The Spirit of Olympics

At the juncture of European, Asian and African continents is situated a country, capturing an area of 50,994 square miles. Surrounded by the Meditterannean Sea, Aegean Sea and the Ionian Sea, this country is considered as the matrix of Western Philosophy, Democracy, Political Science, Major Scientific and Mathematic Principles and literature. Perhaps many would have already guessed it now. Yes, I am speaking of Greece, the most learned country, as one might tend to call it. And it was here in Olympia when the Olympic Games started, way back in 776 BC.

However, Olympics went on for about 4 centuries then, played only in Olympia. A popular Greek myth says that Heracles, the creator of Olympics, started it to honour his father Zeus, the God of Sky and Thunder. It comprised of games, conspicious of religion and sacrifice, in praise of the Gods. Not surprisingly, only men who spoke Greek language were allowed to participate, unlike the modern version. Twenty games were spread over several days and later on, the number of games were increased. Much like the way it is today, Olympics were regularly held once in every 4 years and the time interim was termed as 'Olympiad'. Winners of these games were extolled and praised in honour in poems and they were deified into idols and statues.

But after a few centuries, as Romans conquered Greece and started domineering, Olympics Games declined as the new tyrants saw them against their practices. Greeks had to run the gauntlet and suffer at the hands of Romans, who left nothing unturned in their capture of Greece and denouncing their culture and festivals, and anything native of Greek was deemed as Pagan and against Christianity. That signalled the bitter end of ancient Olympics and heritage of Greece of the pre-Jesus period. Several centuries passed by and Olympics and its glory was only confined to history and ancient literature.

In the year 1859, a rich Greek nobleman by the name Evangelos Zappas sponsored the revival of Olympics. He paid for the renovation of ancient Panathenian stadium and it was in the historic year of 1896, that the first Modern Olympics was inagurated in Athens, the present day capital of Greece. 14 countries took part bringing in 241 participants. Though a small number of participants, this event was the largest international one until then. Greek public and officials are very cheerful and enthusiastic about this tradition and they even proposed to have a monopoly in organizing Olympics, which however was not accepted by International Olympics Committee, an official organizer of Modern Olympics. In 1900, it was Paris which hosted the second version of the event, and this was also the very first time that women were allowed to participate. It took notable contributions from Pierre de Coubertin who founded IOC.

Recently, in the 2004 Athens Olympics, the number of participants stood at a remarkable 11000, coming in from 202 countries. As many as 16000 media journalists and broadcasters were involved, with an estimated 3.8 billion viewers watching the game on television. An increasing size of event and participants poses a huge challenge to IOC. The sheer number of athletes, participants, journalists, media and advertizers makes it a heavy burden on the cities organizing the mega event. An updated budget of 9 billion pounds has been earmarked for the London Olympic Games to be held in 2012, making it the most expensive Olympics to date...! Although United Nations recognize only 193 countries, IOC permits several dependencies and colonies to allow their participants to involve though these athletes and competitors belong to other member nation. Countries like Hong Kong, Bermuda and Puerto Rico are some such countries being allowed to participate as separate entities. The upcoming Beijing Olympic Games has 302 events.

The Olympic Games is best recognized by its famed symbol of Olympic Rings, being adopted in 1914. These five intertwined rings depict the unity of five inhabited continents, with the Americas being considered as a single ring. They appear in five colours of Red, Blue, Green,Yellow and Black bearing in mind the fact that each country has atleast one of these five colours to select in its national flag. The official motto adopted by Olympics is, "Citius, Altius, Fortius", which in Latin means, "Swifter, Higher, Stronger". Prior to the commencement of each Olympic event, the traditional Olympic Flame is lit in Olympia and is brought to the host city by forerunners carrying the torch in relay. This tradition was introduced in 1936. Also introduced later was The Olympic Mascot, which is an animal or a human figure essentially representing the cultural glory of host nation. Misha, a Russian Bear, was one such mascot during Olympics held in Russia in 1980.

The Olympic Games are today, the world's largest pageant of athetic skills and competitive spirit, where all countries take part in the ultimate event of glory and rich tradition. Signing off this post, I would leave you with this special Olympic Creed,

"The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well."