Olympics
(History of Olympics and influence on peoples)[edit]
"The ancient Greeks deeply felt the indispensability of sports, they stuck to it and it is out of these marvelous Olympian games that Sparta got such renown and reputation. The original Celtic inhabitants of Great Britain were an athletic race and the early Teutonic monuments abound in records of athletic prowess. Neither Ireland nor Scotland lagged behind England in these bodily amusements and work. In America early in the year 1870 people thought of organizing an association for amateur athletes and they succeeded, as we can judge by their present condition, in carrying out their plan and creating interest for sports in the American citizens.
"Such organizations soon were established in Canada, in Austria, and in the British Colonies. In American and England people were so convinced of the noble function of sports in life that they started to revive the old Olympian Games. They persevered in carrying out their plan and the result of their work is now deeply appreciated by the whole mass of Orientals. The Romans admired the success of the Greek athletic life, and under Fulvis Nobiler in 186 B.C. professional Greek sportsmen established a series of sports in Rome. The gladiators are nothing but an old revival of the Olympian Games and it is sufficient to say that the influence which these sports exerted upon the Roman citizens cannot be estimated."
- (Shoghi Effendi, 1914-15, Function of Sports in Life)
