NOT BEING AN ADMIRER OF MOST “OLYMPIC SPORTS”, I had decided to avoid London during the period of these events. Following the wise statements produced by H.D.F. Kitto as to what the Greeks believed was sport, I can see no reason why anything done indoors or in teams can be deemed “Olympic”. Kitto states as to the Greeks’ ideas about athletes: “It was aretê that the games were designed to test – the aretê of the whole man… The usual events were a sprint, the long race, the race in armour, the discus, the javelin, the long jump, wrestling, boxing, and chariot racing. The great event was the pentathlon. If you won this you were a man.”
THE GREEK HERO OF THE ODYSSEY, of course, was required to learn and write poetry, to build and sail a ship, to catch, kill and cook a sheep, and to cry when hearing a sad song.
KITTO MENTIONS THAT INDOOR SPORTS, such as billiards, darts and table tennis, or even some pointless outdoor ones, such as golf, would have been greatly admired by the Greeks – as entertainments for slaves to indulge in, if one had nothing better to do with them.
YET I BECAME INVOLVED IN THE CONTAGION, and given the fact that I needed to go to London to have a pair of shoes re-soled and –heeled, I took advantage of the afternoon to watch one of the sporting events. My picture shows the Great Britain 4 x 100 metres relay team trying not to drop the baton. In my view they should have won the gold medal.
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