We're in an Olympics year (although apparently still uncertain about whether the games will go ahead), which is a good moment to reflect on rainbows, excellence and victory.
The co-founder of the current Games (1913), Pierre de Coubertin, created the five-circle logo. He used six colours, an early example of the rainbow symbolism later adopted by the Pride and then "diversity" movements. He had something to say about pride and perfection in his founding Olympic principles.
One principle on which Coubertin based Olympism is instructive: referring to the gold-winning champions in sport he described them as an elite "whose origins are egalitarian". What made them the elite? They accomplished the best score, as measured. And they did so from an egalitarian base (later known as equal opportunity). We could do worse than to hang on to those notions, and stop fearing excellence as "elitist". Of course it is. "Elite" by definition means best. And if you're going to have a thing, why not choose the best of it? Sounds like a winning idea.
The circle is itself symbolic of course, and recalls the Renaissance artist Giotto's view that it is the most perfect shape in art -- and the hardest to draw. Let's be circumspect about throwing out ideas from the past. What goes around comes around, history goes in cycles and old ideas may be be judged wise again, in their next circuit around the track.
