THE CROWN OF WILD OLIVE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 179, 30 July 1932, Page 8

THE CROWN OF WILD OLIVE.

Two thousand athletes, representing fifty countries, are officially stated to have entered for the fourteen different branches of sport and athletics at the tenth Olympiad which commences at Los Angeles to-day. Thus the Olympic Games, -which began as a religious festival in the sacred enclosure at Olympia, have been revived in modern times, so that we may bring to sport of all kinds something of the spirit in which ancient Greece approached it. The Greeks dedicated their bodily strength and grace to the honour and service of heaven. Tho competitors were—or were supposed to, be —not vulgar aspirants after notoriety, nor greedy prize-hunters, but devotees consecrating their strength to the service of Zeus. Pindar dedicated his genius to the celebration of these Olympic contests, and he writes about them as a man might write about the most solemn and important achievements in the world. The present Olympic contests owe their origin to a desire to ennoble sport of all kinds and purge it of all baser elements. They are due to a Frenchman, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who in 1894 wrote to all governing bodies of sport suggesting that an attempt should be made to revert to the old Greek ideal, and preserve in sport "those characteristics of nobility and chivalry which have distinguished it in the past." He went on to say that imperfect humanity had ever tended to "transform the Olympic athlete into the paid gladiator." The first modern Olympiad was held at Athens, and since then these contests have assumed a real international importance. It was hoped that they would be a means of promoting international harmony and good will. In ancient Greece, before the meeting, which took place every four years, ambassadors went from city to city proclaiming a sacred truce. All people who could prove Greek nationality were invited, and competitors camo from as far away as Sicily and South Italy. All competitors had to go into training for ten months, and to take an oath on the altar of Zeus that they would compete fairly. Their only prize was a crown of wild olive, cut from a sacred tree, and the victors also carried palm branches. Originally the only contest was a foot race, but later boxing, wrestling, quoit-throwing, javelinthrowing, chariot races and horse races were added. With the chariot and horse racing there seems to have crept in a certain amount of sharp practice, generally of the kind we associate with the "pulling" of horses. Those guilty of discreditable conduct had to pay a fine, and the money was devoted to erecting statues devoted to Zeus. An ominous row of such statues stood at Olympia. The wealthy had distinct advantages in the chariot races, because they could enter several chariots, and it is said that Alcibiades won a contest by 2ntering seven. Our modern Olympiads have aot always produced tho true sporting spirit ior promoted the good will desired, but the ast contest was conducted in a much better spirit than some of its predecessors.

Greece did not lack critics who protested against what they regarded as an extravagant worship of sport. There were complaints of professionalism, just as there are to-day. "It is folly," says the outspoken Euripides, "for the Greeks to make a great gathering to see useless creatures like these. What good does a man do to his city by winning a prize for Avrestling or speed or quoit heaving or jaw-smiting? Will they fight the enemy with quoits? Garlands of leaves should be for the wise and good, for the just and sober statesman who guides his city best, for the man who with his words averts evil deeds, keeping battle and civil strife away." Ho would have had small sympathy with "the flannelled fool at the wicket, the muddied oaf at the goal." But most Greeks, like most moderns, saw in athletic contests a moral as well as a physical value. They test temper and fair-mindedness as well as bodily endurance. The modern Olympiads have promoted a love of sport among even the Egyptians and the South American republics. Perhaps they may in time bring into the modern world something of the sacred truce which they brought in olden days to the warring city-states of Greece.