Once more to the well for another quote from Baron Pierre de Coubertin’s gold-medal poem, “Ode to Sport.” As many of you know, the Baron submitted his poem to the 1912 Stockholm Olympic Arts Competition under the dual pseudonym of Georges Hohrod and M. Eschbach--and won.  In the first line of this quote, the Baron refers to the mythological beginnings of the ancient Olympic Games, when Hercules challenged his four brothers to a race before the gods at the foot of Mt. Olympus.  As legend has it, Zeus and the other Olympian gods were clearly entertained.  Although we have quoted from this poem six times already (see Jan 18 & 28, May 27, June 16 and July 06 & 26), it will probably appear again before the year is out. 

“O Sport, pleasure of the Gods, essence of life! In the grey dingle of modern existence, restless with barren toil, you suddenly appeared like the radiant messenger of a past age, when mankind still smiled. And to the mountaintops came dawn's first glimmer, and sunbeams dappled the forest's gloomy floor.”