Art of the sport

On the eve of a festival on Olympic films, two Olympians tell us about their favourite ones, and what the spirit of the game means to them

- ANJULY MATHAI

David Moorcroft's story might have been a proverbial David-and-Goliath one. Except that in his case he was the Goliath. In great form, he was the favourite to win the 5,000m race at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. Just two years earlier, he had set the world record for the race in Oslo. He began the Olympics with a pelvic injury that was exacerbated during the heats and the semi-finals. By the finals, he was doubled over in pain, and even as runner after runner went past him, he did not give up. He came last and hobbled to the finish line.

The Olympics might be about gold and glory, but Olympism is about the resilience of the human spirit. That is why Moorcroft's story, which was immortalised in Bud Greenspan's film 16 Days of Glory (1985), finds a resonance 40 years later. 16 Days of Glory is one of the films being screened at 'Olympics in Reel Life'-a festival of 33 Olympic films and 10 series that takes place in Mumbai from October 1 to 7 and in Delhi from October 7 to 14.

The films include Kon Ichikawa's Tokyo Olympiad (1965), which the BBC called "the greatest film about sport ever made"; Castleton Knight's The Glory of Sport (1948), the first official Olympic film to be shot in colour, also notable for the Indian hockey team's first gold medal since independence; and Carlos Saura's Marathon (1993), that beautifully explored the kaleidoscope of exhaustion, disappointment and celebration at the games.

Other than the films, the festival will have two other elements-'Olympism Made Visible, or selected photographs from an Olympic Museum international photography project; and 'Indians in Olympics, featuring iconic photographs of Indian Olympians in action. The festival comes as a prelude to India hosting the International Olympic Committee (IOC) session for the first time in 40 years.