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Starting Gun: In a dark time, the Great Symbol to the rescue
What is perhaps the greatest of the symbols was devised by a French aristocrat who had fulfilled his dream of recreating Ancient Olympia by managing to convince the world that sport, at the turn of the 20th century, would cement the bond between nations, some newly formed and newly evolved
Great symbols are ubiquitous, instantly recognisable, and their origins, though often hard to trace, are accompanied by legendary stories. The cross, the pentacle star, the swastika, the rainbow flag. Silver arrows, and golden arches. The swoosh, and the bitten apple. They encapsulate religions, ideologies, ideals, ideas. They build nations, and create corporations, transcending time and place, until one glance is enough to spark a string of memories or a chain of emotions.
What is perhaps the greatest of the symbols was devised by a French aristocrat who had fulfilled his dream of recreating Ancient Olympia by managing to convince the world that sport, at the turn of the 20th century, would cement the bond between nations, some newly formed and newly evolved, that were not always in league with one another. Having organised the first modern Olympics in Athens in 1896, then four more in Paris, St Louis, London, and Stockholm, by 1913, he needed something that would capture and inspire this movement. A symbol that would put a stamp on his philosophy that the struggle was more important than the triumph, that it wasn’t about winning and losing but about playing the game.
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So, in a moment of inspiration, Baron Pierre de Coubertin did the simplest of things. He drew overlapping circles, interlaced them like Venn diagrams, shaded them in colours from national flags around the world, and gave birth to what has come to be known, literally, as the Great Symbol. Those five rings can mean only one thing — the Olympic Games — but they signify much more. Fuelled by the words “Citius, Altius, Fortius”, they are rings of glory, hope, aspiration, and excellence; rings that make you a part of something larger than yourself -- a unifying celebration of human achievement.
The Great Symbol faces its greatest test in Tokyo over the next two weeks. The challenge is tougher than when it was put in abeyance during the second World War, and when it seemed for a while that it may be lost forever. That was a solely manmade hurdle. The path to overcoming it would always lie with the better judgment of humanity about what kind of world it wanted to live in.
This time, the world faces a contagion that can get anyone, at any time, that can overrun cities, derail the best laid plans, and the extent of whose power we may still not be aware of.
Though Covid is a great leveller in how indiscriminately it strikes, instead of uniting people, it has created deeper divisions. Class, wealth and geography now determine who can get treated faster, who can get the antidote quicker, who can study online, who can work from home, who can use this time to take up new hobbies, and who must walk home for hundreds of miles with all their belongings on their backs.
In a divided world at an uncertain time, the pressure to deliver for the Olympic movement is heightened. Over 125 years, it may not have been able to prevent wars, plagues, floods, the Great Depression, or global terrorism, but it made the world a better place by tearing down borders, even if for only two weeks once every four years. It gave humanity a peek into what is possible when all faculties are working to push the boundaries of excellence -- and knowing that is worth something.
Tokyo 2020, being held in 2021 without spectators and with a spectre over it, comes when we are in desperate need for inspiration. If the world ever required a Great Symbol to turn to, that time is now.
Over to the five rings and the new Olympic motto. Let’s move faster, soar higher, and get stronger – together.
Citius, Altius, Fortius – Communiter.
