Today, August 9, 2021, in “Theology for Millennials,” Mexican Father Mario Arroyo Martinez shares with Exaudi’s readers his weekly article entitled “Rescue the Olympic Spirit,” in which he reflects on its importance in human existence.
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Saint Paul knew the Olympic spirit, and he used it to transmit the Christian message. In the First Letter to the Corinthians, he says to us: “Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it” (1 Corinthians 9:24). Do we not find an echo thereof that altius fortius citius (higher, stronger, faster) proper of the Olympics? It’s not crazy to think that Saint Paul had the original Olympic spirit present, as in his time these contests were still held in Olympia, Greece.
In fact, the sporting spirit is an essential component of life, as it impels us not to lose heart, to continue trying over and over again, to exceed our goals. Such an attitude is essential in Christian life and that’s why Saint Paul mentions it. The Olympics give us a good occasion to reflect, on what we can call, the sporting character of human existence. In fact, life can be seen as a constant race, where we must overcome obstacles, and learn to win, but also to lose and to compete. For all of the above reasons, we could say that the Olympics is a sort of metaphor of life, where we see the athletes of the highest performance competing, in an atmosphere of fellowship and respect.
Therefore, we must not allow the Olympic Games to become the talk of little scandals. It wouldn’t be right to divert attention from the essential: the arduous effort made by so many athletes, and turn to laundry room gossip or less edifying stories of some of the contenders. When the competitions aren’t the center of attention, but instead, for instance, that the Mexican softball team tossed its uniforms in the rubbish, or a certain athlete isn’t regarded as psychically stable to compete (Simone Biles), or that a certain trainer made a racist comment (Patrick Moster), we are giving unmerited prominence to secondary elements. We are giving scandal prominence, forgetting the great effort made by the majority of contenders.
The danger is there: to change an edifying reality, as the Olympic competitions can be, into a reality show full of cheap scandals Such an attitude doesn’t add anything but, on the contrary, contributes to build a pessimistic and negative image of man. Often the media takes advantage of this inclination to the morbid, proper to the lower instincts of human nature, and when the media yields to this temptation, it does a disservice to society. On the other hand it could, instead, put the magnifying glass on so many stories of personal improvement, so many examples of life that athletes give us. It’s simply about choosing another lens, a different angle to cover the same reality. If people in the media are able to do so, namely, to detach themselves from the inclination to scandal, they can play an important human and educational role in the heart of society, showing how struggle and effort get their reward.
In fact, we all know that, for many athletes, the sole fact of having qualified for the Olympics is already again. It already implies being part of a select group of the world’s best athletes. How did they get here? It is always interesting and often edifying to learn how they did it. It might well be the track that the media should privilege.
Moreover, the message that the Olympics transmit ties in pretty well with the Christian ideal of unity and peace. We can compete — after all — with our brothers of other countries and rescue an ideal of unity in difference. The language of competition and sport does away with the babel of the different languages and cultures. Hence, it’s necessary to rescue and promote the genuine Olympic spirit, as a sort of practice in the way people relate to one another and between countries. In this connection, the Olympic spirit also ties in pretty well with the Christian ideal, not in vain did Baron de Coubertin take the Olympic motto from Father Henri Didon, O.P., and sport has always been an important part of Catholic pedagogy and spirituality, practically since Saint Paul.
Translation by Virginia M. Forrester
