The Olympics were a lot more exciting back in the
days. The unfortunately brief Greek tradition of athletic nudity is believed to
have started in the games around 720 BC (BC
meaning: Before Christ and not as commonly
believed, Bakersfield College).
Though not important, these bare-all events were likely introduced by the
Spartans, as a tribute to some (naked?) god, to encourage aesthetic
appreciation of the male body. Yeah, those first Olympics did not have a single
female participant – dang it. And unfortunately, when women’s involvement started,
the nakedness stopped – double dang it.
The Greeks only did a handful or so of these Olympic
events, but many years later, in the early afternoon of 1894, Baron Pierre de
Coubertin of France brought up the idea of modern day Olympics, but without the
nudity (“sans nudite” as Pierre said in his native tongue)… Pierre’s thinking
was all about the promotion of overall physical education and was no doubt inspired
by his visit to the ancient Olympic site near Olympia (that would be in Greece).
After some wheeling and dealing, Pierre was finally
approved to start the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which ultimately became
the main body of the modern Olympic Games.
The first modern-day Olympics were held in Athens (Greece)
in 1896. A crowd of over 60,000 spectators welcomed 280 participants, all male,
from 13 nations. They competed in 43 events, including track & field,
gymnastics, swimming, wrestling, tennis, weightlifting, shooting and fencing;
all participants were amateurs and fully dressed for the occasion.
Ever since 1896 the summer-Olympics have been held
every 4 years, with the exception of 1916 (World War I), 1940 and 1944 (World
War II). The Olympic flag consist of five circles representing the five
continents and not, as commonly believed, ‘The
Seven Deathly Sins’ nor ‘The Seven Dwarfs’. It was raised for the first time in Antwerp (somewhere
in Europe – Belgium, actually, if they haven’t moved it) 1920 – so now you
know…
The popularity of the Olympic Games made a big jump
in 1924 in Paris, when some 3,000 athletes (with 100 fully dressed women) from
44 nations attended. The 2012 Olympics in London reached over 10,500 athletes
from over 202 nations – and only a few could still claim amateur status.
It was around 1924 that the IOC decided to add the
Winter Olympics, also every 4 years. And this brings me back to Olympic nakedness
(excellent transition).
Though I could possibly find some excitement with
nudity in the Olympics, there are also some considerations that should be
mentioned as perhaps a tad disturbing. Now, don’t get all bend out of shape and
think of me as male chauvinistic, sexist, (sexy, yes indeed – but not sexist),
slightly perverted or ignorant, as all this is written with tongue firmly
placed in cheek and that adorable smirk on my face.
This also brings me back to points written in
previous posts of mine (links below), about how we are so uncomfortable with other
people’s nudity, and especially with our own naked bodies. So watching men and
women compete undressed would no doubt be bumpy as well. Of course human
curiosity would have us ogle the events intensively for a few moments (or several
days), but then again, maybe we wouldn’t – so much. I think the TV ratings
would sink, in spite of drooling perverts enjoying it all.
Let’s look at naked ice hockey, as an example. All
participants should of course wear the mandatory helmet, a stick and some
skates, but nothing else. I think it would be fun to watch from the warm comfort
of home for a few minutes, but utterly damn cold for the participants, no
matter how many body parts would be flopping all over the place, as well as up
and down and side to side. Envisioning that for just a moment, I would no doubt
quickly return to the fully dressed version of the games (sigh)… What were
those Spartans thinking, huh?
I remember when I was a kid and followed the games.
It was all exciting and an awe-inspiring experience. In the beginning it was
through the radio’s hyper excited commentators; then black & white TV
broadcasts arrived and finally it was in full color and surround-sound. It was
all so cool back then and we actually learned the names of so many obscure
athletes, all long forgotten by now.
And then things changed. The game’s ‘purity’ slowly,
but surely turned to more so of a political arena, as well as corruption and
doping popped out of the shadows here and there. The recent drama concerning
the way Russia doped up some of their athletes during reason games was not surprising,
but nevertheless a sad reality. Suddenly the Olympics were not so virgin
anymore and the sanctity of the athletes as well as their performances, were
now tainted and pushed into the shadows of politics,
chemicals and corporate influence; such a sad veracity.
Sure I appreciate progress, but not progress that’s
heading backwards. Yet, in spite of all this, I still admire the performances by
any one and all of the athletes. I know they have trained hard and lived a
disciplined life to reach their participation in the Olympics. I admire them
for their dedication and effort; if they cross the goal line first or last mean
nothing to me. That they made it to the Olympics is all that counts – is all
that should count.
But at times doubt shows its ugly head when a record
is broken or when a performance is out of this world, really. Were there any banned
chemicals or some cheating involved? And it is a damn shame that I think like
that, as it seriously deflate the utter joy I had for the Olympics so many
(innocent) years ago.
I watched Tour de France like crazy for many years,
not only because of the tremendous effort these bikers went through, but also
because of the French countryside shown on TV through the races – in full HD color.
But then some lying jerk (Lance Armstrong) cheated his way to the top, and
pretty much screwed everybody over – 7 times; what a sick person. Since then, I
have not watched or have had any interest in the Tour what-so-ever, because how
tainted is it – still? What a crying shame that is.
I do watch some of the Olympic Games, the summer as
well as the winter versions. I choose and pick by the power of being able to
record everything and then watch at my leisure. I still try to convince myself
that it’s all on the level; I also truly go out of my way to support and root
for the underdogs – all of them. If they are amateurs or professionals doesn’t
matter anymore, I mean, what the heck can I do about it?
And what about the upcoming Olympic Games in Rio? It
doesn’t look promising with all the turmoil, from venues not being all finished,
to crime, corruption, pollution and a Brazilian government struggling with their
current massive internal political messy problems and the list is very long,
disturbingly so and scary.
Don’t get me wrong, as I certainly want all of the
bad stuff to go away; I want so much for all these fantastic young men and
women, dressed or not, to have the time of their lives, fully enjoying this pinnacle
point within their sport, to burn this experience into a lifelong fond memory,
telling their grandchildren over and over how they participated in the biggest
athletic event ever, because that’s what the Olympic Games should be all about,
and hopefully someday, it might return to some form of innocence again. Perhaps
go all the way back to the days when athletes couldn’t hide anything, because they
were naked – okay, my expectations going a bit wild...
Yes, I’m going to watch and then I was thinking that
since the athletes are not performing naked, I could instead sit in my
comfy-chair in front of our surround-sound flat screen HD-TV in all my own
glorious nudity and watch them do their thing? Not quite the same, but why not…
Yes, not a pretty picture, I hear you say and I can clearly see your eyes
rolling. But it would actually be okay, because I would be sitting in total
darkness – and not only utterly naked, but also extremely alone; of that I’m very
sure (giggle giggle)…
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posts more about naked issues
