Few people would consider the recent news that breaking – or breakdancing – has been proposed for inclusion in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris as one of the more politically relevant disciplines of the year.

But as a sign that sport has the potential to play a unifying role in a fragmented world, this move may be more significant than it first appears.

The last decade has seen a rise in far-right populism, which often manifests itself in hostility towards other groups, including migrants, ethnic minorities, feminists and the LGBT community. Populism, which is based on fear of ‘the other’, typically promotes the exclusion of those who do not fit into familiar molds.

In contrast, sport is proving to be a powerful tool for inclusion. It offers all participants the opportunity to compete under equal conditions, regardless of gender, ethnic origin, religion or sexual orientation.

The founders of the modern Olympic Games could hardly have imagined including something like breakdancing – a sport invented by street children in New York’s Bronx in the late 1960s – in their first Games in 1896. Nor could they have thought of surfing, rock climbing or skateboarding, all of which will make their Olympic debut next year in Tokyo.

The most inclusive sporting event in history

At that time, only 245 athletes, all men, from 14 nations took part in the first modern games in Athens. The 43 events included curiosities such as the one-handed weightlifting competition as well as now iconic events such as the 100-meter sprint and the marathon.

By comparison, the Tokyo Olympics will feature a record 339 events in 33 sports. According to Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee, this expansion is intended to make the games more youthful and urban, while also increasing the number of female participants. More than 200 nations are expected to take part in the most inclusive sporting event in history.

Obviously, the Olympic Games have come a long way since 1896, when the rules allowed only amateurs to participate. These rules lasted for almost a century and exposed the Games to criticism that they favored the elite of society: the “gentleman” athlete who does not have to earn a living from sport.

The Olympic Games have also often shaped world politics.

Perhaps most notable is the failure of Hitler’s plans to use the Games as a propaganda tool to promote Aryan supremacy at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. At that time, black American athlete Jesse Owens was widely applauded for winning an unprecedented four gold medals in the 100 and 200 meter races, the relay race and the long jump.

Rivalry without resentment is possible.

Or think of the 1968 Mexico Games. What is particularly remembered there is the black-gloved salute from the winners’ podium by 200-meter medalists Tommie Smith and John Carlos as they protested against black poverty in the United States.

Smith and Carlos were excluded from the Games, but their actions – which were widely praised in later years – drew world attention to the abuses of racial discrimination.

My personal conviction that sport can unite people and races and help overcome international barriers came at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, the first of 17 that I covered as a journalist.

I, a cynical young journalist at the time, was tasked with finding stories in the Olympic Village. There I observed athletes from different countries happily coming together and sharing their joy in sporting activities. It was exactly what the modern Olympic founder Pierre de Coubertin had in mind with his ideal of “strengthening friendly understanding between peoples for the benefit of humanity”.

I have witnessed this rivalry without rancor between participants many times since then at major events. This is what makes sport so important to humanity.

Sadly, ideals are not sacrosanct at the Olympics or anywhere else.

England loved Mo Farah, a former refugee.

The vast amounts of money pumped into sport in recent times have led to corruption, greed, doping and other forms of cheating, and have tarnished much of what the sport once achieved. Countries seeking international prestige – most notably Greece and Brazil over the past 15 years – have spent huge sums they could ill afford to host huge sporting events that have left them saddled with debt.

Nor do the heroic achievements of inspiring athletes always succeed in making a lasting difference to hearts and minds.

One of my greatest sporting thrills was watching Mo Farah run the 5,000 metres at the London 2012 Olympic Games. This brilliant runner, who came to Britain as a refugee child from Somalia, electrified the crowd at the Olympic Stadium, cheering him with a cacophony I had never heard before as he won his second gold medal of the Games for Great Britain.

Farah became a national hero and won the same double gold medal four years later at the Rio Games, and was eventually knighted.

But when the United Kingdom voted for Brexit in 2016, it embarked on a path that could exclude future Mo Farahs. The decision to leave the European Union was largely motivated by a desire to severely restrict immigration.