For 16 days, the world’s attention was fixed on these inspiring individuals. Their performances across a panoply of events were the subject of scrutiny, exhilaration and breathless anticipation; success was celebrated; loss was buried in quiet anguish. As the competitors now trickle out of China, bound for their homelands, attention will shift away from Olympism and its media-amplified sporting feats.

Yet this exodus of elite athletes should not herald a diminishment in recognising championship. China’s sporting events became the global epicentre of attention; now, following the exhilaration of sport, the world needs to be gently reminded that champions are not just to be found on the racetrack or in the pool.

Indeed, the notion of ‘championship’ itself was intensely scrutinised before the Games even began.

Peking University played host over two remarkable days to one of the world's great platforms of debate. The 2008 What Makes a Champion Forum, held on August 4 and 5, assembled a unique assortment of international leaders and visionaries, sharing their individual perceptions of the ingredients that define excellence and success.

The Forum – the brainchild of Professor Allan Snyder, Director of The Centre for the Mind at the University of Sydney – has become an official, IOC-recognised Olympic event, first held at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games and to be repeated for a third time at the London 2012 Games.

Western and Eastern champions collaborated at a series of presentations and panels, all recorded by China's largest television station, CCTV.

Visionary former British Prime Minister Tony Blair opened the 2008 Forum with a galvanising keynote address that highlighted seven key areas of championship – among them, persistence, striving for success and courage.

“The courage lies not in acting without fear, but acting despite fear,” he said.

The successes of international athletes, researchers and business executives were lauded and admired. Collectively, their stories and insights probed the many dimensions of ‘championship’, at once re-enlivening the intellectual profile of the Olympics and demonstrating the power of ideas and determination outside of sport.

The elite were not alone, however. Other champions, chosen from the more ‘ordinary’ walks of life – scientists, journalists, businesspeople and athletes with disabilities – demonstrated the universal potential of championship.

Together, all 50 speakers distilled some of the key ingredients demanded by championship. Their successes now urge a sport-dazed world to return to the audacious, pioneering accomplishments occurring in public institutions around the world every day, and to recognise the more ‘ordinary’ services of thousands of men and women.

The exodus of elite sportspeople will now usher normality back into China. Around the globe, however, normality is the staple of championship.


Lukasz Swiatek was selected to represent Australia as a student delegate at the What Makes a Champion Forum.