Olympics

Olympic Rings

The Olympics are the most important world sporting event, involving many different sports and athletes from practically every nation, competing under their national flag. The summer games have been held every four years since 1896. The host city is selected by the International Olympic Committee six or seven years beforehand. The smaller-scale winter games are held every four years starting in 1924. Starting 1994, they come midway between the summer games.

The next Olympics will be the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Feb 12-28, 2010.^[1]

The games are a source of national pride and international equality and sportsmanship. They are a very expensive proposition, costing the host billions of dollars--partially defrayed by television and tourist revenues. It is typical for strong local opposition to try to block a city from hosting the games.

Ancient Greece

The modern Olympics are named after an Ancient Greek sporting event that was held from 776 B.C. to A.D. 394.

According to a legend, Hercules built a temple to Zeus and wanted people to come and worship there, so he made a series of games to attract people. This event was so unifying that people started to count time by it.

Origins

In Greece itself a national program of Olympic Games, funded by Evangelos Zappas (1800-65), took place four times between 1859 and 1889, with limited success. The idea of a revival of the ancient games became popular in Europe thanks to Pierre de Coubertin (1863-1937), the father of the modern Olympic movement.

Two events in 1889 moved de Coubertin: the International Exposition in Paris and his visit to North America. The Exposition demonstrated the power of a truly international spectacle; the latter revealed the widespread growth of interest in a variety of sports, from rowing and yachting to football and track and field. In addition, recent archaeological discoveries by Heinrich Schliemann and others, and a growing fascination with Olympia and Greece in general, pushed his ambitious project forward. Coubertin used a copy of the founding compromise (1880) of the Amateur Athletic Association, the British sports governing body for track and field, to bring together a diversity of different interests in relation to the games.

In 1896 the first of the modern Olympic Games was staged in Athens. Although a passionate French patriot, Coubertin was also a sincere and committed internationalist who envisaged the advent of a new era of progress and universal harmony in an interdependent and even eventually unified world that would nevertheless preserve its cultural diversity and heritage. An admirer of the model of the Swiss Confederation, he was active in a variety of fields, promoting his ideas through the creation of networks. Growing nationalism in Europe and especially the outbreak of World War I highlighted the limits of his vision and placed him in a major dilemma, but he continued to prioritize the promotion of his Olympic ideal.

Past games

1896 Athens

With the Greek king presiding, the opening ceremonies attracted large crowds. American athletes dominated many of the track and field events, but the emotional climax of the games was the unexpected victory of Spiridon Loues, a Greek, in the marathon. He instantly became a national hero. Pierre de Coubertin (1863-1937) who created the Olympic Games, remained in the background but after the games he had to battle against Greek efforts to establish the Olympics permanently in Greece.

1904 St. Louis

Matthews, George R. America's First Olympics: The St. Louis Games of 1904 (2005) online edition

1906 Athens

In spring 1906 the Olympic Games took place in Athens; Coubertin had repeatedly announced them in the 'Revue Olympique' and later described them as 'brilliantly carried out.' For the first time, the nations marched into the stadium, athletes were chosen and sent by their national Olympic Committees, and gold, silver, and bronze medals were awarded at the winners' ceremony. The planned games for 1910 and 1914 were prepared but not implemented due to wars in the Balkans. By 1912 the 1906 Games had suffered a loss of status and have since been referred to as 'interim games.'

1924 Paris

Italian fencer Oreste Puliti (1891-1958) was at the center of controversy during the 1924 Paris Olympic Games. Disqualified by a Hungarian judge from the individual saber event, Puliti and the Italian team appealed to a 'jury d'honneur,' which upheld the judge's decision. The entire incident, including a later saber duel on the Hungarian border between Puliti and the judge, reflects issues of national pride, conflicts between European schools of fencing, and the difficulties the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had dealing with sport-based international federations.^[2]

1932 Los Angeles

1936 Berlin

The Berlin games were the most controversial (before 1980) because the IOC was determined to promote its brand of internationalism in the face of Nazi mistreatment of Jews and political opponents.^[3]

For the IOC the Berlin Olympics represented its greatest achievement: legitimizing the Games as the world's premier sporting event. The Games were awarded to a democratic Germany in 1931--no one then expected the Nazis would be in charge. It was the first competition that fully reflected the emergence of sports as a mass phenomenon after the World War.

Key Olympics leaders, especially Avery Brundage in the U.S., de Coubertin in France, and Sir Noel Curtis Bennett in Britain, worked tirelessly to exclude political questions. emphasize pure athleticism, and frustrate an anti-Nazi boycott. Of 59 national Olympic Committees, 53 accepted the invitation to attend and 49 actually attended. Three million tickets were sold (compared to one million in 1932), with of course many people attending several events.

Jesse Owens

Special attention was paid Jesse Owens (1913-1980), the black American track and field star. Owens, who craved the chance to compete, resisted the NAACP's pleas that he support the boycott. He won four gold medals and was enthusiastically cheered in the face of Nazi propaganda about "Negro inferiority." The film "Olympia" (1938), made by Nazi producer-director Leni Riefenstahl set the modern standard for high quality documentaries, and prominently featured Owens.^[4]

At another level there was tension between traditional Christian ideals and Nazi paganism. as the Orthodox Church of Greece criticized the Nazi staging of the Olympic flame ceremonies in 1936. Pagan aspects of the ceremony as well as the worship of the body were linked to contemporary political movements at odds with Christianity, notably Communism and Nazism.

1940 Tokyo

The games were canceled in 1938 when international tensions leading to World War II got out of hand. There never was a plan for a 1944 Olympics.

1948 London

Despite some fears that Britain was too impoverished by World War II to host an international event, the Labor government, led by the efforts of Philip Noel-Baker (1889-1982), proceeded to relaunch the games following a 12-year hiatus. The goal was to tell the world that Britain was back. The press and the public generally saw the project as a success, one that reasserted Britain's international importance. The memory of the war meant that Germany and Japan were excluded. The emerging Cold War meant that the Soviet Union did not come.^[5]

1956 Melboune

Modernity clashed with traditionalism when Melbourne, History of Australia, became host of the 1956 summer Olympics. Journalists speculated that the expected floods of American tourists, accustomed to central heating and prompt room service, would react coldly to the traditional Aussie hotel routine of getting out of bed on to the chilly linoleum, and tip-toeing across the floor to the old-time wash basin and jug. What would sophisticated Frenchmen make of a city where all bars closed at 6 PM? Melbourne, the sophisticates feared, would be regarded as a hick town, too provincial and too staid to be entrusted with the hosting of a world event. A small but vocal minority of Labor politicians and welfare workers opposed the Games as an unjustifiable extravagance; in rural Victoria the folk saw the event as yet another treat for city people. Traditional clergymen feared the approach of that iniquitous institution, the 'Continental Sunday'. However the Chamber of Commerce won the day, hailing the Olympics as a boost to tourism and investment. Modernist architects and designers embraced the Games as their chance to bring local taste before the bar of international opinion. The Olympic Pool, for example, won praise for its high originality and imagination. The hotels were modernized, upper middle class residents took in visitors, and even the Japanese--the hated foes of the 1940s, were made welcome. In the event the preparations transformed and upgraded Melbourne's self-image as a bastion of modernity, and the rest of the world paid little attention.^[6]

1960 Rome

IOC began the practice of posting list of illegal drugs that are totally banned for use by Olympic athletes, and using drug tests to enforce theban.^[7]

1964 Tokyo

The games demarcated the end of Japan's wounded psyche from World War II. Attendence by its former enemies meant that all was forgotten, if not forgiven.

1968 Mexico

1972 Munich

West Germany sponsored the 1972 Olympics as an affirmation of its peaceful reintegration into the family of nations. The world community was horrified when Palestinian terrorists captured a team of Israeli athletes on global television; eleven Israeli hostages were mudered; fibve of the eight Arab terrorists were killed in a blaze of gunfire with police.

American swimmer Mark Spitz won seven gold medals, surpassing the record of five set in the 1920 games by Italian fencer Nedo Nadi.

1980 Moscow

The Olympic Games in Moscow in 1980 were one of the largest international events organized in a Communist country, and the arrival of teams from capitalist nations was a matter of international legitimacy for the regime. The Soviets had high expectations of the games as a unique opportunity to present themselves to a worldwide audience. The effective staging of the Moscow Games was intended to demonstrate the power and strength of Communism not only within the Soviet Union but also to non socialist countries. To the stunned humiliation of the Soviets, the United States and all its allies boycotted Moscow as punishment for the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

1988 Seoul

The games heralded the emergence of a democratic system in South Korea, and the recognition of one of the first Third World countries to break into the top ranks of industrialized, modern nations.

South Korean leaders hoped for both increased economic development and a heightened sense of national identity. Tangible economic results, including the growth of the telecommunications industry, seemed positive, as did the less concrete social, cultural, and political aspects of the games: democratic reforms in South Korea, better relations with Communist countries, and a boost in the nation's collective sense of self-confidence.^[8]

2000 Sydney

The Melbourne Olympic Games in 1956 were well handled, but few international tourists came to Australia for it. By contrast when Sydney, Australia, hosted the 2000 Summer Olympic Games, it gained global attention for an efficiently organized world-class event. The Queen opened the 1956 games but was not invited in 2000, as the spirit of republicanism was too strong. However, many of the hoped-for legacies failed to materialize. General levels of participation in physical activity and sport did not rise, although passive spectator ship including television watching did. Many of the costly Australian facilities built for the games remain underutilized in their wake. While in the short term, some of the economic and political goals were achieved, and a new and better method to collect and disseminate knowledge about games preparation was established, such events remain problematic in their long-term effects on local, populations, societies, and environments.^[9]

2008 Beijing

The Games of the 2008 Summer Olympics - Beijing 2008 took place from 8 to 24 August 2008. The Games in Beijing played host to the 28 summer sports currently on the Olympic program. Approximately 10,500 athletes participated in the Games with around 20,000 accredited media bringing the Games to the world.

Future Games

The host city for the Games of the XXX Olympiad in 2012 will be London, followed by Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

The next Winter Olympics will be in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Feb 12-28, 2010.^[10]

Impact

The impact of the Olympics as setting a world standard spread to the underdeveloped world. The Committee for International Olympic Aid was founded by the developed nations in 1961 to help fund Third World countries so they could join the Olympic family. The National Olympic Committees of these new countries gained some measure of control over the development of sport on the international level and, in conjunction with individual international sports federations, shifted the overall balance of power within the International Olympic Committee (IOC).^[11]

Egypt

In the 1920s Egyptians of all classes were captivated by news of the Egyptian national football (soccer) team's performance in international competitions. Success or failure in the Olympic football tournaments of 1924 and 1928 was not just evaluated in terms of sport; rather, they were understood against the backdrop of Egyptian independence and a desire to be seen as modern by their European opponents. Moreover, it suggests that Egyptians also saw these competitions as a way to distinguish themselves from the premodernity of other African countries.^[12]

China

The impact on China was seen in China's participation in the 1932, 1936, and 1948 Olympics. The idea of 'tiyu' (physical education and/or sports) was introduced into China at the turn of 20th century, but from early on, its advocates saw it as a way to strengthen one's body and to get rid of the humiliating label of "Sick Man of Asia," a derogatory term imposed on the Chinese by foreign powers. In response, a desire to save face and free China from foreign control and to gain an equal place in the world led the Nationalist government to seize the opportunity to promote modern sports and physical education. Chiang Kai-shek and the KMT leadership realized that 'tiyu' was not only a vehicle by which they could strengthen the sense of nationalism but also one by which they could promote an international presence. China implemented a number of measures, ranging from improving physical education, establishing official institutions, to promoting a 'war-like spirit' among citizens. 'Tiyu' also became part of Chiang Kai-shek's "New Life Movement," a nation-building effort to create modern citizens. The article concentrates on how sports became a venue in which China tried to engage the outside world. China's participation in the three Olympic Games before 1949, in spite of its negligible impact on sports per se, demonstrated China's motivation to use sports to win international recognition and to renew nationalism at home. The same spirit, now backed by an economically powerful nation, motivated China in 2008.^[13]

India

Organized men's field hockey began in India in the 1880's. Following World War I, the Indian national team rose to international prominence, winning the 1928 Olympic gold medal in Amsterdam without surrendering a single goal. The Indian squad won gold in every Olympics through 1956 and again in 1964. India dominated in other international tours as well. The ability to bring together players from various social classes and diverse ethnic groups proved to be a key element of their success.^[14]

Latin America

The Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), under the leadership of Elwood Brown, partnered with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) under Pierre de Coubertin to bring Olympic ideals and participation to Latin America. Following the 1922 Latin American Games in Rio de Janeiro, IOC member Henri de Baillet-Latour toured the region, helping countries establish national Olympic committees and prepare for future competition. In some countries, such as Brazil, sporting and political rivalries hindered progress as opposing factions battled for control of international sport. The 1924 Olympic Games in Paris and the 1928 games in Amsterdam saw greatly increased participation from Latin American athletes.^[15]

Women

After the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) had repeatedly opposed including women's athletics in their official program in the early 1920's, the Fédération Sportive Féminine Internationale (FSFI) was founded in 1921. One year later it organized a Women's Olympiad in Paris with great success. As a result, the IOC accepted five women's athletic events in the program of the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam. FSFI, under the leadership of Alice Milliat (1884-1957), sought to increase women's participation in sports, in particular the Olympic Games. The FSFI successfully sponsored the Women's Games in the years between the wars. However, the group faced considerable opposition from the aristocratic male leaders of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and from Siegfried Edström, president of the International Amateur Athletic Federation, who wanted to maintain male domination in sports. The FSFI collapsed in 1936, despite having created international momentum for female athletic competition, as richer, more powerful sports organizations refused to allow women to continue to participate in sporting events.^[16]

The fact that a few women collapsed on the grass after crossing the finishing line after the eight-hundred-meter race at the 1928 games, won by Germany's Lina Radke with a new world record, was used as an argument against women's athletics and women's sport in general. Officials, journalists, and doctors were not convinced of women's mental and physical ability to cope with the stresses of competitive sports. In a vote the IOC only just avoided abandoning women's athletics, but the eight-hundred-meter race was taken out of the program. Thirty years later the middle-distance race was restored to the Olympic program, again after intensive discussions.