As I’ve studied the Olympic Movement during the past decade, I’ve realized that it is, quite simply, a force for good in the world. For the past 108 years, the modern Movement has welcomed people from every walk of life - in some cases decades before the rest of the world recognized the most basic elements of their humanity. Years before blacks could choose their seat on a bus in America, they could stand on top of the medal stand at the Olympic Games. Long before women could vote in most western countries, they competed as Olympic athletes.

And by providing such an international showcase for diversity and tolerance, the Movement has been able to dramatically highlight the need for change in regions across the world.

Today, while so many institutions and nations still struggle with the issue of women’s equality, the IOC has continued to insist that women be treated fairly and equally.

Four years ago, Afghanistan failed that test. The Taliban regime wouldn’t let women play sports and so the IOC banned the Afghani delegation from competing in the Sydney Games.

Now, in Athens, Afghanistan will return to the Games. And as its delegation enters the Olympic Stadium for the Opening Ceremony, it will most likely be led by a woman, bearing the Afghani flag and the hopes of her nation.

Eleven years before Jackie Robinson would be allowed to play in the Major Leagues, his brother Mack was competing alongside Jesse Owens under the resentful eye of Adolph Hitler at the 1936 Berlin Games.

And while many nations – including our own – were grappling with diplomatic uncertainty on how to deal with apartheid’s gross abuse of human rights, the IOC acted decisively, banning South Africa from competition for more than two decades: from 1970-1991.

At the 1992 Games in Barcelona, Derartu Tulu — a black Ethiopian — passed Elana Meyer — a white South African — in the final lap of the 10,000 meter race. But instead of celebrating her victory, Tulu stood at the finish line and waited.

When Meyer crossed the line, Tulu took her hand and they ran together in a victory lap around the stadium, dramatizing for billions across the world the dawn of a new era among African nations, and in a way, for the Olympic Movement.

In the modern era, the Olympic Movement has the potential to become more powerful than ever before.

Why? Because as we all know, the world has changed. We are connected in ways that would have been unimaginable just two decades ago.  In the age of globalization, we are closer than ever before – brought together through markets, television, and technology.

The power of the Games in this new age can be to use these new global links – these new forms of mass communication - to connect us as never before.

Of the 4.3 billion who have access to television, 90% of them watched at least ten hours of the Olympic Games in 2000. Think about that for a second – four billion people in every country.

Yes, they were watching a sports event. But through sports they were watching something else – the living embodiment of our highest ideals and hopes for humanity.

Television has amplified this ancient dream, these century-old values, these historic rituals, by connecting billions of people across the world for seventeen days every two years, creating common memories and a common heritage for all of us.

Together, we watch as men and women pursue their dreams. It doesn’t matter where we come from – or where they come from. We follow their stories - crying over their failures, and rejoicing at their extraordinary successes.

A barefoot marathoner from Ethiopia running through the torch lit arches of Rome on the way to Africa’s first gold medal in 1960 –

A lithe Romanian gymnast scoring a perfect 10 with hundreds of millions watching breathlessly in 1976.

More recently, we were moved by the sight of an Australian runner surging forward to claim the first aboriginal individual gold medal, then slumping to the ground in joy and disbelief.

Rising from the track and wiping away her tears, the runner knotted an Australian flag and an aboriginal flag together for her victory lap – achieving in a single gesture what marches, protests, debates, and boycotts had all strived to do: reconcile the peoples of Australia, uniting them behind a single vision of their shared humanity.

Olympic heroes become universal heroes.

That’s the power that comes from combining a medium with the ability to reach into every corner of the world with the Olympic values.

And with this power, it becomes even more incumbent on us to build on this Movement - to help spread these values because they’re so important to us and so integral to our lives, especially today.

This year, for the first time, a global torch relay united the people of the world like never before. On June 19, the torch will passed through New York – a city that now, more than ever, feels a need to channel its energy and resources toward a greater solidarity with the world.

Today there is an unprecedented opportunity to extend the scope of the Games – to find broader ways to tell its story across the world.

By taking advantage of the strengthened global connections – in everything from business, to pop culture, to media, to sports – that have come to define the past decade, the Olympic Movement can enter a new age of international alliances.

It will be able to work with other international institutions, governments and host cities, to reach athletes earlier, teaching them the Olympic values, even if they never become Olympians.

We understand just how deeply our world needs to be united. And there is no other event in the world – no other social force or civic undertaking – that offers more hope. It is why New York strives to win the honor of hosting the 2012 Olympic Games and return this celebration of sport and humanity to our nation.