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By an appraisal of simple “antitechnological” ways of life and by and emphasis
on the struggle with nature as a means to develop individual courage, daring and
determination. These examples are an indication of the fact that physical activity
in nature is culture bound.
COUBERTIN, GAIA AND OLYMPIA
In terms of Olympism and the Olympic Movement, the tradition of sport and
nature has its original source in the writings of Pierre de Coubertin himself. Early
in 1907, the “Revue Olympique” published a Coubertin’s article, “A Propos de
Rallyes” (14) in which “sportmen” were urged to keep clean sport practice sites.
For the founder of Olympism, probably for the first time in modern sport history,
sport people were intended to become defenders of nature. Regarding values, the
article proposed the development of the beau public (public beauty) in addition
to bien public (public wellness), combining ethical justification with aesthetic
experience.
This typical sprit de finesse of Coubertin had, however, a previous motive.
Accouting to Don Anthony’s declarations during the International Congress
“Hosting the Olympic Games, the Physical Impacts” (Olympia-Greece, June 1994),
the Baron visited the Much Wenlock Olympian Society in England, by 1890, when
he planted a named tree. This ceremonial planting was at that time a tradition of
the Society, since its roots were originally found in the Wenlock Agricultural
Reading Society, on off spring of the Royal Society of Arts which included tree
planting schemes in its national parks as early as 1754. As such, Anthony deduced
that “the modern Olympic idea was revived in on environmental friendly
atmosphere by people who saw sport as part of on all-round education and
cultural experience”.
Thus, in large measure, past developments of sport environmentalism imply an
intrinsic value understood as a sense of belonging recently described by Risto
Telama as follows: (15)
For physical activity, the symbolic value of nature means, for instance, the
possibility to feel that one is part of nature, nature is part of life. This possibility
is also related to the observation of changes in physical activity in nature is
appealing because it is possible to observe changes in nature: growth and decay.
Such interpretation may be significantly met by an emerging fact: in symbolic
terms nature and sport have a common origin, a singular identity to be shared.
162 Meio ambiente, esporte, Lazer e turismo