Of all the ancient ideas and major institutions that society has embraced and basically sustained over the centuries, among them the city, religion and democracy, few rival the Olympic Games in their endurance or their current reach and promise.  While the Olympic Games were lost to humanity for fifteen centuries—from 393 to 1896—they returned to cross the threshold of their third millennium as a festival of human hopes and dreams.  Baron Pierre de Coubertin never tired of linking the ancient Games with their modern incarnation, seeking, no doubt, to add profundity to the noble pursuit of sporting glory. This quote is drawn from his article, “The Olympic Games at Much Wenlock: A Page from the History of Athletics,” which appeared in La Revue Anthlétique in December of 1890.

“All this material and moral progress, all this physical and intellectual culture took a rather long period of time, during which athleticism spread ... It is based on the principles of the past, which are as true and as noble today as they once were in the gymnasiums of Athens, yet their form is modern. This means cricket, football, rowing, gymnastics, fencing—in a word, exercise that is appropriate for our customs and habits in 1890.”