Practical guide
OSE in the life of its founder
OSE is not an end in itself. It is one of the fruits of a journey that gradually leads a person to transform their existence into a freely chosen contribution.
We all live. But do we all exist?
Living is a fact. Existing is a choice.
Living means passing through time.
Existing means gradually giving meaning to one's life, becoming the author and agent of one's own existence, then freely choosing the contribution one wishes to make to others.
It is to this second dimension that OSE speaks.
In the course of its journey, every existence encounters, one day, an essential question:
“What contribution am I called to make?”
For some, this question arises very early. For others, much later. But when it appears, it often marks a turning point.
For the question is no longer simply: “What shall I do with my life?”
It becomes: “What shall I do with my existence?”
Then a third question naturally arises:
“What contribution am I called to make through this existence?”
Years devoted to elite sport.
Thousands of athletes, coaches and administrators met.
Successes. Failures. Research. Books.
Half a century of work, research and experimentation gradually led to the creation of Emetrology, the science of personal fulfilment, with its three major fields of application: the person, practices and organisations.
In the course of this journey, one truth gradually became clear:
“The more a person grows socially, the more their personal responsibility grows.”
As this truth became clearer, an intuition was born. For many years, the founder of OSE had taken part in the Rotary Student Exchange programme. Day after day, he witnessed the remarkable educational value of this programme, not least through his own son, Pablo.
A question then arose:
“What if this experience could be transposed to the worldwide Olympic and sporting Movement?”
Not to create a new exchange programme. But to give this sporting adventure a genuine educational experience, faithful to the spirit of Pierre de Coubertin — a first, concrete experience of responsibility, trust, contribution and the maturity of existence.
From this intuition arose an inner necessity:
“To make a concrete contribution to the worldwide Olympic and sporting Movement.”
That is how OSE was born.
Every person has a reason for being.
All genuine growth begins with an adventure.
The outward journey reveals an inward one.
An experience transforms no one without their free commitment.
The more a person grows socially, the more their personal responsibility grows.
Trust received calls for a contribution.
Principles are universal; their forms of expression are local.
True maturity of existence consists in gradually moving from receiving to contributing.
OSE did not create these principles. It simply seeks to embody them through the concrete experience of international sporting exchanges.
ALTIS gives the horizon.
Olympism offers a pedagogy.
It becomes a rite of passage.
Gives the young person their first concrete responsibility.
And OSE World together create the conditions for this adventure.
Thus, OSE does not merely seek to organise exchanges.
It seeks to enable young people to discover, through experience, a way of fully inhabiting their existence.
OSE places its trust in young people. It does not claim to set their destination. It offers them a path.
Each ambassador is free to write the next chapter of their existence and to choose the contribution they wish to make to the world.
For the true purpose of OSE is not to train ambassadors for OSE. It is to help young people discover a way of living that they can then freely embody in whatever field becomes their own.
The ambassador shares their experience.
They enrich their club.
They mentor future ambassadors.
They contribute to the development of their OSE Country.
They freely continue on their own path.
The ambassador shares their experience.
They enrich their club.
They mentor future ambassadors.
They contribute to the development of their OSE Country.
They freely continue on their own path.
Perhaps in sport. Perhaps in some other field entirely. What matters is not that they remain an ambassador of Olympism for life. What matters is that they retain a taste for growth, for taking on increasing responsibility, and for contributing, in their own way, to the common good.
An exchange comes to an end.
An existence continues.
If, through this adventure, a young person discovers that they can gradually become the author and agent of their own life, and then place themselves at the service of a freely chosen contribution, then OSE has fully accomplished its mission.
Beyond OSE, beyond sport, and even beyond Olympism, one same horizon remains: that of a Humanity ever more fraternal.
Pierre de Coubertin gave it the name ALTIS.
Ubuntu says: “I am because we are.”
Rotary International serves it through its ideal of service.
Teilhard de Chardin saw it as the conscious evolution of Humanity.
OSE is but one step on this great path. It is for each of us to continue along it.
OSE does not ask young people to follow a path.
It gives them the desire to open one.