Olympic Games

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OLYMPIC GAMES

Held for the first time in the modern era in Athens, Greece, in 1896, and then every four years until the sequence was interrupted by World War I, the Games were a nineteenth-century creation inspired by ancient Greek precedents. By the 1912 Games, held in Stockholm, Sweden, the organizers of the Games had begun to invent its modern traditions, but the Games still lacked the scale and most of the symbols associated with them later in the century.

The 1896 Games are often described as a continuation of the ancient Olympic Games, held from the eighth century b.c.e. (the year 776 b.c.e. is canonical) until either 393 or 424 c.e., when the pagan cults associated with the Games were suppressed by the Christianized Roman Empire. In fact, though the modern Games were inspired by the example of the ancient ones, and by the broader respect in which prewar Europe held ancient Greece, the differences between the ancient Games and those of 1896 are at least as important as their similarities.

The modern Games are, in the words of Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger, an "invented tradition," one of many institutions—including sports such as baseball—that were either "refounded" or made instantly traditional in the decades before World War I. These institutions filled a social need for new civic religions, a need caused by the changes associated with economic growth, the rise of mass politics, and the decline of the aristocratic elite.

Though credit for the modern Games is often given solely to Pierre de Coubertin (1863–1937) of France, he built on and benefited from a heterogeneous array of precedents, experiments, and efforts of other enthusiasts. The Cotswold "Olympick Games" were held from 1662 to 1852 in Britain, the Greek poet Alexandros Soutsos suggested reviving the Games in 1833, and a variety of so-called Olympic competitions were either planned or held across Europe during the nineteenth century. The most important of these were the Zappas Games, held in Athens in 1859, 1870, and 1875. But, like the other competitions, the Zappas Games were not sufficiently successful to be self-sustaining.

The modern Games began in the English village of Much Wenlock. There, in 1841, Dr. William Penny Brookes founded the Agricultural Reading Society to educate the local agricultural laborers. In 1859, the Society held the first Wenlock Olympics, which were followed by National Olympic Games in 1866. By this time, Brookes was corresponding with like-minded "founders" across Europe, including Coubertin. Inspired by Brookes, Coubertin urged the refounding of the Games at the International Athletic Congress in June 1894. This led to the formation of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), with seventy-nine delegates from twelve nations, and to a decision to hold the first Games in Athens in 1896.

For reasons that remain unclear, Coubertin then lost interest in the Games for a time. Much of the organizational work for 1896 was done by the first president of the IOC, the Greek novelist Demetrios Vikelas. But Coubertin's backing was essential to the success of the Games. Coubertin came from an aristocratic family and was educated in a classical Catholic tradition that emphasized Greek philosophy. Like many contemporaries, he was humiliated by his country's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870–1871. He believed that France had lost because it was effeminate and excessively intellectual. Prussia's Turner organizations, which combined fervent nationalism with a form of gymnastics, gave it the physical culture that France lacked. This belief was fortified by Coubertin's respect for Britain, which was expanding its already vast empire while modernizing its domestic political system. Britain was adapting to the new era; France had obviously failed to do so.

Coubertin found the secret of Britain's success in the British system of public—in American terms, private—schools. He believed that the sporting ethic taught in these schools trained Britain's leaders. The Olympics would create this kind of aristocracy in all nations. But the Olympic aristocracy would be one suitable for a democratic age. It would be open to all, with membership granted on the basis of talent and effort. This aristocracy would become modern knights: playing by the rules as an example to others, competing for the love of the game and for female applause, and inspiring healthy patriotism and mutual respect for different nations in all competitors and spectators. While Coubertin wanted to

promote peace, he was not a pacifist: he believed that if the Olympic spirit prevailed, wars would not disappear, but would be less frequent and more humane.

The first Games were a success: three hundred athletes from thirteen nations competed in nine sports. The next two Games, in 1900, in Paris, and in 1904, in St. Louis, were near-disasters. The Paris Games were poorly organized; the St. Louis Games were so remote from Europe that most of the competitors were Americans. The Games were saved by the unofficial but professionally run Athens Games of 1906 and the London Games of 1908. In 1912, 2,500 athletes (including 57 women) from twenty-eight nations competed in thirteen sports. While medal winners continued to come primarily from the United States, Europe, and the British Empire, the future of the Games seemed assured.

While gold, silver, and bronze medals were first awarded in 1904, the 1906 and 1908 Games were—apart from those of 1896—the most important of the era. It was in 1906 that the athletes first entered the stadium in national teams; before then, they had competed as individuals. The 1908 Games, for their part, witnessed a series of nationalistic disputes between the Americans, eager to show their superiority on British soil, and the host nation, equally eager to ensure they retained pride of place. These Games thus proved that the Olympics had become a forum for competitive nationalism. This became increasingly important when the Games invented new traditions and expanded, both in scale and with the addition of the Winter Games, in the interwar years and after 1945.

See alsoAthens; Philhellenic Movement; Red Cross; Sports.