The Olympic movement rose in the era of capitalist industrialization in Europe. It is based on a solid social, political, economic and cultural foundation, conforms to the trend of social and sports development, is a great social practice that human beings began after entering industrial civilization, is the product of the Renaissance, religious reform and enlightenment that have sprung up suddenly since14th century, and also meets the needs of sports internationalization. Pierre De Coubertin (1863 ~ 1937), a great figure, made the Olympic Movement enter the historical stage at the end of 19.

Coubertin is recognized as the founder of the Olympic Movement. 1892, he formally put forward the concrete idea of reviving the Olympic Games. Coubertin made it clear that the modern Olympic Games, like the ancient Olympic Games, should aim at unity, peace and friendship, but it should develop and innovate, adopt the content and form of modern sports, mainly British competitive sports, be open to all countries, regions and nationalities, and be held in turn around the world. Coubertin's initiative made the modern Olympic Games an international sports event with classical tradition and modern ideological connotation from the beginning.

1894 June 16 ~ 24, organized and actively promoted by Coubertin, the "International Sports Conference" was held in Paris. 79 participants from 49 sports organizations in the United States, Britain, Russia, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Greece and other countries unanimously agreed with Coubertin's proposal and decided to resume the Olympic Games. On June 23rd, the General Assembly passed a resolution to establish the International Olympic Committee.

1 From April 6th to April 5th, 896,1The modern Olympic Games was finally held in Athens as scheduled. 295 athletes from 13 countries participated in track and field, swimming, diving, weightlifting, wrestling, gymnastics, cycling, shooting and fencing. Although the organization is not very formal, it is an important symbol of the official birth of the Olympic Movement.

The rise of the Olympic movement is the result of long-term gestation in a broad background of the times. The three major ideological and cultural movements and capitalist industrialized production laid the ideological and material foundation for the rise of the Olympic Movement. The influence of ancient Greek traditional sports, bourgeois education reform, the internationalization trend of sports and people's desire for peace have created conditions for the emergence of the Olympic Movement. The contribution of French educator Coubertin made the Olympic Movement a reality. The rise of the Olympic movement under the comprehensive action of various factors conforms to the trend of the times and shows great vitality. It has become a symbol of friendship and unity of human society, a progressive cause of maintaining world peace, and has made great contributions to the civilization and development of human society.

Comparison of Main Features between Modern Olympic Games and Ancient Olympic Games

(1) The modern Olympic Games are deeply influenced by the ancient Olympic Games.

The modern Olympic Games, which came into being under the background of capitalist industrial revolution, inherited the precious heritage of the ancient Olympic Games, so it has many similarities with the ancient Olympic Games.

1, always using the name "Olympic Games".

In order to arouse people's lofty and sacred feelings for the ancient Greek sports civilization, Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic Games, believed that "this international sports event can only be named after the Olympic Games, and it is impossible to find another more suitable name." During the Renaissance, the new bourgeoisie publicized and praised the ancient Olympic Games, which made "Olympic" a vocabulary beyond sports. Coubertin took advantage of the far-reaching influence of ancient Greek culture on Europe, making it the name of the largest modern sports meeting in the world and making it more attractive.

2. Inherited the tradition of meeting once every four years.

The holding cycle of ancient Olympic Games has been institutionalized. It has been held every four years since 776 BC. 1 169 years, held 293 times without interruption, which is a miracle in human history. Therefore, Coubertin pointed out: "Celebrating the Olympic Games must be held accurately according to the rhythm of celestial bodies, which is an integral part of celebrating the four-year human festival. Unexpected circumstances may prevent the meeting from being held, but the order of the meeting will never change. "

3. Learn from and develop some rituals.

As a religious sacrifice competition, the ancient Olympic Games contained many solemn ceremonies with religious colors, which played a great role in the long history of the ancient Olympic Games. The founders of the modern Olympic Games were keenly aware of this, so they inherited and developed the ceremonies of lighting the flame, torch relay, swearing in by athletes and referees and awarding prizes, and created the opening ceremony, closing ceremony, athletes' admission ceremony, flag raising and flag handing ceremony, which purified people's hearts. They constitute the most solemn, sacred and exciting scenes, embody the power of truth, goodness and beauty, expand the influence of the Olympic Games and carry forward the lofty Olympic spirit.

4. Absorbed and developed the traditional ideas of ancient Olympic Games.

The ancient Olympic spirit, permeated with the concepts of fair competition, brave struggle and harmonious development, has been absorbed and carried forward by the modern Olympic movement.

(2) There are essential differences between ancient Olympic Games and modern Olympic Games.

The modern Olympic Games is adapted to the cultural phenomenon of modern society, but it was realized by the founder in the name of "restoring the ancient Olympic Games". Because the two are only different in name and form, it is easy to mistake the modern Olympic Games for a continuation and replica of the ancient Olympic Games, which confuses their different essence.

1, nationality and internationality

The ancient Olympic Games had distinct nationalism and unique cultural characteristics. This is a national ceremony competition, which is always held in the same place. Greek descent is a necessary condition to participate in the sports meeting in order to maintain the purity of the competition. The ancient Olympic Games played a role in prospering Greek culture, blending national feelings and promoting city-state exchanges, and was a symbol of Greek national spirit. However, due to its limitations, it can't stand the storm of multi-ethnic integration, and it can only develop under the specific conditions of the prosperity of slavery in ancient Greece. Once it is invaded by foreign enemies, it will be difficult to survive.

On the other hand, the modern Olympic Games are open to all countries, regions and nationalities, and are held in turn around the world. It transcends the restrictions of politics, religion, color, race and language, and becomes a peaceful and friendly event for people all over the world.

2. Ancient sports and modern sports.

Ancient Olympic Games used ancient sports content closely related to military skills. The competition mode is primitive and simple, and there is no standardized venue and clear rules. Only some conventional methods are used to evaluate the results. It is a childhood sports competition of human society, which embodies the characteristics of slavery sports.

The modern Olympic Games adopts modern sports content mainly based on British outdoor sports. Coubertin thought that the competition must be modern, and its content must be based on the sports of19th century, rather than simply imitating ancient events. Therefore, the modern Olympic Games broke through the ancient tradition in project setting, based on modern science, with unified organization, clear rules, standardized competition system and methods, resulting in record of achievements and reflecting the needs of modern sports development.

3. Festivals and sports celebrations of Zeus.

The ancient Olympic Games was a sacrificial competition dedicated by the Greeks to Zeus, the head of the gods. The cohesive force of Zeus brought together the city-states with the same religion and culture, but independent and even hostile to each other to participate in the Olympic sacrificial ceremony. Therefore, the ancient Olympic Games is not an independent sports event, but a part of religious festivals. Without religious activities, it cannot exist independently.

The modern Olympic Games is a secular and non-religious sports celebration. It is a truly international sports competition, independent of politics, economy and religion, and has its own independent ideological system, organizational system and activity system. This is a grand sports festival, and athletes from all over the world gather together.

4. Noble arbitration institutions of slave owners and modern organizations with complete systems.

The leaders and organizers of the ancient Olympic Games were arbitration institutions composed of slave owners and nobles. It was jointly held in the Temple of Zeus by full-time priests and local officials, who were all composed of people from the single city-state of Elis.

The modern Olympic Games has a perfect organizational structure, which consists of the International Olympic Committee, the International Federation of Individual Sports, the National Olympic Committee and the organizing committee of the host city. It is an unofficial organization independent of politics and is not monopolized by a country's personnel, so it has a wide international scope. They have a clear division of labor and cooperation, and formulated detailed competition rules.

5. Olympic Truce and World Peace

The ancient Greek mountains and rivers criss-crossed each other, resulting in a persistent and irreversible separatist state among the city-States. More than 200 city-states have never had a real alliance. This strong and stubborn sense of dispute has kept Greece in a state of war for a long time. However, because they always have a unified tradition and a common religion, the city-state alliance can jointly maintain peace on special festivals and formulate some treaties to reduce wars between allies, thus protecting the safety of worshippers and maintaining the road to the temple. At that time, an important link that could unite Greeks with a strong sense of separation was the Olympic Games held every four years. In order to ensure the holding of this most sacred ceremony, the Olympic League, which was attended by all Greek city-states, concluded the "Olympic Truce" treaty, which enabled the ancient Olympic Games to be held continuously for more than 1000 years. This is a peaceful event that serves the Greek nation and is independent of the war environment.

The modern Olympic Games aims to build a peaceful and beautiful world. One of the purposes of Coubertin's founding it was to "gather young people from all over the world to compete on the playground, not on the battlefield." Although the modern Olympic Games has no ability to stop the ongoing war (it is itself a victim of three wars), it strives to make athletes all over the world understand and respect each other, bridge the contradictions among many countries, regions, nationalities and races, and cultivate sincere understanding, cooperation and friendship among people in order to build a better new world.

The ancient Olympic Games and the modern Olympic Games are two fundamentally different social and cultural phenomena under different social backgrounds. Ancient Greece's politically independent slave city-state system, the unity of culture and religion, the humanization of primitive gods and the relatively complete sacrificial system are the social foundations for the emergence and development of ancient Olympic Games. Therefore, it can't exist beyond slavery in ancient Greece, and the fundamental reason for its decline and extinction is that the social background on which it depends no longer exists. Coubertin's success lies in his strategic use of the classical model of the ancient Olympic Games, which has great appeal. At the same time, he clearly realized that "the Olympic Games must be modernized, not clumsy and simple imitation and restoration." Therefore, he always takes the international and modern sports content as the basic principle, and makes the new Olympic Games an international sports event with classical traditional colors and modern ideological connotations.

World War II and the Olympic Games

The 14th Olympic Games was held in London, England from July 29th to August 29th, 1948, which is the second city to host the Olympic Games twice after Paris.

At the Berlin Olympics, the world was already in turmoil and war was imminent. However, the IOC is still preparing for the next Olympic Games. During the Olympic Games, the IOC selected Tokyo as the venue for the 12 Olympic Games, which was originally scheduled to be held from September 26th 1940 to1October 6th 10.

1937 Japan launched a war of aggression against China. Under the pressure of the military, the Japanese Olympic Committee had to announce that 1940 Japan could not host the Olympic Games. In this situation, the IOC decided to change the venue of the Summer Olympic Games to Helsinki, with the duration of 1940, from July 20th to August 4th. Due to the outbreak of World War II, Finland notified the International Olympic Committee to give up the right to host the Games on June 5438+0940+1 October1. Subsequently, wars spread all over Europe and around the world, and the 12 Olympic Games was aborted.

On the eve of World War II, the International Olympic Committee also selected the venue for the 13 Olympic Games. 1939 The London meeting of the International Olympic Committee selected London as the venue. However, due to the war, this Olympic Games was not held.

The two world wars in the 20th century made the three Olympic Games originally planned to be held in 19 16, 1940 and 1944 blank, and people called these years the darkest years in the history of the Olympic movement. It ruined the Olympic Games and stifled the development of world sports.

The Great War ended in 1945, and in the same year 10, the British Olympic Committee applied to the International Olympic Committee for hosting the 14 Olympic Games in London. As only London applied for hosting, Britain easily won the right to host. After the war, the British Olympic Committee built the Olympic Village and repaired some stadiums, so that the preparations for the Games were completed as scheduled. This is the first sports meeting held after the interruption of World War II 12 years, and it is a new starting point for the Olympic Movement. The number of participating countries and regions reached 59, which is a record number. There are 4099 athletes, including 385 female athletes, which is also unprecedented. The first participants were Myanmar, British Guiana, Venezuela, Hilary Nida, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), South Korea and Jamaica. Germany and Japan were disqualified from participating in World War II. China sent 33 male athletes to compete in five events: basketball, football, track and field, swimming and cycling, but failed to get the ranking.