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<center><font color="#0f1c4c"><h1>Why were the Ancient Olympics Revived</h1></center>
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<em>
"The idea of the revival of Olympic Games was not a passing fancy: it
was the logical culmination of a great movement. The 19th century
saw the taste for physical exercises revive everywhere ... At the
same time the great inventions, the railways and the telegraph have
abridged distances and mankind has come to live a new existence; the
peoples have intermingled, they have learned to know each other better
and immediately they started to compare themselves. What one achieved
the other immediately wished also to endeavour: universal exhibitions
brought together to one locality of the globe the products of the most
distant lands; Literary or scientific congresses have brought together,
into contact, the various intellectual forces. How then should the athletes
not seek to meet, since rivalry is the basis of athletics, and in reality the
very reason of its existence?"</em>
<br>(Baron Pierre de Coubertin, 1896)</font>
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In order to purify the notion of rivalry and to transform it in noble contest,
the representatives of all the nations chose one method: the creation of
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<font color="#0f1c4c"><em>
"competitions at regular periodical intervals at which representatives
of all countries and all sports would be invited under the aegis of the
same authority, which would impact to them a halo of grandeur and glory,
that is the patronage of classical antiquity. To do this was to revive the
Olympic Games: the name imposed itself: it was not even possible to find
another." </em>
<br>(Baron Pierre de Coubertin, 1896)</font>
<p>
The above text illustrates in a very alive way what 19th c. believed for
the revival of the Olympic Games. Still, it says nothing about the
<a href="first_attempts.html">first attempts</a> of Greeks
to revive the Olympic Games, long before Baron De Coubertin
was born. Many years later, in
<a href="rebirth.html#1896">1896</a>, the
First International Olympic Games took
place in Athens, the first Olympic city. The choice of
<a href="rebirth.html#athens">Athens</a> was a symbolical
act of recognition of the Hellenic contribution to western culture and
civilisation. Many people contributed to the realisation of the Olympic
Games. In 19th century, the
<a href="social.html">social</a> formation of
national states was ideally
right for the acceptance of the Olympic Ideas in a new - national - context.
The
<a href="symbols.html">symbolism</a> of the
Olympic Games show us today the processes through which
human beings learned the new concepts of their time.
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<font color="0f1c4c" size=2>
<hr noshade size=1>
<a href="first_attempts.html">First Attempts</a> |
<a href="rebirth.html">Olympics Rebirth</a> |
<a href="social.html">People and Society</a> |
<a href="symbols.html">Symbols</a>
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<b>Note:</b> Click on the images to see a brief description.
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