INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC ACADEMY 7th JOINT - IOA

agonistic spirit in the name of a new god, Agon, who appears on
coins, like the tetradrachm from Peparethos 500-480 B.C., having
wings and holding two wreaths for the winner to be glorified.
The main link between virtue and sport is education - paideia.
Therefore, the ancient Greek educational ideal is agonistic. The ideal
of “kalokagathia”, i.e. of the nice, brave and moral man, is a constant
goal of the class of nobility, who are also called “the powerful” or
“the best” 2 . Already in the Homeric society “agathos” incarnates the
ideal of the good warrior, who stands out at the difficult battlefield.
In such societies the aim of education of the youth is physical and
intellectual health that is accomplished through strenuous exercise,
systematic effort and careful education. It is not, of course, accidental
that young people initially exercise themselves as a means of playing -
paidia. So playful exercise is a way of education and Plato is also
playing with both words 3 . Besides, the first forms of sport in Minoan
Crete and ancient Thera were simple athletic games.
The young are educated, in order to rise to eminence in the hard
battle of life, in public life, in politics, in courts, and in arts. Gymnasia
and palaestras during ancient times are not only fields of sport and
physical practice but also of political education. Socrates went often to
gymnasia, where he met and taught the young, whereas Plato and his
student Aristotle were both particularly occupied with the
philosophical concept of aretê and Plato himself was a competent
athlete. The great philosophical schools in Athens (i.e. the Academy,
the Lyceum, and the Cynics’ School) were all founded close to
gymnasia. Besides, there were not few politicians or generals, who
were competent athletes, like Alcibiades who won with seven 4hourse
chariots in the 91 st Olympiad in 416 B.C., Cylon, Cimon 4 ,
Hiero of Syracuse, Philip B’ 5 .
So, sports were an integral part of ancient Greek education, with
the further purpose to develop in balanced and harmonic way both
physical and intellectual gifts. Nevertheless, the word “agon” is
etymologically connected with “agogê” – education, i.e. with the root
of verb “ago”, so both words mean: “to forward one’s efforts towards
an end”. For ancient Greeks the goal was double: beauty (kalos) and
virtue (kagathos).
How much the Greeks believed in the educational value of
athletics and their relation with virtue is also proved by the definition
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