-Barbay painting in Moujan for Moscow Exhibit. Recent posts (below)
"Getting rid of what you haven't got." Here-in lies the greatest treasure.
History: 1896, Athens, Greece: Source
280 athletes, 13 countries, 45 events
After a gap of more than 1,500 years, the Olympics came back to life with a flash of pageantry and athletic greatness. And for the first time since the Armenian boxer Barasdates in 393 A.D., an Olympic champ was crowned...
Many milestones in the history of the Olympics since French Baron Pierre de Coubertin's dream of uniting mankind through sports began in Athens... So too, the Olympics’ early years were wracked by depression, the effects of war, and those who sought exile and stage on which to promulgate their beliefs...View the years and milestones of Olympic Participation.
Yet the rings still stand clinched together... The games afford us empowerment, awareness of the benefits of unity... But only when we have participated together, as an International Community; have we healed a world wracked by depression, the effects of war, and empowered those to return from exile to Olympic sportsmanship!
Those who remember the Soviet Union's boycotts of the 80's; and efforts to keep East bloc satellites away. In the region's first year of participation:
Vitaly Shcherbo Won Four Gold Medals in One Day!
Archives: www.olympic.org (1992 Olympics)
One of my favorite years:
The 1992 Olympics in Barcelona... Everyone showed up!!!
9,368 athletes, 169 countries, 284 events
1992..."With the Berlin Wall gone and boycotts with it, the games now welcomed professionals, including the multimillion-dollar stars of the NBA...German athletes competed as one team for the first time since 1952. South Africa was back, its international banishment ended by the fall of apartheid. The Soviet Union had dissolved with the end of communist rule... Vitaly Scherbo won six gymnastics gold medals for the Unified Team, wearing the hammer-and-sickle symbol of the Soviet Union." Read More.
sports; and the responsibility that will come from this...
