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Good morning. No recent Olympics seem to have had a smooth build up. The crisis over doping has created the greatest turbulence in Rio. And tonight’s opening ceremony follows anxieties about the Zika virus and local protests about the cost of the whole thing. But such angst often seems to evaporate once the competition begins. The Olympic ideal is a gift from the ancient world. We can trace the Greek Olympics back to the 8th century BC. The Games then lasted just five days but the competitors were around for a long time in training. Some had travelled hundreds of miles from distant Greek colonies. A sacred truce was proclaimed. Local wars and conflicts ceased to enable the free passage of athletes. So every four years the Olympics brought a welcome period of peace for everyone. That was part of the inspiration of the modern Olympic movement. If nations engaged in games with each other it was thought they’d be less likely to go to war. It’s not quite turned out that way. International rivalries can be translated to the sporting arena rather than neutralised there. But the Olympic aspiration remains a noble one. Perhaps the darkest moment for the modern Olympics came in 1972 at Munich. 11 Israelis were killed, following an attack by militants from the Black September movement. But athletes are unlikely to be deterred by such dangers. In the disciplines of their training they often discover reserves and capabilities they scarcely knew they had. Perhaps it’s the experience of giving yourself totally to something which is so fulfilling, spiritually as well as physically. In the New Testament St Paul doesn’t seem much of a sporting type. Yet when he’s writing to the Corinthian Christians he uses the self-discipline of the athlete as a metaphor for the Christian life. He also points out that at the Games only one runner can win the prize but there’s no restriction on rewards for those who run with faith and perseverance. It’s been the perseverance over decades of the widow of one of the Israeli athletes killed in 1972, Ankie Spitzer, which has led the Olympic Committee to create a memorial in the athletes’ village in Rio to her husband and all those who died in that attack. It also commemorates those who died at other Games, such as the two people killed by a pipe bomb in Atlanta. The memorial will be transferred to Tokyo in 2020. It’s a small but significant sign that the Olympic spirit is still very much alive. It’s not just shared games which are a bridge to peace. Shared remembrance and shared sorrow can unite us too.