brief introduction
The Olympic Charter points out that the Olympic spirit is the spirit of mutual understanding, friendship, unity and fair competition.
The Olympic spirit plays a very important guiding role in the Olympic movement.
First of all, the Olympic spirit emphasizes tolerance and understanding of cultural differences. The Olympic movement is an international movement, which inevitably faces various cultural differences in the world and various problems caused by it. Athletes, coaches, sports officials and spectators from different countries have different skin colors, wear different clothes, speak different languages, have different lifestyles, perform different religious ceremonies and express their joys and sorrows in different ways. These ethnic and cultural differences are often strengthened by conflicts between countries in political system, economic system and ideology. In a sense, the quadrennial Olympic Games concentrates all the sports cultures in the world in a narrow space and time range, so the differences between different cultures are particularly striking. Difference is contradiction, and contradiction may lead to conflict. The Olympic spirit emphasizes mutual understanding, friendship and unity in order to form a spiritual atmosphere. In this atmosphere, people can get rid of the prejudice brought by their own culture. In the display of different cultures, what they see is not contradictions and conflicts, but the cultural landscape of human society, which makes cultural differences become the driving force for people to communicate, rather than their own closed barriers; Let contradictions become the driving force of mutual learning, not the inducement of mutual contempt. Only in this atmosphere can people break the narrow vision, learn and understand things outside their own nation with the broad mind of world citizens, realize that all ethnic groups have magical imagination and great creativity, learn to respect other ethnic groups, treat others and themselves with a more objective and fair attitude, absorb the excellent elements of other cultures with an open mind, and constantly enrich themselves, so as to truly realize the international exchange advocated by the Olympic Movement.
Secondly, the Olympic spirit emphasizes the fairness and justice of competitive sports. The Olympic movement takes competitive sports as its main activity content, and the most essential characteristics of competitive sports are competition and confrontation. In the direct and fierce physical confrontation and competition, athletes' bodies, psychology and morality have been well exercised and cultivated, and the audience has also received sensory entertainment and subtle education. However, the basic premise of the educational function and cultural entertainment function of competitive sports is fair competition. Only on the basis of fair competition can competition be meaningful, athletes from all countries can maintain and strengthen the United and friendly relationship, and the Olympic Movement can achieve its sacred goals. As the late American famous black track and field athlete Jesse Owens said, "In sports, people learn not only competition, but also respect for others, life ethics, how to spend their lives and how to treat their own kind."
The content of the Olympic spirit
"Olympic Spirit" was a speech delivered by Coubertin at the 25th anniversary celebration of the Olympic Movement in Lausanne, Switzerland in April 2009. This is an important document of the Olympic Movement. Coubertin expounded the connotation and value of the Olympic spirit in poetic language.
After briefly reviewing the history of five years, Coubertin explained the difference between the Olympic spirit and the pure competitive spirit. He believes that pure competitive spirit can only bring athletes a sense of psychological pleasure, while the Olympic spirit will bring people a sense of beauty and honor. This is the spirit that Coubertin admired in his heart. In Ode to Sports, he also enthusiastically praised sports as the embodiment of beauty, art, justice, courage, honor, fun, vitality, progress and peace.
Coubertin was an educator, and his educational thought was the core of his sports thought. In his speech, he explained "the reason for ringing the bell to reopen the Olympic era": based on the desire to reform education. He is dissatisfied with the current situation that "teenagers are often out of balance because of old and complicated teaching methods, stupid and harsh preaching and poor and superficial philosophy", and hopes to change the traditional educational methods and contents through reviving the Olympic Games, so as to promote the all-round, balanced and coordinated development of teenagers. Coubertin had studied the ruins of the ancient Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, and thought that "the ancient Greeks organized competitions not only to exercise their physique, show cheap wonders, but also to educate people". It can be said that the fundamental purpose of Coubertin's revival of the Olympic Games is to educate the youth through sports competitions. Therefore, he is determined to "combine the Anglo-Saxon sports utilitarianism with the lofty and powerful ideas handed down from ancient Greece to open up a new Olympic era".
How to turn the Olympic spirit into reality? Coubertin put forward an important idea: "the masses" should participate, and even "citizens with the lowest status" should be able to "enjoy" this spirit. Coubertin's famous saying "participation is more important than victory" (also translated as "participation is more important than victory") also emphasized the essence of this Olympic thought. In another speech, he once pointed out: "Gentlemen, please remember this powerful famous saying. This argument can be extended to many fields. What matters in life is not victory, but struggle. The purpose of spreading these maxims is to create more robust human beings-thus making human beings more rigorous, prudent, brave and noble. It can be seen that Coubertin advocated and revived the Olympic Movement with a very broad mind and the continuous self-improvement of all mankind as the starting point, and never called on people to fight simply for laurels and gold medals.
So, what is the connotation of the Olympic spirit? In paragraph 5, Coubertin made a concrete exposition. He believes that the Olympic spirit is one of the forces for human beings to absorb ancient traditions and build the future. This power is reflected in: although it is "not enough to ensure social peace", it can still promote peace; Although "the power to produce and consume material necessities cannot be distributed to human beings in a more balanced way", it can still promote fairness; Although "it is impossible to provide free opportunities for young people to receive intellectual training", it can still promote education. In his view, peace, fairness and education are a complete and democratic Olympic spirit.
Connotation of Olympic spirit
Starting from more than 2,000 years ago, the Olympic Games, as a healthy and progressive sports competition, rose on the sacred Mount Olympus and became a valuable spiritual and cultural wealth that the ancient Greeks dedicated to mankind. Today, the connotation of the Olympic movement has gone far beyond the scope of sports competition. It has become a cultural event and the civilized heritage of all mankind. Its rich connotation and its importance to human life are increasing day by day. Regarding the connotation of the Olympic spirit, I would like to emphasize the following aspects:
Olympics is a competitive spirit. The Olympic spirit is a self-challenging spirit of "swifter, stronger and higher", and it is also a fair, just, equal and free sports spirit. This spirit of self-challenge and fair competition embodied in the Olympics constitutes the cornerstone of contemporary human self-improvement and social communication.
Olympic Games is a life attitude. The Olympic spirit emphasizes that people have a healthy body, an optimistic spirit and their love and pursuit of a better life through self-exercise and self-participation. This optimistic and positive attitude towards life is a powerful driving force for us to overcome all challenges with confidence.
Olympics is a philosophy of life. The Olympic Charter points out that "Olympism is a philosophy of life, which combines physical, mental and spiritual qualities in a balanced way and improves them." The Olympic Movement integrates sports with culture and education, making people's body and mind, spirit and quality perfect and harmonious, and fully developing people's potential and virtue. This is by far the best and most perfect philosophy of life.
Olympics is a harmonious, free, healthy and positive modern ethics. The lifestyle that Olympism wants to build is based on the fun experienced in struggle, the educational value of excellent examples and the basic respect for universal morality. The ethical value in the Olympic spirit is the greatest respect and advocacy for human potential and free creation, human civilization and fine order, and it is the inheritance and development of all fine moral values and ethical norms of human beings. It guides people to pursue an optimal ethics of survival and development, which is the guarantee for the coordinated coexistence of human beings and the environment and the coordinated development of individuals and society.
The Olympic Movement is the common heritage of human civilization. Enthusiastic competitions, the training of young volunteers, the construction of stadiums, the conception of urban planning, wonderful artistic performances, and the broadcast and watching of events covering the whole world have all become valuable Olympic heritages. In the era of globalization, the Olympic movement has become a grand gathering of civilizations and cultural spirits of all countries.
Today, the Olympic Games has become the common aspiration, expectation and aspiration of all mankind. With the passage of time, it has been enriched and added with new connotations, and has become a valuable spiritual and cultural heritage for human innovation and growth.
The deeds of athletes
Zhang Hao's performance in the Winter Olympics
Xinhua News Agency AFP commented on the double figure skating competition in the Winter Olympics on 14, and thought that the skating rink staged a touching scene. Although the gold medal was won by Russian athletes, Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao made amazing performances in freestyle events, winning full house applause and rewriting history.
It is reported that Russian pair skaters Totmia Nina and Marinin won the championship of figure skating pair skating in this Winter Olympics, which continued the dominance of Russia (the former Soviet Union) in pair skating since the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck. However, a pair of young China players Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao stole the show. They accidentally fell to the ground during the opening jump in Pallavera Gymnasium, but they continued the competition with strong perseverance and won the first silver medal in synchronized skating for China. China pair skaters Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo won bronze medals at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. They were 2.82 points behind the second place and won the bronze medal again in this competition. China's other couple, Pang Qing and Tong Jian, finished fourth.
According to the report, although Totmia Nina and Marinin won the pairs skating championship in the 12 Winter Olympics for Russia (the former Soviet Union), Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao of China made amazing performances in freestyle skating, so they won full applause. After Totomia Nina and Marinin finished the game perfectly, Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao appeared. In order to rewrite history, the China players started their whole set of movements with a difficult turn accompanied by the music "Descendants of the Dragon". However, in the process of throwing and jumping, China made a mistake. Zhang Dan, 20, fell off the ice when he didn't spin enough times in the air, causing a severe sprain of his right knee, and the audience held their breath. After the game was suspended for 3 minutes, they bravely continued the game with warm applause from the audience and won a silver medal. After the game, Zhang Dan said, "You have no idea how painful it was. This is challenging the limits of mankind. " Zhang Hao said they didn't know what to do. He explained: "Our brains are blank. We don't know where to start the game. But after the coach gave us guidance, we began to slow down gradually. " Totomiyanina reminded future Russian skaters not to easily hand over the title of pair skating to China skaters whose level is constantly improving.