ABSTRACT
The present chapter takes a closer look at Olympic Social Responsibility (OSR), as pursued under the IOC’s sustainability strategy. We will do so by analysing the internal documents in which the IOC describes this strategy, which we will then assess in the light of the organisation’s objective of sharing its social responsibility. We begin by bringing together the notions of OSR and shared social responsibility (SSR), a conceptual extension of social responsibility that, when combined with Olympism, allowed us to define a form of shared OSR. We then examine the difficulties involved in implementing such a shared OSR and highlight the paradoxes the Olympic movement will have to overcome in order to ensure all its members “share” its vision of sustainability. This final section not only reiterates the importance of consistency between words and deeds, it also stresses the need for the IOC to have sufficient influence over its stakeholders to ensure they work in concert to help build a better world.
