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Young World
Dreams for Olympia live on
TANUSHREE PODDER
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Frédy dreamt of reviving the concept of the ancient Greek gymnasium, which brought together the sporting elite and trained them not just in sports but also in the pleasures of conversation, art and philosophy.
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The first Olympic Games of the modern era were held in Athens in 1896 with just 245 competitors.
Olympic museum at Lausanne: Where records, mementos and memorabilia are housed.
With the Olympic Games round the corner, every eye is on the events that lead to the D-Day. For every sports aficionado, Olympics are a big event. But its not just the Games, but the history of it that is equally interesting.
Way back in 1894, a man dreamt of re-establishing an ancient Greek sports tradition. This man was Pierre Frédy — Baron de Coubertin, born in Paris in 1863. As a boy, Pierre was fascinated by ancient Greece. He wanted to learn its history, culture and artists. He was also a sportsman skilled in fencing, horse-riding, boxing, rowing and tennis. Inspired by the Games in Olympia, he dreamt of the Olympic Games, in which he hoped to instil the same sporting and spiritual values.
Pierre Frédy also dreamt of reviving the concept of the ancient Greek gymnasium, which brought together the sporting elite and trained them not just in sports but also in the pleasures of conversation, art and philosophy. At his initiative the International Committee of the Olympics was established at the Sorbonne in Paris. Pierre championed the four-year interval between the Olympic competitions, created the Olympic symbols, laid down rules for the organisation of the Games and defined its values.
The first Olympic Games of the modern era were held in Athens in 1896 with just 245 competitors. Women were not allowed to compete. In the Panathenian stadium, 50,000 spectators watched the 43 events. This heralded a new era in the world of sports.
In the very next Olympic Games held in Paris in 1900, there were 1225 competitors, which included 19 women. The number of events went up to 86.
Olympic Museum
The Olympic Museum at Lausanne, in Switzerland, is a temple where records, mementos and memorabilia connected with Olympics are housed. Visitors are taken through a memorable journey of the Olympics. Here are replicas of the different Olympic torches, the equipment, apparel, signed memorabilia, coins, stamps, photographs and a whole lot of interesting collection. Visitors can go to the Olympic Studies Centre to refer to the periodicals and CDs linked with the Games and use the documentation services as well as browse through the photo library with its 4,30,000 documents. The Images and Sound department has more than 17,500 hours of film footage. On September 2, 1937, Pierre de Coubertin died suddenly while walking in the Parc de la Grange in Geneva but his dream lives on.
Memorable
The Olympic Games saw many political overtones too. Of these, the Berlin Olympics of 1936 is memorable because Hitler refused to acknowledge the Black American athlete Jesse Owens who won four gold medals. There were no Games during the Second World War and the following years when the world was shaken up by the Great Depression.
The next Games were held in London only in 1948.
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