Books, Arts & Manners: Olympic Myths

IN the runup to the Atlanta Olympic Games, Sports Illustrated spent $40 million to be the Games’ official publishing sponsor. But as hundreds of newspapers and magazines began publishing special reports on the Games, some seemed to be encroaching on Sports Illustrated’s special rights, which has led to a squalid dispute. But what about the Olympic Spirit? The Games have been through this before.

In 393 a.d., Emperor Theodosius I decided that athletics were un-Christian, and he banned the Olympic Games. Christian sports fans (if such there were) had to wait 1,503 years until King Constantine of Greece, at a grand ceremony on Easter Monday, 1896, rescinded the edict and once again opened the Games.

RG

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Richard Grenier

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IN the runup to the Atlanta Olympic Games, Sports Illustrated spent $40 million to be the Games’ official publishing sponsor. But as hundreds of newspapers and magazines began publishing special reports on the Games, some seemed to be encroaching on Sports Illustrated’s special rights, which has led to a squalid dispute. But what about the Olympic Spirit? The Games have been through this before.

In 393 a.d., Emperor Theodosius I decided that athletics were un-Christian, and he banned the Olympic Games. Christian sports fans (if such there were) had to wait 1,503 years until King Constantine of Greece, at a grand ceremony on Easter Monday, 1896, rescinded the edict and once again opened the Games.