The Modern Olympic Myth and Its Mythmakers

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The Modern Olympic Myth and Its Mythmakers
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Riefenstahl's Olympiad
Leni Riefenstahl 1901-2003) Olympiad (1936)
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Baron de Coubertin1863-1937
The man most responsible for the revival of the
modern Olympic Games was a French nobleman,
Pierre de Fredi, known as Baron de Coubertin.
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The Modern Olympic Ideal

• "The idea of the revival of Olympic Games was
• not a passing fancy it was the logical
  culmination
• of a great movement. The 19th century saw the
• taste for physical exercises revive everywhere
  ...
• At the same time the great inventions, the
• railways and the telegraph have abridged
• distances and mankind has come to live a new
• existence the peoples have intermingled,
• They have learned to know each other better and
• immediately they started to compare themselves.
• What one achieved the other immediately wished
• also to endeavor universal exhibitions brought
• together to one locality of the globe the
  products
• of the most distant lands Literary or scientific
  
• congresses have brought together, into contact,
• the various intellectual forces. How then should
• the athletes not seek to meet, since rivalry is
  the
• basis of athletics, and in reality the very
  reason of
• its existence?" (Baron Pierre de Coubertin,
  1896)

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Modern Olympic Myth

• A Combination of
• Revival Movement
• Amateur Athletic Movement

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Revival? The Olympic Torch
The First Modern Torch Lighting CeremonyOlympia,
Greece July 20, 1936 (Berlin Olympics)
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Eternal Flame of Goddess Hestia (Vesta)
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Lampadedromia (Torch Race)
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Rise of Sport in 19th-century Britain

• Competitions for cash prizes (Highland Games of
  Scotland) in early 19th century
• University track and field contests in Britain in
  1860s (gentlemanly competition)
• Amateur Athletic Club (AAC) founded in 1866 in
  London. Mechanics excluded.
• AAC becomes Amateur Athletic Assn. (AAA) in 1881.
  Mechanics clause replaced by profit clause.

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Rise of Sport in 19th-century America

• Competitions for cash prizes in early part of
  century
• American egalitarianism slowed amateur movement
• N.Y. Athletic Club founded in 1868. (No amateur
  in title.)
• U.S. baseball goes pro in 1869
• First U.S. university track contests (for cash
  prizes) in 1870s
• By 1879 University competitions had become
  amateur.

The football team and athletic club Atlas of
Nikomedia, Marmnamarz, 1913
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Olympic Ideals 2004 (See http//www.athens2004.co
m/en/Values)

• Celebration
• Human Scale
• Heritage
• Participation

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Celebration
In the ancient Olympic Games, a truce was
declared so that what is good and ennobling in
humankind would prevail.The Games today are the
greatest celebration of humanity, an event of joy
and optimism to which the whole world is invited
to compete peacefully. Every four years, humanity
celebrates, embraces and honors sport, and the
world realizes the Olympic ideals of culture and
peace.In 2004, Athens will offer the world a
unique and festive experience that will remain
with us for life, a point of reference for future
generations.
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Human Scale

• Throughout its history, Greek civilization has
• made man the measure of all things.
• For the homecoming to Greece, the centre
• of our attention and the measure of
• comparison will remain the athlete, the
• individual, the team. Noble competition will
• inspire the athletes to excel in each of their
• endeavors, and thus to oppose their
• human abilities to the massive dimensions
• of the Games. The Olympic Games are the
• arena where human abilities are
• demonstrated and acknowledged an
• inspiration that encourages and empowers
• each of us to pursue our ideals, high as they
• might be.

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Heritage

• The Olympic Games were born in Greece more than
  two and a half thousand years ago. The Games were
  revived in Athens, in 1896.
• Today, the Olympic Games belong to the world
  every
• host city and country adds its own cultural
  character to
• the Games. The universality and uniqueness of the
  
• Games can be found in the Olympic ideals,
  understood
• in all languages of the world. The Olympic
  symbols of
• ancient Olympia, the Olympic flame and the
  Marathon
• race are the bridge between the ancient and the
  modern
• Olympic Games. They convey the Olympic ideals
  and,
• combined with the homecoming of the Games in
  2004,
• will  renew the Olympic spirit and celebrate the
  ancient
• "Ethos" of the noble competition of sport.

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Participation
People of various backgrounds, different cultural
roots, and different ideas come to the Olympic
Games to participate in a gathering that
showcases what makes us alike, not what makes us
different.The athletes, spectators, organisers,
volunteers, and the people who will share in the
2004 Games through new technologies, will
participate in a homecoming to the birthplace of
the Olympic Games that enhances Olympism.In the
Olympic Games, what matters most is to share the
common vision of  promoting peace and friendship
among all the people of the world, through the
noble competition in sport.
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The Mythmakers

• Shorey, Paul. Can we Revive the Olympic Games,
  forum 19 (1895), 313-323.
• Mahaffy, John P. Old Greek Athletics,
  Macmillans Magazine 36 (1879), 61-69.
• Gardner, Percy. New Chapters in Greek History.
  London, 1892.
• Coubertin, Pierre. Why I revived the Olympic
  Games, Fortnightly Review 90 (1908), 110-115.
• Brundage, Avery. Why the Olympic Games? Report
  of the United States Olympic Committee Games of
  the XIVthe Olympiad, London, England, 1948 n.p.,
  n.d., 21-26.

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Paul Shorey

• Paul Shorey (1854-1934)Bryn Mawr faculty
  1885-1892, then moving to the University of
  Chicago, where he published Horace. Odes and
  Epodes (1898), Unity of Plato's Thought (1903),
  Plato Republic Loeb, What Plato Said (1933), and
  most of the 800 other items in his bibliography,
  especially
• Can We Revive the Olympic Games, forum 19
  (1895), 313-323.

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John Mahaffy

• Irish Classical scholar and papyrologist
• Strong advocate of English aristocratic values
• Present at the 1875 Zappian games.
• Mahaffy, John P. Old Greek Athletics,
  Macmillans Magazine 36 (1879), 61-69.
• Praised modern English athletes over ancient
  Greek ones.
• The first scholar to assert that the ancient
  Greeks were amateur in their sports.

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Percy Gardner

• English Classical Scholar
• Dominated the field in the early 20th century.
• Gardner, Percy. New Chapters in Greek History.
  London, 1892.
• Describes the genuine amateurs of the Greek
  archaic period
• Speaks openly of the evils of professionalism
• Created the myth of the degradation of Greek
  athletics

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Pierre de Coubertin

• Coubertin, Pierre. Why
• I revived the Olympic
• Games, Fortnightly Review
• 90 (1908), 110-115.

• Member of a French aristocratic family
• Visited England in 1863 and became advocate of
  English principles of aristocratic superiority
  and amateurism in sports
• Revival of Olympics linked with efforts to reform
  French educational system according to English
  models

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Avery Brundage

• Why the Olympic Games?
• Report of the United States
• Olympic Committee Games of
• the XIVthe Olympiad,
• London, England, 1948 n.p., n.d., 21-26.

Placed sixth in 1912 pentathlon behind Jim
Thorpe Elected President of the US Olympic
Committee in 1929 VP of IOC after World War II
and then President (1952-1972) Staunch defender
of strict amateurism rule Any profit of any kind
made an athlete a pro.
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What is the Relationship between Sport and
Professionalism in ancient Athletics?
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The Mythmakers Answer

• From 776 B.C. until c.400 B.C. Greek athletes
  were amateurs
• From c.400 B.C. until 393 A.D. the games existed
  in a corrupt and degenerate state

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The Reality

• Ancient Athletes would be ineligible for the
  first Modern games
• The concept of amateur did not exist in the
  ancient world.