INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC ACADEMY 7th JOINT - IOA

INTELLECTUAL PREMISES OF SPORT
IN THE 18 TH AND 19 TH CENTURY BRITAIN
AS THE BASIS OF THE BRITISH OLYMPIC MOVEMENT
Ms Agata MACKOW (POL)
Playing a game is a part of human existence. These spontaneous
activities belong to the sphere of pleasure and entertainment, which is
not connected with the burdens of mundane reality, with what we feel
is necessary and expected. Participation in sporting activities brings
pleasure, self-satisfaction and an opportunity to test and improve
ourselves. As Richard Holt (1989) observed:
...sports are a kind of 'deep play' in which the innermost
values of a culture may be expressed. Sport is not just a
gratuitous expenditure of energy determined by the
immediate physical environment; sports have a heroic and
mythical dimension; they are, in a sense, 'a story we tell
ourselves about ourselves'... (Holt 1989:3)
Anthropologists were led to believe that through play we not only
express ourselves but also learn to appreciate others. In our ordinary
lives we imitate other people's behaviour, we act in an unnatural way
in order to impress others or to show off. However, when we
participate in any competition we are simply unable to control our
emotions and hence we stop pretending:
...in order to form a just estimation of the character of any
particular people, it is absolutely necessary to investigate the
Sports and Pastimes most generally prevalent among them.
War, policy, and other contingent circumstances, may
effectually place men, at different times, in different points of
view, but, when we follow them into their retirements, where
no disguise is necessary, we are most likely to see them in
their true state, and may best judge of their natural
dispositions. (Strutt 1968: XV)
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