The columnist seen with the Victor Hugo’s bust, at the ruins of the Old Summer Palace ground in Beijing. SO, the Olympics is done and dusted. In this 2024 version of the quadrennial world event, we witnessed beautiful sportsmanship, fantastic performance and atrocious behaviour.
The Olympics opened our eyes to the beauty of athletes displaying sportsmanship and camaraderie. Yes, that’s what the Olympics is all about. The Olympic founder, Pierre de Coubertin, was passionate about improving the world through sport.
He believed sport could help bring communities together, stop war and promote healthy competition free from discrimination. Then, we witnessed the superlative performance of the many athletes who pushed human physical boundaries to what was considered ‘not humanly possible’. Some of the losers to Pan Zangle’s world record 100m swim echoed this statement, ‘not humanly possible’ – not in admiration, but in envy.
Obviously, that Australian coach (who first said it) and his ilk are not history buffs. Seventy years ago, an English athlete, Roger Bannister, attempted to run the mile in under four minutes. Many experts said the human body was incapable of a sub-four-minute mile.
The heart might burst, said some. Well, Bannister ran the mile in 3:49.4 in 1954, at age 25, and at least half a dozen athletes broke the four-minute mile within two years after that.
Perhaps the Australian coach has forgotten the Olympics motto: “Citius, Altius, Fortius” (Faster.