Richard Kromm, age 14, San Francisco, Calif., for his question:
Were the Olympics held during the World Wars?
The Olympic Games sprang from the noble thinking of the ancient Greeks. These people believed that education should aim at a well‑balanced harmony between a healthy mind and a healthy body. This ideal was expressed in the amateur games held every four years. So important were these events that the Greek calendar was based on the Olympiad, the four‑year period from one series of games to the next. The first record of the games dates back to 776 B.C.
People from far and wide came to enjoy and compete in the Olympic Games of the ancient world. Those thoughtful Greeks figured that war might interfere with these events and planned against such interference. For one of the objects of the games was to promote understanding, friendship and healthy competition between different peoples.
Ancient Greece consisted of a number of city states, often at each other's throats. However, all agreed that the Olympic Games was a more noble ideal than warfare. A truce was declared to last for the duration of the games. Warring cities laid down their arms and journeyed to meet as friends while ancient Greece acted out her finest ideals.
The games continued until the year 393 A.D, when Emperor Theodosius I of Rome put an end to them. The modern series of Olympic Games begin in 1890. The idea clime from Baron Pierre de Coubertin who believed that the modern world could learn much from those ideals of ancient Greece.
The modern times have been international from their beginning. They are held in a different competing country at four‑year intervals. Since their beginning, the pages of history have been smeared with two World Wars and many cruel, less major skirmishes. Sad to say, the warring nations did not declare a truce during the time of the games. Unlike the ancient Greeks, our modern world set aside the games so that war could continue without interruption.
Does this mean that those ancient Greeks were ahead of us in their ideals? Not necessarily. The Greek society with its first concepts of democracy was based on slavery. The idea of slavery is abhorrent in the modern world and the old Greeks would have respected us for this great ideal would have supported the long struggle which went into man’s freedom from slavery.
Then consider the great differences between ancient and modern warfare. We would consider the wars between the Greek cities more skirmishes, fought with sword and javelin. It was fairly easy to call a truce for few weeks in such a local scrap. Modern warfare is a relentless machine, rolling under its own momentum. It could not be stopped, even for a few weeks.
Every civilized person would prefer to solve international competition on the athletic field. Even Germany, who started two World Wars, made much of the games. Nevertheless, the modern games had been canceled three times to make way for the steamroller of war. This happened in 1916 during World War I and in 1910 and 1944 during World War II.