A tribute to Greece, home of the Ancient Olympics.
by Philip Barker
Olympic Day has been celebrated for the 75th year.
It was in 1948 that the International Olympic Committee decided to formally adopt a “World Olympic Day at their session in St Moritz.
It was decided that it should take place as close as possible to June 23, the day on which Baron Pierre de Coubertin proposed the revival of the Olympic Games for the Modern era at the Paris Sorbonne in 1894.
Olympic Day was introduced to “encourage the ideas and maxims of Baron de Coubertin particularly amongst the young of all countries.”
It was recommended that each National Olympic Committee should organise events each year.
“We have come here today to celebrate the Olympic Day of the World,” IOC President Sigfrid Edstrom said in a message for the first Olympic Day in 1948.
“During this month thousands of young men and women are gathered in different cities to express their interest in the Olympic Movement and the development of physical culture.”
Events took place in nine countries in that first celebration but the IOC believe that over 150 nations have taken part this year,
Their own initiative, “Let’s Move,” has been launched in conjunction with the “World Health Organisation (WHO).
This has been described as “an invitation to make time every day for movement for better health.”
In India, a mass run at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Delhi set in motion “Bharat in Paris,” a scheme to encourage mass participation and promote the Olympic movement in India.
Only this week the Paris 2024 Organising Committee voted an additional € 100,000 to support their swimming initiative “1,2,3 Nagez!”
Coubertin’s original circular had mentioned “the re-establishment of the Olympic Games on a basis and in the conditions in keeping with the needs of modern life.”
It suggested that this “would bring together every four years representatives of the nations of the world and one is permitted to think that these peaceful courteous contests constitute the best form of internationalism.”
The Congress itself ran from June 16 to June 24 and included fencing demonstrations, torch races and a son et lumiere.
The Congress also featured a performance of the newly discovered “Hymn to Apollo”
which had been discovered among the ruins at Delphi.
The music was written by Gabriel Fauré and sung by opera singer Jeanne Remacle, perhaps the only woman to participate in the Congress.
“The playing of this sacred piece of music created the desired atmosphere among the huge audience,” Coubertin wrote.
“Hellenism infiltrated the whole vast hall, I knew now whether consciously or not, no one would vote against the revival of the Olympic Games.”
It was passed unanimously and the Greek delegate, Dimetrios Vikelas, claimed the first Games for Greece.
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