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The
athletes' oath
One
of the most important moments at the opening ceremony of the
Olympic Games is the athletes' oath. After the official opening
by the head (usually) of the state that  hosts
the Games and after the parade of the athletes by national
delegation, an athlete of the host country swears the oath,
holding with one hand one of the corners of the Olympic flag.
Like the Olympic flag, the athletes' oath was first presented
at the Games of Antwerp in 1920, at the beginning of a period
(the interwar period) when the procedures of forming and crystallizing
the symbols (e.g. flag, flame) and rituals (e.g. lighting
ceremonies, oath) that characterize the Games were intensified.
The Olympic oath, which was composed by Pierre de Coubertin,
was first heard by the Belgian fencer and water polo player
Victor Boin on 14 August 1920 and included the following:
"In the name of all competitors, I promise that we shall take
part in these Olympic Games, respecting and abiding by the
rules which govern them, in the true spirit of sportsmanship,
for the glory of sport and the honour of our teams".
Abiding by the rules naturally bears on the procedures of
uniformity in the rules of each event, which intensified especially
after the Games of 1912. At the same time that reference,
with the symbolic weight that every oath ceremony carries,
constitutes an indirect commitment of the participant athletes
as to the amateur nature of their involvement in sport. That
issue was a primary concern for the IOC members since the
Olympic institutions were beginning to shape and for many
decades. It is not a coincidence that the athletes' oath and,
hence, the ceremonial confirmation of amateurism first appeared
in 1920, more precisely at the first Olympic Games that were
organized after Jim Thorpee was deprived of his medals. Several
decades later, at the Olympic Games of 2000, at a time when
the approach to professionalism had transformed radically
and the major problem now was doping, the IOC modified the
athletes' oath adding the phrase "committing ourselves to
a sport without doping and without drugs".
Since 1972, apart from the athletes' oath, the opening ceremony
includes the oath of the umpires and judges, which is quite
similar to the athletes' oath. Besides, in 1972 it was the
first time that a woman, the long jumper Heidi Schuller, swore
the oath on behalf of all the competitors. It should also
be noted that in 1988 the oath was sworn for the first time
by two athletes, Sohn Mi Nai and Huh Jae. Two athletes swore
the Olympic oath in 1956 as well, since the equestrian events
did not take place in Melbourne but in Stockholm. Therefore,
apart from John Landy, a track and field athlete, in Stockholm
the oath was sworn by Henry St. Cyr on behalf of the athletes
participating in equestrian events.
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