This section contains quotations which people from the past may (or may not) have made about athletics ...
“It is also fitting that the courtier should know how to swim, jump, run and cast the stone, for, apart from the usefulness of these
accomplishments in war, one is often required to display one’s skill and such sports can help to build up a good reputation, especially
with the crowd which the courtier always has to humour”. (Baldesar Castiglione, “The Book of the Courtier” (Italy, early 1500’s) , translated by George Bull.)
Coaching And Training
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- Advice to Coaches?
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- ‘No man is so good that he has no blemish, nor so bad that he can’t succeed in something’.
From ‘Sayings of the High One’, part of the Poetic Edda (medieval Icelandic).
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- Galen Doesn’t Think Much Of You Lot ...
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- "They [i.e. athletes] do not even know that they have a soul, so far are they from understanding its rational qualities.
For they are so busy accumulating a mass of flesh and blood that their soul is extinguished as if beneath a heap of filth,
and they are incapable of thinking about anything clearly; instead they become mindless like the irrational animals".
(Galen – no, not Mo Farah’s controversial training-partner Galen Rupp, but the Greek philosopher, physician and medical writer of the second century AD. Medieval physicians paid great attention to his teachings, some of which were better than others)
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- Not The Right Place To Train?
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- “Occasionally, also, one may meet parties of scantily-attired youths careering along some of the City streets after business hours
and not infrequently dodging among the traffic with wonderful agility. But this particular form of training is viewed with disfavour
by the governing bodies of the sport, as tending to bring athletes and athletics generally into disrepute”.
George R. Sims (ed.), “Living London”, 1902
Going for Olympic Glory ...
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- What An Athlete Needs To Do To Win:
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- ‘You say “I want to win at Olympia”. Hold on a minute. Look at what is involved both before and after, and only then,
if it is to your advantage, begin the task. If you do, you will have to obey instructions, eat according to regulations,
keep away from desserts, exercise on a fixed schedule at definite hours, in both heat and cold; you must not drink cold water
nor can you have a drink of wine whenever you want. You must hand yourself over to your coach exactly as you would to a doctor’.
Epictetus (Greek philosopher), 101AD
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- For Athletes Considering American Universities:
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- "Our object is to produce a kind of general purposes athlete who can find health and joie-de-vivre in a variety of sports ...
But the American notion is to obtain, by means of eliminating trials and a prolonged course of special training, a small
number of surprising experts ... Put any of these [English] school champions into the power of an American trainer for two
years, and he would make Olympic victors of them. Fortunately, the athletic system in vogue at the American universities would
never be tolerated by young Englishmen, who prefer freedom to the meagre rewards of the specialist".
E.B. Osborn (about 1912), from "The History of Sport in Britain 1880-1914 Vol. 5, ed. Martin Polley
On Field Events
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- It's Against The Law:
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- “… moreover we ordain that you prohibit under penalty of imprisonment all and sundry from such stone, wood and iron throwing; handball, football, or hockey; coursing and cock-fighting, or other such idle games“ (part of an edict of Edward III, 1368)
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- The Under-Appreciation of Field Events?
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- “The real reasons why we do not excel in these particular sports ... are, firstly, because they are in most cases very difficult to learn,
requiring a deal of practice and unlimited patience, and the young Englishman of to-day prefers sprinting, which is easy to learn; secondly,
and, I think principally, because for years the sports-promoting bodies in this country have rigidly set their face against field events
on the ground that they take up too much time and the public do not care to watch them.”
Written by F.A.M. Webster, Founder and Honorary Secretary of the Amateur Fields Event Association, in an article entitled “Why We Failed at Stockholm” [1912 Olympics], in “The Bystander” of 12th February 1913, a publication distinctly sceptical about the whole Olympic Games environment.
For more reaction to the 1912 Olympic Games, visit This Site .