The Plain Truth - A Magazine of Understanding

Email this page | Site Map

Cover Story:

Olympic Spirit

by Fiona Veitch Smith

As I write this, the Olympic Flame has just left Athens to fly in a ‘fire-proof' lantern on the start of its four-yearly journey. As we all know, the flame will light the torch that will be carried around the world in a demonstration of global unity, reaching a blazing climax at the torch lighting ceremony in Beijing at the opening of the 29 th modern Olympic Games.

The first Olympic flame was lit at the Amsterdam Olympics of 1928 and the Torch Relay was added to the ceremony in Berlin, 1936, at ‘Hitler's Olympics'. It was not in the original vision of the founder of the modern Olympic movement, Pierre de Coubertin, in 1896, but he welcomed it as a powerful religious and artistic symbol that could be used to educate people in the ideals of the Olympics ¹.

It is based on the idea that young athletes would race to win the privilege of lighting the altar fire at the Temple of Zeus. The symbolism of fire was not lost on Pierre de Coubertin, Adolf Hitler nor even the ancient Greeks – fire purifies, fire ignites, fire illuminates, fire nurtures and, if not handled with care, fire burns.

According to the Olympic Charter, the Games aim to ‘contribute to building a peaceful and better world by educating youth through sport practised without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play.'

Nothing wrong with that, you would agree, but as the pro-Tibet demonstrators would have us remember, there is a huge gap between that ideal and the practice of the host nation in its occupied territory.

This is in stark contrast to the myth that the Olympics are the one place where politics and war do not hold sway, where small and great nations compete as equals. Advocates will point to the 2000 Sydney Olympics where North and South Korea competed under one flag and the disputed nation of East Timor as an independent state. But while China crushes protests with one hand and lights the Flame with another, we should remember that double standards are no stranger to the Games. Think of sports fans cheering on the great black American sprinter, Jesse Owens, while Jews and Communists were being driven from their homes in the streets outside the Olympiastadion. Think of the banning of South Africa for 32 years for its abhorrent racial policies while Sudan and Zimbabwe are still allowed to send teams. Think of the tit-for-tat boycotts of America and the Soviets in '80 and '84 and the abandonment of the Games during two world wars – would the ancients be turning in their graves? I think not.

The games must go on

The ancient Greeks never let war get in the way of a good athletic contest in nearly a thousand years. By and large the Greeks kept to the Olympic Truce whereby all wars were put on hold for the duration of the games, but ever so often they let it slip. In 364 BC, the city of Elis lost control of the games to Pisa and launched an attack during the wrestling event in the Pentathlon. But the games went on, with spectators keeping one eye on the wrestling and the other on the streets outside where thousands of allied troops defended against the invading Eleans. A day later Elis regained control of the Games and declared them null and void.² Let's hope Paris won't do the same to London in 2012!

Nationalism, commercialism, politicking and dirty tricks were just as much a part of the ancient Olympics as they are today, with a continuous struggle to cleanse the Festival of Zeus of its baser trappings. There were idealists then as now, and officially the athletic contests were for glory, not for gain, with only an olive wreath and adulation for reward. But olive wreaths do not put food on the table as the Persian general Tigranes commented: ‘Good heavens, Mardonius, what kind of men are these that you have pitted us against? It is not for money they contend, but for glory of achievement!' ³

Herodotus does not record Mardonius' response, but no doubt it was along the lines of: ‘If you believe that General, you'll believe anything!' Just like today's athletes aren't forced to flog their medallions to keep the wolves from the door (well most of them, I haven't checked eBay yet), the Ancient Greeks had no currency in olive wreaths.

Great rewards

Olympic victors were set for life. They were given free meals at public expense, front-row seats at the theatre and public festivals; tax breaks and guaranteed appointments to the public service. They even received ‘appearance fees' at lesser athletic events and prizes such as tripods, cauldrons, precious metal, oxen and women⁴. Now don't get me started on the exclusion of women from the Games, I'm writing a whole play about it! ⁵

Some would say payment in kind does not breach the amateur code, but cash certainly does. The Ancients had no such quibbles. According to the Roman author Plutarch, in 600BC an Athenian Olympic victor could expect to receive 500 drachmae from the city coffers, a fortune in ancient times.

And if one's hometown was not forthcoming with the loot, one could always defect. Fidel Castro was not the first leader to lose his athletes at the Olympics. Take the Olympic victor from Crotona, who was offered a better deal by the Syracusians to represent them at the next Games. The good citizens of Crotona were so incensed they tore down his statue and turned his house into a prison.

In 1999 the modern Olympic Games was hit by the worst scandal in its history, after it was discovered that six members of the IOC had been accepting ‘improper gifts' from cities bidding to host the Games. There's nothing new here either. Although the ancient games were held at Olympia, a holy site dedicated to Zeus, the patron-god of the contest, there was an ongoing battle between various cities as to who would have the privilege of actually running the Games. Just like today, control of the Olympics had very lucrative commercial spin-offs for the host city. In 668 BC we hear of a dispute between Elis and Pisa. The city fathers hired the tyrant Pheidon to ‘secure the Sanctuary' in the name of Pisa. With the help of a well-trained army, Pheidon took over Olympia and personally presided over the Games. But by 664, Elis was once again in control.

Elis was usually in control and provided all the judges. But this didn't stop Elean athletes from competing. Although writers from the time tell us that the Eleans had a reputation for fairness and it would have been a shock to other Greeks if they had been caught cheating. Bribery, however, was not unheard of, and Pausanius records with horror that ‘one of the Eleans themselves had fallen so low'.⁶ The dirty judge was one Damonicus, who received a pay-off from Sosander of Smyrna to make sure Sosander Junior won in the wrestling contest.

The punishment for such a crime was not death, as the purists of today would like to believe, but a simple fine. In fact fines were imposed for all sorts of things. One athlete claimed that bad winds had kept his ship from arriving in time to join the pre-games training session, but it was later discovered that he had been travelling around Greece winning prize money in other competitions instead. He was liberated of his earnings. Another poor chap, who during a warm-up session saw the form of his rivals in the notoriously brutal wrestling contest (where only biting and the genital hold were outlawed, but breaking your opponent's fingers was well within the rules) decided that discretion was the better part of valour and withdrew from the contest. He was fined for cowardice.

Imperfections made perfect

So from the olive wreaths of the ancient games to the gold medals of the modern, we see that this showpiece of human idealism fails to live up to its own standards. Yet Olympics after Olympics we hope that this year will be different. Why are we so devastated when ‘drug cheats' and other scandals are exposed? Take the Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan scandal of 1994, when an ice skater got her ex-husband to smash her rival's shins with a baseball bat; or the Spanish paralympic basketball team of 2000 where 10/12 members were not intellectually disabled after all; or the 1968 East German luge team who were disqualified for illegally heating their runners before each run – well, it's simply not fair play.

And that encourages me. Most people still want to believe in a standard of decency. Wars may not cease for the Olympics, but for the duration of the Games there is a truce within the stadium. Political enemies can compete with one another in bloodless contests, racism and sectarianism are challenged as we can focus on what we have in common – the incredible potential of the human body and spirit – rather than what divides.

Like many of you I will be glued to the television screen this August, marvelling at the diversity of human talent from around the world and the awesome achievements of people who strive to make the most of their physical talents. I will be moved by the strength of character of many of these athletes, in particular the paralympians, and will rise to my feet and applaud every gold, silver and bronze won with sweat and blood. I can learn what it means to make the most of the gifts God has given me. And though I lack in sporting prowess, I am reminded that my artistic, relational and spiritual gifts should not be neglected.

The Olympian Eric Liddell famously said: ‘when I run I feel God's pleasure'. I believe that's true. Will God be watching the Olympics this August? With all its failings and imperfections? Oh yes, you can bet on that!

1. www.olympic.org.uk
2. For Glory or For Gain, Fiona Veitch Smith, SA Sports Illustrated, August 2004
3. Herodotus, ‘Histories', 8.26.3
4. Homer The Iliad, Bk 23
5. www.thecraftywriter.com
6. Pausanius 5.21.16ff

< Contents

The Plain Truth is an independent charity.
© copyright 2004-2008 The Plain Truth.