THE OLYMPIC GAMES

Objectives
In the two lessons on the Olympics you should
learn about: The History of the Ancient Games and modern
games
The advantages and disadvantages of hosting this
event.
The controversies surrounding various Games in
the modern era.
The importance of The Olympic games as an
international event.

THE OLYMPIC GAMES

ANCIENT

O LY M P I C

GA M E S

The first recorded Ancient Olympic Games were in 776BC. They lasted for approximately
1000 years. Then in 394AD they were banned by the Roman Emperor, Theodosius.
He forbade any pagan festivals, which included the Olympic Games.

The Games were held in Olympia. A village in a sacred fertile valley, approximately
500km
south west of Mount Olympus, after which it is named. Originally, organised as a
religious, sporting and cultural festival, the Ancient Olympic Games were held in honour
of Zeus, the father of the gods.

The Ancient Greeks believed that both the body and mind needed discipline. They
believed
that those who practiced this discipline could best honour Zeus. The perfect human
would
come from a marriage of mind and muscle.

The name Olympic is derived from Mount Olympus, the home of the Greek gods. The
Games of Olympia were held in honour of Zeus. They were held every four years. This
time span has become known as an Olympiad. Only Greek citizens were allowed to
compete. For centuries Greece was divided into independent states. These states were
often at war with one another. However, during the Olympic festival there was a
guaranteed official truce, called the Ekecheiria. This allowed athletes to travel safely
from their cities, across the Greek Empire, to take part in the Games. A violation of this
truce was punishable by death. And yes they
had to compete naked!!!!

THE OLYMPIC GAMES

THE BIRTH OF THE NEW GAMES
It was Baron Pierre de Coubertin of France who dreamt up this
ambitious project. Drawing inspiration from the ancient
Olympic Games, plus from Much Wenlock! Coubertin decided to
create the modern Olympics and founded the International
Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1894 in Paris. This new committee
set itself the objective of organising the first modern games.
The first modern Olympic Games in 1896 featured many
references to the original Greek Games
They were held in Athens as a reminder that the Olympic Games
originated in Greece.

Most of the sports on the programme of the ancient Olympic

Games were echoed in the modern Games. The organisers even
went as far as to invent the marathon

THE OLYMPIC GAMES

De Coubertin liked the way that sport was organised in Britain and visited
lots of events including the Henley Regatta this combined with the
discovery of the ruins of the original stadium in Olympia gave him the push
to start the Olympics.
He believed that the games would promote world peace and harmony as
seen in his quote which is still displayed on the scoreboards at each games.

The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to
take part. Just as the most important thing in life is not the
triumph but the
struggle
The IOC which was originally chosen by the Baron is now huge and has
representatives from all the countries who take part. They decide where the
games will take part and chose the city 6 years before the event.
At first not many cities wanted the honour as the games are extremely
expensive and usually made a loss. This changed after 1984 when because
of marketing and sponsorship the games resulted in a surplus
It now costs nearly as much to make a bid as host the games!

THE OLYMPIC GAMES

Rings, motto and flame

Transmitting the values of
Olympism through symbols :
universality, excellence, peace and
openness to others.

The Motto

The Olympic motto is made up of

three Latin words :

Which means :
FASTER HIGHER STRONGER

The Rings

Five interlacing rings to illustrate

the universality of the Olympic
Movement and the Olympic
Games Rings and flag proposed
by Pierre de Coubertin in 1914
Presence of the rings and flag at
the Olympic Games Symbol
recognised all over the world.

Rings represent the five

continents and the colours are in
every flag in the world.

The Flame

Link between the Games of

antiquity and the modern
Games Message of peace
and friendship Lighting of
the flame and organisation of
the relay.

THE OLYMPIC GAMES

The Olympic games were the first major
international sporting event and they are
still the most important and successful of
all the events that take place.
However, things have not always run
smoothly and nearly all of the recent one
have been affected by problems of one
sort or another.

THE BERLIN GAMES 1936

This was a games dominated by politics

Hitler was in power and wanted the
games to be a propaganda exercise for
his ideals and beliefs. One of these was
that the Aryan master race that people
who were blond, fair and true Germans
were superior to all others.

However Jesse Owens a black USA

athlete won 4 gold medals and this along
with many other black athletes winning
medals foiled Hitler's plans.

The USA team nearly hadnt gone to the

games because they were concerned
about what was happening to Jews and
Black people in Germany under Hitler
but this ended up being the best way to
counteract his ideas to the world at
large.

It did make the IOC think much more

carefully about who to let host the
games from then on.

THE MEXICO GAMES -1968

Mexico was a very controversial
games for several reasons. Firstly it
was the first one to be held at high
altitude helps athletes who train
at altitude and those in short
explosive events.
Secondly Mexico was a very poor
country and people worried that
they would not be able to afford the
games they were still paying the
money off many years later.
There were also several black
American athletes who gave a
black power salute during their
medal ceremonies. This was to
protest at the way black people
were treated in America. Two
athletes were sent home by the
American team.

THE MUNICH GAMES - 1972

On the morning of September 5,

with six days left in the Games, the
worst tragedy in Olympic history
hit. Eight Arab terrorists stormed
into the Olympic village and raided
the apartment building that
housed the Israeli contingent. Two
Israeli athletes were killed and
nine more were seized as hostages.
They demanded the release of over
200 Palestinians serving time in
Israeli jails, along with two
renowned German terrorists.

After a day of unsuccessful

negotiations, the terrorists
collected the hostages and headed
for the military airport in Munich
for a flight back to the Middle
East. At the airport, German
sharpshooters opened fire, killing
three of the Palestinians. A
horrifying gun battle ensued,
claiming the lives of all nine of the
hostages, along with one
policeman and two terrorists.

THE MUNICH GAMES - 1972

Athletic competition was suspended
for 24 hours. During a day of
mourning, a memorial service was
held at the main stadium in front of
80,000 spectators. In a controversial
decision, IOC president Avery
Brundage declared, "the Games must
go on." And so they did, with the
Olympic and national flags flying at
half-mast.
The most memorable footage from
Munich should have been that of
American swimmer Mark Spitz
winning his seventh gold medal or
17-year-old Russian gymnast Olga
Korbut wowing the world on the
balance beam. Instead, we're left
with disturbing photos of terrorists
in ski masks and of a policeman
standing on the roof of the
compound waiting to pounce with a
semi-automatic weapon. And
ultimately we're left with the video of
ABC announcer Jim McKay uttering
his fateful words, "They're all gone."

THE MONTREAL GAMES 1976

South Africa had been banned
from Tokyo Olympics because of
apartheid.
A New Zealand rugby team had
toured South Africa and
therefore upset African Nations.
A total of 30 nations , mostly
African, boycotted the Montreal
Games as a consequence.
This was the start of a long
period of boycotts for various
political reasons.
The other reason that Montreal
was notable was the cost of the
games because of increased
security after the Munich Games.
It took Montreal many years to
pay off the debt.

THE MOSCOW GAMES - 1980

The choice of Moscow was

controversial due to a poor human
rights record.
The Soviet Union had invaded
Afghanistan prior to the Games and
when the games were due to begin
they were still occupying the country.
Many countries demanded that the
Soviets withdrew but they refused
many countries boycotted the games
as a protest.
As a result a total of 52 nation,
including the USA and Canada
boycotted and also individuals from
many other teams decided that their
consciences would not allow them to
go.
Many people felt that this devalued
the Moscow Games particularly as the
American team was always very strong
i.e. that the standard wasnt as high.

THE LOS ANGELES GAMES - 1984

As the venue is chosen 6 years
in advance the IOC could not
avoid America staging the
Games after they had boycotted
the Moscow Games.
The Soviet Union along with 14
other nations retaliated in turn
by boycotting the Los Angeles
Games. Security was the excuse
but in reality it was tit for tat.
Another excuse was that the
Games were over
commercialised and for the first
time ever the Games ran at a
large profit for the host city.
This was against Communist
ideals and thus was a perfect
excuse to boycott.

THE SEOUL GAMES - 1988

Seoul is in S Korea and there had
been a war between them and N
Korea situation was still bad in 88.
The IOC was criticized for awarding
Seoul the games there was a lot of
tension that the facilities wouldnt
be ready and that N Korea would
interfere.
In the end there was little disruption
and the games were quite
successful.
There were 5 boycotts including N
Korea and Cuba but new rules
meant that the countries who
boycotted would not be involved in
future decisions.
The biggest controversy was drug
related in all ten athletes were
banned after testing positive.

The most famous was

Canadian Ben Johnson who
won the 100m but was
stripped of his title 2 days
later.

THE BARCELONA GAMES - 1992

After all the previous
controversial events the 1992
were just about incident free.
This is basically because the
old Soviet Union had ceased
to exist and the E. European
Communist countries had
collapsed and all these
countries could now compete
individually.
South Africa were also
welcomed back to fold as they
had ended apartheid and
entered a mixed race team.
There were over 12,000
athletes competing in 257
medal events.
Drugs were still an issue and
3 Britons were sent home
when they tested positive.

THE ATLANTA GAMES - 1996

Controversy raged before the
games even started it was
considered that the time of the
games would result in potential
danger for the athletes because
of high humidity and
temperatures but Atlanta had
spent 6 yrs getting ready for the
biggest games yet so it was
decided to carry on.
Measures were taken to help the
athletes fans blowing fine mists
of water particularly used in the
equestrian events and marathons.
There were problems due to the
large numbers of media and
spectators which meant crushes
at many of the venues athletes
were often held up getting to
their event.
Drugs were a problem Michelle
Smith won 3 gold medals but
insisted it was not due to drugs
1997 tested positive and
eventually banned in 1999.

On day 9 there was a

tragedy a pipe bomb
blast in Centennial Park
(right next to the stadium)
killed 1 person and injured
11. This brought new fears
about the games being a
terrorist target so security
was greatly increased.

THE NAGANO GAMES - 1998

These winter Olympics were the
first ones in which technological
developments created big
controversy.
Dutch skaters used revolutionary
skates with hinged mechanisms
and a one piece body suit
therefore much more
aerodynamic.
They presented the innovations
to the International Speed
skating Union for approval 48hrs
before the races so no one could
copy them. They went on to win
the first 4 places in the 5000m
race.
The USA and Canadian teams
also protested when the winner
of the luge Georg Hackle wore
aerodynamic boots which shaved
300th of a second off his time.

THE SYDNEY GAMES - 2000

Thought to be one of the most
successful and friendly games of
recent times. Very little in the way
of controversy or major incident.
The biggest controversy was the
withdrawal of 27 athletes and 13
team officials from the Chinese
team just before the games. People
thought that this was because they
didnt want to risk drugs tests
finding positive results.
Drug testing at the games were
the strictest ever and also the
most advanced ever and low levels
of performance particularly in the
marathon was evidence that less
cheating had taken place.
Steve Redgrave also won his 5th
Gold medal in rowing a record in
an endurance event.

Hosting the Games

There is never a shortage of volunteers to
host the Olympics, or other international
events, as the advantages are seen to
outweigh the disadvantages.
ADVANTAGES
A likelihood of making a profit through
sponsorship, media rights and
marketing/merchandise.
The provision of updated or new facilities that
can be used again later.
Raising the profile and reputation of the hosts in
the eyes of the rest of the world.

Hosting the Games

Disadvantages.
Security risk and the threat of a
terrorist attack.
Boycotts and protests for political
reasons.
High costs and expenses to provide
facilities and security.
Security bill for London's 2012 Olympics to hit 1.5bn - triple the
Security costs 'will send 2012 bill
over 10bn'