THE OLYMPIC GAMES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 279, 18 August 1908, Page 6

THE OLYMPIC GAMES.

" WHY I REVIVED THEM." INTERESTING ARTICLE BY BARON RENE DE COUBERTIN. "If in reviving tho Olympic Games I had merely sought to restore one of tho noblest and most interesting of ancient institutions, I do not think I should have needed excuse, for such an ambition would certainly havo been both comprehensible and legitimate," writes Baron Rene do . Coubertin in tho "Fortnightly Review." "It might, however, havo been reasonably characterised as a fanciful and superfluous undertaking. There is so much necessary work to be done to supply the myriad needs of our day that we ought not to waste ourselves in unnecessary efforts. Youth's Athletic Life. "The athletic life of modern youth domauds tho revival of the Olympic Games; and in that' conviction I called for their revival,thinking not merely of-France or England, Greece or Italy, but of humanity in general. But, I may bo asked, what differenc©''do you make between the Olympic Games and what are nowadays called the world-championships ? Were, tho games of antiquity anything else than our competitions for world-champion-ships, on their own lines, and taking' into account the then meaning- of the word 'world'? I do hot deny that, and I agree that world-championships do form part of'the. Olympic Games; nevertheless the Olympic' Games are 'something else' as well, and it is just this 'something else' that, matters, as it is not to : be found in any other variety of athletic competition. . "Thero are two ways of regarding athletic sport: first, the individual point of.view, which is, let me hasten to say, tho best and tho i most desirable; On tho day when a nation exists in 'which each young mail possesses sufficient taste for physical escrciscs to make him practise them regularly, either alone or with his comrades, seeking in wholesome sports an- admirable means to perfect his health and increase hisvstrength, then on that day humanity—or a section of it, at least—will have realised perfection. But .wo aro not there yet, and hence we.aro constrained to regard athletic sport from a second and quite different point of view— that of organised competition. Athletics for the sake of winning something: this is, at once the potent incentive, and the dangerous canker with which we have to reckon. Potent incentive,_ we cannot deny; the most potent of all, in fact.

The principle of Competition. "Human society is_ worked by .the principle of competition; it has always been so, and is so . moro than s ever.: Competition is becoming more and moro intense, bringing in its train greater' and greater dangers', of corruption. Unbridled' ■ competition entails' grave risks to tho_ spirit of fair play, occasions tho commission of blameworthy acts, engenders : a- 1 , lamentable atmosphere '• of jealousy, envy, vanity, and mistrust'. This may be seen in'all branches of-'activity; and. athletic life cannot escape^from it. Certainly athletic organisations, societies, and federations lead no placid and peaceful existence; they are torn by violent quarrels;: and too often seek to .injure one another,! to ..steal away each other's champions; ! This 'stato of . will, continue, being/ indeed, almost inevitable. I, am forced •to acknowledge that'the individual practice of athletic sports, regularly and perseveringly undertaken for the sake of health', beauty, and harmony,'is a chimera. A few'individuals may be capable of this, but the rank' and tile never will be. Moral Grandeur of the Games. "We must therefore fall back upon tho system of organised competition,' and allow it to dominate athletic sport. But wo can give it a counterpoise, a ; regulator, as did those ancient Greeks who, wo find, had to grapple with most of the problem's that perplex us; and their regulator was Olympia. At Olympia vulgar' competition was transformed, and in a sense sanctified, by contact with national sentiment superbly Excited. ' , ■ "Over-excited, I might even say; for it was excess that in the end ruined and corrupted ancient athleticism. But tho end came very .slowly. For centuries athleticism, its homo in Olympia, remained puro 'and magnificent. There States and cities met in tho persons of their young men, who, imbued with a sense of the moral, grandeur of tho Games, went to them in a spirit of almost religious reverence. Around them were assembled men'.of... letters and 1 of tho arts, ready to celebrate tho victories-of "their enorgy and muscle; and these incomparablo spectacles were also the delight of' the popu'No doubt low ambitions-and- mean passions were present; there'is'no humali assembly without them, no human institution which thoyj. do liot infest. But despite them,the whole result was something grandiose and strong, which dominated Hellenic civilisation,'influencing happily arid gloriously tho youth of the country, and through them the entire nation."- . • :