Olympic Truce: Myth or reality?
By Dr. Angelos Syrigos
Director of the International Olympic Truce Centre

A. Background-Philosophy and History
The history of the Olympic Games and the Olympic Truce go hand in hand. The Games, first held in 776BC, were created in order to act as a Truce to bring a temporary halt to the fighting between ancient Greece’s warring city-states. Messengers, called Spondoforoi, were despatched to announce the Truce, which lasted for the duration of the Games, plus a few days in order to allow the safe passage of athletes and spectators to and from the Games.

More specifically, Ancient Greece was made up of a group of city-states in an almost constant state of war. The history surrounding the birth of the Olympic Games is not very consistent and it is made both by historical facts and legends.

What we know from myth is that the ancient Greek King Iphitos asked the oracle of Delphi – the ‘think tank’ of ancient Greeks – for advice on how to end the wars that were plunging his kingdom and the broader Peloponnese area into chaos. The oracle advised him to organise an athletic contest in ancient Olympia, to occur every four years, and to proclaim a Truce for the duration of the Games.

The first recorded Olympic Games were held in 776BC. We know that the ancient Truce ensured the survival of the Games by guaranteeing the safe journey of athletes, judges, artists and spectators to and from Olympia and their peaceful participation in the Games. The Olympic Games and the Olympic Truce were one and the same thing – it was impossible to have one without the other. In other words, the Games were designed with peace in mind, to act as a broker for differences between those at war with one another.

The Olympic Games became the only source of inter-state legality in a society characterised by a perpetual state of conflict, and there is evidence to suggest it was universally respected, with only a few notable exceptions over more than 1,200 years. The announcement of the Truce was made months ahead of the start of the Games.

Messengers – or spondoforoi – gathered in Olympia to be briefed on their mission to spread the word throughout the city-states. By 776BC, a treaty has been signed between the rulers of three cities of Southern Greece: Elis, Spata and Pisa. According to the treaty the area surrounding Olympia – was proclaimed as sacred and invincible ground and decreed the cessation of hostilities for the duration of the Olympic Games. There is documented evidence pointing towards the success of the Olympic Games in bringing together Greek city-states that were otherwise pitted against one another in bloody battles. There are numerous examples of the observance of the Truce during these Games.

The importance of the Ancient Olympic Games is evidenced during the battle of Thermopylae in 480BC. In one of the most important struggles of Ancient Hellenism, against the Persian Empire and while the 300 soldiers of Sparta were fighting outnumbered by the Persians, the rest of the Greeks were assembled in Ancient Olympia to celebrate the 75th Olympiad.’

The Olympic Games were so intertwined with the idea of peace that the most important treaties between the city-states were actually on public display in the area of the sacred Altis.

Of course, not everyone welcomed the opportunity for Truce. It was therefore strictly enforced by Olympic officials, who levied fines on anyone who broke the peace during the Games and the time allowed for safe passage. According to Thucydides, in 420BC the Spartans were barred from the Games after launching an attack at the time of the Truce.

In spite of these minor events, the observance of Olympic Truce for 1200 years renders it as the most important principle of customary law respecting peace in the ancient world.

B. The revival of Olympic Truce in Modern Olympic Games
The Games were revived in 1896, but the Truce remained dormant for almost a century. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) reinstated the Truce in 1992, and it has been invoked at every Olympic Games since.

In 1993, the IOC launched an appeal for an Olympic Truce at the 1994 Games, which was endorsed by 184 Olympic committees and presented to the Secretary-General of the UN. The UN then passed its own resolution, which supports the appeal for an Olympic Truce, recognising the contribution that this could make towards ‘advancing the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations’.

In 1994, the then president of the IOC, Juan Antonio Samaranch, had experienced the Truce in action while leading an IOC delegation to the war-torn city of Sarajevo during the Olympic Winter Games in Lillehammer. This high-profile visit not only focused the eyes of the world on the Balkan conflict, but also provided a break in the fighting, thus allowing humanitarian relief to be delivered to the besieged population of the city.

President Samaranch wrote to the heads of state in 1994 to encourage the observance of the Olympic Truce during the XVII Olympic Winter Games in Lillehammer, Norway. As a result:
• the Sudanese NOC succeeded in obtaining a ceasefire in the war between the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army and the government
• the armed conflict in Georgia with Abkhazia was suspended
• a General Assembly vote during the Games encouraged a ceasefire arrangement to permit the supply of humanitarian aid to populations in Bosnia. It has been estimated that this allowed 10,000 children to be inoculated in just one day.

During the subsequent Olympic Games in Sydney and Athens a public audience of 3,7 billion people, saw perhaps the most public display of the power of the Truce yet, when athletes from North and South Korea marched together under one flag at the Opening Ceremony of the Games, reflecting their hopes of a peaceful and unified peninsula.

Today, the IOC calls on the host nation to declare the Truce and since 1992 the Truce has received formal endorsement from the UN, in the form of several Resolutions. The UN has passed a resolution every two years, stating its commitment to the ideal of the Olympic Truce for each subsequent Summer and Winter Games.

At this point, it has to be mentioned that the Resolution submitted on the occasion of the Athens 2004 Games was co-sponsored and subsequently adopted by 190 UN member states, making it the most widely supported resolution in the history of the organization.

In 2000 the Olympic Truce concept was included in the UN’s Millennium Declaration, and in the same year, the IOC, in partnership with the Greek government, established the International Olympic Truce Centre (IOTC) in Athens to work for the advancement of the Truce’s message of peace.

The Truce has also attracted the support of familiar figures from the worlds of international politics, sport, media and the performing arts; this global pantheon includes Nelson Mandela, Bill Clinton, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Denis Glover and Roger Moore, the Pope, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch, over 400 heads of state, government and foreign ministers, heads of international organizations and various other luminaries.

C. The future of Olympic Truce
The Truce is not, of course, a panacea. Conflicts begin and end for complex and contested reasons; just as a single actor can rarely claim sole responsibility for war, peace is also a highly collaborative project. What these moments of breakthrough do illuminate is how several elements – an ancient accord, the modern Olympic Games, and diplomatic goodwill – can powerfully combine to make peace more likely.

They remind us that behind the tough realities of international relations, an ideal can still move hearts and minds, and, in small ways, help to spur individuals to take action in the pursuit of peace. The Olympic Truce is one of a wide range of instruments of peace that can be used to help make progress.

We have a generation of peace-making tools designed for a postwar era, which is straining under the pressures that a new order of conflict creates . The most familiar strategies, such as preventative diplomacy, the implementation of sanctions and traditional peacekeeping remains in the hands of governments, while conflicts rage on the ground, by actors who recognise neither the authority of their prime ministers and presidents, nor the legitimacy of international law.

A legitimate role for the Truce in conflict resolution and international rapprochement can only be achieved once it has also established its status as an alternative tool of diplomacy and found ways to integrate its sporting tradition with its peace-making aspirations. This will involve recognising some of the tensions inherent in using sport as a route to peace – from growing concerns around the politicisation of sport to the commercialisation of the Olympic brand – as well as celebrating the rediscovery of the roots of the Games through the revival of their historical association with peace.

The question is how to put in place adequate systems of governance and oversight to ensure that those seeking to deploy the Truce do so in accordance with the values of the Olympic Movement and do not abuse or appropriate its global standing for self-interested purposes.

The ancient idea of the Olympic Truce remains as relevant today as it was in ancient Greece. At a time when the assertion of difference –social, cultural, geographical and ethnic – is the dominant force, the Truce reminds us of the timeless nature of the challenges we face in weakening the grip of violence on our societies. If the potential of the Olympic Truce as a tool for peace is to be fully realised it must reflect these changes in the way it is used.

High-level support through institutions such as the UN is necessary and welcome. But it must find ways for its work to transcend national borders, helping actors on all levels of the pyramid – from top decision-makers down to ordinary citizens – to ‘achieve full ownership’ of the Truce, and make its ideal live in the context of the conflicts paralyzing their communities and diminishing the quality of their lives.

The Olympic Truce has the potential to play two key roles. Firstly, its application over the past decade has demonstrated its capacity to deliver practical results on the ground –from the delivery of humanitarian relief to the facilitation of dialogue between bitter rivals.

Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, at a time of growing crises of confidence in political institutions, the Olympic Truce reminds us of the power of idealism, and has the capacity to inspire a new generation and its leaders to make small but constant steps towards peace. The Olympic Truce is a peace-inspiring tool for our age.

back