Paris will be hosting this summer the 33rd Olympic Games, a world event and a life philosophy that combine respect, rigour, fighting spirit and ethics with “fair play” and “sportsmanship”.
My father had dedicated a large part of his life in the promotion of the Olympic Games and the values they enshrine. Being himself a great sea-lover and Olympic golden medalist in sailing at the Rome 1960 Olympic Games, he had been closely attending all sport events, had served as member of the International Olympic Committee from 1963 till 1974 and been its honorary member ever since till the end of his life. He had been using this honorary title as an emblem, so as to pursue the cultivation, through his contribution, of the Olympic ideal and values. For as long as he remained healthy and robust he continued participating in the Spetses Regatta traditional sailing yachts races, on board of “Afroessa”, along with other Olympic champions in the crew. He bequeathed in a unique manner his love and commitment to Olympism to all of us in the family, making Olympism an integral part of our lives.
This year the Olympic Games in Paris are held in difficult and challenging circumstances for the country that hosts them, against an international environment additionally disruptive, where even the sacred and inviolable truce that used to be a cultural and major Political act in antiquity seems to be totally irrelevant and unfeasible in contemporary era.
Our modern era Olympic Games is an extremely complicated organization demanding billions in expenditures for the proper preparation of hosting cities, state-of-the-art athletic venues and for the people traveling in order to attend the Games and support and encourage their national athletic teams.
This fact has triggered various debates and concerns in the cities hosting the Games, since it has proven an endeavour rarely lucrative; in most cases the venues and infrastructures specially built for the Olympic Games are subsequently totally abandoned or scarcely used and poorly maintained.
In a modern and progressive world facing substantial risks vis-à-vis sustainability and congestion…should we be doing this to ourselves? I’m aware that Paris has built environmental-friendly structures for the Games, in full consideration of the environmental and climate aspects, especially in the Olympic Village that will offer accommodation to all the athletes. I hope that all these will have a positive effect, offering not only a spectacular global event but also a responsible and sustainable one.
Olympism, as expressed by our ancestors, is a struggle towards the kalokagathia [i.e. harmonious combination of bodily, moral and spiritual values] for each of us personally and the global community as a whole. It is a pedagogical method conveying values and virtues, those of friendship, equality, brotherhood, peaceful co-existence of persons and peoples and, of course, respect to the environment.
In the course of these important Games let us consider what they should really represent for each person, each athlete and each hosting country and let us try to implement the values they enshrine.
The Greek Olympic Team traveling to Paris is perhaps one of the strongest sent by our country after the Athens Olympic Games, 20 years ago. We should all be very proud of our athletes. I am certain that in these Games we will also see new important athletic figures emerging. We should not forget that the athletes making it to the top 10 ranks are also considered Olympic champions, despite the fact that glory is bestowed only upon the golden, silver and copper medalists.
I wish every success to the city of Paris and wholeheartedly to our athletes, who always manage to overcome the great difficulties they face in their preparation and offer us unique moments of pride and faith in the “beautiful, great and true”.
