| This magnificent rendering of the DISCOBOLOS the "Kyklos-Circle of Glory" Olympic art adorns the Athens International Airport. This historic and permanent work of art represents a monumental tribute given to the people of Greece and the city of Athens from a world of Hellenes united in spirit. The art work has bee done by Mr. Rip Kastaris and it is sponsored by AHEPA! A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE OLYMPIC GAMES In the ancient times, four great game festivals were held on Greek land: The Isthmians, The Nemeans, The Pythians and The Olympic Games. Part of a religious festival, the Olympic Games were held every four years at Olympia. The four year interval was called an Olympi- ad, and was the system upon which time in ancient Greek history was calculated. The games were so important that even wars were stopped at the time they were held. Today, Greece is making a noble effort to have all nations sign an agreement of the same "no war" princi- ple. As of now, about sixteen countries have signed up. For an accurate description on this and a current identification of countries which have made the NO WAR pledge, please visit: www.olympictruce.org. The first Olympic Games were held in 776 B.C. At first, only one race (the sprint) was run. Later, the discus and javelin throw, broad jumping and wrestling were added. The Olympic Games were held for more than 1,000 years. They were abolished by the Byzantine Emperor Theodosius in 394 A.D. The Games were revived in 1896 to promote understanding and friendship among nations. The first modern games were held in Athens, Greece. Young men and women come from all over the world to compete in various sports and represent their country. They live in an Olympic Village at the site of the games. The Olympic Games are organized and governed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). It sets the general program, chooses the city where the games are to be held, and determines the standards of amateurism. Each participating country has a National Olympic Committee that is responsible for arranging the participation of the nation's athletes in the games. The opening ceremony of each Olympic Games is held in a major stadium. The president of the host nation usually officiates. Led by athletes from Greece, all athletes march around the stadium in the parade of Nations. Then, facing the Olympic Flag, the athletes take the Olympic Oath: "We swear that we will take part in these Olympic Games in the true spirit of sportsmanship, and that we will respect and abide by the rules that govern them, for the glory of sport and the honor of our country." This is in direct contradiction with today's ethic. What with steroids, millions of dollars in promotions in rewards, from gold medals to sponsorships to national antagonistic practices. (Above left) Voula Patoulidou (Βούλα Πατουλίδου), in a 2009 meeting whispering to the author that silence is a virtue when it comes to performance-enhancing drugs. November 8 marked the 110th anniversary of the founding of the Panhellenic Athletic Association. The group was instrumental in bringing the first modern Olympics to Athens in 1896, which fired the imagination of the Greeks and paved the way for subsequent Olympic aspirations. But 1896 was by no means the beginning of the Greek Olympic dream. Moved by their own history, the Greeks had for almost half a century striven to revive the ancient Olympic Games on their soil. As early as 1858, queen Amalia declared the inauguration of Olympic Games in Athens. But these turned out to be somewhat farcical. It was unclear whether their emphasis was on athletic excellence, or on excellence in crop farming and animal husbandry, for which prize-giving ceremonies were held at the same time. Two further sets of games, in 1870 and 1875, were much improved thanks to the influence of Ioannis Fokianos, a guiding light of Greek athletics and first president of the Panhellenic Athletic Association. The excavation of ancient Olympia by German archaeologist Ernst Curtius between 1875 and 1881 brought to light the magnificent Apollo from the pediment of the temple of Zeus, the original stadium and racetrack, ancient training gymnasia, lifting weights, discoi and strigils for scraping dirty olive oil off the skin after exercise. This revelation of the mundane and the sublime in ancient sport gave tangible symbols to the idea of reviving ancient games. No longer was the democratisation of sport a puff of smoke in the imaginati- on of a few, but was connected to a sacred place on Greek soil. One of the aims of the Pan- hellenic Athletic Association, enshrined in Article 2 of its founding charter, was "the dissemi- nation of gymnastics among all social classes and... the founding of the ancient Olympic Games". In 1894, the Association was invited to attend the Paris International Athletic Congress at the Sorbonne, convened by Baron Pierre de Coubertin. Coubertin lamented his countrymen's dismissal of physical exercise, and even saw a connection between that rejection and the disastrous French performance in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. Having travelled to Britain and Germany, having envied the ubiquity of sport in the daily life of those Saxon cultures, Coubertin saw the diffusion of an athletic habit in French society as the key to raising its morale and fighting spirit. He worked tirelessly to overcome the dichoto- my in the French consciousness between mind and body, in which the pursuit of one was at the expense of the other. He shuttled constantly between athletic associations in Britain, the US and the continent in an effort to unite them in a common vision of ancient athletic ideals. The 1894 Congress was the pinnacle of Coubertin's diplomatic efforts, and the Greek presence helped the Baron to realise his dream. The Congress saw in the represe- ntative of the Panhellenic Athletic Association, Dimitrios Vikelas, a commonly acceptable first head of its International Olympic committee. And it clamorously applauded Vikelas' suggestion that the Olympic Games should first be revived in Athens two years thence. This rather imminent prospect immediately overshadowed the Paris Games of 1900, which had been Coubertin's choice of a debut for the international Olympic movement. The moment of the election of Athens over Paris could be seen as the sowing of an historic clash of agendas which has never been resolved: the Greek intention of keeping the Olympics permanently on Greek soil, versus Coubertin's ambition of permanently travelling games. The responsibility of staging the 1896 games appalled then prime minister Harilaos Trikoupis, who promised no money from a public purse straining to pay for enormous national infrastructure works, even as it inspired his electorate. It is indicative of Greek enthusiasm that Athens, then a city of fewer than 150,000 people, not only managed to host the event but even to fill the ancient stadium of 70,000 seats to capacity. The national fervour that accompanied the event is also measurable in the level of euergetism. Such sponsorship usually aims at immortality, and in the 1896 Olympics many saw an opportunity. The organisers raised 336,000 Drachmas from private donations, versus 200,000 Drachmas from ticket sales. A staggering two million Drachmas came from Alexandrian magnate Georgios Averoff, who paid for the reconstruction of the ancient marble stadium on the banks of the now subterred Kifissos river. The work was only half-done in time for the 1896 games, so the top tiers of seats were completed in easier -to-cut porous limestone. High attendance disguised the stone's colour difference until after the games, when the marble was completed all the way to the top. During the 1896 games the Greek bid to keep the Olympics permanently on its soil reached a high point. But the apogee was to come in 1906. The 1900 games in Paris had been a sideshow to the Exposition Internationale; the 1904 games in St. Louis a rain-sopped sideshow to the World's Fair. In both of these events organisers had made the same mistake as queen Amalia, attempting to mix athletic ideals with mercantile. Athletics always lost out. Hammered by indifference, the Olympic movement was in danger of fizzling out. In desperate straits, Coubertin reluctantly agreed to allow the Greeks to hold intercalary games in Athens in 1906. For the Greeks, this was an opportu- nity to launch parallel Olympic Games that did not clash with the IOC's and would remain on Greek soil. For Coubertin, it was a much needed shot in the arm of the IOC which should be subsequently forgotten as quickly as possible. Accordingly, the IOC never recognised the 1906 results, and did not even allow the Greeks to call these games Olympic. Yet the 1906 games were greeted with tremendous enthusiasm, and were even better attended than the 1896 games. Without 1906, it is doubtful that the IOC would ever have survived. 1906 Olympics-Vancouver. CANADA Today the Greeks have not progressed. They still derive their self-image from a warped mirror of Western media and scholarship; warped because Westerners are quick to pin their ideals on subjective readings of classical drama, history and philosophy, attempting to assimilate ancient Greek ideas and ideals, while often dismissing contemporary Greece as no match for the Greece they imagine. This has given rise to the debate of Greek cultural continuity, one of the most prickly issues of classical scholarship and of modern Greek identity. Continuity is certainly to be found between ancient and modern Greece. It is in language and lore, the idolatry of Greek Orthodoxy, humanism and individuality, cuisine and dance, most of all perhaps in the life of the country rather than the city. But when the Greeks seek permission from a committee in Switzerland to host Olympic Games, a franchise brought out from their own history, the flow of cultural influence is reversed, like a river coming back from the sea. Source: The Athens News 1 You have been listening to music by: Yanni Thank you for visiting with us! RETURN TO MAIN PAGE PLEASE! |
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