Olympic Games Essay, Research Paper
The Olympic Games, an international sports competition, are held once every four
years at a different site, where athletes from different nations compete against
each other in a wide variety of sports. There are two classifications of
Olympics, the Summer Olympics and the Winter Olympics. Through 1992 they were
held in the same year, but beginning in 1994 they were rescheduled so that they
are held in alternate even-numbered years. For example, the Winter Olympics were
held in 1994 and the Summer Olympics in 1996. The Winter Olympics were next held
in 1998 in Nagano, Japan, while the Summer Olympics will next occur in 2000 in
Sydney, Australia. The Olympic Games are administered by the International
Olympic Committee (IOC), which is headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland. The
IOC was created in Paris in 1894 as an independent committee selecting its own
members but "to begin the process, however, Coubertin himself chose the
first 15 members"(White 60). IOC members are officially considered to be
"representatives from the IOC to their own nations, not delegates from
their own countries to the IOC"(White 65). Most members are elected to the
IOC after serving on the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) of their own
countries. The first IOC members were all from either Europe or the Americas,
with the exception of one representative from New Zealand. Currently, members
from European and North American countries still account for a majority of the
IOC membership. IOC members must retire at the end of the year in which they
reach the age of 80, unless they were elected before 1966, in which case they
can serve for life. The IOC oversees such functions as determining the site of
the Olympic Games, the establishment of worldwide Olympic policies, and the
negotiation of Olympic television broadcast rights. The IOC works closely with
the NOCs and with the International Amateur Athletic Federation (the
international governing body for track and field), and other international
sports federations (ISFs) to organize the Olympics. The ISFs are responsible for
the "international rules and regulations of the sports they
govern"(Gary 22). The IOC president, who is chosen by IOC members, is
assisted by an executive board, several vice presidents, and a number of IOC
commissions. The IOC’s first president, Demetrius Vik?las of Greece (served
1894-1896), was succeeded by Coubertin himself (1896-1925). The other IOC
presidents have been Count Henri de Baillet-Latour of Belgium (1925-1942), J.
Sigfrid Edstr?m of Sweden (1946-1952), Avery Brundage of the United States
(1952-1972), Michael Morris, Lord Killanin, of Ireland (1972-1980), and Juan
Antonio Samaranch of Spain (1980-) . In order to host the Olympics, a city must
submit a proposal to the IOC, and after all proposals have been submitted, the
IOC will vote. If no city is successful in gaining a majority in the first vote,
the city with the fewest votes is eliminated, and voting continues with
successive rounds, until a majority winner is determined. Typically the Games
are awarded several years in advance in the hopes of allowing the winning city
adequate time to prepare for the Games. In selecting the site of the Olympic
Games, the IOC considers a number of factors, mainly among them is which city
has, or promises to build, the best facilities, and which organizing committee
seems most likely to stage the Games effectively as well as efficiently. The IOC
also considers which parts of the world have not yet hosted the Games. For
instance, Tokyo, the host of the 1964 Summer Games, and Mexico City, the host of
the 1968 Summer Games, "were chosen in part to popularize the Olympic
movement in Asia and in Latin America"(Gorman 69). Because of the growing
importance of television worldwide, the IOC in recent years has also taken into
account the host city’s time zone. Whenever the Games take place in the United
States or Canada, American television networks are willing to pay significantly
higher amounts for television rights because they can broadcast popular events
live, in prime viewing hours. Once the Games have been awarded, it is the
responsibility of the local organizing committee-not the IOC or the NOC of the
host city’s country-to finance them. This is often done with a portion of the
Olympic television revenues and with corporate sponsorships, ticket sales, and
other smaller revenue sources, such as commemorative postage stamps or proceeds
from a national lottery. In many cases there is also some direct government
support. Although many cities have achieved a financial profit by hosting the
Games, the Olympics can be financially risky. Montreal, Canada, for example,
spent a great deal of money preparing for the 1976 Summer Games which were due
to "extensive design and construction costs for new facilities. When the
proceeds from the Games were less than expected, the city was left with large
debts"(White 28). Although the Olympic Charter, the official constitution
of the Olympic movement, proclaims that the Olympics are contests among
individuals and not among nations, the IOC assigns to the various NOCs the task
of selecting national Olympic teams. In most cases the NOCs do this by holding
Olympic trials or by choosing athletes on the basis of their previous
performances. From the start of the modern Olympic Games, "male amateur
athletes of every race, religion, and nationality have been eligible to
participate"(White 36). Although Coubertin "opposed the participation
of women in the Olympics and no women competed in 1896", a few female
golfers and tennis players were allowed to participate in the 1900 Games (Gary
39). Female swimmers and divers were admitted to the 1912 Games, and female
gymnasts and track-and-field athletes first competed at the 1928 Games. Women’s
Olympic sports have grown significantly since then, and currently women account
for approximately half of the members of teams, except in teams from Islamic
nations, where the level of female participation is generally lower. Coubertin
and the IOC intended from the start for the Olympics to be open only to
amateurs. Amateurism was determined by adherence to the amateur rule, which was
originally devised in the 19th century to "prevent working-class athletes
from participating in sports such as rowing and tennis"(Gary 21). The
amateur rule prevented athletes from earning any pay from activities in any way
related to sports, and working-class athletes could not afford both to make a
living and train for competition. Olympic rules about amateurism, however, have
caused many controversies over the years. Such questions as whether an amateur
could be "reimbursed for travel expenses, be compensated for time lost at
work, be paid for product endorsements, or be employed to teach sports"
have been raised, but they have not always been satisfactorily resolved by the
IOC, leading to confusion about the definition of professionalism in different
sports (White 79). By 1983 a majority of IOC members acknowledged that most
Olympic athletes compete professionally in the sense that sports are their main
activity. The IOC then asked each ISF to determine eligibility in its own sport,
and over the next decade nearly all the ISFs abolished the distinction between
amateurs and professionals, accepting so-called open Games. One of the most
visible examples of the policy change came in 1992, when professional players
from the National Basketball Association of the United States were permitted to
play in the Summer Games in Barcelona, Spain. The Olympic Games have always
included a number of ceremonies, many of which emphasize the themes of
international friendship and peaceful co-operation. The opening ceremony has
always included the parade of nations, in which the teams from each nation enter
the main stadium as part of a procession. The Greek team always enters first, to
"commemorate the ancient origins of the modern Games", and the team of
the host nation always enters last(Gary 25). The opening ceremony has evolved
over the years into a complex extravaganza, with music, speeches, and pageantry.
The torch relay, in which the Olympic Flame symbolizes the "transmission of
Olympic ideals from ancient Greece to the modern world and was introduced as
part of the opening ceremony at the 1936 Summer Games in Berlin"(Gary 26).
In the relay the torch is lit in Olympia, Greece, and is carried over several
weeks or months to the Host City by a series of runners. After the last runner
has lit the Olympic Cauldron in the main Olympic stadium, the host country’s
head of state declares the Games officially open, and doves are released to
symbolize the hope of world peace. Two other important ceremonial innovations
had appeared earlier at the 1920 Games in Antwerp, Belgium. The Olympic Flag,
with its five interlocking rings of different colors against a white background,
was flown for the first time. The five rings represent "unity among the
nations of Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia, and Europe"(Gary 27).
Another innovation occurring in 1920 was the first reciting of the Olympic Oath,
taken in the name of all the athletes by a member of the host’s team. The oath
asserts "the athletes’ commitment to the ideals of sportsmanship in
competition"(Gorman 22). Medal ceremonies are also an important part of the
Modern Games. After each individual event during the Games, medals are awarded
in a ceremony to the first-, second-, and third-place finishers. The ceremony
occurs after each event, when these competitors mount a podium to receive gold
(actually gold-plated), silver (silver-plated), and bronze medals. While the
national flags of all three competitors are hoisted, the national anthem of the
winner’s country is played. Some critics have suggested that because the medal
ceremony seems to contradict the IOC’s vow to internationalism, these national
symbols should be replaced by the hoisting of the Olympic Flag and the playing
of the official Olympic Hymn. Originally there was another parade of nations
during the closing ceremonies of the Games. At the end of the 1956 Summer Games
in Melbourne, Australia, the athletes "broke ranks and mingled together to
celebrate the occasion, and this custom is continued throughout subsequent
games"(Gorman 24). After the athletes join in the main Olympic stadium in
celebration, the president of the IOC invites the athletes and spectators to
meet again at the site of the next Games. The IOC president then declares the
Games officially over, and the Olympic Flame is extinguished. While the exact
origin is unknown, there have been many popular myths surrounding the beginning
of the Ancient Olympic Games. Two of the more popular myths surround the
legendary Hercules and a young hero named Pelops . The most common myth of the
beginning of the Ancient Olympics is the story of the hero Pelops and was
displayed prominently on the east pedimental sculptures of the Temple of Zeus.
Pelops was a prince from Lydia in Asia Minor who sought the hand of Hippodamia,
the daughter of King Oinomaos of Pisa. Oinomaos challenged his daughter’s
suitors to a chariot race under the guarantee that any young man who won the
chariot race could have Hippodamia as a wife. Any young man who lost the race
would be beheaded, and the heads would be used as decoration for the palace of
Oinomaos. With the help of his charioteer Myrtilos, Pelops devised a plan to
beat Oinomaos in the chariot race. Pelops and Myrtilos secretly replaced the
bronze linchpins of the King’s chariot with linchpins made of wax. When Oinomaos
was about to pass Pelops in the chariot race, the wax melted and Oinomaos was
thrown to his death. Pelops married Hippodamia and instituted the Olympic games
to celebrate his victory. A different version of the myth refers to the Olympic
games as funeral games in the memory of Oinomaos. Another myth about the origin
of the Olympic Games comes from the Tenth Olympian Ode of the poet Pindar. He
tells the story of how Hercules, on his fifth labor, had to clean the stables of
King Augeas of Elis. Hercules approached Augeas and promised to clean the
stables for the price of one-tenth of the king’s cattle. Augeas agreed, and
Hercules re-routed the Kladeos and Alpheos rivers to flow through the stables.
Augeas did not fulfill his promise, however, and after Hercules had finished his
labors he returned to Elis and waged war on Augeas. Hercules sacked the city of
Elis and instituted the Olympic Games in honor of his father, Zeus. It is said
that Hercules taught men how to wrestle and measured out the stade, or the
length of the footrace. Although the exact origin is unknown the Ancient Olympic
Games were held in a sacred valley at Olympia in Elis near the western coast of
Greece and the earliest recorded Olympic competition was in 776 B.C. So
important were these contests that time was measured by the four-year interval
between the Games with the term "Olympiad" describing this period. It
is a well established fact that religious festivals in honor of Olympian Zeus
had been observed in the sacred valley for several centuries previous to that
remote date. The Greek Games were celebrated in the belief that "the
spirits of the dead were gratified by such spectacles as delighted them during
their earthly life"(Gorman 79). During the Homeric age, these festivals
were "simply sacrifices followed by games at the tomb or before the funeral
pyre"(White 49). Gradually they grew into religious festivals observed by
an entire community and celebrated near the shrine of the god in whose honor
they were instituted. The idea then developed that the gods themselves were
present but invisible and delighted in the services and the contests. Later
these festivals lost their local character and became Pan-Hellenic. Four of
these festivals, Olympian, Pythian, Nemean, and Isthmian, had attracted world
wide attention but the one held at Olympia was by far the most important
consecrated to the Olympian Zeus. The Olympic Games became the greatest festival
of a mighty nation. Once every four years "trading was suspended, the
continuously warring states and the fighting tribes laid down their arms, and
all of the people went forth in peace to pay tribute to the manhood of its
nation"(Gorman 82). The immediate site of the Games, the Stadium of
Olympia, lay towards the northeast of the Altis beyond Mount Kromion. It was an
oblong area that was "about 643 feet in length and about 97 feet wide. It
consisted of four sloping heights, two at the sides and two at the ends. The one
at the north had been cut into a hill, while the other had been artificially
formed by earth that had been taken from the arena. The spectators sat on the
grassy slopes which accommodated more than 40,000"(White 50). For the first
13 Olympiads, the competition consisted of "a single race of 200 yards,
approximately the length of the stadium"(Gorman 84) The race was called the
"Stade" from which our word "stadium" was derived. The first
recorded victor in 776 B.C. was "Coroebus of Elis, a cook"(Gorman 84).
The athletes of Elis maintained an unbroken string of victories until the 14th
Olympiad at which time a second race of two lengths of the stadium was added. In
the 15th Olympiad, an endurance event was added in which the athletes "went
12 times around the stadium, about 4 1/2 kilometers"(Gorman 85). The
athletes competed in groups of four, which were determined by "drawing lots
with the winners meeting the other winners until a final race was
run"(Gorman 86). In 708 B.C., the Pentathlon and Wrestling events were
introduced. In 688 B.C., Boxing; in 680 the Four Horse Chariot Race; in 648 the
Pancration (a fierce combination of boxing and wrestling), and in 580 the Armed
Race where the men traversed the stadium twice while heavily armed. In the
pentathlon, those who jumped a certain distance qualified for the spear
throwing; the four best then sprinted the length of the stadium, the three best
then threw the discus, and the two best then engaged in a wrestling match to the
finish. The early rewards were "simple crowns of wild olive, but, by the
61st Olympiad, it was permitted in Olympia to erect statues in honor of the