The coming Olympics are surely dominated by China, not only because Beijing is hosting the Summer Games but also for the continuing trouble in Tibet. For the country, the protests couldn’t have come at a worse time, creating a chink in the massive PR exercise to put across to the world the image of a modern, integrated China. Some countries and athletes are reportedly even contemplating boycotting the Games while another camp contends that sports and politics should not overlap.

Such protests are not new in the games world. In 1956, quite a few European countries boy-cotted the Melbourne Games in protest against Soviet Union’s crushing of the Hungarian upris-ing. The US boycotted the Moscow Olympics in 1980 objecting Afghanistan’s invasion by the Soviets and in a tit for tat move, the Soviets stayed away from the Los Angeles Games in 1984.

Olympics is based on the motto, “Citius, Aitius, Fortius” which means faster, higher, stronger, aspiring for the perfect melding of the body and mind. The father of modern Olympics is French nobleman Baron Pierre de Courbutin who was deeply influenced by Greek culture and its philosophy of harmony between body and mind. Courbutin’s philosophy of camaraderie among athletes and countries was incorporated in the Olympic flag which is placed on a white background, each of the interlaced five rings representing the five continents is in a different color symbolizing that every national flag in the world contains at least one of these colors.

The Olympic Museum signifies all that sports as a philosophy connotes. In ancient Greece both games and music festivals were held side by side. Today, the Lausanne museum is the world’s largest centre for research and documentation on sport, the Olympic movement and the Games. There were few streams of competition in the ancient Games. So also it was when it was reinvented in modern times. Thus the Olympic charter has to be changed every four years as new games are added. 1980 was a watershed year when professionals were allowed to participate to attract more sportsmen and keep alive people's interest in the Games. One of the consistent images of the Olympics is the ritualistic torch-lighting and carrying the flame across the continents to the final destination where the Game is held that year. India has had to cut short the route fearing security problem with pro-Tibet protesters.

In the Olympic museum, pride of place is given to the representation of the flame which is lit by a parabolic mirror to attract sun-ray. Ancient Greeks, like Persians and Hindus, considered fire to have sacred qualities and used sun-ray to light up flames which burnt eternally in front of their temples. Today, echoing that tradition, the Olympic flame is lit in front of the ruins of the Temple of Hera in Olympia by an actress enacting the role of the high priestess emphasizing the con-nection between the ancient Games and the modern Games. The flame is kept burning in the cauldron in the stadium till the closing ceremony. The exhibits show the different designs of the torches carried at every Olympics. China being the flavor this year, the torch is a carved, red one intricately filigreed with golden design.