In the spirit of the Games

A little piece here reminding us of the rather non-Christian elements of the Olympics then and now.  Not that the Olympics are bad or that sports are not Christian.  Far from it.  Paul has no problem using athletic imagery to drive home the importance of our finishing the race and pressing on for the goal to win our prizes.  Nonetheless, we mustn’t be naive, and a little dose of reality never hurts.

As a fun aside, when it comes to the Olympics as the huge spectacle and national marketing events they’ve become, we have the good old Nazis to thank.  They took the Olympics to a new level that hadn’t happened before.  The 1936 Olympics is the stuff of legend.  They should also be a good lesson.  For the world was getting mighty worried about Hitler and his Nazi gangsters.  Then came the Olympics.  The spectacle, the show, the first torch relay, the closing ceremonies that took things to a new level, they even had special locations featuring a new technology called television so people could watch the games away from the stadium.  The food, the accommodations, the hospitality – why many visitors left Berlin wondering what all the fuss was about.  Nothing to see here.  All references to antisemitism had been removed and the people were as friendly as could be (by order of the State).  Not a few visitors went home thinking it was probably just some old warmongers from WWI wanting to relive the glory days by whipping up tensions for a new conflict.

The 1936 Olympics ended with the traditional call for athletes to meet again on the field of competition in four years, which was scheduled for  Tokyo in 1940.  But there would be no 1940 Olympics.  No 1944 Olympics either.

Lessons learned?  We’ll see.