#olympism

The Olympic Day celebration – how significant is it in 2016?

June 23 is a very significant date on the global sporting calendar. It is the‪#‎OlympicDay, and as such, the sporting fraternity and many people across all continents celebrate this day with passion and zeal. It is a day reserved to celebrate the power of sports and its potential to change the world. (more…)

At the opening ceremony of the ancient Olympic games, all the athletes, trainers, guardians and judges participating in the games that year, were required to be present at the Council House to swear the Olympic oath before the statue of Zeus Horkios. The priests sacrificed a wild boar (Hus in Greek) on which flesh the participants were required to swear the oath. It was a solemn religious ritual.[i]

Other events also happened during the first day of the ancient Olympic games, like a contest for heralds and trumpeters introduced in 396BC[ii] or the short sprint, wrestling and boxing completion for boys that took place in the Stadium[iii].

As you can see none of this events happening during the first day of the games had an especial moment for lighting the Olympic fire. In fact, the sacred fire of Hestia, virgin goddess of the fire burning on the heart, kept burning nigh and day in a special chamber at the Prytaneion. The sacred flame was used to light other fires but there was no fanfare when this happened.[iv]

According to the IOC: “In the context of the modern Games, the Olympic flame is a manifestation of the positive values that Man has always associated with the symbolism of fire. The purity of the flame is guaranteed by the special way of lighting it - the sun’s rays.

The choice of Olympia as a departure point emphasizes the link between the Ancient and Modern Games and underlines the profound connection between these two events.” Nowadays, the fire has lost its religious symbolism, but the essence remains the same.

The modern use of the Olympic flame began in the Amsterdam 1928 summer Olympics when an employee of the Electric Utility of Amsterdam lit the fire in a cauldron. The initial lighting of the flame in Olympia and the first torch relay took place in the lead-up to the Berlin 1936 summer games.

The original suggestion of Theodore Lewald stated: “A torch is lit at Olympia in Greece, the home of the Ancient Olympics, and then carried by relay to the host city. The last runner, carrying the torch, runs into the main stadium at the time of the Opening Ceremony. The Olympic flame is then lit and allowed to burn throughout the Games until it is extinguished during the Closing Ceremony”[v].

As you can see, not much has change since 1936. The highlight of the opening ceremony of the Olympics is the entrance of the Olympic flame into the stadium. How it does it, how it reaches the cauldron and with whom is kept secret to create a “wow moment” when it happens in front of a global audience.

The lighting of the cauldron during the opening ceremonies of the London 2012 summer Olympics and the Sochi 2014 winter Olympics were so different between each other; that they are worth a deeper analysis.

  The motto of the London 2012 Olympics was “Inspire a generation” and it was very present during the opening ceremony. People were important.

500 men and women build a path for the Olympic torch coming into the stadium in the hands of Steve Redgrave, who handed the torch to seven young athletes, each of one nominated by an older athlete, who jog around the stadium relaying the torch at the rhythm of live music, until they got in front of a group of British Olympic winners from 1948 to 2010, who gave the younger bearers six more torches that they lit with the original torch and the seven athletes jog towards the center of the stadium where 204 petals with the engraved names of the 204 countries participating in the games, were waiting.

The 7 young athletes lit 7 petals and the rest of them start to burn with the sacred fired like a gigantic flower of fire. And like a flower, it was alive, and when all the petals were burning, the flower began to close and formed a single torch with a powerful fire combining the 204 small ones. Symbolizing the unity of all the countries.

The show ended up with a fanfare of fireworks and the image of the Olympic rings live from the International Space Station.

The slogan of the Sochi 2014 Olympics was “Hot.Cool.Yours.” I can relate to two words watching the opening ceremony, and “Yours.” (notice the dot at the end of the word) is not one of them.

The Olympic flame made its appearance into and empty stadium (only some seats were filled with people) in the hands of Maria Sharapova, who handed the torch to Yelena Isinbaeva, who handed the torch to Aleksandr Kareli, who handed the torch to Alina Kabaeva, who handed the torch to Irina Rodnina who run with Vladislav Tretiak to (after handling the torch to him) outside the stadium passing though a corridor made by the people participating in the opening ceremony, arriving to a big empty plaza where the cauldron was waiting to be lit by the two athletes from a platform with a small cauldron that burned and lit a path until heading to the top of a bigger torch where it explode and lit the cauldron.

And so the show off began with a pyrotechnic musical spectacle that lasted for 8 minutes.

Here’s a side note, I found interesting that all the torchbearers inside the stadium were Olympic champions; the first four, summer games but the two in charge of lighting the cauldron, were former winter games champions.

The differences between the two ceremonies were also in the formal aspect.

  In London the producer changed the images constantly creating a live montage to give some dynamism to the even. The were aerial shots to show the venue, general shots inside the stadium were you could see how packed with people it was, medium shots to the torchbearers and detail shots of the sacred fire and the face of the athletes. Also the children singing, the band playing… Even there was a shot from inside the flower/cauldron while it was closing to see the fire with an inside perspective.

In most of the shots you saw people, even at the end, while the firework show was taking place, the producer mixed the images with some epic moments from the past Olympic games like Usain Bolt winning the 100 meters in Beijing or Jesse Owen’s running in Berlin 1936.

  In Sochi, the entire relay and cauldron lit part was a single sequence shot following the torchbearers using the same technique. First a medium frontal shot of the athlete, then a closer look the face, moving to the torch and the fire and then travelling out to follow the subject from behind. Shots were very close and not a single one showed the audience or someone else beside the athletes.

When Irina Rodnina and Vladislav Tretiak left the stadium, there was a shot general shot from outside showing them coming out and then the image went back to back until they arrive to the cauldron, and lit it. There, a crane followed the fire on its way to the top and then the aerial shot began showing the entire Olympic complex and the pyrotechnic show. There was only a single general shot from inside the stadium showing the firecrackers lighting inside.

In my humble opinion, the host city/country of the Olympic games uses the event as a show off to the world. Both London and the Russian Federation did, but in a way, the London opening ceremony produced by Danny Boyle, made me feel more welcomed and a part of the show even tough I was watching it on a flat screen in the apartment of a friend in Madrid, Spain, having hummus and pizza. I didn’t feel that connection with the Sochi show. And ok, you can say that the Olympic flame wasn’t visible from outside the stadium during the London Games and you would be partially right (there were screens showing live footage of flame)[vi], but I still get goose bumps when I see the lighting of the cauldron footage.

  Let’s hope Rio 2016 summer Olympics have Pierre de Coubertin’s in mind, because like he said: “The Olympic Games are the quadrennial celebration of the springtime of humanity.”[vii]

[i] Neil Faulkner 2012, A Visitor’s Guide to the Ancient Olympics, location 3273 on Kindle.

[ii] Finley and Pleket 1976, 43– 4; Miller 2004a, 84– 5, 121

[iii] Miller 2004a, 46; Swaddling 2008, 53

[iv] Yalouris and Yalouris 1998, 14; Miller 2004a, 87; Swaddling 2008, 25

[v] http://www.casey.vic.gov.au/council/our-city/history/edwin-flack/olympic-game-history

[vi] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19045915

We got reactions from several readers about our column several weeks ago (“Finally: Mixed gender sports in Palaro”), one of which was an email from Victor (Toto) Africa, president of the Philippine Fencing Association, Inc. (PFA). Last year we had a …

The Olympics have been a bit of a let down this year. I love the Olympics, don't get me wrong, but something has been missing. I was unable to put my finger on what that thing was until today. My complaint is not related to the athletes or the endless marketing and commercials. It's not NBC's tape delay or their mindless and often insulting coverage of the opening ceremonies. My disappointment has to do with the spirit of the games.

A few days ago the New York Times published a story claiming Lolo Jones is only concerned with image, and lacks any substance to back up her Olympic credentials. I don't feel the need to write a counter story, many others have already done that; but the story (and several others) lead to exactly what has bothered me most about the Olympics. The attitude of win at all costs is not limited to a few badminton players, it's the way the games themselves have been covered.

Modern Olympism was conceived by Pierre de Coubertin and guided the first modern Olympic Games in 1896.

According to the Olympic Charter, there are 7 fundamental Priciples of Olympism, the philosophy that governs the IOC and the Olympic Games. The second principle reads:

2. The goal of Olympism is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of humankind, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.

Every four years the world stops to cheer the athlete from their hometown compete against the world. I want to see my country win just like the next guy, but I also want to see what should be prized much higher—human dignity. It's there. I've seen it, but it's been so marginalized during the coverage. Every time a runner helps another off the track or congratulates another after a match, that spirit is there.