Yunus carries Olympic torch at Rio 2016

Nobel Laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus, wearing elegant Olympic athlete uniform, carried the Olympic torch on Friday on the final leg of the torch relay in Rio de Janeiro. Yunus took the flame from another celebrity torch bearer in a brief ceremony and walked 200 metres with the torch to loud applause and cheers of the crowds, a press release from the Yunus Centre said. During the walk the microcredit pioneer held up the torch in one hand and held up three fingers of the other hand to symbolise the three zeroes urging the global audience to work for. These three zeros stand for three social and environmental goals of “Zero Poverty, Zero Unemployment, and Zero Net Carbon Emissions.” [iframe id="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FProfessor.Muhammad.Yunus%2Fvideos%2F872885756151003%2F&show_text=0&width=512" align="center"] He has been advocating to add a social dimension to all programmes of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). This was the core message of his address to IOC annual general meeting yesterday. All along the walk crowds of local children, youth. men and women surrounded him taking videos and pictures to capture this historical event in their neighbourhood. Many in the crowd recognised him as the father of microcredit which is popular in Brazil. At the end of the walk Yunus passed on the flame to Michelle Jean, former governor general of Canada. In the evening Yunus was invited as a guest of honor at dinner by the IOC President Mr Thomas Bach which was attended by 450 leaders of the sports world and guests UN Secretary General Ban ki Moon, French President Francois Hollande, Princess Anne of UK, the king of Netherlands, the crown prince of Denmark and high officials of the IOC. Earlier in the day he was invited as keynote speaker at a conference of Brazilian CEOs hosted by the Inter American Development Bank. Yunus encouraged businesses to get involved in social businesses to tackle pressing social issues including unemployment and wealth concentration. Prof Yunus will attend the Olympic events, including the grand opening ceremony, as a guest of IOC for the next few days.