Olympic Studies by Heather Reid
Olympika, 2023
In his vast travelogue of ancient Greece, Pausanias relates the story of a widow who disguised he... more In his vast travelogue of ancient Greece, Pausanias relates the story of a widow who disguised herself as a trainer to see her son compete in the Olympic Games despite its
prohibition of women. When she jumps a fence to congratulate him in victory, her cloak snags and her secret is revealed. Combining this story with the general misogyny found in ancient Greek culture has led some—including modern Olympic Games founder, Pierre de Coubertin—to conclude that women had no place in ancient Olympic Ideals. In this paper, I challenge that conclusion by arguing that women were not only present at the ancient Olympic Games, they competed on the track, were involved in the politics, and embodied its ideals. There is no question that ancient
Greek culture can and should be criticized for its historical treatment of women, but we also need to recognize the ancient Greek women who, from within that culture, promoted the values of humanism, justice, and peace that underpin the philosophy of the modern Olympic Games.
Olympika: The International Journal of Olympic Studies XXX, 2021
In this essay, I interrogate the value of modern Olympic heroes by examining the link between her... more In this essay, I interrogate the value of modern Olympic heroes by examining the link between heroes and athletics in Ancient Greek culture. This is a useful exercise not just because our modern Games have their roots in Ancient Greece, but also because heroes had an important educational function there—one linked with athletics and justly criticized by Socrates and others. Ancient heroes were human, not just in the sense of being mortal but also in the sense of being flawed. Nevertheless, their stories served as inspiring ethical paradigms. Heracles’ labors were even chiseled into the metopes of Olympia’s grand Temple of Zeus. I begin by examining the ethos of ancient Greek heroes, show how it was linked to sport and the celebration of victory, then I will then consider the risks and rewards of this system as moral education. Finally, I will return to the question of modern Olympic heroes, examining if and how they too may function as moral educators in light of this ancient heritage and modern Olympic realities. Throughout I will argue for the value of an “athletic ethos” that demands voluntary struggle on behalf of the greater good, which is motivated and compensated by the public celebration of aretē (excellence, virtue).
Looking toward the Future with Hope, 2021
Olympika 29 , 2020
Observed front a historical perspective that tncludes the ancient Games, doping is a relatively r... more Observed front a historical perspective that tncludes the ancient Games, doping is a relatively recent phenomenon that became increasingly widespread in sport after the l9'h century ond the beginning of modern Olympic Games. Tlte "spirit of sport" that WADA was formed to preserve, however, can be identified in ancient Olympic ethos of aretd. In this paper, we explore the enduring relevance of WADA's mission by interrogating tlte close connectton between victory qnd virtue in the ancient Olympic Games, as symbolized by the phenomenon of athletic nudity. Harnessing evidencefrom history, epigraphy, literature, and art, we show that thewhole concept of athletic victory was founded upon an ethos choracterized by respect for ideals, public demonstrotion, individual effort, and civic responsibiltty. Ancient athletes who sougltt external assistance or tried to buy victory were punished and deridedeven when their victories were legitimate. It was virtue (aretE) that rendered victory voluable, not just to the athlete, but ntore importantly to the community. The athlete's nudity symbolized hts agency-the idea that he was the prtmary cause of his performance and therrfor" worthy of the glory accorded to victors. The conceptual connection between victory and virtue is fundantental to the spirit of Olympic Sport and demands protectionfrom organizations like WADA.
The purpose of this paper is to identify and articulate the philosophical ideals that, in our vie... more The purpose of this paper is to identify and articulate the philosophical ideals that, in our view, underpinned the ancient Olympic Games and may serve the modern Olympic Movement in its quest for global harmony. Although the claim of the ancient Games to unite the far corners of Hellas may appear quaint when compared to our worldwide festivals, the political and logistical challenges were arguably no less formidable than ours. Furthermore the ancient Games’ more than 1,000 year span makes the modern Games’ single-century history look like a flash in the pan. Big and strong as the modern Games seem, they should humbly acknowledge their infancy and look to their venerable ancestor for advice as they face an uncertain future. It was the ideals associated with Olympia that secured the ancient Games’ long-enduring success. We believe that only if the modern Olympic Movement actively understands and consciously preserves its ancient heritage, can the Games remain a beacon of idealism amid the headlong pursuit of worldly wealth and power.
Journal of Olympic Studies, 2020
A debate has arisen over whether “the spirit of sport” is an appropriate criterion for determinin... more A debate has arisen over whether “the spirit of sport” is an appropriate criterion for determining whether a substance should be banned. In this paper, I argue that the criterion is crucial for Olympic sport because Olympism celebrates humanity, specifically human agency, so we need to preserve the degree to which athletes are personally and morally responsible for their performances. This emphasis on what I call “athlete agency” is reflected metaphysically in the structure of sport, which characteristically prescribes inefficiencies in order to create challenges, and seeks to reduce or eliminate the proportion of a performance outside an athlete’s control. Emphasizing athlete agency also prevents wealthier and more technologically developed countries from using their resources to gain an advantage in sport. Interpreted according to athlete agency, the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) “spirit of sport” can be clarified to imply that substances, techniques, and equipment that reduce...
In this paper I argue for a prescriptive definition of Olympic sport that hinges on the normative... more In this paper I argue for a prescriptive definition of Olympic sport that hinges on the normative demands of Olympism. Although the International Olympic Committee sets up specific criteria for the selection of sports to be included in the Olympic Games, they do not stipulate a definition of Olympic sport per-se. I would like to construct a definition of Olympic sport that begins with Bernard Suits’ basic metaphysical idea, but then incorporates a normative element based on the ideals and objectives of the Games as articulated in the Olympic Charter’s “Fundamental Principles of Olympism.” If, for example, Olympic sport is supposed to exalt the “joy of effort,” provide educationally good examples, respect “universal fundamental ethical principles,” and promote “a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity,” we need a definition that recognizes that. Not only would this definition help us to distinguish Olympic sport from non-Olympic sport, it might help us to identify sports rules and performances as more or less ‘Olympic’ depending on how well they exemplify those ideals. For example, a sport like marathon running exemplifies the “joy of effort” better than a motorized sport like automobile racing does and is therefore more ‘Olympic,’ though both activities have the same basic game structure (that of a race). Furthermore, sports that provide the opportunity for wide participation and multicultural interaction, such as soccer, may be more ‘Olympic’ than sports like shooting or sailing, which require more sophisticated equipment and infrastructure and involve less personal interaction. Finally, athletes who display behaviors which detract from Olympic values—such as the badminton players in the London Games who fluffed some early matches—may be failing to play an ‘Olympic’ sport even as they follow all the rules of a game. Likewise, going above and beyond the rules of sport to promote Olympic ideals—such as the Canadian cross-country ski coach at Sochi who lent an opposing athlete a spare ski—may be recognized as more ‘Olympic’ than behaviors based on strictly competitive logic. Human beings invented sport and we also control its definition. I think the Olympic Movement should define Olympic sport in a way that consciously promotes Olympic ideals.
Sport, Ethics and Philosophy, Jan 1, 2012
Olympika: The International Journal of Olympic Studies, 2010
Reflecting on its celebration of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, the Olympic Movement now has ... more Reflecting on its celebration of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, the Olympic Movement now has the opportunity to counterbalance its traditional Western values and ideals with those of China and the East, thereby re-centering its philosophy
between East and West, and redirecting Olympism back toward its origins in ancient Greece. The ancient Hellenic philosophy from which modern Olympism is supposed to derive is not a characteristically Western product, as is often assumed.
Rather, it is a “centrist” perspective that resulted from a need to mediate among diverse Hellenic cultures in the ancient Mediterranean world. This “Western” philosophy contained, in its original form, many characteristics which are now associated
with the East. By re-examining the language of Olympism in light of some Eastern ideas about metaphysics, ethics, politics—and even philosophy itself—I hope to recast Olympic philosophy in a new ecumenical light. A more tolerant and flexible understanding of Olympism would better reflect the ancient Hellenic philosophy
from which it ultimately derives, and may better serve the Movement’s goals in the age of globalization.
The modern Olympic festival is self-consciously inspired by ancient Greek ideals. It conceives of... more The modern Olympic festival is self-consciously inspired by ancient Greek ideals. It conceives of
itself as a revival of the ancient Olympic Games and it embraces their history and mythology insofar
as they support its mission of humanism, justice, and peace. One problematic and often overlooked
aspect of the Olympic legacy, however, is the religious character of the ancient Games. Whereas
common religious belief was foundational to and instrumental in the millennium-long success of the
ancient Olympics, the modern challenge of uniting a religiously diverse world community has pushed
the religious legacy to the sidelines. Given the evidence that religious hegemony was responsible for
the demolition of the ancient Games, although this is not the view of all scholars, modern attempts to
dissociate the Olympic Movement from religion are certainly understandable. But in jettisoning the
Games’ religious heritage, has the Movement thrown out the proverbial baby with its bath water? I
believe that it has. Interpreting the religious function of the ancient Games as community service, I
argue that the modern Movement’s failure to look beyond itself is allowing a commercial paradigm
to usurp the Games’ higher purpose. In order to effect a true revival, it must redirect its commercial
aspirations toward humanitarian goals, thereby reclaiming the ancient religious connection between
Olympic sport and community service.
Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Sport, 2015
Philosophy: Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement, 2013
The coming together of diverse people with competing claims to truth and virtue is hardly distinc... more The coming together of diverse people with competing claims to truth and virtue is hardly distinctively Hellenic; it reflects the challenges of multiculturalism and globalisation we face today. That is why appreciating the Hellenes’ response to these challenges is so important and relevant. It was at Olympia that the principles of open and impartial (con)testing seem to have taken root. Olympia was first and foremost a
religious sanctuary dedicated to a wide variety of gods, and not to any particular city, state, or tribe. These conditions motivated the revolutionary decision to delegate the
answering of an important religious question to a relatively open and impartial contest, rather than tradition, authority or violence. I say ‘relatively open and impartial’ because
females, foreigners and slaves were excluded from Olympic contests, presumably from the start. But simply by expanding access to public recognition of arete beyond the presumed
elite, Olympia made the athletic success of marginalised groups possible, and thereby
helped to subvert ancient assumptions about the link between virtue and class.
It was not long after the official founding of the Olympic Games in 776 BCE that the
practice we now call philosophy emerged in Ionia as an approach to studying nature that
has similar characteristics and similar results to competitive sport. A blossoming of trade
brought unprecedented levels of intercultural contact in the area – contact that no doubt
spawned doubts about traditional religious and mythological explanations for natural
phenomena such as floods and rain. It was in this environment that the Pre-Socratic
philosophers began to question the received wisdom and to develop more impartial and
demonstrable methods for understanding the world – methods that bypassed worldly
authority and social hierarchies. Because they shared this idea of the open and impartial
test, both philosophy and Olympic-style sport proved subversive not only to the social
hierarchy, but more generally towards reliance on dogmatic and relativistic standards for
truth (i.e. those controlled by worldly rank and power). Impartial mechanisms for truthseeking
act to neutralise the effects of human fallibility and worldly bias, providing equal
opportunity for diverse possibilities: athletes, ideas, even hypotheses.
OLYMPIC TRUCE, Jan 1, 2006
To the ancients, an Olympic victory was imagined as a visit from the winged goddess Nike, who swo... more To the ancients, an Olympic victory was imagined as a visit from the winged goddess Nike, who swooped down from Olympus to briefly bless the mortal athlete with a divine crown of sacred olive. To us moderns, Olympic victory is more likely to be associated with Nike, the multinational megacompany, which swoops down from Wall Street to briefly bless the athlete with a fat paycheck and temporary status as a corporate shill. Just as the corporate Nike differs from the goddess after whom it is named, the modern Olympic Games differ in important ways from their Ancient Greek ancestor. Nevertheless, the modern Olympic Movement should take its ancient inspiration seriously. After all, the ancient festival boasts a nearly uninterrupted millennium-long history, and modern Games already have been stopped twice by war in the relative infancy of their first century. For a movement that proclaims one of its central goals to be peace, that does not seem the most auspicious of beginnings. Do the ancients have any lessons to teach us moderns about the relationship between sport and peace? Or is the Olympic ideal of peace, like the ancient goddess Nike, merely a rhetorically convenient marketing tool to be exploited for power and profit?
In this paper, I suggest that we can learn from the ancient association between Olympic Games and peace because that association derives not merely from mythology and rhetoric but also from particular (and perhaps unexpected) effects of athletic competition itself. I think that Olympic sport taught the ancient Hellenes something about peace by obliging them to set aside their conflicts, treat others as equals, and tolerate differences. These aspects of Olympic sport depend partly on cultural particularities from ancient Greece, but they continue to manifest themselves in the structure of the modern Games. As such, the Olympic Games retain the potential to teach us similar lessons—as long as we are willing to listen. This requires us to do more than recount what our predecessors did—it demands that we ask why they did it and to seek common ground between their reasons and ours. The goal of this article is to discover enlightening intersections in the relationship among Ancient Greek culture, Olympic sport, and the philosophical ideal of peace that emerged at the onset of the modern age. It seeks to revive the lessons inherent in the Olympic tradition so that they may continue to help us in the struggle for peace.
Proceedings International Symposium For Olympic Research, Oct 1, 2006
he inspiration for this paper came rather unexpectedly. In February 2006, I made the long trip to... more he inspiration for this paper came rather unexpectedly. In February 2006, I made the long trip to my second home, Italy, in order to witness Torino's Olympic Games. Barely a month later, I found myself in California at the newly-renovated Getty Villa, home to one of the world's great collections of Greco-Roman antiquities. At the Villa I attended a talk about a Roman mosaic depicting a boxing scene from Virgil's Aeneid (Book 5). The tiny tiles showed not only two boxers, but also a wobbly-looking ox. "What is wrong with this ox?" asked the docent. "Why is he there at the match?" The answer, of course, is that he is the prize. And the reason he is wobbly is because the victor has just sacrifi ced this prize to the gods in thanksgiving. A light went on in my head; I turned to my husband and whispered, "Just like Joey Cheek in Torino." My husband smiled indulgently, but my mind was already racing. I realized that by donating his victory bonus to charity, Cheek had tapped into one of the oldest and most venerable traditions in sport: individual sacrifi ce for the benefi t of the larger community. It derives from the religious function of the ancient Olympic festival and it deserves to be revived in the modern Olympic Movement.
Stadion-Internationale Zeitschrift fur Sportgeschichte, Jan 1, 2009
The file contains two single page essays on the Olympic Games in the new millennium. One is enti... more The file contains two single page essays on the Olympic Games in the new millennium. One is entitled "Amateurism is Dead: Long Live Amateurism", the other is "The Letter and the Spirit in London and Sochi." The essays will be published as part of the "Olympic Idea Nowadays" project coordinated by the UAB-CEO.
Philosophy of Sport by Heather Reid
Journal of Intercollegiate Sport, 2021
The value of college sport can be measured in many ways. Most people measure it in dollars, other... more The value of college sport can be measured in many ways. Most people measure it in dollars, others point to less-tangible benefits such as alumni engagement and campus morale, only a few focus on its educational value. Yet this, as Myles Brand repeatedly recognized, is the value that really counts. Brand’s was something of a voice in the wilderness on this issue—a voice sorely missed in this age of debate about limits on compensation for student-athletes. As a philosophy professor, Brand’s insistence on the educational value of sport follows a tradition begun in ancient Greece by Pythagoras, Socrates, and especially Plato. In this essay, I honor Brand and that ancient tradition by exploring the value of college sport from a philosophical perspective. I interrogate the oppositions of amateurism vs. professionalism, academics vs. athletics, and employment vs. exploitation to arrive at the paradoxical conclusion that ideals of excellence and professionalism are at the heart of “amateur...
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Olympic Studies by Heather Reid
prohibition of women. When she jumps a fence to congratulate him in victory, her cloak snags and her secret is revealed. Combining this story with the general misogyny found in ancient Greek culture has led some—including modern Olympic Games founder, Pierre de Coubertin—to conclude that women had no place in ancient Olympic Ideals. In this paper, I challenge that conclusion by arguing that women were not only present at the ancient Olympic Games, they competed on the track, were involved in the politics, and embodied its ideals. There is no question that ancient
Greek culture can and should be criticized for its historical treatment of women, but we also need to recognize the ancient Greek women who, from within that culture, promoted the values of humanism, justice, and peace that underpin the philosophy of the modern Olympic Games.
between East and West, and redirecting Olympism back toward its origins in ancient Greece. The ancient Hellenic philosophy from which modern Olympism is supposed to derive is not a characteristically Western product, as is often assumed.
Rather, it is a “centrist” perspective that resulted from a need to mediate among diverse Hellenic cultures in the ancient Mediterranean world. This “Western” philosophy contained, in its original form, many characteristics which are now associated
with the East. By re-examining the language of Olympism in light of some Eastern ideas about metaphysics, ethics, politics—and even philosophy itself—I hope to recast Olympic philosophy in a new ecumenical light. A more tolerant and flexible understanding of Olympism would better reflect the ancient Hellenic philosophy
from which it ultimately derives, and may better serve the Movement’s goals in the age of globalization.
itself as a revival of the ancient Olympic Games and it embraces their history and mythology insofar
as they support its mission of humanism, justice, and peace. One problematic and often overlooked
aspect of the Olympic legacy, however, is the religious character of the ancient Games. Whereas
common religious belief was foundational to and instrumental in the millennium-long success of the
ancient Olympics, the modern challenge of uniting a religiously diverse world community has pushed
the religious legacy to the sidelines. Given the evidence that religious hegemony was responsible for
the demolition of the ancient Games, although this is not the view of all scholars, modern attempts to
dissociate the Olympic Movement from religion are certainly understandable. But in jettisoning the
Games’ religious heritage, has the Movement thrown out the proverbial baby with its bath water? I
believe that it has. Interpreting the religious function of the ancient Games as community service, I
argue that the modern Movement’s failure to look beyond itself is allowing a commercial paradigm
to usurp the Games’ higher purpose. In order to effect a true revival, it must redirect its commercial
aspirations toward humanitarian goals, thereby reclaiming the ancient religious connection between
Olympic sport and community service.
religious sanctuary dedicated to a wide variety of gods, and not to any particular city, state, or tribe. These conditions motivated the revolutionary decision to delegate the
answering of an important religious question to a relatively open and impartial contest, rather than tradition, authority or violence. I say ‘relatively open and impartial’ because
females, foreigners and slaves were excluded from Olympic contests, presumably from the start. But simply by expanding access to public recognition of arete beyond the presumed
elite, Olympia made the athletic success of marginalised groups possible, and thereby
helped to subvert ancient assumptions about the link between virtue and class.
It was not long after the official founding of the Olympic Games in 776 BCE that the
practice we now call philosophy emerged in Ionia as an approach to studying nature that
has similar characteristics and similar results to competitive sport. A blossoming of trade
brought unprecedented levels of intercultural contact in the area – contact that no doubt
spawned doubts about traditional religious and mythological explanations for natural
phenomena such as floods and rain. It was in this environment that the Pre-Socratic
philosophers began to question the received wisdom and to develop more impartial and
demonstrable methods for understanding the world – methods that bypassed worldly
authority and social hierarchies. Because they shared this idea of the open and impartial
test, both philosophy and Olympic-style sport proved subversive not only to the social
hierarchy, but more generally towards reliance on dogmatic and relativistic standards for
truth (i.e. those controlled by worldly rank and power). Impartial mechanisms for truthseeking
act to neutralise the effects of human fallibility and worldly bias, providing equal
opportunity for diverse possibilities: athletes, ideas, even hypotheses.
In this paper, I suggest that we can learn from the ancient association between Olympic Games and peace because that association derives not merely from mythology and rhetoric but also from particular (and perhaps unexpected) effects of athletic competition itself. I think that Olympic sport taught the ancient Hellenes something about peace by obliging them to set aside their conflicts, treat others as equals, and tolerate differences. These aspects of Olympic sport depend partly on cultural particularities from ancient Greece, but they continue to manifest themselves in the structure of the modern Games. As such, the Olympic Games retain the potential to teach us similar lessons—as long as we are willing to listen. This requires us to do more than recount what our predecessors did—it demands that we ask why they did it and to seek common ground between their reasons and ours. The goal of this article is to discover enlightening intersections in the relationship among Ancient Greek culture, Olympic sport, and the philosophical ideal of peace that emerged at the onset of the modern age. It seeks to revive the lessons inherent in the Olympic tradition so that they may continue to help us in the struggle for peace.
Philosophy of Sport by Heather Reid
prohibition of women. When she jumps a fence to congratulate him in victory, her cloak snags and her secret is revealed. Combining this story with the general misogyny found in ancient Greek culture has led some—including modern Olympic Games founder, Pierre de Coubertin—to conclude that women had no place in ancient Olympic Ideals. In this paper, I challenge that conclusion by arguing that women were not only present at the ancient Olympic Games, they competed on the track, were involved in the politics, and embodied its ideals. There is no question that ancient
Greek culture can and should be criticized for its historical treatment of women, but we also need to recognize the ancient Greek women who, from within that culture, promoted the values of humanism, justice, and peace that underpin the philosophy of the modern Olympic Games.
between East and West, and redirecting Olympism back toward its origins in ancient Greece. The ancient Hellenic philosophy from which modern Olympism is supposed to derive is not a characteristically Western product, as is often assumed.
Rather, it is a “centrist” perspective that resulted from a need to mediate among diverse Hellenic cultures in the ancient Mediterranean world. This “Western” philosophy contained, in its original form, many characteristics which are now associated
with the East. By re-examining the language of Olympism in light of some Eastern ideas about metaphysics, ethics, politics—and even philosophy itself—I hope to recast Olympic philosophy in a new ecumenical light. A more tolerant and flexible understanding of Olympism would better reflect the ancient Hellenic philosophy
from which it ultimately derives, and may better serve the Movement’s goals in the age of globalization.
itself as a revival of the ancient Olympic Games and it embraces their history and mythology insofar
as they support its mission of humanism, justice, and peace. One problematic and often overlooked
aspect of the Olympic legacy, however, is the religious character of the ancient Games. Whereas
common religious belief was foundational to and instrumental in the millennium-long success of the
ancient Olympics, the modern challenge of uniting a religiously diverse world community has pushed
the religious legacy to the sidelines. Given the evidence that religious hegemony was responsible for
the demolition of the ancient Games, although this is not the view of all scholars, modern attempts to
dissociate the Olympic Movement from religion are certainly understandable. But in jettisoning the
Games’ religious heritage, has the Movement thrown out the proverbial baby with its bath water? I
believe that it has. Interpreting the religious function of the ancient Games as community service, I
argue that the modern Movement’s failure to look beyond itself is allowing a commercial paradigm
to usurp the Games’ higher purpose. In order to effect a true revival, it must redirect its commercial
aspirations toward humanitarian goals, thereby reclaiming the ancient religious connection between
Olympic sport and community service.
religious sanctuary dedicated to a wide variety of gods, and not to any particular city, state, or tribe. These conditions motivated the revolutionary decision to delegate the
answering of an important religious question to a relatively open and impartial contest, rather than tradition, authority or violence. I say ‘relatively open and impartial’ because
females, foreigners and slaves were excluded from Olympic contests, presumably from the start. But simply by expanding access to public recognition of arete beyond the presumed
elite, Olympia made the athletic success of marginalised groups possible, and thereby
helped to subvert ancient assumptions about the link between virtue and class.
It was not long after the official founding of the Olympic Games in 776 BCE that the
practice we now call philosophy emerged in Ionia as an approach to studying nature that
has similar characteristics and similar results to competitive sport. A blossoming of trade
brought unprecedented levels of intercultural contact in the area – contact that no doubt
spawned doubts about traditional religious and mythological explanations for natural
phenomena such as floods and rain. It was in this environment that the Pre-Socratic
philosophers began to question the received wisdom and to develop more impartial and
demonstrable methods for understanding the world – methods that bypassed worldly
authority and social hierarchies. Because they shared this idea of the open and impartial
test, both philosophy and Olympic-style sport proved subversive not only to the social
hierarchy, but more generally towards reliance on dogmatic and relativistic standards for
truth (i.e. those controlled by worldly rank and power). Impartial mechanisms for truthseeking
act to neutralise the effects of human fallibility and worldly bias, providing equal
opportunity for diverse possibilities: athletes, ideas, even hypotheses.
In this paper, I suggest that we can learn from the ancient association between Olympic Games and peace because that association derives not merely from mythology and rhetoric but also from particular (and perhaps unexpected) effects of athletic competition itself. I think that Olympic sport taught the ancient Hellenes something about peace by obliging them to set aside their conflicts, treat others as equals, and tolerate differences. These aspects of Olympic sport depend partly on cultural particularities from ancient Greece, but they continue to manifest themselves in the structure of the modern Games. As such, the Olympic Games retain the potential to teach us similar lessons—as long as we are willing to listen. This requires us to do more than recount what our predecessors did—it demands that we ask why they did it and to seek common ground between their reasons and ours. The goal of this article is to discover enlightening intersections in the relationship among Ancient Greek culture, Olympic sport, and the philosophical ideal of peace that emerged at the onset of the modern age. It seeks to revive the lessons inherent in the Olympic tradition so that they may continue to help us in the struggle for peace.
is an appropriate criterion for determining whether a substance
should be banned. In this paper, I argue that the criterion is crucial
for Olympic sport because Olympism celebrates humanity, specifically human agency, so we need to preserve the degree to which athletes are personally and morally responsible for their performances.
This emphasis on what I call “athlete agency” is reflected metaphysically in the structure of sport, which characteristically prescribes
inefficiencies in order to create challenges, and seeks to reduce or
eliminate the proportion of a performance outside an athlete’s control. Emphasizing athlete agency also prevents wealthier and more
technologically developed countries from using their resources to
gain an advantage in sport. Interpreted according to athlete agency,
the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) “spirit of sport” can
be clarified to imply that substances, techniques, and equipment
that reduce athlete agency should be reduced or eliminated, while
things that increase it should be encouraged.
as heroes who inspire people – especially young people – to strive for
excellence. This argument has been questioned by sport philosophers
at a variety of levels. Not only do athletes seem unsuited to be heroes
or role models in the conventional sense, it is unclear more generally
what the social and educational value of athletic excellence could be.
In this essay, I construct an argument for the social and educational
value of sport built upon the relationship between athletes, heroes,
and the song culture that celebrated them in ancient Greece. On this
model, athletes are neither heroes nor role models in the conventional
sense. Rather, athletes, athletics, and the poets who extolled them
were part of a cultural conspiracy to celebrate and inspire virtue (aretē)
by connecting a community with its heroic past. Festivals such as the
Olympic Games, but also local events such as funeral games, educated
and unified communities by cultivating an aesthetic appreciation for
virtue and by inspiring youth to strive for it. Ancient athletes were not
heroes, rather they re-enacted heroic struggles, thereby experiencing
heroic virtues, and inspiring both artists and spectators to bond with
the higher ideals implied by their shared belief in divine ancestry.
In this way, athletes, athletics, and the media that celebrated them
played important social and educational roles. Insofar as modern sport
performs a similar service, its association with heroism and with moral
education may ultimately be justified.
for doing this was spiritual—it was a religious attempt to cultivate arete, the perfection that the deities represented; perhaps it was even a way to make their presence felt on earth. I argue that the value of sports today—even their economic value—depends ultimately on that ancient spiritual connection. If we can see sports again as a kind of spiritual striving, if we can revive their ancient connection to aret, to such eternally
valuable virtues as eusebeia, andreia, sophrosyne, dikaiosyn, and sophia, I think we can revive their social value today. So many athletes strive to win an Olympic medal, to make it to the Olympic Games, or just to have the physique of an Olympic pentathlete. Very few will achieve those things, but all of us can benefit from striving to achieve the greatest athletic prize of all: the virtuous soul of an Olympian.
identity through regular (if not daily) performance. Western Greeks participated in gymnasium culture because it cultivated their religious, social, and civic identity as Hellenes.
The author argues that there is a strong link between sport and philosophy in the ancient world, calling them offspring of common parents: concern about virtue and the spirit of free enquiry.
Rome with special emphasis on changing ideas about the connection between athleticism and
virtue. Its aim is to enable a foundational understanding of ancient sport and philosophy that
makes a sincere dialogue with modern practices both possible and fruitful. The book begins by
observing that the link between athleticism and virtue is older than sport, reaching back to the
athletic feats of kings and pharaohs in early Egypt and Mesopotamia. It then traces the role of
athletics and the Olympic Games in transforming of the idea of aristocracy as something acquired
by birth to something that can be trained. The idea of training virtue through the techniques and
practice of athletics is examined in relation to Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Then Roman
spectacles such as chariot racing and gladiator games are studied in light of the philosophy of
Lucretius, Seneca, and Marcus Aurelius. The concluding chapter connects the book’s ancient
observations with contemporary sports issues such as the use of athletes as role models, the
relationship between money and corruption, the relative worth of participation and spectatorship,
and the role of females in sport. The author argues that there is a strong link between sport and
philosophy in the ancient world, calling them offspring of common parents: concern about virtue
and the spirit of free enquiry. In order to preserve this connection between enquiry, virtue, and
sport, she concludes, we must understand its ancient origins.
Hellenic soil has roots in Olympia’s revolution. Confidence in the veracity of contest results
derived not just from the structure and administration of the contest, but most
importantly from the fact that the gathered public personally observed the proceedings.
Indeed the Greek word ago¯n, which refers to an athletic contest, originally indicated the
gathering place where the event was observed – it shares a root with agora, the familiar
term for a city’s public market place. The selection of winners to be accorded public
honour cannot help but be politically charged, especially in a place such as the ancient (or
modern) Olympic Games where so many groups arrive believing their own representative
best deserves that honour. It is easy to see how the secret or arbitrary selection of the
honouree could lead to discord and even fighting. The public nature of the athletic
contest, however, like the public nature of philosophical debate, shifted the authority in
decision making towards the many (hoi polloi) and served, as a
foundation for the invention of democracy.
philosophical school in one. How education in Plato’s Academy differed from traditional
Greek gymnasia is the subject of Chapter 5. In the utopian vision of Republic, Plato used
athletics as part of the guardians’ education explicitly for the purpose of selecting and
developing souls capable of forgoing personal pleasures, studying philosophy and,
eventually, becoming leaders (Reid 2007). He seems to have believed that athletics can
promote arete, which he describes as harmony among the intellectual, spirited and
appetitive parts of the soul, because sport requires the intellect to apprehend the rules of
the game and then to recruit the spirit and appetite to its cause. Plato’s real-life
gymnasium, however, did not exist in the utopian kallipolis but rather in democratic
Athens. An aristocrat by heritage, Plato was critical of democracy, but he did believe that
arete was a matter of training rather than birth, and that training citizens for virtue is the
best way to ensure good democratic government. The methods used to cultivate arete in
Plato’s Academy probably reflected the customary values of the gymnasium: military
preparedness, athletic beauty (kalokagathia), even erotic partnerships.
The Academy no doubt remained a place for gymnastic training under Plato, but the
focus of kalokagathia (being beautiful and good) shifted from the body to the soul.
Military training, too, probably focused on cultivating virtues such as courage and wisdom
rather than mere weapons skills. And educational pederasty was exchanged for chaste
partnerships that directed erotic desire away from the body and towards ideals such as
wisdom. Plato’s emphasis on the soul also prompted the inclusion of females, both in the
utopian Republic and the real-world Academy. It is likely, of course, that Plato added
philosophical dialogue and maybe even lectures to the existing gymnastic curriculum at
the academy. But it is unlikely that he reduced or eliminated the gymnastic training and athletic games traditionally associated with that place. Sport is made educational by its
ends, not simply its practice, and Plato adapted sport quite explicitly to the end of arete.
older even than sport itself. In early Egypt and Mesopotamia, long before Olympia’s games
or even Homer’s Trojan Wars, kings and pharaohs used fables about great athletic feats
and public demonstrations of athletic ability to confirm their royal worthiness and even
their links to divinity. In general royal athleticism was left unchallenged and untested by
others; presumably because there was not much doubt – or not much point in doubting –
these leaders’ worthiness to begin with. Such practices are reflected in Homer’s Iliad when
King Agamemnon is awarded first prize in the javelin contest without ever lifting a finger.
A central theme of the epic up until that point, however, is serious doubt precisely about
Agamemnon’s worthiness to lead. Achilles, the godlike runner and the king’s main rival,
does not compete in the games either; instead he organises and conducts them, acting as
a more judicious leader than Agamemnon has been. So here in Homer’s Iliad, a document
that expresses the foundational beliefs of Hellenic civilisation, we find both the gesture of
leaving a king’s excellence athletically untested, and a very serious challenge to his
authority based in part upon the athletic excellence of an underling.
From the seeds of such doubt and questioning about arete and authority, it is a
small step to using athleticism as an actual test. Already in Homer’s Odyssey we find
athletic performances being used to prove the hero’s nobility. When Odysseus washes up
on the unfamiliar shores of Phaeacia, he is treated to a demonstration of the islanders’
athletic skills. Odysseus stays out of the games until someone has the gall suggest that he
is a lowly businessman rather than a noble, at which point he grabs a discus and proves his
nobility beyond all doubt by tossing it well beyond the marks set by the locals. When
Odysseus finally does return home, he is so physically decimated by his journey that no
one but his dog recognises their legitimate ruler. It takes a boxing match and archery
contest to overcome his subjects’ doubt, prove the king’s identity and re-establish his
authority to rule. Homer’s epics reflect Hellenic history in so far athletics address the doubt
about virtue generated when encounters with diversity create competing claims to truth
and authority. Later, at Olympia, the religious puzzle of who among the various tribes
gathered there should have the honour of lighting the sacrificial flame came to be solved
by a simple footrace from the edge of the sanctuary to the altar
poetically describes the spectator as one who witnesses from the safety of firm land the
struggles of others out on a stormy sea. One cannot help but imagine the Roman
philosopher in a grandstand watching foreign gladiators or slave-charioteers battle it out
in the dust. Whereas the Hellenic tradition had cultivated through struggle (ago¯n) the
virtue (arete) that leads to happiness, Epicureanism finds happiness rather by
withdrawing from struggle and achieving peace through observation and understanding.
But this is not so different a philosophy from the classical Greeks as it might first appear.
In fact, Epicurus followed Plato’s and Aristotle’s paths, setting up his ‘Garden’ in Athens
alongside the Academy and Lyceum. The different path to happiness endorsed by
Epicureanism simply reflected political changes that reduced individual liberty as well as
opportunities for participation in government. As we shall see in Chapter 7,
Epicureanism’s emphasis on intellectual autonomy and moral independence found a
receptive audience in Rome.
Then again, the more things change, the more they stay the same. The struggle
that the Epicurean withdraws from just is that same battle for wealth and fame that
Socrates, Plato and Aristotle disdained. And the basis of the happiness that Epicureans
pursue is the very same wisdom and understanding touted by the Classical Greek
philosophers. The main difference in method is that the Epicurean pursues this wisdom
not so much through dialectical engagement as through personal reason and
observation. Much of Epicurus’ own work, in fact, is spent describing the natural causes
of phenomena, such as lightning, that provoke fear and anxiety when understood only
through myth. The great spectacles of Rome, including military triumphs, mock seabattles,
exotic animal hunts and public executions, were designed to foster a sense of
security and order among the populace. But the Epicurean spectator would see through
the political showcase, achieving personal security and order through independent
observation and reason.
emperor, was Marcus Antoninus Aurelius. Remembered mostly for the Meditations that he
wrote while battling barbarians at the edge of the empire, Aurelius the philosopher was a
man of peace. He articulated a Stoic ideal of cosmopolitanism or world citizenship that
privileges human commonality over difference and seeks to appreciate our fundamental
interdependence. As he says in Meditations XI.8: ‘A branch cut off from its neighbouring
branch must of necessity be cut off from the whole tree. So a man who severs himself from
a single other man falls away from the whole human community.’ As emperor of the vast
second-century CE Roman Empire, Marcus found himself nearly at the centre of the world,
responsible for keeping peace and promoting unity within the city and the empire at
large. Roman sport was one of the means at his disposal.
Chariot racing on the Circus Maximus was a Roman passion that self-consciously
promoted unity through sport and was even interpreted by one intellectual as a symbolic
representation of the universe – with the emperor at its centre, of course. Like gladiators,
charioteers were usually slaves or hirelings who raced not for themselves but for their
owners. Unlike ancient Greece however, it was not the owner of the chariot that claimed
the glory, but rather the color that represented one of four official factions – red, blue,
green or white. By having the circus’s chariot teams represent colours rather than
sponsors, institutions or even the points on a compass, Rome gave its ethnically and
culturally diverse population a common place to come together and a common thing to
root for. As in the ancient Olympic Games, fierce competition paradoxically served the
cause of unity. Observed through a cosmopolitan lens, the Circus Maximus expressed what
Marcus Aurelius called our natural purpose to associate in a community (Meditations V.16).
and activities of the Imperial Roman thermae. This mimēsis was rooted in sincere admiration of traditional Greek paideia – especially the glory of Athens’ Academy and Lyceum – but it did not manage to replicate the gymnasium’s educational impact. This article reconstructs the aesthetics of a visit to the Roman baths, explaining how they evoked a glorious Hellenic past, offering the opportunity to Romans to imagine being «Greek». But true Hellenic paideia was always kept at arm’s length by an assumption of Roman cultural superiority. One may play at being a Greek athlete or philosopher, but one would never dedicate one’s life to it. The experience of the Imperial thermae celebrated Greek athletic culture, but it remained too superficial – too spectatorial – to effect the change of soul demanded by classical gymnastic education.
or aretē. But a closer look reveals that their similarities run much deeper than that. In this paper I argue that athletic
competition and Socratic philosophy, as demonstrated in Plato’s early dialogues, are ideally akin. To support this thesis,
I offer five points of comparison. First, both agōn and elenchos are fundamentally knowledge-seeking activities aimed
at the acquisition of truth and understanding. Second, both are characterized by questions that seek understanding of
moral concepts on personal, general, and ideal levels. Third, both activities require an admission of fallibility and risk
of failure, which motivates the desire to learn, train, and succeed. Fourth, both require the active testing of oneself.
And finally, both include an obligation to challenge others.
ignored in practice his famous advice to Lucilius to avoid the arena because its shows are
‘ruinous to the character’ (Epistulae Morales 7). In fact, what Seneca criticises in that letter
are the public executions in which unskilled convicts were made to fight and kill one
another. Even more precisely, he criticises his fellow spectators who gloat in their sense of
false sense of superiority and complain about the convicts’ cowardice from the safety of
the stands. From a Stoic point of view, the spectator should never feel superior to the
athlete, even when, as was the case in Rome, athletes occupied the lowest possible rung
on the all-important social ladder. The Stoic struggled to achieve virtue, but not according
to social criteria such as fame and fortune; rather his struggle was to achieve freedom from
such passions, recognise human brotherhood, and accept death with honour.
Seneca seems to have found inspiration for this struggle from thoughtful
spectatorship in the arena. Gladiators come in for particular praise in his philosophy
because, in many ways, their predicament symbolises the psychological state a Stoic tries to
achieve. Gladiators were literally and figuratively detached from the social hierarchy, part of
a socially dead class called infamia. They had little or no access to wealth; in fact they
themselves were the property of someone else. Whatever glory and popularity they
enjoyed was earned through the virtues they displayed personally in the ring. Finally, as we
all should, they acknowledged their mortality – facing it with courage in the heat of a fight,
or perhaps even choosing death before dishonour. Seneca admired gladiators much more
than wrestlers, whom he thought focused too much upon either the beauty of their bodies
or the money they might win in competition. Seneca made the Colosseum his personal
classroom by watching and interpreting the gladiators who fought there as reflecting some
truth about the human condition and the virtue that is achievable despite it.
with his philosophic predecessors, though, Aristotle is often viewed as indifferent or even
hostile towards athletics. Chapter 6 argues that this was not the case. To be sure, Aristotle
criticises cities who ‘brutalise’ their youth by subjecting them to harsh athletic training
(Politics 1139ab), but this does not entail that he rejected gymnastic exercises or even
moderate competition. Aristotle praised the beauty of pentathletes because it reflected his
own ethical theory. The main source of athletic beauty is, of course, training, and
habituation (ethos) is the primary form of moral education in Aristotle. The balance and
moderation evident in pentathletes’ well-proportioned frames are likewise central to
Aristotle’s conception of arete. His famous ‘doctrine of the mean’ imagines the virtuous
person aiming her intention, like an archer, at a midpoint between excess and deficiency.
Individual virtues are also described as means; courage, for example, is the midpoint
between cowardice and rashness.
Furthermore the pentathlete’s beauty is best expressed in action. Aristotle insisted
that arete was an activity and not a state; in fact he defined happiness as ‘activity in
accordance with virtue’ (Nicomachean Ethics 1098a). He specifies this as activity of the soul
and envisions its highest form as a kind of undisturbed contemplation. Again, however,
athletic activity is not excluded by these considerations – just removed from an unhealthy
milieu characterised by excessive means and ignoble ends. Most important, Aristotle’s
explicit characterisation of arete as something cultivated through training, expressed in
activity and characterised by moderation, represents an about-face from the pre-Olympic
idea of virtue as something inherited by blood that needs neither training nor testing.
Sport became a form of education in ancient Greece because athleticism had always been
linked to virtue; Olympic-style sport showed that athleticism could be trained; and the
rational conclusion was that virtue could be cultivated. Classical Greek philosophy, aimed
primarily at virtue, found fertile soil in Athens’s gymnasia.
tricks of the athletic trade to turn young men’s souls away from victory and towards virtue.
When the conventionally beautiful Alcibiades, bedecked with the ribbons (tainiai) awarded
to athletic victors, crashes a party at which Socrates is present, he asks to tie the ribbons
around Socrates’ head (Plato, Symposium 212c–213e). The ironic implication that Socrates
is the real athlete continues as Alcibiades goes on to praise the philosopher’s amazing
beauty – that is, the beauty of his soul. Socrates replies that his own beauty really would
transcend that of Alcibiades if he had the power to make the champion into a better man (ibid., 218e). This moment, poignant because it seems that Socrates has failed that wish,
explains Socrates’ educational project, which, as we shall see in Chapter 4, not only takes
place in athletes’ hangouts, but also employs their methods. A close examination of
Socratic dialogues reveals both the competitive nature of his method, called elenchos from
the word for the inflicting of shame, and how ago¯n (contest) can be put in the service of
higher educational goals.
Socratic competition is directed not at victory, but at the higher goals of virtue, wisdom
and truth. Of course this quest sometimes includes shaming and defeating those who would
thwart it, and it was this that led to Socrates’ trial for corrupting the youth. By publicly
exposing local wise men’s ignorance, he saw himself as serving the god, and indeed
compared his ‘labours’ to those of the athletic Heracles (Latin: Hercules), who liberated the
Greeks from tyrants and pests (Plato, Apology 22a). But the Socratic ago¯n also had the
explicitly educational function of motivating Athenian youths (and later the readers of Plato’s
dialogues) to enquire after the truth for themselves rather than blindly following authority or
paying sophists for empty answers. In this sense Socratic questioning is a community service
and he says the city should reward him for it as it does Olympic victors, since champions only
make the city think itself happier, whereas Socrates offers them a chance at true happiness
(ibid., 36e). It is instructive that a Socratic athlete values struggle and even losing, just as
philosophers value the challenge and even refutation of our arguments. A ‘winning is the
only thing’ mentality destroys the educational potential of sport.
What did those qualities mean to them? In what way was it erotic? How did it differ for females and males? In this paper I argue that the beautiful athletic body is framed in ancient Greek thought, not just as an aesthetically pleasing image, but as an ideal expression of a certain kind of soul.
is a form of play. This view is widely accepted among sport philosophers today, as
evidenced by the use of terms such as ‘nonserious,’ ‘autotelic,’ and ‘gratuitous’ to
describe the subject of our study. At the same time this play-paradigm seems at
odds with the modern world, which takes sports very seriously, puts them in the
service of deliberate ends, and views them (or competition at least) as essential for
human thriving. Indeed our modern use of sport seems to better resemble ancient
Greece, where athletic contest (agōn) served specific political and educational
goals. Huizinga claims that the ancient Hellenes simply became unaware of their
contests’ autotelic character (5: 30–31); my own concern is that we moderns are
becoming unaware of–or indifferent to–sport’s contemporary ends.1 Insofar as we
still value the social and educational potential of sport in the modern world, we
can benefit from a study of its corresponding function in the ancient world. What
my own study of these phenomena reveals is that sport’s social and educational
benefits derive not from its playful character, but from its philosophical origins as
a knowledge-seeking activity.
popular opinion despite repeated examples of athlete misbehavior and widespread
disagreement over just what character is and how it can be measured. Scholarly
claims that sport can and should be a form of moral education are usually greeted
with skepticism by philosophers and physical educators alike. Such proposals have a
long and venerable pedigree, however, one that might originate with a foundational
document of western philosophy: Plato’s Republic. In our modern quest to understand
how sport might contribute to moral education, of children in particular, and
to design and implement athletic programs that do in fact “build character,” it seems
worthwhile to look back at what Plato thought on the subject. In Plato’s Republic
sport serves the educational objectives of personal virtue, intellectual achievement,
and political harmony. But to understand and perhaps apply Plato’s insight today,
we must revisit our conceptual dichotomies of mind versus body, academics versus
athletics, and individual versus community. Plato’s historical reality and his ideal
city might seem impossibly distant from today’s concerns. But understanding the
contrasts as well as the similarities might enlighten our efforts to fulfill the hollow
promise that sport may function as moral education.
Edited by Phillip Mitsis and Heather L. Reid, contributors include Georgios Anagnostopoulos, Linda Ardito, Rose Cherubin, Catherine Collobert, Panos Eliopoulos, Pavlos Kontos, Aikaterini Lefka, Fred Miller Jr., John Murungi, Anastasios Nikolaidis, Anthony Preus, Christopher Shields, and Hideya Yamakawa.
The book begins with a new translation of Plato’s Seventh Letter by Jonah Radding, as well as the epitaph for Dion attributed to Plato. An introduction by editors Heather Reid and Mark Ralkowski is followed by essays from Carolina Araújo, Christos C. Evangeliou, Filippo Forcignanò, Francisco J. Gonzalez, Jill Gordon, Andrew Hull, Tony Leyh, Marina Marren, Mary R. McHugh, Robert Metcalf, Marion Theresa Schneider, Karen Sieben, and Nickolas Pappas.
Edited by Heather L. Reid and Tony Leyh, contributors include William Wians, Jessica Elbert Decker, Francesco Moles, Aura Picconi, Heather L. Reid, Mateo Duque, Nicola Galgano, Konstantinos Gkaleas, Marina Marren, Guilherme Domingues da Motta, Nickolas Pappas,
Enrico Postiglione, Deborah De Chiara-Quenzer, Audrey L. Anton, Luca Torrente, Paula Gottlieb, Makoto Sekimura, Christos Evangeliou, and Alexander Zistakis.
The Fonte Aretusa organization is dedicated to understanding the distinctive culture of the ancient Hellenic cities of Sicily and Southern Italy, known collectively as Western Greece.
Authors include: Thomas Noble Howe, Francisco J. Gonzalez, Gene Fendt, Guilherme Domingues da Motta, Jeremy DeLong, Carolina Araújo, Marie-Élise Zovko, Lidia Palumbo, Sean Driscoll, Konstantinos Gkaleas, Anna Motta, Jure Zovko, Alexander H. Zistakis, Christos C. Evangeliou, Dorota Tymura, Iris Sulimani, Elliott Domagola, Jonah Radding, Giulia Corrente, Laura Tisi, Ewa Osek, Argyri G. Karanasiou, Rocío Manuela Cuadra Rubio, Jorge Tomás García, Aura Piccioni, and José Miguel Puebla Morón.
While today’s Olympic champions are neither blessed by the gods nor rewarded with wreaths of olive, the original spirit and ancient ideals of the Olympic Movement endure in its modern embodiment. Editors Heather L. Reid and Michael W. Austin have assembled a team of international scholars to explore topics such as the concept of excellence, ethics, doping, gender, and race. Interweaving ancient and modern Olympic traditions, The Olympics and Philosophy considers the philosophical implications of the Games’ intersection with historical events and modern controversy in a unique analysis of tradition and the future of the Olympiad.
Holowchak and Reid present Aretism as a tripartite model of athletic excellence focused on personal, civic, and global integration. They reject the personal and social separation characteristics of much of contemporary moral reasoning. Aretism creates a critical and normative framework within which athletic agents can aim for spirited, but morally sensitive, competition by seeking the betterment not only of themselves, through athletic competition, but also of their teammates, fellow competitors, and even their communities.
Holowchak and Reid also present a historical overview of sport and a critique of two traditional models—the martial/commercial model and the aesthetic/recreational model. This book is most applicable to students and academics concerned with the philosophy of sport, but will be of interest to all those in sports professions, including coaches, trainers, and athletes.
Self-discovery
Responsibility
Respect
Citizenship
This sequence is important because authentic self-knowledge is an essential foundation for effectively dealing with the personal and social challenges faced by all athletes. Specific issues such as violence, racism, and performance-enhancing drugs are discussed in their relevant contexts. The aim of the book is to help athletes focus on the big picture, approaching each issue from a complete vision of themselves, their moral commitments, and their social roles. Athletes as diverse as the teenage college recruit and the aging weekend warrior will gain insight into their sports experience and their lives as a whole. The philosophical approach maximizes what we can learn from sport and gives us the best chance for leading better lives because of it.