Page 85 - Olympism in Socialism

places traditional New Year’s races are held, such
as, in Berlin with 6,000 participants. There are
marked distances for amateur sportsmen in a lot
of districts. One increasingly encounters runners
of all age-groups in the parks or woods.
Years ago the sports journalists of the GDR
initiated the running movement under the motto
“Run the Mile”. They got a million fold response.
Therefore, the wide participation in a mass race
over an extremely long distance is quite logical.
At the Leipzig Sports and Gymnastics Festival
of 1977 60,000 participants and inhabitants of
Leipzig ran the mile on the last day of the festival.
Among them were 1,000 enthusiastic runners
who had run a hundred miles and more before
the festival started. Note, however, that they were
not competitive sportsmen, not former athletes
but ordinary people who had discovered the fun
of running. Another example. Hundreds of
thousands of citizens all over the country took
part in the preliminary competitions for the
Festival of Sports and Gymnastics in table-
tennis, volleyball and skittles. Four thousand and
five hundred amateur sportsmen of all age groups
later participated in the finals in Leipzig.
Here is what Erich Honecker, General
Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany
and Chairman of the GDR’s Council of State, said
at the IXth Party Congress: “Physical education
and sports are given a more and more prominent
place in our society. They contribute to preserving
people’s health, largely serve relaxation,
recreation and the well-being of the people,
improve their fitness and thus contribute to the
development of their personalities.”
A large number of steps have been taken to
promote this cause. The joint sports programme
of the trade unions (FDGB), the youth

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