Olympic Games: Encyclopedia II - Olympic Games - Modern Olympics

Olympic Games - Modern Olympics

After the initial success, the Olympics struggled. The celebrations in Paris (1900) and St. Louis (1904) were overshadowed by the world's fair exhibitions in which they were included. The so-called Intercalated Games (because of their off-year status, as 1906 is not divisible by four) were held in 1906 in Athens, as the first of an alternating series of Athens-held Olympics. Although originally the IOC recognised and supported these games, they are currently not recognised by the IOC as Olympic Games, which has given rise to the explanation that they were intended to mark the 10th anniversary of the Modern Olympics. Most contemporary Olympic historians, however, consider them to be official Olympic Games. Either way, the 1906 Games again attracted a broad international field of participants — in 1904, 80% had been American — and great public interest, thereby marking the beginning of a rise in popularity and size of the Games.

Olympic Games - Growth

From the 245 participants from 15 nations in 1896, the Games grew to nearly 11,100 competitors from 202 countries at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. The number of competitors at the Winter Olympics is much smaller than at the summer edition; 2,400 athletes from 77 countries competed at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City in 78 events.

With over 16,000 broadcasters and journalists present in Sydney, the Olympics are one of the largest media events. In 2000, an estimated 3.8 billion viewers watched the Olympics on television. The growth of the Olympics is the largest problem the Olympics face today. Although allowing professional athletes and attracting sponsorships from major international companies solved financial problems in the 1980s, the large number of athletes, media and spectators makes it difficult and expensive for host cities to organize the Olympics.

Olympic Games - Membership

Over 200 countries currently participate in the Olympics. This is a noticeably higher number than the number of countries recognised by the United Nations, which is only 192. This is because the International Olympic Committee allows nations to compete which do not meet the strict requirements for political sovereignty that many other international organisations demand. As a result, many colonies and dependencies are permitted to host their own Olympic teams and athletes even if such competitors hold the same citizenship as another member nation. Examples of this include territories such as Puerto Rico, Bermuda, and Hong Kong, all of which compete as sovereign nations despite the fact that politically they are considered part of another country and their residents do not carry citizenship from that nation. Also, since 1980, Taiwan has competed under the name "Chinese Taipei", and under a flag specially prepared by the IOC as prior to that year the People's Republic of China refused to participate in the Games because Taiwan had been competing under the name "Republic of China".

Olympic Games - Political interference

Despite what Coubertin had hoped for, the Olympics did not stop wars from happening. In fact, three Olympiads had to pass without Olympics because of war; due to World War I the 1916 Games were cancelled, and because of World War II the games of 1940 and 1944 were also skipped.

In 1972, when the Summer Games were held in Munich, West Germany, eleven members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage by Palestinian terrorists. A bungled liberation attempt led to the deaths of all of the abducted athletes and a policeman, with five of the terrorists also being killed. This event is known today as the Munich Massacre.

During the Summer Olympics in 1996 in Atlanta, USA, a bomb was set off at the Centennial Olympic Park, killing two and injuring more than 100. The bomb was planted by Eric Robert Rudolph, who is an alleged adherent of the extremist group Christian Identity, a sect that holds that white Christians are God's chosen people, and that others will be condemned to hell.

Politics also interfered with the Olympics on several other occasions, the most well-known of which was the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin; the games were used as propaganda by the German Nazis.

The Soviet Union did not participate in the Olympic movement until the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki. Instead, the Soviets organized an international sports event called Spartakiads, from 1928 onward. Many athletes from associations organized by Communists or close to them chose or were barred from participating in Olympic games and instead participated in Spartakiads.

A political incident on a smaller scale occurred at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. Two African American track-and-field athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, performed the Black Power salute on the victory stand of the 200-meter track and field race. As a result, the IOC told the USOC either to send the two athletes home, or to withdraw the complete track and field team. The USOC opted for the former.

In 1963, various newly independent nations set up a challenge to the IOC called Games of the New Emerging Forces (GANEFO), which openly espoused politics in sport. The IOC declared participants in GANEFO "personae non gratae" for the Olympic Games.

Between 1996 and 2002, Afghanistan's National Olympic Committee was suspended from the IOC because of the Taliban regime's ban on any kind of sports. Afghanistan returned to Olympic competition in 2004.

In 1956 the Games were boycotted by the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland, because of the withdrawal of the Hungarian Uprising by the Warsaw Pact. Furthermore, the Melbourne Games were boycotted by Cambodia, Egypt, Iraq, and Lebanon because of the Suez Crisis.

In 1968, 1972, and 1976, a large number of African countries threatened the IOC with a boycott, to force them to ban respectively South Africa, Rhodesia, and New Zealand. The IOC conceded in the first 2 cases, but refused in 1976 because the boycott was prompted by a New Zealand rugby union tour to South Africa, and rugby was not an Olympic sport. The countries withdrew their teams after the games had started; some African athletes had already competed. A lot of sympathy was felt for the athletes forced by their governments to leave the Olympic Village; there was little sympathy outside Africa for the governments' attitude. Twenty-two countries (Guyana was the only non-African nation) boycotted the Montreal Olympics, because New Zealand wasn't banned.

Also in 1976, Canada told the team from Taiwan that it could not compete at the Montreal Summer Olympics under the name "Republic of China", despite a compromise that would have allowed Taiwan to use the ROC flag and anthem. Taiwan refused and as a result did not participate until 1984, when it returned under the moniker "Chinese Taipei".

In 1980 and 1984, the Cold War opponents boycotted each other's games. The United States and 64 other Western nations refused to compete at the Moscow Olympics in 1980, for reason of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, but 16 other Western nations did compete at the Moscow Olympics. The Soviet Union and 14 of its Eastern Bloc partners countered by skipping the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984, arguing the safety of their athletes could not be guaranteed there.

In 1988, North Korea boycotted the Seoul Olympics to protest at not being made co-host with South Korea. Three other nations, Cuba, Ethiopia and Nicaragua (due mostly to economic problems of sending athletes to compete) stayed away in solidarity, though it was not officially announced as a boycott so as to avoid censure by the IOC.

Iran's general sporting boycott of Israel is manifest not in explicit refusal to compete (which would attract sanctions) but in withdrawals due to "injuries" and similar reasons. During the 2004 Summer Games at Athens, Greece, judoka Arash Miresmaeili intentionally over-ate, exceeding the weight limit and forfeiting his match against Israeli Ehud Vaks, the first time this had happened at the Olympics.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Modern Olympics", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki