Olympics and peace

Last Sunday marked the closing of the Olympic Games in Athens. The send-off by the Greeks to the athletes of the world was as spectacular and warm-hearted as their welcome had been two weeks before.

One innovation was that participants did not parade behind their own country's particular flag, but all together, mixing with each other, as they liked. A new word was coined to describe the atmosphere of the 2004 Olympiad in Athens: xenophilia, love of strangers - the direct opposite of xenophobia, hatred of strangers! The president of the International Olympic Committee Jacques Rogge declared: "These games were held in peace and brotherhood."

Olympiads cannot be dissociated from the promotion of peace. In September 2000, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan stated: "Olympic ideals are also United Nations ideals: tolerance, equality, fair play, and, most of all, peace. Together, the Olympics and the United Nations can be a winning team. But the contest will not be won easily. War, intolerance and deprivation continue to stalk the earth. We must fight back. Just as athletes strive for world records, so must we strive for world peace."

If ever there were times when the Olympic spirit needed to be revived, they are our days. Since Mr Annan spoke these inspiring words at the turn of the century and millennium, we had the terrible traumas of September 11, 2001 as well as the Moscow, Madrid and other mass murders in various cities in a new kind of warfare, which international terrorists are waging against humanity itself. These dastardly criminals with no trace of respect for human life or for anything sacred think they can dictate terms to single states and to the world at large. Aggressive forces wielding arms apparently with the sole aim simply to destroy or disrupt, paid no regard to the Olympic truce.

This year's Olympics returned to their place of origin. The opening ceremony recalled, in splendid pageantry and studied speeches, their whole history from ancient times till today. The contentious city-states of Ancient Greece hit upon the brilliant idea of turning their wars into peaceful competitions. True enough, the contests were in warlike exercises, but designed to train, not to kill or maim. Running, long jump, shot put, jave-lin, boxing and equestrian events featured among the disciplines.

The winners won glory and the losers gained strength and skill. Many competitors were honoured; none were humiliated. The chief aim was to participate; winning was a secondary concern. There were no conquerors or conquered, no hated enemies, only amicable competitors. All armed warfare was suspended for the duration of the Olympiad; temporarily at least, peace reigned.

The first Ancient Olympic Games are recorded as having taken place in 776 BC. They were initially just a day's event before they were extended to three days in 684 BC and then to five days in the fifth century BC. They went on for 12 centuries, until Emperor Theodosius banned them in 393 AD on the grounds that they were products of paganism.

According to legend, in fact, they originated when Zeus, father of both gods and mortals, won the contest with Cronus for the throne of the gods. The huge statue of Zeus that was erected in Olympia to immortalise the reputed founder of the Games was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It was plated with gold and ivory and stood 12 metres high. The god was seated on an elaborately decorated throne and in his right hand he held a figure of the goddess of Victory, Nike.

Together with the statue of Athena in the Parthenon in Athens, the statue of Zeus in Olympia was the work of the renowned Greek sculptor Phidias. During the opening of the 2004 Olympics in Athens, the opportunity was not missed to recall and to extol these superb masterpieces of Greek and indeed, universal art and civilisation!

As was fitting, when the Olympics were revived, they took place in Greece, the land of their origin. The first modern Olympiad was held in Athens in 1896 and for the first time, precisely on April 14, 1896, the famous 'Olympic marathon' race was run. Strange as this may seem, it did not feature among the disciplines of the Ancient Olympics.

Over a decade has gone by since the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the UN joined forces to make the holding of the Games an opportunity to promote world peace. Since 1993 the UN General Assembly has repeatedly expressed its support for the IOC by unanimously adopting, every two years, a resolution entitled "Building a peaceful and better world through sport and the Olympic ideal!" It urges all states to seek to settle all their disputes peacefully through diplomatic means. In the 36th plenary meeting on October 25, 1993 the resolution, adopted unanimously, stated inter alia:

"The General Assembly, considering the appeal launched by the International Olympic Committee for an Olympic Truce, which was endorsed by 184 Olympic Committees and presented to the Secretary General,

"Recognising that the goal of the Olympic Movement is to build a peaceful and better world by educating the youth of the world through sport practised without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding promoted by friendship, solidarity and fair play,

"Recognising also the efforts of the International Olympic Committee to restore the Ancient Greek tradition of the Ekecheiria of 'Olympic Truce' in the interest of contributing to international understanding and the maintenance of peace...

"Calls upon all member states to co-operate with the International Olympic Committee in its efforts to promote the Olympic Truce;

"Requests the Secretary General to promote the observance of the Olympic Truce among member states, drawing the attention of world public opinion to the contributions such a truce would make to the promotion of international understanding and the maintenance of peace and goodwill, and to cooperate with the International Olympic Committee in the realization of this objective."

The UN declared 1994 the International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal. Thanks to the Olympic Truce, athletes from the former Yugoslavia were able to participate in the Olympic Winter Games in Lillehammer. An IOC delegation visited Sarajevo - then under siege - the city that had hosted the XIV Olympic Winter Games in 1984, to extend its solidarity. In 2004, North and South Korean athletes competed under the single flag of the Korean peninsula, just as they had done in 2000. Antagonisms of the traditional kind still yield to the ancient Olympic spirit of peace. It is only international terrorists of today who completely ignore it.