… Later in the ceremony we will hear about this summer’s Beijing Olympics, and I would like to take just a minute or two to talk about the original Olympics, the ones hosted a long, long time ago — nearly 2,800 years ago, to be exact — by the Greeks.

The Olympics were started in 776 BC, and they were athletic contests organized in connection with the religious and dramatic festivals at Olympia. These festivals and games brought together representatives from Greek cities and states located all around the Mediterranean Sea.

During the course of the Olympics, any hostilities or wars between states ceased, and participants were permitted safe passage to and from the games.

Think about that — for the duration of the games, the Greek world came together in peace in order to appreciate and honor the athletes and the competition.

The Greeks had relatively few events, and the ones they had were based on skills associated with prowess in battle. They had horse and chariot races. They had combat events — boxing, wrestling and the pankration, which was a sort of suped-up mixed martial arts competition. They had foot races, including one race run in full armor. And they had field events — the javelin, discus, and long jump.

And who were the ancient Olympic athletes? Originally the competitors were amateurs who had the time to train and the money and resources to travel to the festival. But the ancient games, like our own Olympics, were the greatest spectator attraction in the world and commanded huge numbers of enthusiastic fans. Winners earned great praise and fame — including poems written in their honor — and these rewards led to the emergence of a class of highly trained and highly paid professional athletes.

Eventually — and I’m compressing hundreds of years into a single paragraph — the Olympics were brought down by scandals associated with the temptations of financial gain. Arrogant athletes who snubbed their fans and assailed officials. Rigged contests and officials who were bribed to fix outcomes. Finally, newer, larger venues were built to generate more revenue, and the original stadium and festival at Olympia simply seemed small and unimportant.

So, what can we learn from the example of the ancients? First off, much of what we do at Latin is in the true Olympic spirit. We value competition as a test of our skill and courage. We realize the importance of honoring the game and our opponents. We see sports as a way to challenge ourselves, to learn, improve and have fun. And we see athletics as an opportunity to put aside our differences so we can practice and compete with our friends and classmates as a team.

I would like to close with a poem written in honor of a modern Olympic champion, Joan Benoit. I found it in a volume of poetry in celebration of feisty women.

Joan Benoit
1984 U.S. Olympic Marathon Gold Medalist
by Rina Ferrarelli

During the third mile
not the eighteenth as expected
she surged ahead
leaving behind the press
of bodies, the breath
hot on her back
and set a pace
the experts claimed
she couldn’t possibly keep
to the end.

Sure, determined,
moving to an inner rhythm
measuring herself against herself
alone in a field of fifty
she gained the twenty-six miles
of concrete, asphalt, and humid weather
and burst into the roar of the crowd
to run the lap around the stadium
at the same pace
once to finish the race
and then again in victory

and she was still fresh
and not even out of breath
and standing.