Olympic Victory—Ancient and Modern

Summary

There is ongoing public debate about the value of national Olympic teams. A modern country such as Australia spends hundreds of millions of dollars on sending elite athletes to a modern Olympics. Each Olympic gold medal won by an Australian athlete literally costs several tens of millions of dollars. Avid sports fans are convinced that this is public money well spent. For them, the value of Olympic victory is obvious and priceless. However, those who are less committed to sport often claim that Olympic success is much less valuable. For this side, such state subsidization is an enormous waste of public money—money that would be better spent on teachers and nurses. It is not easy to work out which side of this policy debate is right or wrong. One way to do so is to look back at the long history of the Olympic Games. The ancient Greeks competed in Olympics for more than a thousand years. Ancient Greek states valued Olympic victory even more highly than modern states do, rewarding their Olympic victors with much more than the proverbial keys to the city. This article explains what real value the ancient Greeks derived from Olympic success. In doing so, it helps us to work out which side prevails in the heated modern debate about the value of Olympic victory.