Games able to bring our world together

A few years after German archeologists uncovered the ruins of the Stadium in Olympia, Greece, an educator from France, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, came up with the idea of the modern, international Olympics to promote world peace and promote amateur athletics.

Inspired by his idea, the modern Olympics started in 1896 in Athens, Greece with about 285 male athletes from 13 nations.

Talk about phenomenal growth! One hundred and ten years after the Olympics sprung back to life, the games this year will host more than 12,000 athletes from 202 nations. Even more staggering, the 16 days of events in 2004 will be witnessed by four billion -- that's right, 4,000,000,000 -- viewers during 112 hours of worldwide television coverage.

To fully watch all the events -- recorded on VCRs and TiVos -- would take 50 days, all day, every day, according to Alan Sepinwall of the Newark (N.J.) Star-Herald. To give you an idea of how big a chunk of time that is, Sepinwall said in that same time span you could ride an Apollo spacecraft to the moon and back six times.

And, so, we can safely say that the modern Olympic Games -- which started Friday night in Athens with opening ceremonies -- are enormously bigger, indicating that part of the original purpose -- "promoting amateur athletics" -- has been achieved.

But, the other part, "promoting world peace," has not been quite so successful. The terroristic attacks of 9-11 and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan attest to that. It is also regrettable that the will to win -- even in sporting games -- has encouraged cheating, with a number of Olympic-caliber athletes resorting to illegal drugs to enhance their performances.

Still, as sad as continued warfare, cheating and the threat of terrorism are, it's important that the Olympic Games continue. It may be too much to hope that the Olympics will wipe out war, but the Games can make a difference in many young athletes lives as they spend years preparing for competition. And, of equally great importance, the Olympics can draw the world together through shared experience, as demonstrated by the fact that most of the world will be able to watch the same event on television.

No, we can't watch all the Olympic events. There are too many competitive activities, spread over too many days. But -- through selective television viewing, listening to radio reports and reading newspaper accounts -- we can get glimpses of international athletic competition.

Will the Olympic Games bring peace? Probably not, but they should bring a greater measure of international awareness and, hopefully in the long run, greater understanding among the people of the world.