Modern Olympic Games
Baron Pierre de Coubertin, an aristocrat who became an intellectual, is recognized as starting what is called the modern Olympics. Coubertin had a passion for education, especially physical education. He was convinced that Thomas Arnold's methodology at the Rugby School in England had been responsible for the growth in England's power and influence in the nineteenth century, and he felt that this same concept in education should be exported to France. Coubertin set out to convince French educators to introduce physical education into the French schools. Coubertin was also convinced that physical education reached its highest point in Ancient Greece where the gymnasia of Athens had created what he called a triple unity: between young and old; different disciplines; and people of different types; the practitioner and the theoretician; the man of science and the man of letters. He also believed, as stated above, that the French lost the Franco-German war because the French people were physically unfit. And that while sports promoted physical health it was also essential for the people of the nation state to be physically healthy to win wars. Like the Ancient Mesoamericans Coubertin also believed that sports was essential for the good of the country because it brought diverse groups of people together from all social classes to share a common experience. De Coubertin's views on sports fit nicely with the political thought of the latter nineteenth century which was defined as the new age of democracy, or social equality for all.
Coubertin, like the Ancient Mesoamericans, also believed in the duality of sports (Snyder & Spreitzer 2). He believed that sports taught the joy of winning and the agony of defeat; beauty and repulsiveness; order and disorder; violence and tenderness. Through this duality, by teaching sports in school the values of the larger society would be disseminated and reinforced. These values would help regulate behavior and teach the importance of setting and attaining goals. He also believed that teaching sports in school helped develop problem solving strategies that could be applied to problems in life and regulate perceptions on life.
Baron de Coubertin's first approach to the teaching of sports in the schools was based on his belief that the values taught in sports would inculcate students with the social values, skills and knowledge they would need to ensure that the nation's existing political, religious and economic systems would prevail into perpetuity. School athletics would also emphasize marketable skills, loyalty to the nation state and unquestioning acceptance of prevailing social values. The student-athlete would also learn to play a variety of social roles and accept authority by interacting with coaches and team mates and through the various positions learned playing team sports. The acceptance of authority, de Coubertin felt, was more important than independent judgment or critical thinking if the nation state were to prevail.
Although, de Coubertin is given credit for reviving the Olympic Games others preceded him. Attempts to revive the games in England reached back to 1620. The Greeks held games in 1859, 1870, 75 and 1889. Also games were annually in Much Wenlock in County Shropshire in England beginning in 1850.
Dr. William Penny Brooks was the moving spirit of the Much Wenlock games. Originally the games acted as a form of social control to help keep people out of the alehouses and give them something else to do. Over time the interest in physical education began to grow, people began to question why was it that young men who were farm laborers had compulsory drawing in the state schools but no physical training (education). As this discussion continued, the English schools were encouraged to look at the Swiss model of education and introduce gymnastics into the schools, partly as preparation for war (Hill 1).
In 1862, the Liverpool Athletic Club held an Olympic festival. It was repeated in 1863, 1864 and 1865. By this time Brooks had founded a National Olympian Association. Its purpose was to plan and promote annual Olympic Games which would be held in major cities and towns throughout England. Each year a different city or town was to be identified to sponsor the Olympic Games. However, the cities and towns were not warm to this idea, no doubt due to the expense of planning and hosting such an event.
Dr. Brooks, although discouraged, was not defeated in his idea for reviving the Olympic Games. In 1889 he approached de Courbertin about the games in Much Wenlock. The games in 1889 would have 15 events some of those were; the long jump, seven fold foot race, quoits, spear throwing and soccer. The Wenlolck prize would go to the best athlete.
In 1859, Otto Zapas a rich Greek merchant sponsored Olympic Games in Athens. These games did not meet with the success Zapas expected. The games in 1859 were not purely athletic events; here they looked more like a fair with exhibitions of athletic events.
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