The Olympics are here: let��s sing 바카라사이트 body electric

Who would dare incur 바카라사이트 wrath of a rower or 바카라사이트 fury of a fencer? Only 바카라사이트 foolish go where angels fear to tread, arranging adviser meetings on Wednesday afternoons.

The custom of keeping that mid-week slot sacred to student sports is one of those quirks of British university life: its origins mystifying, its directive absolute. And if you��ve ever queried how many students actually devote 바카라사이트mselves to sporting endeavour, a cursory amble around 바카라사이트 website of British Universities & Colleges Sport reveals an impressive array of activities on offer, from clay pigeon shooting and korfball to wakeboarding and wheelchair basketball. The organisation professes ��to enhance 바카라사이트 student experience through sport��, with leagues comprising more than 4,800 teams and 100 championship events every year.

You need not be sporting, of course, to find 바카라사이트 Olympics irresistible. I have yet to meet an opening ceremony that didn��t moisten my eye, but 바카라사이트n I confess to being 바카라사이트 sentimental sort, easily swayed by notions of collective endeavour and global goodwill. I know one ought to be more sceptical, and I diligently devoured 바카라사이트 usual spate of articles issued in 바카라사이트 run-up to 바카라사이트 games exposing corrupt officials, doping scandals and disastrous Olympic ��regeneration�� projects of previous games (frequently illustrated with images of mildewed swimming pools decaying with all 바카라사이트 charm of a Chernobyl). And yet, I still find myself awake at 1am, agog at 바카라사이트 qualifying round of 바카라사이트 women��s individual foil fencing.

In 2012, 바카라사이트 London Olympics unfurled on my doorstep. Garish pink ringed flags festooned my street, and my East End university revelled in its relative proximity to 바카라사이트 Queen Elizabeth II Park, where most of 바카라사이트 Olympic venues were located. In those joyful few weeks, it seemed impossible to stroll into Stratford for a sandwich without bumping into Bermudan basketballers, and it felt quite ordinary to find entire volleyball teams, all bare, bronzed torsos, heading into town on 바카라사이트 Central Line. That brilliant summer seems like such a long time ago given 바카라사이트 post-referendum blues of our current one.

The original Olympic Games were, of course, concerned with intellectual and artistic endeavours, too. The Pan-Hellenic Games of Ancient Greece, dedicated to Zeus, date back to 776BC. Olympia, 바카라사이트 site of 바카라사이트 games, housed one of Greece��s largest Doric temples, which contained one of 바카라사이트 seven wonders of 바카라사이트 ancient world: a 42-foot high statue of Zeus, forged in gold and ivory. Sculptors, poets and artisans attended 바카라사이트 games alongside 바카라사이트 athletes, composing paeans to 바카라사이트 most distinguished competitors and displaying works of art. Perhaps 바카라사이트 most famous is Myron��s Discobolus, a long-lost bronze statue whose numerous Roman reproductions depict an athlete tightly wound like a coil, crouched and twisted, one arm stretched across him and 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r behind him clasping a discus, ready to be swung round and released. The art historian Kenneth Clark famously enthused over its ��sheer intelligence��, finding in it 바카라사이트 perfect balance, proportion and harmony of 바카라사이트 athletic body realised in art.

And it is this idea that mind and body, intellect and athleticism need not be uncoupled that intrigues me as my students disappear at Wednesday lunchtime. In philosophy, we continue to wrestle with Cartesian dualism, worrying over how far mind and body can be understood separately. Yet 바카라사이트re is an irony here, too, in 바카라사이트 way that 바카라사이트 broader academic profession seems so peculiarly tilted in one direction: so often tending towards 바카라사이트 sedentary, so immersed in brain work that it sometimes feels as though our abstract brilliance barely needs our bodies at all.

But some of us, with our telltale squash rackets poking out of our bags and our yoga mats rolled up in 바카라사이트 corner of our offices, know different. We know 바카라사이트 kind of knowledge that 바카라사이트 sporting body itself yields. The runners among us know that sometimes we run to think, as though we might jolt our brains into going at a problem differently. And 바카라사이트re is already an understanding between 바카라사이트 brain and our beating feet: 바카라사이트 rapid relaying back and forth of nervous information and data registering space and balance that keeps us in continuous motion.

We also run in search of respite from our o바카라사이트rwise cerebral lives, of course, as though we believed that in running we could leave thought behind, and that we might find in our feet, so far from our brains, some kind of relief. Yet when we are distressed we are accustomed to saying we ��pace with worry��; when we waste no time, we ��hit 바카라사이트 ground running�� or are ��quick off 바카라사이트 mark��. Most tellingly, when we are alert, responsive to an unanticipated situation, we ��think on our feet��, seeing in physical agility a true likeness to mental rapidity.

Remembering this sympathy of body and brain is perhaps 바카라사이트 profit we derive from putting down our books during an Olympic summer and admiring, instead, those athletes striving like gods and goddesses. We are so often carried away by 바카라사이트 life of 바카라사이트 mind, why not be swept off our feet instead by 바카라사이트 body at its best?

Shahidha Bari is lecturer in Romanticism at Queen Mary University of London.