Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus has received the Olympic Laurel award during the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics in Japan on Friday, 23rd July 2021.

Professor Muhammad Yunus on his official Facebook page wrote, “I am honoured and overwhelmed to receive this Olympic Laurel. And so sad I can’t be there with you. The IOC is taking the social dimension of sports very seriously. You, athletes of the world, can provide the leadership in transforming this world. And create a world of three zeros: zero net carbon emission, zero wealth concentration to end poverty and once for all, zero unemployment by unleashing the power of entrepreneurship in everyone. I wish the IOC success with its mission to help transform this world to a more peaceful world through sport. I wish all of you, best of luck for your competitions. Thank you again for this award, that is so special to me. Thank you.”

The Olympic Laurel is a distinction awarded by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to honour those who have “made significant achievements in education, culture, development and peace through sport”. The Olympic Laurel was awarded for the first time on 5 August 2016, during the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games Rio 2016, and was given to Kipchoge Keino, a former Kenyan track athlete who was once the chair of the Kenyan Olympic Committee. IOC President Thomas Bach stated that through the Olympic Laurel they are reconnecting with the ideals and values of the Ancient Olympic Games.

Professor Muhammad Yunus has received this award because of his contribution to sports. He has founded the social organization ‘Yunus Sports Hub’. It is a global social business network creating solutions in and through sport.

Professor Yunus asserts: “sport is powerful because it is basic to human beings”. Its emotional power draws on basic and fundamental human experiences of sharing a common language, solidarity, and fellowship. In his opening speech at the 129th Session of the International Olympic Committee, during the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Prof Yunus highlighted how social business could be used as a game-changing tool to unleash the sports sector’s potential for large-scale social transformation.

Social business can be used towards solving problems that are inherent to the sports sector, such as athletes’ financial struggles, gender inequality, or exclusion in sport. The IOC’s Athlete365 Business Accelerator, a program aiming at empowering athletes to become entrepreneurs on 5 continents by providing them the skills, tools, access to connections, and to potential funders is a perfect example of a social business program aiming at supporting athletes in their financial stability.

Social business can also be used to solve problems by leveraging the fantastic range of powers sport has to offer. Its economic power, for instance, as a USD 1.3 trillion sectors, can be used in the direction of making a meaningful difference in people’s life. The ESS 2024 program, aiming at maximizing the share of the 7 billion euros of the Paris 2024 Games budget that will be spent with social business suppliers, which can not only deliver the products or services needed for the Games (catering for instance), but will do it by solving a social problem (for example, only hiring long term unemployed people)

As a longer-term vision, Professor Yunus would like to provide his support to transform the sport into a social business-driven sector. The sports sector, at present, stays largely in black and white, on two ends of the spectrum: the mega-revenue, business and entertainment-focused sports industry on one end, and grassroots sport for development efforts on another. Social business can be a tool to create a strong middle way that allows more financial independence for the grass-roots, better social outcomes from mega-sports, and more potential to redesign a system that creates problematic binaries.

Yunus Sports Hub empowers athletes across the globe to create new economic opportunities for themselves and others. In their entrepreneurship programs, current and transitioning athletes receive mentorship from their initial idea all the way to the launch of their business. They help organizations to build on their core competencies to create solutions to social and environmental problems, in and through sports providing social-business expertise and guide to design and launch projects and programs based on sustainable financing models, in link with the sport. They also can create a tailor-made social business program for individuals.

Yunus Sports Hub believes that the next generation’s passion to solve human problems can be used to create a global community centered around sport & social business. Through programs and training, they equip young sports leaders with the skills of the 21st century, including leadership skills, empathy, and practical knowledge about social business.

Through collaborative partnerships and innovation, Yunus Sports Hub facilitates the development of social business ecosystems around sports centers. This is accomplished by providing space to local social businesses in existing sport and community facilities. The centers can then provide sport as a tool for local economic and social development as well as sustain themselves through innovative business models.

“Bangladesh will be so proud of this award because Bangladesh is a country that doesn’t get close to an Olympic medal. But they have a cause for a celebration now. The whole world will watch a Bangladeshi receiving an Olympic award which will make every single person of Bangladesh proud of it. I believe it’ll be something that Bangladesh will remember for long,” said Prof Yunus in a virtual press meet prior to receive the award.

Prof Yunus is a former Director of the Department of Economics at the University of Chittagong, Bangladesh. He is the founder of Grameen Bank. In 2006, Professor Yunus and the Grameen Bank were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their fight against poverty. Professor Yunus has received more than 140 prestigious awards in 36 countries and is one of only seven people in history to have received the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom (United States), and the Congressional Medal of Honor (United States).