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The Olympic Ideal: Integration of Mind and Body

September 19, 2000
MARINA DEL REY, CALIF. -- The Sydney Olympics will be more than a display of physical prowess. It will be a showcase for the rarest of human achievements: the perfect integration of mind and body, said the communications director of the Ayn Rand Institute.

The Olympians are human perfection made real, said Scott A. McConnell, a Los Angeles-based writer and native Australian. The base of this perfection is thinking. The Olympians are individuals who have consciously dedicated their lives to the goal of succeeding in the Olympics. To this end these Olympians have used their minds to methodically train to become the best athletes in the world. The amount of mental focus needed to achieve this end -- to keep from straying from training and not to give up no matter the obstacles -- is nothing short of heroic.

McConnell said that the Olympic ideal is something to which even non-Olympians can aspire.

The ancient Greeks took the integration of mind and body for granted, he said. It was the ideal goal to which every Greek citizen worked to cultivate and develop -- the ancient Olympics was a showcase for those who had achieved that ideal. As we watch the Sydney Olympics we should rededicate ourselves to the Greek ideal -- the Olympian ideal -- of an integrated mind and body.


Ayn Rand Institute communications director Scott A. McConnell is available for interviews.

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