Sports Moments That Changed the World

Sports can unite and divide. Take the Olympics. In addition to welcoming the world’s best athletes, the international sporting event has hosted boycotts and symbolic protests. Look at Jackie Robinson crossing the color line in baseball or Billie Jean King defeating the opposing sex in a tennis battle. Sports have played an important role in the fight for civil and political rights.

Today, Greek fans in Milwaukee give Giannis Antetokounmpo an encore ovation after a basketball game. Slovenian fans pack a stadium in Miami to cheer on opposing players named Goran Dragic and Luka Doncic. An ex-president of Iran tweets about football in Michigan. And the Boston Bruins even travel to China to play hockey.

Sports don’t just reflect culture and economics. They also can transcend cultural differences, influence international relations and shape society. Here are the most inspiring moments of sports diplomacy — when sports and politics collided on the world stage.

Year: Today

Location: China and the world

What happened: Becoming a soccer power is a big part of President Xi Jinping’s “Chinese Dream,” a vision of China’s future as a respected world power.

Why it’s significant: The United States isn’t the only country exporting power and politics through the games it plays. China’s government recently instituted a national program to boost its soccer status around the world.

President Xi believes sport has great significance, saying that “doing physical exercise helps keep us in good shape and improve our work efficiency.” (He sounds a lot like Theodore Roosevelt talking about football.)

The world might have seen this coming as they watched the 2008 opening ceremony of the Beijing Summer Olympics.

And guess who’s sponsoring Kenya’s only ice hockey team, vying for a spot in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing? It’s not Russia. It’s the world’s fifth-largest Internet company, Alibaba, founded in China.

Year: 2013

Location: North Korea vs. the free world

What happened: NBA star Dennis Rodman got together with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (a big fan of the 1990s Chicago Bulls) to watch an exhibition game between the United States and North Korea in Pyongyang.

Why it’s significant: While Dennis Rodman was more well known for being a basketball bad boy than diplomat, he’s credited with the release of an American prisoner who was detained after crossing the North Korean border in 2012.

Rodman has been shuttled back and forth a few times since, not only watching basketball with and signing “Happy Birthday” to North Korea’s leader, but also more recently hand-delivering a copy of President Donald Trump’s “The Art of the Deal” to North Korea’s sports minister.

Year: 1992

Location: Barcelona Summer Olympics

What happened: Dubbed “the other dream team,” Lithuanian national basketball players won a bronze medal at the Olympics after the Grateful Dead, motivated by their story, funded their trip to the Olympics.

Why it’s significant: The same year the American “Dream Team” dominated the 1992 Olympics, the Lithuanian national team became the second-most marketable team on the basketball court. Just look at those uniforms.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, Lithuania re-established its independence and entered the Olympics as an independent country. NBA players Sarunas Marciulionis and Arvydas Sabonis couldn’t afford everything the team needed to get to the Olympics, so the Grateful Dead stepped in and wrote a check to the team after a backstage meetup with Bill Walton.

After 50 years of Soviet oppression, the Lithuanian basketball team (and their outstanding tie-dyed uniforms) became a symbol of hope and liberation.

Year: 1998

Location: France (U.S. vs. Iran)

What happened: Amid ongoing tensions, Iran beat the U.S. in the “mother of all games” at the World Cup.

Why it’s significant: The Iranian Revolution ousted the pro-American Shah in 1979 and led to 52 American citizens being held hostage for 444 days.

Nearly two decades later, relations between the two countries were just as hostile. But both sides traded flowers and gifts before this soccer game and showed each other respect.

Iran’s 2-1 victory sparked wild celebrations in Iran that threatened to destabilize the government. Iranians openly danced and drank alcohol in political acts of defiance. Women took off their headscarves.

“We did more in 90 minutes than the politicians did in 20 years,” said U.S. defender Jeff Agoos after the game.

This win paved the way for a subsequent and successful series of volleyball games between the two countries in the early 2000s.