The Olympic Spirit: 100 Years of the Games
Wels
1995
Submitter: Aside from being 26 years old, I also noticed this had quite an eye-catching image on the frontispiece. Was he performing a Rhythmic Ribbon routine and had a mishap? And what’s with the guy peering in from behind him ?
Notice that the publisher is none other than… Stop & Shop. Weeded from my middle school library.
Holly: I think the nude guy is doing rhythmic ribbon, and the creeper behind him is either waving a flag or checking out the backside. There’s another nude in the bottom left corner. Was nude Olympics a thing 100 years ago?
I don’t know about 100 years ago, but I read somewhere that in the Ancient Olympics the athletes had to perform while buck naked. Maybe it was because they didn’t want women to perform in the games, or the games that only the men were allowed to play, so being naked kept women from impersonating the opposite sex.
Nude Olympics was a thing in the original, but not when they restarted in Victorian times!
Also, it looks like the ribbon is wound around… yeah. Must have gotten a lot of laughs from the middle-schoolers. And the other guy is definitely checking out the butt while waving a flag.
Nowadays we make do with the shirtless greased-up Tongan flag bearer.
The flag in back of Sweden is Germany before the Great War, so the mural (it looks like) is 100+ years old by now.
I think it’s the poster for the 1912 Stockholm Olympics (Jim Thorpe competed there). Where’s the old German flag ?
It is the black-white-red bands to the right of the Portugueze flag in the last photo.
You are absolutely correct. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1912_Summer_Olympics. As a former boss used to remind me, “Everyone’s an art critic.”
> Notice that the publisher is none other than… Stop & Shop.
Would someone mind explaining this? I don’t get the reference. Is it something naughty?
Stop & Shop is a major supermarket chain in the northeastern United States.
I don’t see it either, do you have to look it up on WorldCat or something?
So wait, you’re NOT supposed to get nude and wrap the ribbon around your ding dong when you compete?
That would explain the looks I’ve been getting…
Borders on NSFW…..the picture composition is hilarious.