O SPORT!
O Sport, excitement for citizens most admirably simple,
keenly contested demonstration of faux superiority
for assertive simians, how the thundering roar
of thy raucous celebrations does swell to overwhelm
the synaptic contacts of innermost cochlear cells!
O Sport, thou art feverish frivolity for the strong
of body and etiolated of mind! A code of honor
determining Justice with Right Guard
O Sport, you are zestful joie de vivre
with a soupcon of schadenfreude in the trumpeting
proclamation of your victory
O Sport, you are the vicarious thrill of fleetness of foot
for sedentary gluttons perched upon gargantuan gluteus maximi
O Sport, you are the ransom of kings, a Pharaoh's treasure
of silver, gold and hard-earned cash, frittered freely
to the wind with lightning speed and boundless panache
O Sport, you are an ecstatic exercise in ersatz
appeal to arms, a Mighty Peromyscus, a gleaming,
bronzed, muscular, well-oiled brotherly bonding of
a Sacred Band of Stepsons, unthreatened by bubbling
too closely to the surface of awareness
O Sport, you are the sublimated essence of precious
bodily fluids flowing like pure Mountain Dew,
signifying our most ephemeral trifling pursuits,
with much ado
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OlympicReview/2000/OREXXVI32/OREXXVI32x.pdf
O Sport, pleasure of the Gods, and M. Eschbach**
essence of life, you appeared suddenly
in the midst of the grey clearing
which writhes with the drudgery of
modern existence, like the radiant
messenger of a past age, when
mankind still smiled. And the glimmer
of dawn lit up the mountain tops and
flecks of light dotted the ground in the
gloomy forests.
II.
O Sport, you are Beauty! You are the
architect of that edifice which is the
human body and which can become
abject or sublime according to whether
it is defiled by vile passions or improved
through healthy exertion. There can be
no beauty without balance and proportion,
and you are the peerless master
of both, for you create harmony, you
give movements rhythm, you make
strength graceful and you endow suppleness
with power.
Ill.
O Sport, you are Justice! The perfect
equity for which men strive in vain in
their social institutions is your constant
companion. No one can jump a
centimetre higher than the height he
can jump, nor run a minute longer
than the length he can run. The limits
of his success are determined solely
by his own physical and moral
strength.
IV.
O Sport, you are Audacity! The
meaning of all muscular effort can be
summed up in the word 'dare'. What
good are muscles, what is the point
of feeling strong and agile, and why
work to improve one's agility and
strength, unless it is in order to dare?
But the daring you inspire has nothing
in common with the adventurer's
recklessness in staking everything on
chance. Yours is a prudent, well-considered
audacity.
V.
O Sport, you are Honour! The laurels
you bestow have no value unless
they have been won in absolute fairness
and with perfect impartiality. He
who, with some shameful trick,
manages to deceive his fellow competitors
feels guilt to his very core
and lives in fear of the ignominious
epithet which shall forever be
attached to his name should his
trickery be discovered.
VI.
O Sport, you are Joy! At your behest,
flesh dances and eyes smile; blood
races abundantly through the arteries.
Thoughts stretch out on a
brighter, clearer horizon. To the sorrowful
you can even bring salutary
diversion from their distress, whilst
the happy you enable fully to savour
their joie de vivre.
VII.
O Sport, you are Fecundity! You strive
directly and nobly towards perfection
of the race, destroying unhealthy
seed and correcting the flaws which
threaten its essential purity. And you
fill the athlete with a desire to see his
sons grow up agile and strong
around him to take his place in the
arena and, in their turn, carry off the
most glorious trophies.
VIII.
O Sport, you are Progress! To serveyou, a man must improve himself
both physically and spiritually. You
force him to abide by a greater discipline;
you demand that he avoid all
excess. You teach him wise rules
which allow him to exert himself with
the maximum of intensity without
compromising his good health.
IX.
O Sport, you are Peace! You promote
happy relations between peoples,
bringing them together in their shared
devotion to a strength which is controlled,
organized and self-disciplined.
From you, the young worldwide
learn self-respect, and thus the
diversity of national qualities
becomes the source of a generous
and friendly rivalry.
*Awarded a prize in the sports literature
competition in the V Olympiad -
Stockholm 1912.
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