Citius, Altius, Fortius is a Latin expression meaning “Faster, Higher, Stronger”. These words form the motto of Baron Pierre de Coubertin’s ideals for the Olympic Movement that he founded in the 1890s. The London Olympics 2012 are the second such event following the 1948 Games when England were coming out of the ravages of the World War II. An earlier Olympic Games were held in London in 1908. In the 64 years since the 1948 games, primarily owing to the onset of television and live satellite generated coverage, the Olympics have become the pinnacle event of all sport.
The Olympic Games have a history that goes back to the 6th or 5th century BC. In those days the Games were held every four years, and this period, known as an Olympiad, was used by Greeks as one of their units of time measurement. Also, a distance of 200 steps was known as a stadion, from which the stadium evolved. The long dormant Olympics were revived in the 1890s by Baron de Coubertin who formed the International Olympic Committee in 1894, and the rudimentary Games were held in Greece in 1896. Except for the war years of 1916, 1940 and 1944 and the Moscow Games boycott of 1980, the Games have been held every four years. The winter Olympics are held two years after the summer Olympics and are on a smaller scale.
In the 1896 Games in Greece, the participants consisted of 14 nations and 241 athletes who competed in 43 events. Compared to this, there were 10,500 competitors from 204 countries at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. The Olympic Games programme consists of 35 sports, 30 disciplines and nearly 400 events. The role of television in the furtherance of the Olympic movement cannot be overstated. The 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin were the first Games to be broadcast on television, though only to local audiences. The 1956 Winter Olympics were the first internationally televised Olympic Games, and the following Winter Games had their broadcasting rights sold for the first time to specialised television broadcasting networks. Today there is no corner of this planet where the Olympic Games cannot be viewed in all their splendor.
The other day, following his Wimbledon loss to Roger Federer, Andy Murray stated that he would value a Wimbledon gold medal more than a major Grand Slam event. That statement underlines the importance that the tennis world has started to attach to the Olympics tennis event that is being held at the traditional tennis home of Wimbledon. Tennis was not held in the Olympics from 1924 to 1988. The issue that made this happen was that the IOC wanted that Wimbledon not be held during the Olympic year. There were also some questions as to who were amateurs and professionals among the tennis players. But all this was long forgotten when Steffi Graf added the Olympic gold to her Grand Slam to achieve the one and only Golden Slam. There have been many athletes who have achieved immortality through their performances at the Olympic Games. In 1912, the native American athlete Jim Thorpe was the star with his all-round display in winning both the pentathlon and the decathlon. But because he had played two years of semi-pro baseball prior to the Games, his medals were taken away, only to be restored in 1983.
In the 1920s, Paavo Nurmi was the best middle and long distance runner in the world, setting world records at distances between 1500m and 20km. Nurmi won a total of nine gold and three silver medals in the 12 events in which he competed at the Olympic Games from 1920 to 1928. In particular, he won five gold medals at the 1924 Summer Olympics held in Paris, which is still the most athletics gold medals at one Olympics in the history of the Games.
Jesse Owens set the Berlin Olympics stadium alight with his performances in the sprints and the long jump, reportedly making Adolf Hitler storm out of the stadium in indignation. After the World War II hiatus in London 1948, Emil Zatopek, the “Czech Locomotive”, won gold in the 5,000 metres and 10,000 metres runs, but his final medal came when he decided at the last minute to compete in the first marathon of his life.
Other stars of the summer Games that come to mind are, Al Oerter, who won four straight discuss medals from 1964 to 1968, Cassius Clay (later Mohammad Ali) who won gold in the light heavyweight in Rome 1960, Mark Spitz, who between 1968 and 1972, Spitz won nine Olympic golds plus a silver and a bronze. The highest ever medal winner is Michael Phelps the American swimmer who has won 16 Olympic medals – six gold and two bronze at Athens in 2004, and eight gold at Beijing in 2008.
Nadia Comaneci reset the bar in gymnastics by securing the first ever perfect 10 at the 1976 Montreal Games. A Romanian, she was the winner of three Olympic gold medals at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal and the first female gymnast to be awarded a perfect score of 10 in an Olympic event. She is also the winner of two gold medals at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.
Usain Bolt of Jamaica is hoping to join this illustrious group of athletes by winning the 100, 200 and the relay in London. He has already torn up the record books with some stupendous performances including a run of 9.58 in the 100 and 19.19 in the 200 sprints. He is the reigning Olympic champion in all three events and should he win in London as well, would be the first sprinter to do so. The only thing he needs to fear is the ludicrous foul system where one false start and you are out. The IAAF would do well to consider the card system used by soccer, which would give a little bit of cushion to the sprinters.
