Showsight - February 2022 Edition

For the Love of the Game THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MAN AND THE SPORT THROUGHOUT HISTORY

I t is February 2022 and winter sports are about to take center stage with the Winter Olympic Games, being held this year in Beijing, China. Many of the athletes have been training their entire lives for the opportunity to compete in the Olympics and to fulfill their dream of an Olympic medal. They compete because they love their sport and they love the competition. As the athletes train and dream, the outside world of COVID and world politics again tries to use the Olympic Games themselves to promote various agendas not related to the sports themselves. It is unfortunate, but in the world in which we live, agendas have taken over many of life’s simple pleasures. We have seen it in our own sport, with COVID shutting down many shows for over a year. Meanwhile, the states and various politicians continue to have an impact on many shows as we move forward into the future. This reflects on how the world today has put restrictions on what we can do and how we can do it. In spite of all the interference by outsiders, the Olympic Games (much like our sport of purebred dogs) is about people from all over the globe training and compet- ing—simply because they love it. THE EARLY HISTORY OF SPORT I think it would be safe to say that since man’s earliest time, there has existed some type of competitive sport. It may have originated from something as simple as a foot race between two children or possibly a hunting competition between two hunters in a tribe or a family. But it is likely that man has always had a competitive instinct to be the best at something. When looking at the history of various types of organized sports or competitions, you can go back to ancient times and start with the Olympic Games. Though its history is part of many myths and legends, the origins of the Olympics are believed to have taken place in Olympia, a district found in Southern Greece. The Games are better known as Olympiads (an Olympiad was considered the four years between Games). They began in 776 BCE and took place at least two decades before the founding of Rome. The founding of Rome can be dated “OL. 6.3” or translated as the third year of the 6th Olympiad. It is believed that the ancient Olympic Games lasted for about 10 centuries until 391 AD, when Emperor Theodosius I ended the ancient Games. For the Ancient Greeks, the Olympics were not just about sports. They also served as a religious event held on the temple site of Olympia, which was dedicated to Zeus. The site held a gold and ivory statue of the king of the gods. The statue, by the great Greek sculptor, Pheidias, stood 42 feet high and was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The main sporting events in those early Olympic Games were: Boxing, Discus, Equestrian Events, Javelin, Jumping, Running, Wrestling, and other events that were added or removed over the history of the Games.

BY WALTER SOMMERFELT

42 | SHOWSIGHT MAGAZINE, FEBRUARY 2022

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