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The coming Summer Olympics in Beijing is attracting a lot of controversy due to the imbroglio in Tibet, but a visit to the Olympic Museum in Lausanne opens a whole new world in human endeavour for Ranjita Biswas
The coming Olympics is dominated by China, not only because Beijing is hosting the Summer Games but also for the continuing trouble in Tibet. For the country, the protests couldn’t have come at a worse time, creating a chink in the massive PR exercise to put across to the world the image of a modern, integrated China. Some countries and athletes are reportedly even contemplating boycotting the Games while another camp contends that sports and politics should not overlap. But then, it is not something new in modern times. In 1956, quite a few European countries boycotted the Melbourne Games in protest against Soviet Union’s crushing of the Hungarian uprising. The US boycotted the Moscow Olympics in 1980 objecting Afghanistan’s invasion by the Soviets and in a tit for tat move, the Soviets stayed away from the Los Angeles Games in 1984.
However, as I was going up the steps of the Olympic Museum in Lausanne overlooking the serene Lake Geneva, these conflicts seemed to belong to another world. For, this museum is a reminder that it was with the message of peace and friendly competition that the modern Olympics was revived after centuries with the motto - “Citius, Aitius, Fortius” : faster, higher, stronger, aspiring for the perfect melding of the body and mind.
China as a theme, of course, is very much in evidence at the museum presently with its temporary exhibition: the red balloons, the red temple-like structure at the top of the main hall, an exhibition of Chinese artifacts and game symbols in Chinese calligraphy, the medals designed on the concept of "bi", ancient jade pieces inscribed with dragon pattern, etc. But the permanent exhibits inside the museum is more to do with the long history of the Olympic tradition starting from ancient Greece.
The father of modern Olympics is French nobleman Baron Pierre de Courbutin who was deeply influenced by Greek culture and its philosophy of harmony between body and mind. With tireless dedication he established the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1894 in Paris. So in 1896 in the renovated Panathenian stadium where Greek strongmen once vied for the honour of wearing the crown of olive branches bestowed on the winner, the new era of Olympics began. Courbutin’s philosophy of camaraderie among athletes and countries was incorporated in the Olympic flag. Placed on a white background, each of the interlaced five rings representing the five continents (the Americas are treated as one continent) is in a different colour symbolizing that every national flag in the world contains at least one of these colours.
The marathon race commemorating the heroics of Pheidippides, the soldier who in 490 BC ran a long distance to announce Greece’s victory over the Persians (and died of exhaustion) was introduced too. But women participated for the first time only in the next meet in Paris and that too only in tennis and golf.
However, when the war clouds loomed over Europe, Courbutin was worried about the future of his pet dream and decided to shift the IOC headquarters to neutral Switzerland – Lausanne is just across the lake from French side, in 1915.
The Olympic Museum signifies all that sports as a philosophy connotes. Surrounded by a beautifully laid park, the distinctly Hellenistic structure is not just for sports lovers, but also for those interested in history, culture and art. After all, in ancient Greece both games and music festivals were held side by side. Originally, the games were held at five-years’ interval.
Today, the Lausanne museum is the world’s largest centre for research and documentation on sport, the Olympic movement and the Games. This is where ancient pottery from Greek civilisation depicting the competitions, shoes of the legendary Carl Lewis, the pictorials on Jesse Owens, the Black athlete who upset Hitler’s showpiece Berlin Games and the first ever ‘perfect10’-scoring gymnast Nadia Comaneci can be viewed under the same roof.
In fact, the tour around the museum is a fascinating journey backwards to the history of the Games. The competitors put olive oil and sand on their bodies to protect themselves from the sun and there are scrappers on display which were used to rub off the sand afterwards. There are painted potteries, excavated from the old site, which give a glimpse of the competitions as were held once. For example, pictures of the Roman wrestlers who took up the Greek tradition and improvised (hence the Greco-Roman style of wrestling). The Romans adopted the tradition from the Greeks but as the guide to the exhibits will tell you, there was a difference. The Greeks laid great importance on physical beauty, their marble statues are ample proof of it, and hence the competitions were a tribute to the excellence of physical prowess. The Romans treated them as entertainment, which degenerated into blood-letting and Gladiator culture later. Among the Greeks the only stream brutal enough in form was Pankration, one of the oldest martial arts and combative sports on record. The rules were simple, no biting or eye gouging but beyond that, anything went. The referees enforced their rules with a large stick.
There were few streams of competition in the ancient Games. So also it was when it was reinvented in modern times. Thus the Olympic charter has to be changed every four years as new games are added.1980 was a watershed year when professionals were allowed to participate to attract more sportsmen and keep alive people’s interest in the Games.
One of the consistent images of the Olympics is the ritualistic torch-lighting and carrying the flame across the continents to the final destination where the Game is held that year (India has had to cut short the route fearing security problem with pro-Tibet protesters). In the Olympic museum, pride of place is given to the representation of the flame which is lit by a parabolic mirror to attract sun-ray. Ancient Greeks, like Persians and Hindus, considered fire to have sacred qualities and used sun-ray to light up flames which burnt eternally in front of their temples. Today, echoing that tradition, the Olympic flame is lit in front of the ruins of the Temple of Hera in Olympia by an actress enacting the role of the high priestess emphasising the connection between the ancient Games and the modern Games. The flame is kept burning in the cauldron in the stadium till the closing ceremony. A woman lit the torch for the first time during the Mexico Games in 1968.
The exhibits show the different designs of the torches carried at every Olympics. China being the flavour this year, the torch is a carved, red one intricately filigreed with golden design.
In fact, there is so much to discover at the Olympic Museum that it takes more than a few hours. We could not even explore the Winter Games section. One thing is for sure, it is a treasure-trove for sports lovers and art lovers alike.
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