Paris 2024: A Celebration of the Western World's Unique Legacy to the World

The #Paris2024 Olympic Games that conclude today are a perfect example of how the Western world has evolved from a rich blend of past civilizations.

According to Edith Hamilton, "the Greeks were the first people in the world to play, and they played on a grand scale." What set them apart from previous societies was their embrace of joyful living. They championed the arts, sports, and philosophy in ways that no one had before. It has been said that "play died when Greece fell, and many centuries passed before it was revived."

In the case of the Olympic Games the resurrection came from the mind of, precisely, a French guy: Baron Pierre de Coubertin.

As you may remember, the first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens, in 1896. Not long before this, much of the monumental splendor of Olympia (the site of the ancient Olympic Games) had been uncovered through multiple excavations. Coubertin since his boyhood had been enthralled by the ancient Olympic Games and by the benefits of physical fitness (for instance, he advocated for the introduction of sports in the French curricula). So, these archaeological events stirred even more of his inspiration and made him ponder: “If Germany has brought to light the remains of Olympia; why should France not succeed in reviving its ancient glory?” ?

Long story short, about a decade later, and after overcoming numerous challenges in organizing international athletes, the modern era of the Olympic Games came to life. A 50,000-seat stadium in Athens became the centerpiece for these games, featuring forty-two events across ten sports and 285 participants from fourteen countries. However, only a few elements were "borrowed" from the original Games: the long jump, the discus throw, and wrestling.

Coubertin chose to adapt the event to the "athletic interests of his own time," introducing sports like cycling, fencing, and the high jump. Moreover, the entire event was designed to embody the values of "international understanding, brotherhood, and peace," which he strongly advocated. For instance, the ancient Games lacked Olympic torch ceremonies. There were torch races that were local, non-athletic events involving teams of naked men wearing diadems and carrying torches between religious altars. Additionally, the ancient Games were pan-Hellenic, meaning "all-Greek," and not international. They weren't egalitarian; there were clear distinctions between rich and poor, and between townsmen and peasants. Coubertin, however, believed in including the lower classes in the Games.

In any case, to return to my initial point, the Olympic Games, like many other aspects of Western culture, flourished through a blend of ancient Greek elements and the values embedded in the Judeo-Christian tradition (with Coubertin himself being raised and educated in a Catholic environment).

After reading about this, I couldn’t help but wonder why France didn’t seem to make any significant effort to highlight this remarkable part of its history during the games (I only located this short video in their official website: https://olympics.com/en/video/pierre-de-coubertin-and-the-modern-olympic-games?uxreference=playlist). What I found in some other source online is that Coubertin was apparently in favor of colonialism and didn’t support the participation of women (the Greeks also didn't). Is this another case of #presentism — a #bias that judges historical events by today’s moral standards? It seems that despite all the greatness of the Olympic Games, which unite billions of people around the world with each edition, we still struggle to acknowledge our past for its own greatness and recognize that humans are, and always will be, imperfect and in constant evolution.

You may want to learn more in: The Olympic Games: The First Thousand Years by M.I. Finley and H.W. Pleket and in How the West Won: The Neglected Story of the Triumph of Modernity by Rodney Stark.