Olympics Highs and Lows ( part 1 )

RePosted

Friday, August 8, 2008; 12:00 AM

As the 2008 Summer Olympics commence today in Beijing, RePosted looks back at over a century of Post opinon on the Games, from their modern resurrection in the late nineteenth century, across the looming spectre of Hitler in Berlin in 1936 and the massacre at Munich in nearly 30 years later, to the scandals that marred the 2002 Winter Games.

1896: The Rebirth of the Games

The first modern Olympics were held in Athens in 1896, with the United States represented by "eight of our American boys" from Princeton University and the Boston Athletic Association. On the eve of the opening ceremonies, Washington Post columnist Walter J. Davis wrote:

"If the spirit of the great Herodes Atticus still lingers in the vacinity of the remnants of his noble works there will be a glad ghost in Athens on the 6th of April, when the athletes of the world file into the magnificent amphitheater of the Panathenaic stadium to struggle for the bays that are to be won by physical prowess, for never in the history of the world has there been an athletic event so notable and comprehensive as this one will be. The Greeks themselves, who for so large a part of ancient times were leaders in athletics as well as in art, have never seen its like, for they in the height of their glory would enter into no contests with other nations....

"[I]t only remains for King George to lift his hand, as did his august ancestors, and say, 'Let the games go on!'"

-- "Feats on Classic Soil," April 6, 1896

1936: In the Shadows of Despots

For the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Adolf Hitler, on the advice of his propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, decided to make the Games a showcase for Nazi ideology and power. He prevented Jewish Germans from competing and, in a sign of the terrors to come, rounded up the Roma Gypsies in Berlin and moved them to an internment camp. A Post editorial at the time wondered if the games could survive tyranny:

"The Olympics have once more reached full flower. But this occurs at a moment when the politics of the world are rocking dangerously. So it was in Hellas. At the peak of Olympia's glory, Greek democracy crumbled before the onslaughts of Macedonia and Rome. Yet the games continued, the last victor not being recorded until 393 A.D.

"Today the tyrant's tread is heard again in many parts of the world. Runners bearing the Olympic torch from Athens to Berlin were abused in Vienna. Hate and fear are known to be blowing hard on the Olympic flame in Berlin. Will there be any essence of fair play and sportsmanship left to illuminate the twelfth Olympics in Tokyo?"

-- "The Olympics," Aug. 1, 1936

1960: What Would the Romans Do?

After 64 years, the Games returned once again to Athens in 1960, but an editorial from the Post worried that the spectacle and promise of the Olympics had been lost:

"In theory, as you know, these Olympic games are merely contests between individual athletes of various nationalities. In actuality they are and always have been competitions for national prestige. And although there have been instances of friendship between rival athletes growing out of these games, it can hardly be said that Baron de Coubertin's vision of competitive friendship among nations has yet been realized.

"It is anticipated that in point of excitement, enthusiasm and tourist traffic the Roman Olympiad will be the greats ever. Over here, however, it bids very likely to be eclipsed in interest by the doings of the professional athletes who constitute the five top clubs of the American Baseball League."

Source :http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/07/AR2008080702180.html?wpisrc=newsletter