Halt the Olympics to save the planet, pleads a sports historian
David Goldblatt thinks pausing the spectacle might jolt the world into grasping the severity of the climate challenge
THE OLYMPICS have always been about more than just sport. Since 1896 they have been staged as a cosmopolitan festival that sends a message to humanity. In their 19th-century incarnation the games were, as Baron De Coubertin, the father of the modern Olympics, wrote, “a display of manly virtue” for what was, in effect, a neo-hellenic cult of the amateur athletic gentleman.
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