Sing Like Kreek: Right To Play Ouster A Dumb Move

Canadian rower Adam Kreek is an inspiring athlete. His rousing rendition of O Canada when he and his teammates in the men’s eight won Olympic gold in Beijing motivated triathlete Simon Whitfield in his stirring silver-medal performance at the Games. Whitfield wrote “Sing Like Kreek” on the handlebars of his bike.

Kreek, an ambassador for the humanitarian group Right To Play, sent an email yesterday saying he can’t fathom last week’s move by the IOC to ban the organization from the athletes village at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and future Games. It was the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) who made the original decision to bar Right To Play for the first time since its inception in 1992.

REUTERS FILE PHOTO

Speaking of Adam Kreek and inspiring.

Here’s what Kreek wrote:

I hope you have been following the dumb move by the IOC. The exact same values I was touting for using sport for development and inclusiveness in our last correspondence have been thrown out the window. Let's keep support for the grass roots. Let's keep support for the poor children. Let's give a helping hand. Exclusion and elitism does not do this.

To re-state we often overlook the importance a more inclusive event can have on the goals of human development and peace, the humanitarian side of the Olympic movement. A big part of the Olympics is about bringing as many people together with divergent heritages and backgrounds on a common playing field. We need to be able to overlook the petty differences that keep people disconnected and find ways to integrate as many cultural participants in the Olympic games as is fair and ethical.

Right to Play is one of the best humanitarian efforts that the Olympic movement has produced. This organization needs all the support and help it can get!!!

Olympic champion speed skater Clara Hughes has posted in her blog on what Right To Play means to her. Here’s an excerpt telling how Right To Play motivated her when she was looking for inspiration before the 5,000 metres at the 2006 Turin Games. She saw a feature of the group's work on a CBC feed:

I saw clearly how these shy little kids who literally had nothing were transformed when engaged in sport; engaged in play. Their eyes told the stories of horrors beyond belief, yet these same eyes shone with what I can only qualify as joy when they played. Right to Play had been in Uganda for some time at that point, and the programs were proving more than effective. In fact, many people said that these were the programs having a true, lasting impact on these children.

I remembered a passage in a book I read throughout my time in Italy. It was a book about the mythological historian Joseph Campbell, and he talked about finding joy in the struggle of being human and how this was when one is truly alive.

I saw these kids and this transformation was exactly that: finding joy in the struggle.

See the full post here.

Comments

[Mark]

Banning Right to Play simply underlines what the Olympics has become....a commercially driven enterprise. When the interests of "rights holders" and "advertisers" takes precedence over charitable causes, especially those involving children, it's pretty sad to see what the Olympics has degenerated into.

[Travis]

Another excellent post. I wish more people were talking about Right to Play and VANOC. Please keep the updates coming!

[carol]

Right to Play is amazing. I've done volunteer work for this group in Can and the U.S. I am appalled at the actions of both VANOC and the IOC. Please keep the spotlight on their despicable behaviour.