On Wednesday, when Google marked the 120th anniversary of the first modern Olympic games with a doodle, it showed us that these games definitely need to be commemorated.
It also reminded us, in a somewhat roundabout way, that this is the year of Olympic Games. And that the games will begin soon, in August, in that amazing city of Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil.
‘Doodle’, we know, was once a word used for any simple absent-minded scribble on paper.
But today, Google seems to have hijacked the word to mean, very often, a simple-looking, but an elaborate digital animation, on your search-engine web-page, which is programmed to link to copious amounts of data, with the primary objective of either telling you things you have completely forgotten, or of stimulating your grey cells, into wondering how you missed learning about these things, in spite of your years and years, of intense schooling, and open-eyed existence .
Okay. That was a very long sentence. A paragraph, actually. And I had digressed.
My apologies.
I had, actually, meant to write a bit about the Olympic Games. About both, the ancient ones, and the modern ones which were resurrected in 1896 in Athens of Greece; and which were exactly what this particular doodle had honoured with four drawings.
In 1896, 241 athletes from 14 nations competed in 43 events, when the modern Olympics began at Athens. But, all athletes were male!
In 2016, I understand, some 10,500 athletes, male and female, from 206 countries will be competing in 306 medal events, at Rio de Janeiro, this August. Or that’s what TIME magazine tells me.
But we must go back into the past, much further, say 2800 years, to know when this sporting spectacle officially began.
“According to existing historic manuscripts, the first ancient Olympic Games were celebrated in 776 BC in Olympia, Greece ” says the fact sheet on the website of olympic.org (pdf file).
“They (Games) were dedicated to the Greek god Zeus and took place in the same place every four years.”
Even after the conquest of Greece by Rome, in 146 BC, the Romans continued the tradition of the organizing of these games.
It was not until 393 AD, that the Roman Emperor Theodosius I – who had converted to Christianity and abolished many pagan cults and their practices – also abolished the Olympic Games. But what is astonishing is that they were, run for an astounding 1000 years!
Today, thanks to the efforts of the French educator Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the Games have been revived for the modern era.
He had said once: "The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well".
And that spirit, in the modern Olympics, of over 120 years, is still going strong.
But I only wish that the spirit of ancient Olympics, of 9th century BC -- where an “Olympic Truce”, signed originally by three kings, of Elis, of Pisa and of Sparta, to ensure that no wars were waged during the games -- was observed today.
With less fighting spirit and with more sporting spirit.
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