The Olympic ethic becomes the esthetic of the heart, founded
on eurhythmy; the latter reveals itself as a perception
of exterior and interior harmony by the human unity, passionately
affirmed. The quadrennial Games, animated by the spirit
of Olympic truth, concedes the differences and reconciles
the opposites: in experiencing his body profoundly the
athlete spiritualizes himself. The experience of the body,
properly conducted, privileges the fundamental dialectic
of life in transforming disquiet into confidence. In 1897
Pierre de Coubertin organized a congress of Sports Pedagogy
in Le Havre, and his speeches concerning the Olympic Games
pose with pathetic accents the moral problem of man and
nations in the contemporary world. On the occasion of
the inauguration of the commemorative monument concerning
the reestablishment of the Games, in 1927 at Olympus,
he stated: «In the modern world, full of powerful
possibilities and menaced at the same time by perilous
degradations, Olympism can constitue a school of noblesse
and moral purity as well as of endurance and physical
energy, on condition that the conception of honor and
disinterest be continually raised to the height of the
muscular ardor.»
page 4 of 5 - previous
page - next page |
