Remembering the Olympics

Many people enjoy watching the Olympics every four years, especially the spectacular Opening Ceremony.  Friday’s event in Paris this year is promoted as being ‘like no other’ and that’s because much will take place on the Seine.

Key West resident, Phyllis May, is one person who always enjoys the Opening Ceremony with some nostalgia, not because she’s been an Olympic athlete but because she was 1 of 4 US delegates to the 1972 International Olympic Academy. The International Olympic Academy is a beautiful site with dorms, meeting rooms, pool, track and fields.  Every country that participates in the Olympics is allowed to send 4 delegates.  The 4 US delegates met in NYC and lunched at the USOC office followed by a tour of the UN before boarding the plane for Athens.  They stayed in Athens 2 days before being bussed to Olympia.

The IOA is an academic week in Olympia, home of the first Olympics in 776.  Walking to Olympia and the first Olympics ‘stadium’ was along a path where the Stele of Baron Pierre de Coubertin was buried.  He is known as the ‘Father of the Modern Olympics’, reviving them in 1896,

The mornings started with playing the Olympic Anthem, which everyone learned.  Now when it is played at Olympic events, May nostalgically sings along.  Most mornings were spent in a small auditorium, much like the UN.  Everyone had headphones that could be dialed to your language to understand speakers brought in from around the world.  Afternoons were free and athletics were sometimes scheduled competitions.  Evenings involved social events with country representatives sharing their music and dancing.  Many days, a helicopter landed with Olympic dignitaries like Avery Brundage, head of the IOC, and celebrities like Erich Segal.  “Love Story” was a very popular movie then which he had written.

However, the highlight of the week, the last day in Olympia, was the lighting of the Olympic torch which was lit with a magnifying glass.  May had dinner the night before with the man who had done this for several years.  The ceremony was held near the Ancient Olympic stadium with a parade in of the Priestess and her entourage.  From the flame, she lights her torch and passes it on to the first runner.  The torch is then ‘run to Athens’ for the ceremony in the Athens Stadium, the first modern Olympics site.   That run takes 2 days.  The group then returned to Athens for 2 days and attended the Athens ceremony before leaving the next day.

After the ceremony in Athens and the lighting of the flame there, it is then run or transported to the site of the Olympics.  It is never out but various modes of transportation have to be used, depending on the location of the games.  This year, the lighting in Olympia took place in April and will be ‘run in’ during the ceremony Friday night in Paris..  It is there that the giant cauldron will be lit with that torch that has been carried for 3 months from Olympia and then to Athens.

While the remaining events are often exciting, the closing ceremony then extinguishes the flame.

While everyone left their exciting experience with their new friends from around the world, eagerly looking forward to the Munich Games a couple of months later, the Munich Games did not happen with the anticipation from afar for her, back in Mississippi.

The tragedy in Munich creates nothing but a sad reference.  In the following years, she still gets teary watching the Opening Ceremony and any time the Olympic Anthem is played.  She is grateful to have been selected to represent the United States and for a once in a lifetime experience.

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