I.
Introduction
Olympic
Games, international sports competition, held every four years at
a different site, in which athletes from different nations compete
against each other in a variety of sports. There are two types 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, and the Summer Olympics
will next occur in 2000.
The Olympic Games began in Athens, Greece,
in 1896, two years after French educator and thinker Pierre de Coubertin
proposed that the Olympian Games of ancient Greece be revived to promote
a more peaceful world. The program for the 1896 Games, comprising
only summer events (the Winter Olympics were not established until
1924), included about 300 athletes from fewer than 15 countries competing
in 43 events in nine different sports. In contrast, the program 100
years later for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, included
more than 10,000 athletes from more than 190 countries competing in
271 events in 29 different sports.
II.
International Olympic Committee
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. (To begin the process, however, Coubertin himself chose
the first 15 members.) IOC members are officially considered to be
representatives from the IOC to their own nations, not delegates from
their own countries to the IOC. 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 Europe or the Americas,
with the exception of one from New Zealand. The committee elected
its first Asian member in 1908 and its first African member in 1910.
Currently, members from European and North American countries still
account for much 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.
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 Vikélas 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 Edström 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- ).
III. Awarding the Games
In order to host the Olympics, a city
must submit a proposal to the IOC. After all proposals have been submitted,
the IOC votes. 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, allowing
the winning city time to prepare for the Games. In selecting the site
of the Olympic Games, the IOC considers a number of factors, chief
among them which city has, or promises to build, the best facilities,
and which organizing committee seems most likely to stage the Games
effectively. 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. 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, for example, 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 direct
government support. Although many cities have achieved a financial
profit by hosting the Games, the Olympics can be financially risky.
Montréal, Québec, Canada, for example, spent a great deal of money
preparing for the 1976 Summer Games, 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.
IV.
Athletes and Eligibility
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. 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.
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. Because the amateur
rule prevented athletes from earning any pay from activities in any
way related to sports, 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. 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
(NBA) were permitted to play in the Summer Games in Barcelona, Spain.
V.
Ceremonies
The
Olympic Games have always included a number of ceremonies, many of
which emphasize the themes of international friendship and peaceful
cooperation. 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. The opening ceremony has evolved over the
years into a complex extravaganza, with music, speeches, and pageantry.
It is eagerly anticipated and well attended. The torch relay, in which
the Olympic Flame symbolizes the transmission of Olympic ideals from
ancient Greece to the modern world, was introduced as part of the
opening ceremony at the 1936 Summer Games in Berlin. In the relay
the torch is lit in Olympia, Greece, and is carried over several weeks
or months from there to the host city by a series of runners. After
the last runner has lit the Olympic Flame 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. 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.
Medal ceremonies are also an important
part of the 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 avowed internationalism, these national symbols
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,
however, the athletes broke ranks and mingled together to celebrate
the occasion. This custom was continued in subsequent Games. 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 ended, and the Olympic Flame is extinguished.
VI.
Beginnings
After
they had achieved national independence from Turkey in 1829, the Greeks
sought repeatedly to revive the Olympian Games in order to emphasize
their ancient heritage. Their Games, which were limited to ethnic
Greeks, were unsuccessful, were staged sporadically, and gained little
international attention. They ceased entirely in 1889. Coubertin succeeded
in his effort to reestablish the Games primarily because his conception
of the Games was international rather than nationalistic. Although
earlier in his career he had been interested in sports as a way to
improve the military preparedness of France, he eventually envisioned
them as an instrument to overcome conflicts among nations.
Coubertin had begun developing his ideas
for an international sports competition in the 1880s. In 1894 he invited
delegates to come to Paris to discuss amateur sports at an international
athletic congress. The conference hosted 78 delegates from nine countries.
During the conference Coubertin used art and music with classical
themes to influence the delegates. When he surprised them with a proposal
to revive the Olympian Games of classical times, they voted unanimously
to begin the modern cycle. Coubertin wanted the Olympic Games to feature
both ancient and modern sports. The discus event, for instance, symbolized
continuity with the past, because the ancient Greeks had practiced
the sport. Bicycle races, on the other hand, which were a more recent
sporting innovation, represented modernity. The marathon race was
meant to commemorate the distance from the town of Marathon to Athens
run by a Greek soldier in 490 BC to announce a Greek victory over
the invading Persians, which was slightly less than the current marathon
distance of 42.2 km (26.2 mi). (The longest race of the ancient Olympics
was about 1000 m [about 1100 yd].)
Instability in the Greek government threatened
preparations for the 1896 Games, but Coubertin traveled to Athens
and enlisted support from the Greek royal family to help organize
the event. Although there were then no NOCs to choose athletes and
send them to the Games, Coubertin knew many European and American
sportsmen, whom he convinced to form national teams. Roughly half
of the American team came from Princeton University because a friend
of Coubertin's, William Milligan Sloane, taught history there. Fewer
than 300 athletes competed in the 1896 Games, and there was very little
mention of the Games in the international press, but there was enough
momentum for Coubertin to persuade the IOC to continue the quadrennial
series.
VII.
Summer Olympics
The
1896 Games included events in cycling, fencing, gymnastics, target
shooting, swimming, tennis, track and field, weightlifting, and wrestling.
American athletes dominated the Games, but the winners' performances
were often mediocre by contemporary standards. American Thomas Burke
won the 100-meter dash in 12 seconds, more than a second slower than
the world record. Despite these performances, the Games were considered
by spectators and participants to be a success, coming to an appropriate
conclusion when a Greek athlete, Spyridon Louis, won the marathon
race, the first such race ever held.
Coubertin
was disappointed by the public response to the 1900 Games in Paris
and the 1904 Games in St. Louis, Missouri, because both were held
within international fairs that attracted more attention than the
Olympics. In 1906 an Olympic Games was staged in Athens, over Coubertin's
objections. Although the Games were successful, the results have never
been considered part of official Olympic history. The 1908 Games were
held in London, and rivalry between the British and American teams
was intense, culminating when British officials carried Italian marathon
runner Dorando Pietri, who had collapsed close to the end of the race,
across the finish line. This ensured that American Johnny Hayes did
not win. After American officials protested this action, however,
Hayes was declared the winner.
Four years later at the 1912 Games in
Stockholm, Sweden, American Jim Thorpe won both the pentathlon and
the decathlon, only to have his medals revoked in 1913 when it became
known that he had played semiprofessional baseball. (The IOC restored
Thorpe's medals and official victories in 1982.) The first Olympic
swimming events for women were also held in 1912 and were dominated
by two Australians, Fanny Durack and Wilhelmina Wylie. James Sullivan,
who ran the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) at the time, disapproved
of women's sports and did not permit American women to swim in 1912
(they were permitted to swim beginning in 1920).
World
War I (1914-1918) forced the cancellation of the 1916 Games, planned
for Berlin, Germany. Four years later, sympathy for Belgium, which
had been devastated by the German invasion during the war, induced
the IOC to award the 1920 Games to Antwerp. In 1920 Finnish runner
Paavo Nurmi, nicknamed the Flying Finn, won three of his nine career
Olympic gold medals, with victories in the 10,000-meter race, the
individual cross-country race, and the team cross-country race.
At
the 1924 Games in Paris, Nurmi and American swimmer Johnny Weissmuller
were the outstanding athletes. Nurmi's major victories included wins
in the 1500-meter and 5000-meter races. Weissmuller won the 100-meter
and 400-meter freestyle races and was a member of the winning 4 ×
200-meter freestyle relay team. The 1928 Games in Amsterdam, Netherlands,
were notable for the debut of women's track-and-field events.
Despite
some complaints about the 800-meter track-and-field race in 1928,
which was considered too strenuous for women and was dropped until
1960, the IOC decided in 1930 to continue its experiment with women's
sports in the Olympics. Because of this decision, Babe Didrikson became
the most celebrated athlete of the 1932 Games in Los Angeles. She
won the 80-meter hurdles race and the javelin event, establishing
new world records in both events, and finished second in the high
jump event. Japanese swimmers first achieved great Olympic success
in 1932, with at least one Japanese swimmer reaching the finals in
every one of the men's swimming races. The Japanese team had trained
much longer and harder than their opponents, and their success demonstrated
the benefits of pursuing sports as a full-time vocation rather than
as a part-time amateur avocation. Another sign of change at the Los
Angeles Games was the success of very young athletes: Japanese swimmer
Kusuo Kitamura, who won the 1500-meter freestyle, was only 14 years
old.
The
emotion of the competition ran especially high at the 1936 Games in
Berlin, fueled by the host country's Nazi government, which preached
a doctrine of white racial superiority. The most dramatic story of
the Berlin Games was black American athlete Jesse Owens, who disproved
the Nazi ideas by winning the 100-meter dash, the 200-meter dash,
and the long jump event. Owens also won a fourth gold medal, in the
4 × 100-meter relay race. The 1940 and 1944 Olympics, scheduled for
Tokyo and London, respectively, were cancelled because of World War
II (1939-1945). The 1948 Games, however, were staged, despite the
fact that many IOC members felt that the horrors of World War II had
made a mockery of Coubertin's dream of universal peace. The proponents
of continuing the Olympic movement prevailed, however, and London
hosted the Games.
Although the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics (USSR) had always considered the Olympics to be a conspiracy
of capitalism, its leaders decided to send a team to the 1952 Games,
which were held in Helsinki, Finland. The Soviet team encountered
great success, and Americans were shocked that until the last day
of competition, Soviet athletes had won more medals than American
athletes. Four years later, at the Melbourne Games, the Soviet and
American teams continued their success, finishing first and second
in the unofficial tally of national medals. (Unofficial records are
kept as to how many medals each country wins at each Olympics.) The
Australian team, led by swimmers Murray Rose and Dawn Fraser, and
runners Betty Cuthbert and Shirley Strickland, won a total of 13 gold
medals to finish third in the national medal standings.
In
the 1960s African runners, such as Wilson Kiprigut of Kenya and Abebe
Bikila of Ethiopia, achieved Olympic prominence, while athletes from
Eastern Europe dominated gymnastics and weightlifting events. Each
of the three successive Olympics held in the 1960s 1960 (Rome), 1964
(Tokyo), and 1968 (Mexico City) produced a boxing gold medalist from
the United States who went on to win the professional heavyweight
title: Cassius Clay (who later changed his name to Muhammad Ali),
Joe Frazier, and George Foreman, respectively.
At the 1972 Games in Munich, West Germany,
East and West Germans, who had competed on a single German team since
the formal division of their countries in 1949, competed on different
teams for the first time, finishing third and fourth in the unofficial
national medal tally. Although Soviet athlete Ludmilla Tourischeva
won the all-around gymnastics title in 1972, another Soviet, Olga
Korbut, garnered the most attention. She won three gold medals, and
her popularity helped start a period of international growth in gymnastics.
Four years later, at the Montréal Games, Nadia Comaneci of Romania
won the women's all-around gymnastics title, and in the uneven-bars
event she earned the first perfect score of 10.00 in Olympic gymnastics
competition. The most outstanding performance at the 1976 Games came
from the East German women's swimming team, which won 11 of 13 races,
overcoming the Americans, who had been expected to dominate. In the
total medal count in 1976, East Germany, with a population of about
16 million people, won 40 gold medals. In contrast, the United States,
with a population of more than 200 million people, won 34 gold medals.
Because
the 1980 Games in Moscow and the 1984 Games in Los Angeles were affected
by large boycotts (see below), the team from the host nation was able
to claim an unprecedented triumph in each year. In 1980, with 62 nations
boycotting, the Soviet team earned 80 gold medals, 69 silver medals,
and 46 bronze medals. At the 1980 Games Cuban boxer Teófilo Stevenson
won his third consecutive Olympic gold medal in the heavyweight class.
In 1984, when the USSR and 16 other countries boycotted the Games,
the American team claimed 83 gold medals, 61 silver medals, and 30
bronze medals. In 1984 American Carl Lewis, who won four events (100-meter,
200-meter, 4 × 100-meter relay, and long jump), emerged as the greatest
track-and-field athlete of his time. American Mary Lou Retton won
the women's all-around gymnastics title. At the 1988 Games in Seoul,
South Korea, Lewis repeated his victory in the long jump and was awarded
a belated gold in the 100-meter race after the apparent victor, Canadian
Ben Johnson, was disqualified for having taken banned drugs. East
German swimmers, led by Kristin Otto, won 10 of the 15 events for
women in 1988. Equally impressive were American track-and-field athletes
Florence Griffith Joyner, who won the 100-meter and 200-meter races
and was a member of the winning 4 × 100-meter relay team, and Jackie
Joyner-Kersee, who won the long jump event and the heptathlon.
At the 1992 Games in Barcelona, no single
nation dominated competition, with athletes from many countries winning
events. The best-known athletes before and after the Games competed
on the United States national basketball team, which was known as
the Dream Team and was composed of such players from the NBA as Michael
Jordan, Larry Bird, and Magic Johnson. The team completely dominated
its competition on its way to the gold medal.
In 1996 the centennial anniversary of
the modern Olympic Games was celebrated in Atlanta, Georgia. The Games
featured several outstanding performances. In diving, Fu Mingxia of
China captured gold medals in women's 3-meter springboard and 10-meter
platform competition. In track and field, American Michael Johnson
won gold medals in the 200-meter and 400-meter dashes. Canadian Donovan
Bailey triumphed in the 100-meter dash. The Games were marred, however,
by a terrorist attack in Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park. A pipe
bomb, which detonated early in the morning of July 27th, left one
person dead and more than 100 wounded. Olympic competition continued
without another bombing incident.
VIII.
Winter Olympics
Although
figure skating was an event at the Summer Games of 1908 and 1920,
and ice hockey was played in 1920, the IOC was hesitant to inaugurate
a series of separate Winter Games because climatic conditions dictated
that the possible locations for winter sports competition were geographically
limited. When Sweden and Norway first proposed Winter Games, in 1911,
the United States opposed the Games on these grounds. Ironically,
the Scandinavians changed their minds at the 1921 meeting of the IOC,
arguing that Winter Games, unlike Summer Games, could not unite athletes
from every country. They were outvoted, however, and the IOC established
Winter Games.
The
Winter Olympic Games were first held as a separate competition in
1924 at Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, France. From that time until 1992, they
took place the same year as the Summer Games. However, beginning with
the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, the Winter Games
were rescheduled to occur in the middle of the Olympic cycle, alternating
on even-numbered years with the Summer Games. The 1924 Winter Games
included 14 events in five different sports. The program for the 1998
Winter Games, held in Nagano, Japan, included more than 60 events
in nine different sports.
In the first Winter Olympics the Scandinavian
countries dominated competition. Norwegian athletes won all four of
the skiing events, while Finnish competitors finished first in four
of the five speed-skating events. The Winter Games first gained wide
international notice four years later at Saint Moritz, Switzerland,
when Norwegian figure skater Sonja Henie won the first of her three
consecutive Olympic figure skating titles. Her triumphs in 1932 and
1936, in addition to her charisma, contributed to her subsequent success
as a motion-picture star.
The
Winter Games were cancelled in 1940 and 1944 because of World War
II. (They were to have been held in Sapporo, Japan, and Cortina d'Ampezzo,
Italy, respectively.) At the first postwar Winter Games, held again
in Saint Moritz, Canadian Barbara Ann Scott won the gold medal in
women's figure skating, while American Dick Button won the men's event.
The Canadian team won the gold in ice hockey, and American Gretchen
Fraser won a gold in women's downhill skiing (in the slalom event).
Button repeated his victory at the 1952 Games in Oslo, Norway, and
the Canadians again won the ice hockey gold medal. American skaters
continued their success in figure skating at the 1956 Games in Cortina
d'Ampezzo, with Hayes Jenkins winning the men's event and Tenley Albright
becoming the first American woman to win the women's event. Italian
downhill skier Toni Sailer won all three of the men's skiing events
(downhill, slalom, and giant slalom). David Jenkins, the younger brother
of Hayes Jenkins, repeated the American victory in men's figure skating
at the 1960 Games in Squaw Valley, California, while another American,
Carol Heiss, captured the gold in the women's event.
The 1964 Winter Games were held in Innsbruck,
Austria. Swedish cross-country skier Sixten Jernberg won the last
of his nine Olympic medals, with golds in the 50-kilometer individual
race and the 4 × 10-kilometer team race and a bronze in the 15-kilometer
race, and Soviets Liudmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov won the pairs
figure skating competition. The pair repeated their victory at the
1968 Games in Grenoble, France, where American figure skater Peggy
Fleming won the gold in the women's event. The 1968 Games were also
notable for the accomplishments of French downhill skier Jean-Claude
Killy, who repeated Sailer's feat by winning all three of the men's
events. The 1972 Winter Games were held in Sapporo, where Dutch speed
skater Ard Schenk won three gold medals, in the 1500-meter, 5000-meter,
and 10,000-meter events.
At the 1976 Games, again held in Innsbruck,
American Dorothy Hamill won the women's figure skating gold medal,
and John Curry became the first British male skater to win the men's
figure skating title. American speed skater Eric Heiden dominated
the 1980 Games in Lake Placid, New York, winning all five of the men's
speed-skating events (500-meter, 1000-meter, 1500-meter, 5000-meter,
and 10,000-meter). The United States ice hockey team defeated the
Soviet team to win the gold medal; the Soviet team had won it in the
four previous Winter Olympics.
At the 1984 Games in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia,
American Scott Hamilton won the men's figure skating gold medal and
East German Katarina Witt won the women's event. Four years later
in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Witt repeated her victory and American
Brian Boitano won the men's gold medal. Soviet figure skaters Ekaterina
Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov won the pairs competition, while American
speed skater Bonnie Blair won the 500-meter race, the first of her
five gold medals in three Olympiads. Italian downhill skier Alberto
Tomba won the men's slalom and giant-slalom events. At the 1992 Games
in Albertville, France, American Kristi Yamaguchi won the women's
figure skating title, and Blair won gold medals in the 500-meter and
1000-meter races. Tomba repeated his victory in the giant-slalom event.
Gordeeva and Grinkov won the pairs figure skating competition again
at the Lillehammer Games in 1994, and Ukrainian Oksana Baiul won the
women's title. Once again Blair won the 500-meter and 1000-meter speed-skating
races.
At the 1998 Games in Nagano, Norwegian
Nordic skier Bjorn Daehlie won three gold medals (10-kilometer, 50-kilometer,
and 4 × 10-kilometer relay) and a silver (15-kilometer pursuit). After
a major crash in the men's downhill, Austrian skier Hermann Maier
recovered and won gold medals in the giant slalom and super giant
slalom. The Japanese ski-jumping team combined for four medals, including
a gold in the team competition. American women dominated a number
of events: Tara Lipinski and Michelle Kwan took gold and silver in
the figure skating competition; Alpine skier Picabo Street won the
super giant slalom; Nikki Stone won the freestyle skiing aerials;
and the U.S. women's ice hockey team went undefeated to capture the
gold medal.
IX.
Political Turmoil
Although
they were founded as part of a vision of world peace, once the modern
Olympic Games became a truly important international event they also
became a stage for political disputes. The most controversial Olympics
were the Berlin Games of 1936. The IOC had voted in 1931 to hold these
Games in Berlin, before IOC members could have known the Nazi movement
would soon control the country. When it became known in the early
1930s that under the rule of the Nazis, German Jewish athletes were
being barred from the 1936 German team, in violation of the Olympic
Charter, many Americans demanded a boycott of the 1936 Games. The
boycott movement failed because Avery Brundage, head of the United
States Olympic Committee (USOC) at the time, was convinced by German
officials that Jewish athletes would be permitted to try out for the
German team. In fact, only two Jewish athletes were named to the 1936
German Olympic team, and both were of mixed religious backgrounds.
There have been several boycotts of the
Olympics by various countries. In 1956 the Egyptian, Lebanese, and
Iraqi teams boycotted the Melbourne Games to protest the invasion
of Egypt by the United Kingdom, France, and Israel that had occurred
earlier that year. Major boycotts of the Olympics occurred in 1976,
1980, and 1984. In 1976 many African nations demanded that New Zealand
be excluded from the Montréal Games because its rugby team had played
against South Africa, then under the rule of supporters of apartheid,
the official policy of racial segregation followed in that country
from 1948 to the early 1990s. When the IOC resisted the demands of
the African countries with the argument that rugby was not an Olympic
sport, athletes from 28 African nations were called home by their
governments.
The issue in the 1980 boycott of the
Moscow Games was the invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 by the USSR.
Although American President Jimmy Carter forced the USOC to refuse
the invitation to attend the Moscow Games, many other NOCs defied
their governments' requests that they boycott the Games. Once Carter
acted to spoil the Moscow Games (62 nations did boycott the Games),
it became clear that the USSR and its allies would retaliate with
another boycott at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles. Although Romania
did send a team to Los Angeles, 16 of the USSR's other allies boycotted
the Los Angeles Games.
From the 1940s to the 1980s, the IOC
also had to deal with the political problems caused by divided nations.
One dilemma concerned the Chinese Olympic team, after the political
division of China in 1949 into the People's Republic of China on the
mainland and the so-called Republic of China on the island of Taiwan.
In 1952 the IOC decided to invite teams from both the mainland and
Taiwan, but this decision led to decades of boycott by the government
of the People's Republic, which did not send a team to the Olympics
until the Lake Placid Games in 1980. Another political issue arose
in 1949, because of the formal political division of Germany that
year into East Germany and West Germany. This division created the
question of whether there was to be one German team or two. The IOC
tried to solve this problem by insisting on a combined German team.
Negotiations lasted several years, and this solution was first tested
at the Melbourne Games in 1956; it lasted until the Munich Games in
1972, for which two teams were formed. There continued to be two German
teams until 1992, by which time the countries had reunited. The IOC
also had to cope with racial segregation in South Africa. The IOC
voted in 1968 to exclude the South African team from Olympic competition
in order to bring pressure on the government to give up its policy
of apartheid. The South Africans were not readmitted until the Barcelona
Games in 1992 by which time apartheid had been discontinued.
Violence
has also occurred at the Olympic Games. In the midst of the 1972 Munich
Games, the Olympic movement experienced its most tragic hour. A band
of Palestinian terrorists made their way into the Olympic village
(where athletes from all nations are invited to live during the Games),
murdered two members of the Israeli team, and took nine hostages.
When the IOC, meeting in emergency session, learned that a gunfight
had broken out and that all nine hostages were dead, along with five
of the terrorists, the Games were suspended for a day. The IOC's controversial
decision to resume the Games that year was endorsed by the Israeli
government.
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