History of The Olympic Games Author: Constantine L. Sirracos ISBN: 1-88577-853-8 Format: Paperback, 248pp Pub. Date: 2002 Publisher: Seaburn Publishing Group Price: $11.00
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History of The Olympic Games, Constantine L. Sirracos, ISBN: 1885778538


REVIEWS:

From ancient times, man has in various ways ex-pressed his natural inclination towards sporting activities.

This inclination, which cultivates the competitive spirit, is based on such concepts as the enthusiasm for distinction, the admiration of excellence, the joy of victory, and the satisfaction of special feelings and ideals. The involvement with athletic activities soon became one of the dominant forces in the lives of almost all people around the world and the sporting ideal found its best expression in modern times in the worldwide recognition and revival of the Olympic Games. The immense history of the Greeks includes the development of athletic ideals that found expression during the 5th century BC in great Hellenic sanctuaries of Olympia, Delphi, Isthmus, and Nemea. This book contains the complete history of the games which was finally inaugurated at 776 BC and still remains the only single event in mans history that is widely celebrated. Greece, the cradle of western civilization, philosophy, science and democracy, was also the birthplace of these Olympic Games and Constantine Sirracos book clearly illustrates the glory of these games like no other book.

In ancient Greece, sport constituted an inseparable part of every man's education. The Olympic spirit is the culmination of the ideal of education in ancient Greece, since it combined physical training, spiritual promotion, moral worth, democratic equality, and human brotherhood. It was here, in Greece, that the harmonious development of a man's body, mind and soul formed the ultimate ideal of human life.

The Olympic games, which were the most important athletic games in ancient Greece, reflect the immortal spirit of Greece that aims at promoting the human "kallos", Greek for excellence, the sum total of the attributes of morality, justice, beauty of body and mind, and involvement with higher sentiments and ideas.

It is of utmost importance that the Games be kept away from politics and vested interests and remain a world-wide human expression of friendship, peace and love; a unique event during which language, race and religion barriers no longer exist; an event in which social position and material wealth play no role in determining an individual's respect and admiration.

It is the present author's view that in order to keep politics and other differences out of the Olympic Games and to prevent the Games from becoming platforms on which athletic ideals will be sacrificed for political expediency, a tendency that will inevitably kill the Olympic idea, the Games should take place on a permanent, site that would be located in the birth-place of the Olympic ideal, in ancient Olympia. Although this could remove corruption and nepotism from the game, it will also limit the interaction of the youths of the world in one way or the other, a fact that must no be ignored.

— Paedeia Magazine