Faster, higher, stronger.