Sports Moments That Changed the World

Sports have a long history of influencing international relations.

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.

20. 'Chinese Dream' of Soccer Supremacy

Soccer in China — China's Lin Taijun, left, knocks the ball away from a Myanmar player during a youth soccer tournament in Qinhuangdao in northern China's Hebei Province in 2016.

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.

19. Rodman Conducts 'Basketball Diplomacy'

Former NBA basketball star Dennis Rodman, center, watches from courtside during a practice session for North Korean basketball players in Pyongyang, North Korea, in 2013.

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.

18. Grateful Dead Sponsors Lithuanian Basketball

Members of the Lithuanian basketball team in tie-dyed shirts.

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.

17. Iran Celebrates a World Cup Win

Iran/USA — Iran's Mehrdad Minavand Chal challenges U.S. player Frankie Hejduk during a 1998 World Cup soccer match at Gerland Stadium in France.

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.

16. North and South Korea Play Together During the Olympics

Korean unification at 2018 Winter Olympics — North Korea supporters, top, wave the Korean unification flag as players of combined Koreas gather at the end of a women's hockey game against Switzerland at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Gangneung, South Korea.

Year: 2018

Location: PyeongChang, South Korea (and North Korea)

What happened: The Olympic delegations from both North and South Korea participated in the opening and closing ceremonies together and played in unity under the Korean Unification Flag.

Why it’s significant: North and South Korea first marched as one team at the opening ceremony of the 2000 Games in Sydney, Australia. The 2018 Winter Olympics saw additional unification as host country South Korea partnered with the North to compete under team name "Korea" in ice hockey.

This action is especially significant because there was never a formal treaty to end the Korean War, only a ceasefire agreed to in 1953.

The Korean War officially continues to this day, except at these Olympics.

15. Armenia and Turkey Sit Together at the World Cup

Serge Sarkisian and Abdullah Gul — Armenia President Serge Sarkisian, left, and Turkey President Abdullah Gul, right, before a World Cup qualifying soccer match between Turkey and Armenia at the Ataturk Stadium in Bursa, Turkey, in 2009.

Year: 2009

Location: Yerevan, Armenia's capital

What happened: The leaders of Armenia and Turkey held talks before their World Cup qualifier match and sat together at the game to repair relations between the two neighboring countries, which did not have diplomatic ties.

Why it’s significant: With Armenia and Turkey divided over the legacy of early 20th-century genocide, Turkey's president, Abdullah Gul, attended a soccer match after accepting an historic invitation from his Armenian counterpart, Serge Sarkisian.

It was the first time they met at a senior level. Shortly after the game, the two nations established diplomatic ties and ended a century of animosity.

The president of Armenia wrote in the Wall Street Journal: "Just as the people of China and the United States shared enthusiasm for ping-pong ... the people of Armenia and Turkey are united in their love of football."

He went on to say that "whatever our differences, there are certain cultural, humanitarian and sports links that our people share, even with a closed border."

14. Air Jordans Go Global

Year: 1989

Location: Anywhere that was cool

What happened: After Michael Jordan made "The Shot" against the Cleveland Cavaliers to win an important Game 5 during the playoffs, Nike released the Air Jordan IV to the global market and added director Spike Lee to ads after he featured the shoe in his movie "Do The Right Thing."

Why it’s significant: When the NBA banned shoes that didn’t have enough white on them, Air Jordans became legendary as they were synonymous with Michael Jordan’s individualism. His Nike shoes unleashed generations looking for their voice.

With high price points and even higher demand, Air Jordans inadvertently caused riots, robberies and even murder. While they were initially made in Italy, thousands of workers who made them in places like Indonesia, Vietnam and China went on strike over wage violations.

No other basketball shoe revolutionized global business and sports marketing like the Air Jordans. Without them, Klay Thompson couldn’t sign one of the most lucrative shoe deals in history with Chinese shoe brand Ante, aiming to become the Air Jordan of Asian sneakers.

13. Soccer and the Arab Spring

Egyptian Al Ahly club player Mohamed Aboutrika is embraced by a fan in Cairo, Egypt, in 2013.

Year: 2011

Location: Arab nations: Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, and Bahrain

What happened: 2011 was a revolutionary year for many Arab nations, and soccer supporters played a pivotal role in those uprisings.

Why it’s significant: During the "Arab Spring," a series of anti-authoritarian government uprisings across the Middle East, repressive regimes closed soccer stadiums in an effort to prevent radical communities from gathering and coordinating in the stands.

Shutting down one of the only outlets for releasing the pent-up anger of disenfranchised young men had the opposite effect in Egypt as fans of its two largest football clubs, Al Ahly and Zamalek, came together and turned their aggression toward the government.

Cairo’s ultra soccer fans then agreed to an unprecedented truce with those expressing their opposition to the autocrats in power.

Because radical soccers fans around the world have a long history of street conflict and ethnic cleansing, recruiting these fans to fight for a revolution wasn’t hard. Soccer stadiums around the world have been battle grounds for issues such as women’s rights, national rights, ethnic rights and religious rights.

12. New Zealand Rugby Initiates the Haka

New Zealand Kiwis perform the haka before a rugby match.

Year: 1888

Location: New Zealand

What happened: The haka, performed by the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team, is one of the most famous pregame challenges in the sports world.

Why it’s significant: There isn’t another pregame ritual in sports quite like the haka, which pays homage to the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand, the Maori.

The formation dance was used to physically and mentally prepare Maori warriors for battle, and the All Blacks now utilize it to ready themselves for rugby battles on the pitch.

The haka also is used as a sign of community and solidarity, like the students who performed haka to pay tribute to classmates killed during the Christchurch shooting.

11. Hungary’s Water Polo Win

Year: 1956

Location: Melbourne, Australia Olympics (Hungary vs. the Soviet Union)

What happened: Hungary won a violent water polo match against the USSR after learning that an anti-Soviet uprising was put down in Budapest, their capital city.

Why it’s significant: After being told about thousands of deaths and arrests following the Soviet invasion of Hungary, the Hungarian water polo team devised a strategic plan to provoke their occupying opponents to fight.

As blood filled the water from kicking and punching on both sides, five players were ejected, and the Hungarians comfortably won the game 4-0 on their way to winning gold.

10. Refugee Olympic Team Created

Year: 2015

Location: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

What happened: The International Olympic Committee created the "Refugee Olympic Team" to enable athletes from the world’s 68.5 million displaced people to compete in the 2016 Olympics and draw attention to their plight.

Why it’s significant: More people have been forced to leave their homes by conflict than at any time since World War II. The civil war in Syria has been one of the largest drivers of this crisis.

Nearly a year after the announcement, athletes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Syria competed alongside other teams in Brazil.

This Refugee team inspired the world with the strength of their human spirit and drew attention to the global refugee crisis.

9. Ping-Pong Diplomacy

Year: 1972

Location: China and United States

What happened: The United States and China organized table tennis matches, leading to U.S. President Richard Nixon’s historic visit to Beijing to meet with Chinese President Mao Zedong.

Why it’s significant: After World War II and Mao Zedong’s communist revolution in 1949, Chinese relations with the U.S. became "cold" as China’s economy grew closer to the Soviet Union’s. China vs. the U.S. got heated during the Korean War, but by 1971, both nations were looking for open dialogue with one another as China’s alliance with the Soviet Union soured.

The U.S. and China opened secret communications, but the first breakthrough came from a nice public encounter between Chinese and American ping-pong players at the 1971 World Table Tennis Championships in Nagoya, Japan. China’s best player shook an American ping-ponger’s hand and spoke to him through an interpreter as photographers caught the whole incident on film.

You might recall the movie "Forrest Gump" commemorating this fantastic "ping-pong diplomacy" program.

8. World War I Christmas Truce 'Football'

Year: 1914

Location: Belgium (Germans vs. Brits)

What happened: While tending to the dead and wounded one Christmas night during World War I, opposing teams played football (i.e., soccer) rather than kill each other.

Why it’s significant: Before tanks and airplanes changed how wars were fought, World War I had opposing trenches with a "no man’s land" in between. In December 1914, German and British soldiers agreed to a "truce" in order to leave their trenches and care for the dead and wounded.

As they crossed enemy lines, soldiers began bartering and singing Christmas carols, leading to a few quick games of "footie."

These moments were fleeting, but it’s ironic how much the current American football field, with its opposing end zones and goal of conquering territory, can remind fans of trench warfare and a better way to battle.

7. 'Rumble in the Jungle' Brings Ali to the World

Year: 1974

Location: Zaire (now Democratic Republic of the Congo)

What happened: Sixty thousand fans in Africa, plus another billion worldwide via television, watched underdog Muhammad Ali beat undefeated world heavyweight champion George Foreman in an eighth-round knockout victory.

Why it’s significant: Seven years before this international boxing match, Muhammed Ali was stripped of his title, sentenced to prison, and suspended from boxing for refusing to comply with the Vietnam War draft.

Martin Luther King Jr. later quoted Ali in support of his position: "As Muhammad Ali puts it, we are all — black and brown and poor — victims of the same system of oppression."

A year later, the "Thrilla in Manilla" became the most-hyped rubber match of all time, pitting Muhammad Ali against Joe Frazier. Ali also won this international event and both matches cemented his famous "rope-a-dope" strategy in history.

It’s no wonder that Muhammed Ali became the face of American boxing around the world. Later, a famous boxer from the Philippines, Manny Pacquiao, became a senator there.

6. India’s Cricket Team Tours Pakistan

India-Pakistan cricket — A Pakistani policeman walks past a welcome banner for the Indian cricket team, in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, in 2004. The discovery of a bomb outside the U.S. Consulate in Karachi prompted police to step up security arrangements for a Pakistan-India cricket match in Rawalpindi.

Year: 2004

Location: India and Pakistan

What happened: India’s cricket team went on a Test match tour to neighboring Pakistan after decades of conflict between the two countries, and thousands of Indian fans travelled along to watch.

Why it’s significant: The border rivalry between India and Pakistan is one of the most significant in the world, dating back to 1947 when Pakistan was carved out from India on religious lines by the British after World War II.

The partition led to horrific mass killings, genocide and rioting in different parts of India and Pakistan. To this day, they fight over the Kashmir border region.

Cricket matches were used as an icebreaker for this rivalry. Even the current prime minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, a former cricketer, said that the tour "transcends sports, it is much more than cricket, it is passion."

5. Two Powerful Fists at 1968 Olympics

Year: 1968

Location: Mexico City Olympics and United States (American civil rights)

What happened: Two American track and field athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, who finished first and third in the 200-meter sprint race, performed the black power salute on the victory stand.

Why it’s significant: Civil rights took center stage in Mexico City during the 1968 Olympics as Tommie Smith and John Carlos created one of the most enduring images in the history of sports and protest.

Cheered by civil rights marchers in the U.S. and demonized by the press and their national team, Smith and Carlos were sent home immediately after their act of defiance.

It wasn’t until the early 1980s that the sports community began honoring their salute as a global moment of courage.

4. Miracle on Ice

Year: 1980

Location: Lake Placid, New York (U.S. vs. U.S.S.R.)

What happened: A bunch of amateur hockey players from the U.S. defeated the four-time defending gold medalist professionals from the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War.

Why it’s significant: The Soviet team had years of experience in international play while the U.S. team was the youngest team in the tournament. Just see the game’s final moment for yourself.

The U.S. went on to clinch the gold medal by beating Finland in the final game.

Sports Illustrated named the "Miracle on Ice" the top sports moment of the 20th century.

3. Bush Throws Out First Pitch After 9/11

President George W. Bush throws out the ceremonial first pitch before Game 3 of the 2001 World Series between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the New York Yankees in New York.

Year: 2001

Location: Yankee Stadium (Bronx, New York)

What happened: During the 2001 World Series after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, President George W. Bush threw out the first pitch in Game 3, the first game of the series played in New York City.

Why it’s significant: Many U.S. presidents participated in the American tradition of throwing out the first pitch, but George W. Bush’s throw at Yankee Stadium following 9/11 became the most famous. It reminded Americans to "play ball" again.

After Major League Baseball resumed play following the attacks, American sports saw some of its most iconic moments. At Shea Stadium, Mike Piazza hit a walk-off home run in the Mets’ first home game. And Boston Red Sox fans proudly sang "New York, New York" at a few games.

President Bush’s simple pitch urged the nation to move forward with strength and resiliency, like New York’s first responders at Ground Zero.

2. Rugby World Cup Unites South Africa

Year: 1995

Location: South Africa

What happened: Hosted and won by South Africa, this Rugby World Cup was the first to have every match held in the same country and the first major sporting event to take place in South Africa following the end of apartheid.

Why it’s significant: Apartheid ("separateness") in South Africa was a political system of racial segregation that existed for decades until institutionally coming to an end in the early 1990s under the leadership of Nelson Mandela. The 1995 Rugby World Cup was the first in which South Africa was allowed to compete, as it had been previously banned from the international game because of apartheid.

During the championship game, South Africa defeated New Zealand in extra time. After the game, Mandela, the country’s first black head of state, presented the trophy to white South African captain François Pienaar.

The film "Invictus" fittingly captures their relationship and its effect on the nation and the world.

1. Jesse Owens Ruins Hitler’s Olympics

Year: 1936

Location: Germany vs. the free world

What happened: African-American sprint star Jesse Owens won four gold medals at Hitler’s Berlin Games, disproving the Nazi theory of Aryan racial superiority.

Why it’s significant: Before World War II officially kicked off, Adolf Hitler hoped to use the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin as a show of German force and Nazi racial superiority.

His plans were thwarted on the field and in the global media as Jesse Owens, a black American, dominated the 100 meter, 200 meter, 4x100-meter relay and the long jump. Owens also managed to break or equal nine Olympic records and set three world records, destroying the Olympics’ racial hierarchy and humiliating Hitler.

While Germany still won many medals and Owens’ wins didn’t budge the policies of American racism, his heroism helped pave the way for the civil rights movement after WWII.

What's Next for Sports Diplomacy?

Hillary Clinton and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar — Former NBA basketball star and global cultural ambassador Kareem Abdul-Jabbar gives then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a Los Angeles Lakers basketball jersey at the State Department in Washington, D.C., in 2012. Abdul-Jabbar has traveled the world to engage a generation of young people to help promote diplomacy.

Sports have the power to win hearts and minds.

While sports diplomacy may never become a formalized field of study, competing with others through organized sports enables more than a few playful moments to see the world in a new way.