INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC ACADEMY 7th JOINT - IOA

The goal of Olympism is to place everywhere sport at the
service of the harmonious development of man, with a view to
encouraging the establishment of a peaceful society concerned
with the preservation of human dignity.
Culture + Sport = Olympism
Coubertin believed Olympism gathers together all ethical
principles which help human development, like rays of sun.
Sport brings art to light and enables it to make itself known.
It engenders beauty, since it displays the athlete, who is a living
sculpture. Because of the monuments which it erects and the
spectacles and festival which it organizes, sport enables art to
make itself known.
These words of de Coubertin underline the cultural and aesthetic
aspects of Olympism. Early celebration of the Olympic Games
included competition for authors, painter and sculptors.
The aim of Olympism is to use the sport as a tool for helping
developing of human everywhere in order to make a peaceful society
throughout the world. Because Coubertin was a teacher one of his
aims was to present ethics and instruction to young people via sport.
Based on Coubertin’s idea, sport creates Art, and also sport creates
beauty, because athletes show the peak of human skills. In the early
Games, beside the sport contest, Art competitions (sculpture, writing
stories, poetry, painting, etc) were organized. These were
representative of the cultural values in the Olympics.
Most people imagine that the Olympic Games are merely a series
of international sport competition which are held every four years in
order to determine the champions of different kind of sports, but this
is a great mistake! The aim of the Olympic Games is much more than
this. In addition to showing physical abilities and sport skills, culture
and ethical values have an important role. Perhaps it is better to call
the Olympic Games a cultural-ethical phenomenon instead of a sport
phenomenon. Principally the Olympic Spirit is based on culturalethical
aspects.
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