Founder of the first International Peace March 1956

Seventeen year old John Ian Wing, was the founder of the first International Peace March. He chose the closing ceremony of the 1956 Olympic Games as his venue to stage his march.

The 1956 Olympic Games was held in Melbourne Australia during the height of the Cold War. Throughout the world, there was much global tension and political unrest because of the Suez Crisis, the invasion of Hungary by Russia, tension between East and west Germany and between main-land China and Taiwan. A decade earlier, World War Two shook the foundations of human civilization. It should have served a lesson for future generations that aggression and violence was not the way to win world peace.

In his original letter to the organizing committee, he wrote, "...during the march, there will only be One Nation. War, politics and nationality will all be forgotten, what more could anybody want, if the whole world could be made as One Nation." The boy had just turned 17 years of age, five days before the start of the Games.

The IOC President Avery Brundage agreed to the boy's request and changed
the rules of the Closing Ceremony.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• hot topics
• educational
• spirituality
• inspirational
• sports
• olympic games
• peace movement