Sixteen months before the Paris Olympic Games, which will take place from July 26 to August 11, 2024, it seemed essential to us to carry out a rereading of what were the Games of antiquity and then those of the modern era dating from 1896 to Athens to the present day.
The great leaders, the exceptional champions, the joys, the sorrows that have marked this great adventure that is the Olympic Games deserve to be studied again.
Without going far back, it is essential to review this journey which will allow us to experience next year what these thirtieth Olympic Games in Paris will be in July August 2024.
For all those who have never had the opportunity to go to Greece, to Olympia more precisely, and try to reflect on what the Games of antiquity were like. Today there is a finish or start line in the stadium. A semblance of a track delimiting a sports space surrounded by embankments where up to 300,000 spectators were placed, an exceptional figure for the time. It would seem that according to deciphered prize lists that these Games took place every four years. The first Games date back to 776 BC.
From the apogee to the agony of the Ancient Games
In reality, these Games were organized every year in all regions of Greece. On the other hand, the Olympia stadium hosted the most important events.
Only could participate under the gaze of the gods, the athletes, men, essentially who competed naked in order to highlight the physical qualities and the human beauty.
Only the winner was honored at the end of the competitions. These athletes took an oath to abide by the rules. The stadium track was approximately 192m. The dignitaries were members of the jury but also provided security according to the adage: “the law, the rule, the order, therefore, self-control”.
Athletes had to train for a hard year before the trials. For the first Games, there was only about a 200m event to run.
The pentathlon was created at that time with the discus throw, the long jump with a dumbbell in his hand, the javelin, the fight with the body coated in oil, then boxing, the ancestor of boxing with bare hands has appeared. Subsequently chariot races were created. The winner was crowned with a wild branch.
The Games of antiquity disappeared from the pride of competitors like the Emperor Nero who was ready to kill his opponents who wanted to prevent him from winning. The games of antiquity therefore ended in sadness!
Pierre de Coubertin, half humanist, half visionary
In 1880 sport stammered in France. The young professor Pierre de Coubertin wants to shake things up. He thinks of a reform of physical education and sport.
His project, despite everything, is to revive the Olympic Games of antiquity. For this our man makes contacts, especially abroad. It won’t be enough. At first, only encouragement is addressed to him.
At that time, Gustave Eiffel, who wanted to build a large tower near the Champs de Mars, also fought to defend his project. Definitely no one is a prophet in his country.
Still a lot of effort and after many disappointments, it’s the joy of victory. !
Today the Olympic Games are the most popular global event and the Eiffel Tower is the most visited jewel of Paris in the world.
Pierre de Coubertin is one of “those rare beings who dream their lives and make their dreams come true”.
Pierre de Coubertin is a man of his time who thinks far ahead and acts quickly. He is therefore a visionary who is both generous, ambitious, endowed with a real political sense and a great capacity to federate.
This aristocrat comes from a rich and Catholic family whose mother Crisenoy de Mirville comes from the family of the companions of William the Conqueror, practically the creator of present-day Normandy.
It is in Étretat in Normandy near Le Havre that the imaginary character “Arsène Lupine said the gentleman burglar” makes his lair in the famous hollow needle. It is from the work of the great writer Maurice Le Blanc that Pierre de Coubertin will reflect on his idea of renovating the Olympic Games of antiquity.
The one who will establish physical education in the schools of France lives in Normandy for some time before organizing a major international congress which will take place on June 23, 1894 in the prestigious setting of the Sorbonne.
Two thousand guests flocked to the opening of the works to relaunch the Olympic Games. A new diplomacy was created with representatives from 13 nations and of course leaders from Greece.
It was decided that only amateurs would be invited to compete in these Olympic Games and that the four-year interval between each Games would be confirmed. The first Games would be held in Athens (1896) then in Paris in 1900 at the same time as the Universal Exhibition. An Olympic motto was created “ faster, stronger, higher”.
What was happening in 1896?
Pedestrian and cycling races are organized in France over distances sometimes bordering on more than 100 km. The horseless carriage was invented for competitions.
Races like Paris-Rouen, 120 km long, are completed at a “dizzying” speed of 21 km.
During this time Pierre de Coubertin worked on his Games, those of 1896. A Greek billionaire financed the renovation of the ancient stadium. Every day the 60,000 places will be occupied. The marathon race attracts 100,000 spectators along its route. The winner Spiridon Louis, the only Greek gold medalist is welcomed as a hero of antiquity, he the little country shepherd!
These Games had attracted 14 nations, Germany, Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Chile, Denmark, the United States, France, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Sweden and Switzerland.
The participants numbered 245, mainly men. Nine sports were on the program – athletics, cycling, fencing, gymnastics, weightlifting, wrestling, swimming, tennis, and shooting.
At that time the French National Assembly voted the annexation of Madagascar but this event did not mark the spirits.
Pierre de Coubertin had won his bet. These first Games of the modern era were celebrated in a brilliant way. The King of Greece, his ministers, his deputies and the entire diplomatic corps were present throughout the competition period.
The Games of Paris in 1900 drowned in the Universal Exhibition did not obtain the expected success. Several sports included in the program will no longer be organised: in future editions, such as tug of war.
It is especially important to remember that for the first time, 19 women out of 1225 participants took part in the tennis tournament, because at the time it was the only sporting discipline accessible to women.
Having participated in the first two Games, the United States claimed the organization of the third edition in Saint Louis in 1904. These Games were a great popular success. Unfortunately due to the high cost of transport, very few athletes were able to make the trip by boat. Even Pierre de Coubertin could not move. Only 12 nations were represented, including only 8 women out of 617 participants.
For the first time gold, silver and bronze medalists are awarded to the first three in each competition. American Georges Eyser won six medals. Particularity of this gymnast: he has a wooden leg.
In 1908 in London, the English impose their regulations and this provokes many complaints. For the first time the delegations marched during the opening ceremony. King Edward VII presides over the various competitions.
The highlight of these Games was the feat of Dorando Piétri, winner of the marathon who, a few hundred meters from the finish, collapsed drunk with fatigue. Piétri crossed the finish line in a real state of exhaustion. The jury judging that Piétri had benefited from the help of his healers disqualified him. Public opinion had not accepted the decision of this really biased jury allowing the American Johnes Hays to put his name on the list, but for public opinion, the winner was Dorando Pietri.
For the fifth Games of the modern era, Pierre de Coubertin chose Scandinavia and Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, a country where sport is considered a religion.
The only downside was the ban on organizing the boxing tournament.
On the other hand, the pentathlon and women’s swimming were introduced into the program as well as the creation of electric timing and the loudspeaker.
The man of these championships was undoubtedly the American Jim Thorpe in the decathlon who won nine events out of ten, leaving only the 1500m to the Finns.
Several highlights were noted. After seven false starts, three of which were caused by the eventual winner, the 100m final was won by American Ralph Craig in 10”8.
Sweden’s Greta Johanson became the first Olympic diving champion.
After eleven hours of combat the Russian Martin Klein defeats the Finnish Alfred Asikainen in the semi-final of the middleweight wrestling.
Because of the 1914-1918 war, the Games planned for Berlin in 2016 were not organized. The next Games will take place in 1920 in Antwerp, Belgium.
The world war is still in people’s minds. This almost four years cost the lives of more than ten million citizens around the world. Moreover, three Seychellois enlisted by the British army rest in the military cemeteries of Normandy.
For the first time the athletes take the Olympic oath and a flag with five rings representing the five continents floats in the stadium before the opening ceremony, a tribute to the dead of the great war is celebrated in the presence of Albert 1st King of the Belgians .
In athletics these Games highlight Finnish athletes Jonni Miyra, Urho Peltonen and Paavo Johansson who take the first three places in the javelin throw. Paavo Nurmi wins the 10,000m but is beaten by Frenchman Joseph Guillenot in the 5,000m.
The success of these Games was ensured by the record participation of 29 nations, 2,669 athletes and 22 sports.
At the end of the closing ceremony, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, President of the International Olympic Committee, invited the nations to come to Paris to celebrate the eighth Games there, twenty-four years after those of 1900. Already the sporting world was living in the Olympic era, taking advantage of these four years to prepare for the conquest of a medal which will bring happiness and fame.
Paris 2024, the success of Johnny Weissmuller the new Tarzan
Before the opening ceremony of the Paris Games, Pierre de Coubertin announces his decision to resign from the International Olympic Committee. The great man announces “I have done my work” the next Games will take place without me in Amsterdam in Holland. These Games will be a real success for the IOC President.
44 nations and 3092 will participate in these Games. The big star of these games was the American Johnny Weissmuller winning the 100m swim in 59 seconds and the 400m in 5’04”2. Weissmuller would continue his harvest of medals in the 400m in Amsterdam in 1928. These gold medals were a springboard for the character of Tarzan played in American cinema films. The other star of these Games was undoubtedly the Finn Paavo Nurmi who was Olympic champion in the 1,500m and 5,000m one hour apart.
Two days later the Nordic won the cross-country race. It is also good to remember that Nurmi had won the 10,000m and finished second in the 5,000m in 1928 and gold medalist in the 10,000 in 1928 as well. Paavo Nurmi is certainly the greatest middle-distance specialist in history .
Henri Dauban sixth in the Paris Games in 1924
The first Seychellois sportsman to stand out at the Olympic level was Henri Dauban. “This owner of Silhouette”, the fourth island of the archipelago, keen on spearfishing, finished sixth in the javelin event at the Paris Olympics in the English colours.
This competition was won by Finland’s Jonni Myyra with 62m96. Henri Dauban had created a market gardening center in a space where the Labriz hotel is located. A real estate company had been set up with 80 French people, including many Normans. The company was dissolved upon the independence of the Seychelles.
Source: Seychelles Nation
