The Olympic games, the face of the World every four years

Résumé du document

This report will be limited to the modern era of the Olympic Games but we need to know the full history of this world event in order to understand all the characteristics of the Games. This history began 3000 years ago in 776 BC in classical Greece with the religious purpose of celebrating physical excellence. The values of the competitors were described in terms of honor, patriotism and altruism. Historians and writers announced that the foundation and ethos of the ancient Olympic Games were the religion, the country and the art. The Ancient Games were settled in 5 days with a lot of event such as the pentathlon, a chariot and horse race or running races. With the dreams of social peace and domestic harmony, Pierre de Coubertin met different people of different areas to create and organize the recent Olympic Games in 1896. At the same time he reached the presidency of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). These Modern Games were launched with Olympian Ideologies such as the notion of amateurism with the "strict amateur code" defended by Pierre de Coubertin. A high ideology of peace and respect were present between the athletes during the competition. The first Olympic Games in 1896 are thus the starting point of this World event which is becoming more and more important with every event. Thus, according to Lucas John A., there were only 245 athletes from 14 different countries in 1896 against around 10 000 athletes from 197 countries one century later in Atlanta. The event is becoming more and more diversified with only 43 events in 1896 against 271 in 1996. Year after year, the Olympic Games receive a bigger coverage by spectators or by the Media with more than 16000 journalists in Sydney in 2000. The Olympic Games are now a big world event, hosted every four years and this event requires a well structured organization, the IOC. There can be a big stake for countries in the hosting of the Olympic Games in political, social or and especially economic areas. Olympian values are espoused in the world in all continents, allowing people to show their opinions or to protest against the host country. We are now developing all these characteristics of this world event helped by the example of the last Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008 and with the case study of the next Olympic Games of London 2012.

Extraits

[...] For example, the rule 61 from this charter maintains IOC power over all publicity and advertising and rule 38 gives the IOC veto power over other important meetings or events taking place in the host city, neighbouring areas, and Olympic venues for a four-week period. We can see that the Olympic Movement will have a strong control in the Olympic Games in terms of organisation or commercial and finance. To control the commercial aspect, the Olympic Movement has established the IOC Marketing commission in 1983. According to the Olympic official website, “Olympic marketing should help perpetuate the work of the Olympic Movement, by providing resources, programmes and financial support. [...]

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[...] These Games will stimulate transformations of the built environment. In a direct impact, constructing stadiums allow to support the local economy as a whole in construction workers or purchasing materials from local suppliers for example. The indirect impact may be an increased tourism after the Games or an attracting place for business for example. In the case of the Beijing Games in 2008, the economic impacts cannot be estimate in a full study because these Games are too recent to analyse for example the long term effects. [...]

[...] In this sense, Olympic Games are contests between individuals but in fact each athlete is representing one national team chosen by their federations. They are representing their national flag, for example during the opening ceremony by walking in the stadium behind their national flag and also showing their identity to the entire world. So, Olympic Games are a contest between countries represented by individual athletes who defend their nation. This worldwide competition between the different countries can be exacerbate by the nations which promised big price money for athletes who returned from the Games with a medal. [...]

[...] IV The Social consequences We already saw that Olympic Games are a major worldwide event with enormous impacts on different areas. And the Games have also an impact on people and citizens in their every day life throughout the virtue of fair play which signifies a cultural code of behaviour not only in sport but also in the worlds of business, public life, and international trade for example. These values are a key event in the promotion of social cohesion and especially the national cohesion. [...]