Pikes Peak, Colorado, is a long way from Athens, Greece.
One June day I arrived at the summit with my friend, Brent Tremblay from Ontario.
Up there in the rare 14,000 feet air was a simple, unadorned plaque which read:
"The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part: the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well"
I was impressed enough by these words to write them down and later check out the author Pierre de Coubertin.
He was the man primarily responsible for the revival of the games in 1896.
Olympia 350 B.C. to London August 2012. We have come a long way since then, baby, but if we have left behind the spirit defined in Coubertin's words we have gone in the wrong direction.
"I have fought the fight, I have run the race, I have finished the course" (St Paul)
No man can do more than that!.
Let the games begin
Ian
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