EXPOSPORT- International Sport Game

“Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy found in effort, the educational value of a good example and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.” (Pierre de Coubertin) This is the spirit with which the Municipally of Reggio Emilia approached EXPOSPORT project in particular the main event hosted in Reggio Emilia from the 7th to the 13th of July.The project EXPOSPORT International Sport Games was opened to young athletes aged between 14 and 18 years old coming from 13 different European countries (Italy, Poland, Croatia, Spain, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Greece, Portugal, Malta, Romania, the Netherlands and France), to their chaperons and the institutional representatives. At the event there were delegates coming from non-European countries: Mozambique, Palestine, South Africa, China, Saharawi Republic and United States of America. Through the sports disciplines all the participants lived and told a ‘different story’: the story of a meeting with cultural and gender differences, and with physical and other differences too; the value of living together and the feeling of belonging to a single world, where one can recognise oneself also through competition and cohesion. With this spirit, the city welcomed the athletes, the teams and the chaperons that arrived in Reggio Emilia – especially, maybe, with the desire to win. More than 3.000 participants (of which 1.111 international, 2.158 from Italy, 41 with disability, 585 coaches) to take part in sport competitions (30 sport disciplines included traditional sport). 803 medals awarded. It has been a beautiful invasion.Our dream was to create an event that wasn’t just a sports event, but also one that would come close to the idea of “third half” where relationships, curiosity and the idea of increasing one’s personal knowledge of other people’s lives were the glue and the memory that the guests would keep with them. EXPOSPORT leaves an important mark on each and every one of us. It teaches us that meeting can be a great moment of joy, in which one can learn and try to know the other better, in which to be curious about different cultures – looking for a discussion in order to understand if the image we have and what we think of the “other” is actually true. With their curiosity and thirst for answers, young people are the real protagonists of this event and this discovery. EXPOSPORT represented an occasion in which all of us can try to verify if our prejudices and stereotypes are true, in a friendly and peaceful way. Each of us is open to having a relationship with the other person, without asking that they speak our language perfectly and accepting that our starting points and references are different – but also with the desire to discover what the common elements are. Young boys and girls met, got to know each other, looked for each other. This meeting occurred while sharing a sports moment, but also while coexisting in the canteen, dancing together during the cultural evenings. The event’s meaning is that permanent mark of inter-culture and coexistence which is left in each participant and in the city too. It cannot be expressed just by the images of the very moving opening ceremony, when everyone paraded in their own colours, uniforms, under the banner of their country or sports club. It can be read also in the closing ceremony, so messy, mixed and simple, but also explosive for the joy that it can communicate. It is expressed also by the richer gesture of young people exchanging T-shirts, memories and gifts. EXPOSPORT and the International Tricolour Games are a success because they bring again unity among young people and they are also a concrete and tangible exercise of inter-culture and openness – which don’t take away any rights and don’t just impose rules, but make us grow and become richer.