SPORT AND THE OLYMPIC IDEAL

Abstract

Ideals are mental images of perfection. The ideal world is a perfect world, the ideal person a perfect person, and the ideal athlete a perfect athlete.

Ideals are unattainable goals, pointing directions and beckoning us onward. As Tryon Edwards has said: "We never reach our ideals, whether of mental or moral improvement, but the thought of them shows us our deficiencies, and spurs us on to higher and better things."