Olympic Glory
Just after the Berlin wall came down, I flew to Berlin with my German-Austrian wife and traveled around the city and its eastern parts. On visiting the Olympic stadium I told the taxi driver that my uncle, a hurdler, was the first athlete the Führer’s gaze fell upon as the parade of the 1936 games began, because we Greeks always go in first, having started the games back in 776 B.C., and because my uncle was the flag carrier. The taxi driver did not seem impressed in the least.
It might seem politically incorrect to say this, but the Berlin Olympics were the best ever staged, the last time white American and European men and women competed on an equal level with blacks, despite the great feat of Jesse Owens in winning four gold medals. The first games after the war, the 1948 London Olympics, were a festival for pure amateurs, as were the Helsinki and Melbourne games that followed. The best postwar Olympics were the Rome ones (1960). Europe had rebounded from the catastrophe of World War II, and Germany had been invited to compete. I remember them well. The crown prince of Greece, now ex-King Constantine, won a gold in the dragon-class sailing in the bay of Naples. Ari Onassis, the original Greek tycoon, came into the shower room where the prince was cleaning up after he and his crew had been dunked into the filthy waters of Naples—my father was crewing for him—and got into the shower fully clothed, kissing the prince and congratulating him. That night there was a great ball in the palazzo of the duke of Serra di Cassano, with most of Europe’s reigning royals attending. For a 23-year-old, it was quite impressive stuff.
On the field, a blond German, Armin Hary, won the 100-meter dash, the first non-American to win the most prestigious of events since 1928, and an Italian, Livio Berutti, won the 200 meters. The Roma stadium went wild as the Italian led from the start, chased by three African-Americans. Three white American hurdlers came one, two, three in the 400-meter hurdles, led by Glenn Davis, and a young Cassius Clay won the light-heavyweight title in the Palazzetto dello Sport, although an Australian friend of mine by the name of Madigan almost beat him—I was certain he had won—in the semifinal. The grand finale was the Marathon, won by a barefooted Ethiopian sergeant, Abebe Bekila, who smiled all along the route leading into the Borghese gardens and down the Via Veneto, and who rightly received the greatest cheers from the crowd.
The Rome Olympics were my last, although I did attend the judo competition in Athens in 2004. The games became much too big after Rome, much too politicized, and drugs began to play a much too important role. The Cold War saw nation-by-nation medal counts, although counting was against the spirit of the games. In 1984 the Los Angeles games became the first Olympics in which corporate sponsors got their filthy hooks in deep, making the event look like one big advertisement. It’s been downhill ever since. Athlete after athlete has been caught cheating with drugs, and all records are now suspect, as they well should be. In the 2004 Athens Olympics the Greek government spent $12 billion, five percent of the country’s economy. Many of the lavish facilities built so a political party could show off to the world lie empty and unused. In my not-so-humble opinion, the only way to save the games is to do away with them.
To begin with they are much too big and too inclusive. Rhythmic underwater dancing has more to do with entertainment than with sport. Although women’s softball has been eliminated, beach volleyball has not. Watching beautifully built women in tiny bikinis playing on sand has more to do with Playboy than with what the ancient Greeks had in mind. The games, after all, were started because the ancients believed it made their soldiers fighting fit. A foot race in armor was introduced at the 65th Games in 520 b.c. The other three events were running, wrestling, and the pentathlon, which included running and wrestling as well as the discus, javelin, and jumping. In other words, the games represented real life. No synchronized swimming and certainly no Tae Kwan Do, a phony martial art that resembles touch football. (Contestants wear padding and score points by touching the adversary.) Victors back then were given a simple wreath of olive sprays and the statue and victory poem that would be created in their honor back home. They were considered to be blessed by the gods. No Coca-Cola endorsements, no cornflakes contracts, no Nike sponsorships. Only glory.
So here’s my blueprint to save the bloated, cheating, corporate games: First and foremost they have to return to their original site, Olympia, in the northwest Peloponnese, where their spirit lives on. Shaded by olive, pine, and poplar, scented by oregano and thyme, the games would be restricted to track and field, wrestling, boxing, swimming, and equestrian events. Nothing else. No tennis, no football, no baseball and other invented sports. Greed, corruption, and commercialism would be eliminated at a stroke. Only amateurs need apply. The pros have their own world championships and other drug festivals. The Olympics will remain pure, and the winners will enjoy eternal glory.
I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Comments
A couple of observations:
1)Money is corruption. Eliminate the big money, eliminate most of the corruption.
2.) Surely Shooting and Fencing belong in the Olympics. (In fact, they even deserve to be televised, but won’t be in the USA.) And let me add, I could think of ways to liven up those events, like shooting those little freaks off the balance beam.
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That seems to be “sport” everywhere nowadays, doesn’t it? My relatives in Holland chastised me when I was wearing my ManU jersey because of the prominant placing of the advertiser in comparison to the club badge. Someone in my gym actually came up to me and asked what Vodaphone was selling at and on what bourse it is traded!
Sport has lost its amateur roots where the purpose was to have normal people participate in feats of skill and endurance with codes of fair play for the benefit of the participants to vulgar spectacle for the fat, slothful masses and a win at all costs mentality. Most of the team sports around require too much time commitment and organization for them to be successfully amateur, basketball probably being the only exception. A sign of the times, I suppose.
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I wouldn’t hold my breath counting on a change in the present Olymic setup. There is just too much money to be made. But how about setting up an “original Olympics” as a competing event along the lines Taki proposes?
It might be something that makes the general populus turn away from the show that the sports section of the entertainment industry puts on every four years and calls Olympics.
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Dear Taki:
That’s a bit of ambition and dreamwork !
To achieve such a divine goal we all, human beings, have to surpass ourselves, survive both as a species as well as “civilized” beings, and expel all the pharisees that soil and reduce our lifes to indignity.
But, then again, it is worth the prize !
If we have to climb that cliff, and live all its inherent ordeals, better make it looking up into glory…
....in the best Olympic spirit.
Hope to see you one day, in Olympia.
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So here’s Chronicles’ blueprint to save the bloated, cheating, corporate games: First and foremost they have to return to their original site, Olympia, in the northwest Peloponnese, where their spirit lives on.
If an Olympics is thought necessary for some reason, it should be restricted solely to Greek amateurs.
Let the Greeks have their games and, if they are interested, let each Country, or State, or County, or City, or street, have their amateur games.
It has been done all the time in our past (and I am not referencing the violent football games between towns in New England back in the day)
As a Vermonter, I grew up perfectly content with my local amateur games of football, baseball, basketball, golf, and, the toughest amateur enterprise of all time - trying to write a love poem to the prettiest girl I ever met.
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“...The Olympics will remain pure, and the winners will enjoy eternal glory. I wouldn’t
hold my breath.” -Taki (end quote) ... Yes, the pendulum is yet swinging I’m afraid away
from the direction < not back to where the games were and were meant to be. Prior to its
coming back the other way > (if it does) than what you wish for it’s more likely to see
added today the hot-dog eating contest so as not to discriminate against fat’folks who
can masticate and ingest dozens with buns (and who can down the most) in say only 3
minutes? The tables for the contest would be placed within a giant circle of let’s say
the sponsor (say) Oscar Meyer’s logo and the picture of them all chowing down shot from above
in the heavens [to be sure to include the tables and the sponsor’s logo] by the Goodyear
blimp. No drugging and no sweetening the disgusting meal with relish. Mustard ok.
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Purists and romantics would have to agree with the return of the games to Greece, as proposed above. But, I would also advocate inclusion of the rowing and sailing categories ... perhaps taking place in the Bay of Salamis.
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Bravo, Taki.
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I remember seeing fencing back in the 60’s. I gave up on the shlock games when it was “dream not really a team” hysterics and instead of seeing yachting events in the LA games they aired a fluff piece with an NBC hack interviewing Christopher Reeve on a sailboat instead of bothering to show any of the real race.
I really can’t stand the constant USA USA chanting either. All it brings to mind is George M Cohan singing about the grand old flag ... where there’s never a boast or brag, being beaten to death by a mob of hyper-patriots for dissing them.
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Dear Taki there is also this;
“… in all things the mean is praise-worthy, and the extremes neither praiseworthy nor right, but worthy of blame.”
- Aristotle, Ethica
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Great article. Absolutely right. No shooting or modern archery either. How can anybody miss with a bow with sights on? And no winter “Olympics”.
A local real or “pure” Greek games would be a real money spinner for the country and would attract a better class of tourist too. One thinks of the Cumbrian games in England’s Lake District and Scotland’s Highland Games—serious amateur competition and real fun for those who can stand it unpackaged. An Olympic games could be annual too.
The Greeks would be proud, foreigners would be educated, and I bet Greece would earn more from tourism in four years than in the forty years following the Athens games!!! I would attend.
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villager, I was thinking of Highland games too: completely amateur and more of a cultural festival rather than a strictly athletic one.
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Taki, because you are Greek does not mean you should prescribe the direction the games should takeTh egames are too big for the narrow view of the ancients.
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Fencing was televised this year, on CNBC in America. I was glad to see it, though I have to agree to an extent with the critics who say that it’s devolved into a couple guys in funny outfits jumping around and trying to whack each other with metal wands. Since no one fences for blood anymore, fencing technique has moved from what would be effective in an actual fight with swords to just whatever works best for getting the touch, and the swords have gone from facsimiles of actual weapons to super springy wands. The result is less structured and aesthetically pleasing than those matches contested in a traditional fencing style. As late as the 1920’s, a gold medalist like Aldo Nadi, the exemplar of traditional Italian fencing, had to prove the efficacy of his style to a fencing critic in an actual duel. Fencing’s current state is just what happens when you turn a skill into a sport. You can see the same thing when you compare amateur boxing to a blood sport like pro boxing or probably when comparing the state of saber/epee/foil fencing to kendo, which still seems to heavily emphasize it’s martial roots.
I have to admit that the medal count and the naked nationalism are close to being my favorite parts of the Olympics. What’s funnier than foreigners and what’s more fun than beating them in sports? Beating China in girl’s gymnastics has a finality to it that we rarely see in trade disputes or diplomatic squabbles. It also gives spice to competitions that no one would otherwise care about. Yes, there should always be an underlying sentiment of sportsmanship and generosity in conduct, but where’s the harm in competition along national lines, so long as you don’t take the nationalism part too seriously? I can’t believe that there wasn’t some element of this even when Sparta competed against Athens.
I’m also not sure what the benefit is to cutting sports is, outside of a strict adherence to ancient standards. And if it comes to that, no one worships Zeus anymore ,anyway. While the sports mentioned above are obviously the noblest ones, I also like the idea of the Olympics as a showcase for odd sports that people might never see otherwise, and athletes who’d never otherwise get an international stage. Curling for instance is a tremendously entertaining sport that I’d never even heard of before the 2006 winter Olympics.
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And no dirty, drugged-up, cheating Greeks - not even the ones that are knicked trying to smuggle a bag of charlie into Heathrow.
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Call it the Amateur Olympics or Archaic Olympics or Original Olympics and it might catch on. That is, except for the no drugs, endorsements, commercialism and exploitation part.
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