World sport heavyweights, invited to the World Economic Forum for the first time, on Thursday held a debate on the powers of sport in social life.

International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge and FIFA President Joseph Blatter were skeptical about the power of sport to fundamentally change the world. But they admitted that sport can make the world better, particularly in building social cohesion, improving health and reducing the need for healthcare.

Blatter reminded participants that the 2010 World Cup finals will take place in Africa for the first time, and appealed for support to ensure that the benefits spread from South Africa to the whole of the continent.

U.S. National Basketball Association (NBA) Commissioner David Stern spoke most forcefully of sport's power to change the world.

He said sport has played a major role in politics, from "ping-pong diplomacy" which ushered in talks between the United States and China in the Cold War, to the acceleration of the end of apartheid in South Africa because of the sports boycott of the white regime, to the reconciliation of the Korean Peninsula under one sports banner.

Magic Johnson had changed the image of HIV/AIDS in the United States and the world when the basketball star announced he was HIV-positive, he added.

The opening up of traditional male sports to women is changing female role models, Stern added. At the Olympic Games in 2008, most of China's gold medals will be won by women. Sport, he told participants, "is the most egalitarian of pursuits."

Source: Xinhua