NINE SUGGESTIONS TO REKINDLE THE SPIRIT OF THE GAMES
"1. Revive the sacred dimension by emphasizing ritual, ceremony, and storytelling, such as retelling the origins of the ancient festival, as well as the origins of each event.
"2. Restore the ancient emphasis on beauty and philosophy, in contrast to the modern mania about statistics and medals, by inviting artists, poets, and intellectuals to add their commentary to that of the usual sports experts and ex-athletes.
"3. Re-vision the ancient tradition of competition in drama, oratory, poetry, and history with an updated version of those contests, including film and video.
"4. Renew the attention the ancient Greeks gave to the ideal of mind, body, and spirit with a special award to an athlete who embodies an all-around integration.
"5. Review the post-Olympic lives of the alumni, in radio and television interviews, so that more people know how athletes may share their experience and wisdom with others. Examples include Muhammad Ali's youth programs in Louisville, Kentucky, or the motivational speeches and coaching of Nadia Comaneci and her husband Bart Conner.
"6. Reward the wise ways of a philosopher coach with a tribute to the merits of healthy, innovative, and compassionate training.
"7. Review the U.S. Olympic Spirit Award so that it is paid proper attention during and after the Games, and institute a Spirit Award for the athlete who overcame the most adversity to participate — but not necessarily win a medal — in the Games.
"8. Represent the effect that peaceful competition had on the English silver medalist Philip Baker, who later won the Nobel Peace Prize, with an International Peacekeeping Award for the athlete contributing the most to world peace.
"9. Rekindle the ancient tradition of the Olympic Peace Truce — which suspended all wars for the Games' duration — by sending official heralds to the capital of each nation around the world. These heralds, in announcing the next Olympiad, shall remind each nation of the age-old Olympic dream of fostering brotherhood and peace."
