THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS MONDAY, AUGUST 10, 1936 IDEALS OF OLYMPIA

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22493, 10 August 1936, Page 8

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS MONDAY, AUGUST 10, 1936 IDEALS OF OLYMPIA

Close upon the news of the ovation greeting Lovelock's brilliant victory conies further proof of the fine spirit prevailing at the Olympic Games: international geniality is reported to have grown in Berlin since they began. At first, it is said, this good feeling was not manifest, and there was then reason to fear that illations might be strained. Recollections of previous Olympiads are not altogether happy. Rivalry has sometimes been intense to the point of bitterness. Before the Amsterdam contests of 1928 an acute controversy raged round the amateur principle as applied to one event. At Los Angeles in 1932 there was some illhumour. That a risk of this has to be run arises from the clash of keen national strivings for supremacy. When it was decided to accept Germany's invitation for this year a misgiving was felt: prejudices of nationalism were there so strong that the decision looked like foolish running into danger. Six months ago this foreboding was strengthened by doubts in some quarters whether teams ought to become guests of a Government renewing its challenge to peace. On the eve of the Olympic Winter Games in Bavaria these doubts had sharp expression, most notably in the undergraduate journal of Oxford, which raised the question whether Germany's organisation of all sport on a basis of militancy did ! not justify foreign aloofness in j loyalty to a fundamental purpose of Olympia, that of promoting universal j fraternity. The originator of the Olympic Games a Frenchman,; Baron Pierre de Coubertin —frankly j had this purpose in mind: it was as I dear to him as the amateur principle, j Thus at their inception the contests j were given a distinctly moral char- I acter, and any defection from that ! —unsportsmanlv conduct of any sort —was to be feared as well as depre- j cated. Fortunately, the unpromising j start at Berlin, marked by over- j emphasis of German ambitions and i a relative coolness toward visiting ' competitors, seems to have been dis- I placed by an achievement of real j fellowship.

This is all the more remarkable because of the heights to which the athletic competition has soared. Event after event has been the occasion of'a new record. Many finishes have been thrillingly close. Never in the history of the Games has there been so conspicuous a determination to inflict defeat, and this has had to be endured in some instances at the hands—at the feet, it might be more aptly said —of negroes: in Berlin, of all places, fountain of the doctrine of proud birth, and for a national rival able only by this means to keep Germany out of the top place for aggregate points. The international principle could not have a more exacting test, and it appears to have come through the ordeal splendidly. If this spirit can be maintained to the end, the Olympic Games of this year will do much to keep the truly international ideal unsullied in future. The intention was to have the contests absolutely world - wide in scope. When, in 1896, the modern revival of the age-old Olympic Games of Greece was undertaken, it was fitting that the new beginning should be made at Athens; but it was agreed that not even " the fairest spot of Greece," as Lysias called ancient Olympia, should have the unique right of being the scene of battle for excellence—from country to country, every fourth year, the festival should migrate. Thus the ideal, of a wider fellowship than the Hellenic world had glimpsed, was deliberately emphasised. The International Olympic Committee has never swerved from pursuit of this ideal. Along with the amateur principle, on which it has been loyally set, an eagerness to foster friendliness throughout the world has been its constant care ; whatever has occasionally happened to mar achievement has been beyond its sphere. As soon as the contests start, it is in control, working through the various international bodies ruling different branches of sport. All details of award, such as the supervision of judges and referees, are made under its oversight. But much obviously depends upon the loyalty of others to the ideal—onlookers as well as competitors—and any serious breach of good feeling on their part can spoil everything. It was this fact that made acceptance of the German invitation a grave step, and the reported triumph of true sportsmanship is proportionately a subject of congratulation to all concerned. And there should be particularly remembered, when credit is given, that young Germany, to whom the Games make their most attractive appeal, can bo reasonably held to have responded in the spirit of the occasion. If only young Berlin has taken the visitors to its heart, that is much in these days of suspicion and exclusiveness. It has not solved the problem of Lurope nor ensured peace, but it has proved that, deep beneath Nazi philosophy is a practical realisation of something better. Why should not sport help to find < a solvent for misunderstandings and 1 enmities ? ,