The Olympic games should be a matter between individual athletes and the gods. Noisy flag-waving dishonors gods and men alike.

The remark frames the Olympics in an archaic, quasi-sacred register: athletic excellence is imagined as a direct offering to higher ideals (or, literally, “the gods”), not a proxy contest between nation-states. By condemning “noisy flag-waving,” it criticizes modern Olympic nationalism—chants, medal tables, and political point-scoring—as a distortion of sport’s purpose. The phrase “dishonors gods and men alike” suggests a double loss: it profanes the event’s supposed spiritual or ethical dimension and diminishes athletes by turning their personal achievement into collective propaganda. The quote thus argues for humility, reverence, and individual merit over spectacle and tribal identity.