Story #7: [Sportsmanship] The origin of the Olympic games

Watching the 2016 Olympic games opening ceremony reminded me of another personality attribute that I value highly: sportsmanship. I don’t mean it in the narrow context of its meaning in sport. No, I mean it in the context of life itself.

Modern literature call it grit, perseverance, or persistence. I would call it having good sportsmanship. Good sportsmanship means that you strive the hardest you can, take things in good spirit even if you lose the battle, and not flaunt your success to put other people down.

I’ve said in a previous post that selflessness was the most important value to me. Allow me to correct myself — sportsmanship is the most important attribute. Because sportsmanship is about your attitude and how you view yourself and your life in general; selflessness pertains to how you treat the external world. If you can’t maintain the right attitude for your own life, then you shouldn’t even be looking at the external world.

Recently there has been a wave of racism and anti-diversity in the world. It was extremely disheartening to see the brexit occurring in the UK, Donald Trump’s foreign policies in the US and Pauline Hanson’s return to politics in Australia. These politicians all gained remarkably strong support from the voting public for their extreme views of the world.

I think it’s an alarming sign that people are feeling threatened by change wrought by new technology and better skilled immigrants. Shutting the doors on people from other races is their immediate response (as illogical as it is) to protect themselves from falling behind. It is disappointing to see that we are now moving backwards instead of trying to make more leaps forwards. How are we, as mankind, as a collective society, to improve and make progress for our future generations if we continue to cower and hide behind shut doors whenever we feel that we are inadequate?

I think it’s a good time for the Olympics to occur. I hope it will remind people all around the world of what it means to have good sportsmanship; that friendly competition with each other propels us forwards into improvement; to encourage acceptance of diversity; to base our judgement on merit and not on race or any form of discrimination.

The story that I want to share today is the mythical story of how the Olympics games began. Admittedly not a story which illustrates the importance of sportsmanship, but it is the story of how the Olympics originated nevertheless. There are many stories about the Olympics — some versions say that it was Hercules who founded the games during his twelve labours; some say that it was in honour of Zeus; but the most well known version is the story of Pelops and his chariot race.

It was said that an oracle had stated to a king that the husband of his daughter would be a man who would kill him and take his throne. Fearful of the prophecy, the king decreed that that any man who wanted to marry his lovely daughter had to win him in a chariot race. Each time a suitor appeared, the king would craftily replace the suitor’s chariot wheel axles with ones made of wax. Needless to say, the wax would melt as the chariot ran and the king was always the victor in these races. All was well (for the king!) until Pelops appeared. The king’s daughter fell in love with Pelops and agreed to help him win the race by bribing the king’s servant to replace her father’s wheel axles with the ones made of wax and gave Pelops the metal axles instead.

The poor king was killed in this race fulfilling the prophecy and Pelops became king after marrying the princess. To cleanse himself from causing the death of the king, he started the games in honour of the late king and the first Olympic site is said to be near Pelops’ grave.