Winter Olympics Begin

The opening ceremonies were wonderful, especially Wayne Gretzky, but I did a little searching around and found an intriguing Catholic connection to the Games. The Olympic Motto is "Citius, Altius, Fortius" from Father Henri Martin Didon, a Dominican priest at a college near Paris, who used the discipline of sport as a powerful educational tool. One day, following an inter-schools athletics meeting, he ended his speech with the three Latin words meaning swifter, higher, stronger. Baron Pierre de Coubertin decided to make this the Olympic motto "for people who dare to try to break records." De Coubertin is the founder of the modern Olympic Games.

The Olympic Creed: "The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph, but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered, but to have fought well." Pierre de Coubertin got the idea for the creed from a speech given by Bishop Ethelbert Talbot from Pennsylvania at a service for Olympic champions during the 1908 Olympic Games. The creed and motto were added in 1924 and meant to spur athletes to embrace the Olympic spirit and perform to the best of their abilities, but it is also fitting for all our athletes in Vancouver and at home today.