LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT N°19 /
February 2004
by Prof. Bruno GRANDI, President of the FIG and Member
of the International Olympic Committee
Democracy Through
Sport!
Is it an irony of the calendar or a coincidence of historical events? No
matter what, the remarkable fact is that 2004 will bring two capitals of the most
prestigious civilizations in the history of mankind into the limelight.
Athens and Rome!
One of these cities is getting ready to celebrate the 28th
Olympic Games and the other to welcome the 10th Congress of “Sport
for All”. Athens and Rome, at the same time separated and unified by
everything, will have sports as their common denominator in 2004.
Common, one may ask? Not so sure!
Athina!
At the foot of the Acropolis, Athenians will bring the athletes from the
26 disciplines of the Olympic program to the stars. Ten thousand men and women
from the media will pursue the extraordinary and the exclusive to produce and
broadcast it around the world. Ten thousand athletes will participate in these
Games, in itself an accomplishment in the eyes of the Restorer of the Games.
But for these ten thousand athletes, dreams will mainly be about victory,
glory, and money! Exceptional sport achievements will be visible from the top
of far-away Mount Olympus and bring smiles of wonder and amusement on the faces
of the gods, who will take note that the goods are still a hit about 3,500
years later!
There is one difference though: sport in the Olympic arena is no longer
the sport of the people, but instead is reserved for the select few. Separated from the people, sport is now
returned to the people via the media through high licensing fees. If elite
sport is at trackside, sport for all can be found beyond the television
screens!
Roma!
In 2004, will the Romans celebrate the same kind of sport by the Tiber?
There will be no celebrities or elite to revere around the Coliseum, just a senatus
and a lot of populus, as it was in the times of the SPQR still dear to
the hearts of modern Romans! Thousands of visitors are expected at the 10th
Congress of “Sport for All”. But in the
country of the gladiators, the celebration will be about a sport defined by its
fundamental values: education, health, solidarity, ethics, and friendship.
The messages that the high-level authorities of the world of sports and
politics will deliver at the Rome summit might have caught the attention of the
ancient residents of the close-by Senate and perhaps reminded them that the
days of panem et circenses are over.
Here in Rome, it will be sport for the people and all the people -- a
catalyst for developing human resources and for achieving social justice and
democracy.
Rome, Athens, Democracy, Sport -- Democracy through sport!
It is sport in all its aspects, whether in 2004 Athens or in 2004
Rome -- and democracy finally, as it
took shape in Rome and in Athens!
In 2004, in Athens as in Rome, gymnastics will stand out once again as
the unifier that it has been since the very first Games of Antiquity, by
bringing together the world of sport and tying together its two extremities, so
that they can never pull apart. Indeed, the gymnasts will be representing both
extremities: the elite in Athens, as one of the most media-covered disciplines,
and the people in Rome in the context of sport for all.
Thus, it does not matter whether it is an irony of the calendar or a
coincidence of historical events. Because of sport as a whole, 2004 more than
ever will truly be the Year of Gymnastics.
Bruno GRANDI, President of the FIG
and
Member of the CIO
2/16/2004