I was one of the 6 billion people on our planet mesmerized by the television coverage of the Olympics of Beijing last summer, capturing every minute I could. It is easy to think that the world’s largest and most viewed sporting event was always so. It wasn’t.
Last night, I reached up to the book shelf in my closet and pulled down an old book, entitled The Story of the Olympic Games 776 BC to 1960 AD, written by John Kieran and Arthur Daley. This was a revised edition from 1961. I didn’t even know I had it and haven’t the slightest idea where I got it. Regardless, the NBA finals were over and I am not into Wimbledon, so I cracked it open and started reading.
Admittedly, I am an Olympic junkie, but I was fascinated with some tidbits of information I guess I never realized. Here are a few of them.
If you think the modern Olympics has endured a long time (1896 to 2008 except for a few wars) consider that the Ancient Olympics endured 1,170 years from 776 BC to 394 AD. Every four years like clockwork. They even stopped the wars for the Olympics, rather than vice versa.
The ancient Olympians had not yet heard of title IX. Women were neither allowed to compete nor watch the events. Nor could they Tevo it and watch it later.
No swim suit controversies. Ancient Olympians competed nude. Yes, even in the sabre competition. Just imagine, Olympia gone wild.
The marathon was never an event of the ancient Olympics. In the modern Olympics, it was named after the coastal Greek city where 9,000 Athenians drove out the invading Persians in 490 BC. Some Greek named Pheidippides who was allegedly the fastest runner of the day (I say he drew the shortest straw) ran the 26 miles and change from Marathon back to Athens to proclaim the good news and promptly dropped dead. And all of these years, I thought the marathon was named after one of the Florida Keys.
It took years of planning and coercing for Baron Pierre de Coubertin of France to convince Greece to host the first modern Olympic Games in 1896. They almost cancelled the whole deal but for one wealthy Greek who (at the last minute) put up the money for a stadium, without which it would have been pretty hard to have an Olympics. 19 countries showed up. Talk about easy qualification standards. All you had to do was show up, state what country you were from (so in case you won, they would be sure to have a flag and a recording of your national anthem) and you were in. Not only were you in, but you stood a pretty good chance of medaling, even if you had never done the event before. The US guy who won the discus had never thrown one before. Those were the days.
Then on to Paris in 1900, which likely never would have agreed to host the Olympics were it not for the International Exposition going on at the same time anyway. The Olympics were a sideshow. Most of the competitors from the 13 countries that showed up didn’t even realize it was the Olympics until they saw the inscription on the medals. They thought it was just a track meet. Almost no one came to the Opening Ceremony because it was held on Bastille day… bad timing for an event in Paris.
The most interesting tidbit of all is that the name of the stadium in Paris, or rather the place where the track and field events took place with some small stands, was called The Racing Club, and there you have the origin of our roots.
The truth is not a lot has really changed since the Ancient Olympics. Yes, I know that women now rule the Games, but the fact is, people…… all people either love to race or love to watch people race. And that is what The Race Club is all about.
Hope to see you down here soon!
