现代奥林匹克之父，法国顾拜旦男爵道出了奥林匹克应有的精神。
- Baron Pierre de Coubertin
"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."
翻译成人话，就是重在参与，最流行用语打酱油。
顾拜旦是不是太天真？。
在新概念英语第四册第6课有一篇叫the sporting spirit 的文章如下。如果懒得看原文就跟着我舞蹈。
我总是感到神奇，当人们说体育比赛要友谊第一比赛第二。比赛就是开party不是上战场。我觉得没有比这更扯淡的了。如果对此还不理解作者提到1936年奥林匹克运动会，国际间的体育比赛如何引发无节制的仇恨。我没去查1936年奥运会发生了什么，不论发生什么都不会觉得奇怪。
任何竞技体育项目都会引起竞争，只要竞争就会激发人性的阴暗面。你若不竭尽全力得冠军，就是打酱油，这比赛就毫无意义。从小到学校班级，校队，乡村俱乐部，大到国际间奥林匹克，参加比赛的双方都是为了自己或己方的荣誉而战，比赛过程并不重要，输赢才是关键。体育比赛实质上就是模拟战争，warfare. 不仅是运动员，场下的观众也一样不存在顾拜旦所说的奥利匹克精神。场下的战斗有时不比场上逊色。有谁能数得过来有多少次因裁判判决引起某国全国暴怒？
其实坦白承认，喜爱奥运会，就是喜欢刺激，喜欢看战斗，比速度比力量比奖牌数，金牌数量不够其它牌子凑，目的就是压过对手，竞争中战胜对手是首要之首要并没有什么错。
还有不关注比赛只关心八卦也没错，最终能战胜就是老大，管它什么手段。
这是我所理解的真正的奥林匹克精神，谁爱打酱油谁打去，只要我的运动员，队，国家，赢就行。
是老顾高估了人性还是虚伪？
GEORGE ORWELL The sporting spirit
I am always amazed when I hear people saying that sport creates goodwill between the nations, and that if only the common peoples of the world could meet one another at football or cricket, they would have no inclination to meet on the battlefield. Even if one didn't know from concrete examples (the 1936 Olympic Games, for instance) that international sporting contests lead to orgies of hatred, one could deduce it from general principles.
Nearly all the sports practised nowadays are competitive. You play to win, and the game has little meaning unless you do your utmost to win. On the village green, where you pick up sides and no feeling of local patriotism is involved, it is possible to play simply for the fun and exercise: but as soon as the question of prestige arises, as soon as you feel that you and some larger unit will be disgraced if you lose, the most savage combative instincts are aroused. Anyone who has played even in a school football match knows this. At the international level, sport is frankly mimic warfare. But the significant thing is not the behaviour of the players but the attitude of the spectators: and, behind the spectators, of the nations who work themselves into furies over these absurd contests, and seriously believe -- at any rate for short periods -- that running, jumping and kicking a ball are tests of national virtue.
GEORGE ORWELL The sporting spirit
