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The race of humanity cannot be reduced to a 100 meter race or a marathon. But, from the first modern Games, played in Athens in 1896, to the next ones which will take place in Paris this summer, the Olympic event has fairly faithfully relayed the uproar of the world. To the point that, far from being a moment of truce, the Olympics are often a magnifying mirror of the ugliness and beauty of an era. This is what the exhibition highlights. “Olympism, a history of the world”which opens its doors at the Palais de la Porte-Dorée, in Paris, on April 26.
Choice weighed by the diplomatic trebuchet of the host cities; glory of the organizing country; cocardie accounting of medals; pantheonization of this or that champion; posterity of this or that duel: everything makes sense, everything creates an echo chamber in a sporting arena. The Olympics are a world within the world. “The fights for parity, equality and against racism, segregation and discrimination are recounted there, as are the major historical sequences of colonialism, the rise of nationalism and totalitarian powers or the Cold War” , notes the introduction to the catalog (Editions de La Martinière, 65 euros).
Throughout the rooms, rich in an iconography that is sometimes extremely famous, sometimes little-known, when it is not new, much more than a sports chronicle is written. “This exhibition illustrates the way in which the Olympic Games have accompanied the evolution of the world, summarizes Constance Rivière, general director of the Palais. At the same time, it dismantles a certain number of mythologies. » Starting with the neutrality of sport and athletes. “There is a link between champions and values”, she emphasizes.
Exclusions, attacks, boycotts
Individual exploits become universal symbols. Bodies are ideologized, when they are not commodified or inflated with hormones. Performance serves causes, for better or worse. The French tennis player Suzanne Lenglen, double gold medalist in 1920 in Antwerp, opened a gap in the exclusive men’s competition. American sprinter Jesse Owens, quadruple gold medalist in Berlin in 1936, is Adolf Hitler’s dazzling opponent. The Ethiopian marathon runner Abebe Bikila, double Olympic champion in 1960 in Rome and in 1964 in Tokyo, has become the proud standard-bearer of an Africa freed from colonialism.
The water polo match between the Soviet Union and Hungary during the 1956 Games, which left the pool red with blood, tells as much drama as the tanks in the streets of Budapest. The 200 meter podium in Mexico in 1968, these raised black-gloved fists of Tommie Smith and John Carlos, illustrates as much as a riot or the barricades the protest ferment of those years. Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci, triple Olympic champion in 1976 in Montreal, intends to embody the superiority of a communist model at its peak. The Moroccan Nawal El Moutawakel, by winning the 400 meter hurdles in Los Angeles in 1984, became a symbol of female emancipation.
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