Figure from:Sport, Bodily Culture and Classical Antiquity in Modern Greece

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Figure 3. Advertisement of the 2004 torch relay by the Olympic Games Organizing Committee Athens 2004. The motto says ‘Our Flame Unifies the World. The First Global Torch Relay’. The torch relay has always been invested with those meanings which the nation-state hosting the Games at the time wishes to put into international circulation. The choice of routes, runners and symbolic acts accompanying the torch relays is made so as to project important figures and ‘golden’ moments of its national historic importance, [19] so as to mark the geographical and metaphoric ‘topos’ of the nation and legitimize geopolitical and national interests. [20] Under the unfavourable conditions I described earlier, the Athens 2004 torch relay attempted to once more project Greece as ‘the place that gave the light of civilization to the Western world’. It would revitalize the image of Greece abroad and it would reunite the world again under Greek auspices (Figures 3 and 4). For this reason, a torch relay of epic dimensions was organized, in which the flame would tour the world passing through Africa, Latin America as well as all cities that had hosted Olympic Games in the past. ‘Greece itself travels in the airplane that transports the flame, in the biggest effort of promotion that ever took place’, were the words of Yanna Angelopoulou Daskalaki, president of the organizing committee of the 2004 Olympics (Eleftherotypia 3 June 2004). “We take our country’s sun on a journey around the entire world’ was the more romantic interpretation of Maria Hors (To Vima, 25 March 2004), who was at the time 83 years of age and involved for the — Figure 3 Advertisement of the 2004 torch relay by the Olympic Games Organizing Committee Athens 2004. The motto says ‘Our Flame Unifies the World. The First Global Torch Relay’. The torch relay has always been invested with those meanings which the nation-state hosting the Games at the time wishes to put into international circulation. The choice of routes, runners and symbolic acts accompanying the torch relays is made so as to project important figures and ‘golden’ moments of its national historic importance, [19] so as to mark the geographical and metaphoric ‘topos’ of the nation and legitimize geopolitical and national interests. [20] Under the unfavourable conditions I described earlier, the Athens 2004 torch relay attempted to once more project Greece as ‘the place that gave the light of civilization to the Western world’. It would revitalize the image of Greece abroad and it would reunite the world again under Greek auspices (Figures 3 and 4). For this reason, a torch relay of epic dimensions was organized, in which the flame would tour the world passing through Africa, Latin America as well as all cities that had hosted Olympic Games in the past. ‘Greece itself travels in the airplane that transports the flame, in the biggest effort of promotion that ever took place’, were the words of Yanna Angelopoulou Daskalaki, president of the organizing committee of the 2004 Olympics (Eleftherotypia 3 June 2004). “We take our country’s sun on a journey around the entire world’ was the more romantic interpretation of Maria Hors (To Vima, 25 March 2004), who was at the time 83 years of age and involved for the

Related Figures (18)

Figure 1. A parade float drives down the Panathenaic Stadium during the ‘Festival of the Polemic Virtue of the Greeks’, Athens, 1967. Source: Katsigeras, Hellada 200s aionas, 286. SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE

Figure 2. A parade float celebrating the first anniversary of the ‘Revolution of 21 April 1967’, Athens, Panathenaic Stadium, April 1968. Source: Katsigeras, Hellada 200s aionas, 298. SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE

Figure 3. Poster: at the festivals of the dictatorial regime of 1967-1974, Greek actors-recruits and allegorical figures embodied the know1 sets of proud mottos and ‘historical’ victory cries. The regime relished in schoolbook-style slogans that raised the Greeks’ defences agains ‘national enemies’. Source: Rautopoulos, ‘Kitsch hos fascistometro’, 245.

SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE Figure 4. A rare Greek document lays out the detailed ceremonial program of the first Olympic torch run of 20 July 1936, and quotes from Pindar’s Eighth Olympic Ode. Source: Georgios I. Dolianitis and the G. Dolianitis Library.

Figure 1. Source: Action Images. SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE

Figure 2. Cartoons commenting on the presence of armed security forces in Athens. Left: The man looking like the Hollywood stereotype of secret agent says: “Well, these are the best and most secure Olympic Games’ and the intimidated sports-fan replies: ‘you took the words out of my mouth’ (by Ilias Makris). Right: the person with the starting gun is surrounded by armed security forces (by Andreas Petroulakis). Source: I Kathimerini 13 July 2004 and I Kathimerini 1 August 2004.

Figure 4. The title says: “The Flame Unifies. Message of Peace to Five Continents’. Source: Athens.04 (10) April 2004. SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE

SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE voluntarism and the connection of sport with doping. [31] The movement of the so- called ‘non-voluntarism’ in particular publicized its views and declared, among others, that ‘it cannot see why Greece should spend “four times the annual budget for secondary education for 20 days of security for the Games”. [32] At the same time, the prospect of Greece hosting the Olympics also raised the moral dilemma of whether Greece, as ‘the legitimate successor’ of the ancient Olympic Games, wrongly accepted on its soil the modern Games which had become a demonstration and re- enforcement of commercial and political prowess (Figure 8). [33] Graffiti on a bridge opposite Nerantziotissa subway station in Athens paraphrased the official celebratory motto ‘the Olympic Games are returning to their birthplace’ into ‘let the Olympics die in the place where they were born’. [34] oa

Figure 7. On the left, we see the official logo of the Athens torch relay. On the right, the torch relay going around the globe weighs on a person in a traditional Greek dress. The text says: ‘The logo of the torch relay /... the hole of it’ (by Ilias Makris). Source: I Kathimerini 12 August 2004.