International sports stars join forces in Paris to promote peace

Former footballer Didier Drogba joined South Africa's rugby World Cup-winning captain Siya Kolisi and Olympians Marlène Harnois and Masomah Ali Zada in Paris to launch the 2024 white card campaign as part of the celebrations on Saturday for the international day of sport for development and peace.

"Everyone has to pass on the message of peace to everyone in their circle," said Drogba during a conference at Unesco's headquarters.

"And you've got to want to believe in what the message is about," added the former Chelsea star.

The white card campaign – created by the independent organisation Peace and Sport – urges people to post a picture of themselves on social media holding up a card just like a football referee.

But rather than yellow or red, the white card is meant as a gesture of inclusion, equity and peace.

"Last year there were 180 million people who supported the campaign," said Marlène Harnois who won a bronze medal for Canada in taekwando at the 2012 Olympics in London.

"We've had all the biggest names in sport supporting the campaign and it just shows that a lot of those champions believe in those values."

Finding a sense of belonging

The four sports stars in Paris spearhead a group of more than 100 high level athletes campaigning to promote peace on the back of their sporting achievements.

"When I was younger, I struggled with quite a lot of simple things like food," said Siya Kolisi who has set up a foundation to fight against inequality and gender-based violence in South Africa. 

"I was walking to school without shoes on," he told the conference. "I found the game of rugby and I started playing it. So I felt this sense of belonging, where people loved me and cared about me just because of what I can do on the rugby field.

"They didn't want anything more than that. And I think I also discovered that we all come from different backgrounds and we face different challenges but we do something common and just play sport and then they accept me through that.

"Then I kind of found my peace because I knew that even when everything isn't going well at home or in the neighbourhood, when I go to training, that's where I found my peace."

Giving back 'the right thing to do'

Kolisi, 32, also spoke of his surprise in 2018 when he became the first black man to skipper the South Africa rugby team – traditionally considered the preserve of the white minority.

"The South Africa coach was my team coach when I was younger so he knew that I used to drink a lot and get into trouble. I thought it was a joke ... I was looking around behind me to see if he was talking to someone else but he was being serious.

"It was tough because it was a lot of pressure," he added.

Kolisi was inspirational during the side's surge to the 2019 rugby union World Cup in 2019 and he was equally transcendent as the South Africans defended the title in 2023 in France. 

"Those life lessons that I learned when I was young have  helped me become the person that I am today,"Kolisi added.

"And the giving back has come from there, it's not because I made it and I became someone. No. I just want to give back just because it's the right thing to do."

Defending women's rights

Masomah Ali Zada, who took part in the cycling at the 2020 Olympic Games as part of the refugees Olympic team, told delegates of her struggles to train as a cyclist in Afghanistan.

"When I was in Afghanistan, there were security problems and the other problem was that people didn't agree with me. Sometimes we wanted to get out of Kabul and go to villages near Kabul to train.

"But afterwards, people would tell us: 'You mustn't come here, you're not an example for the other women in our neighbourhood.'"

After fleeing Afghanistan with her family in 2016, Zada has settled in France where she is studying for an engineering degree. She is due to be be chief supervisor of the Refugee Oympic Team at the Paris Games.

"I'm here in France," she told the conference. "I'm still doing sports, I'm taking part in the Olympics," she added.

"I'm trying to integrate in a new country and trying to improve myself to give the best back to my host country.

"And that positive message, at least for me, is important and I can transform it. Taking part in the Olympics was already a positive image for me as a refugee. It was a chance to defend women's rights."