The Injustice of Political Ploys at the Olympic Games

It is evident that hosting the Olympics games is no walk in the park. The countries trusted with this task have to spend billions to make the games a reality. Some people believe that the countries, even after spending billions of dollars benefit from the games, while others believe that the money can be spent elsewhere more efficiently. To reach a conclusion, one must study all of the different impacts in all of the different sectors the games have.

The Olympics have shown over the decades that they can be affected by political conflict. However, it seems that this is the point of the Olympics, to illustrate national pride, by competition. Bloodshed should not be the way for pride of one’s country to be shown, but it should be shown through competition, in the words of the founder of the modern Olympic movement, Pierre de

Ever since its inception in 1896, the Modern Olympics has hosted an invisible sport: politics. The Olympics calls for “a halt to all conflicts … [and to] strive towards a more peaceful world,” but politics soon spoiled its biennial message. “As the Olympics continue to dissolve into … a political competition … they no longer … justify the time and trouble,” Dave Anderson, Pulitzer Prize winner for his sports column, wrote in the New York Times in 1984. The Olympic spirit has routinely been used as an outlet for political agendas. With political and Olympic ambitions intersected, the great international sports festivity negatively affects all nations involved.

The Ancient Olympic Games took place during a time of prosperity for the nation of Greece. In fact, they contributed to the success of the Greek Empire. The Olympic Games reinforced the power of ancient rulers, brought peace with the surrounding nations, and created a reliable way to track time. These ancient games have had such an influence, that they are still continued in our modern society.

In a nutshell, the Olympics have been massively affected over the time span from 1892 to 2002. Factors that enabled this metamorphosis to take place include: political tensions between countries, economic opportunities that arose, and the social impact through the endorsement of Women’s

The modern Olympic movement was shaped by the friendly and peaceful competition going on around the world since countries did not want to invoke more war than had already happened. In document #1 the founder of the modern Olympic movement talked about how they were going to let their athletes speak for their country instead of battling and war. Meaning he wanted to be able to settle rivalries

There are quite a few factors that shaped the modern-day Olympics from 1892 to 2002. Pierre de Coubertin states that he wanted to create the Olympics to spread world peace. He does this by substituting war for friendly sports competitions (doc 1). Of course, there were some bumps in the road while trying to achieve this utopia. Some factors that have changed the Olympics are the allowing of women being able to compete in the Olympics, women’s suffrage, nationalism, wars, and economic conditions (doc 2-7).

Bringing politics into the Olympics may cause the rivalries and tensions to increase instead of peacefully deescalating. There had been previous political interference in the Olympics, the games of 1916 and the subsequent two, but all three were results from the

As a sporting mega-event, the Olympic Games have numerous social impacts on the people, not only on those from the host country, but on individuals all over the globe.

The Olympics have always been a way to bring people together. Even when the city-states were fighting each other, they put aside their differences and competed peacefully. Mark Cartwright states, “The Games started with a procession which went from the host town of Elis to Olympia…and on arrival at Olympia all athletes and officials swore an oath to follow the established rules of the competitions and to compete with honour and respect” (Cartwright). Basically, the athletes were promoting unity among the city states by swearing to uphold their oath of truce during the games. This unity has come into our modern games when athletes from warring countries can enjoy one another’s company, even if their countries hate each other. According to the author of the website International Olympic

"The Olympics are a wonderful metaphor for world cooperation, the kind of international competition that's wholesome and healthy, an interplay between countries that represents the best in all of us,” said John Williams, the composer for theme music for the Olympics (8). The Olympic Games are international sports festivals that began in ancient Greece. The first ancient Olympics can be traced back to 776 BC when people held this religious festival to honour Zeus, the father of all the Greek gods and goddesses. The participants were male citizens from Greece, and these athletes participated in only one event — foot race. Unfortunately, this ancient Olympics did not last forever. The first olympic in 776 BC in Olympia was an significant event

Are the Olympic Games a waste of money? The Olympic Games are an international event where athletes from every country come together to compete. Many fans and spectators attend this event to cheer for their country. The number of spectators keeps on increasing every four years as the event gets more popular. As this is an international event the cost of hosting it is huge. The total output of the 1976 Montreal Games was $1.48 billion whilst the 2012 London Games was a total of $14.6 billion. Stadiums are built for different disciplines, national representatives are invited to perform in the opening and closing ceremony, as a result the stadiums need a high level of security. Where the hosting country receives the money from, whom it will benefit and what it does to the country, will be the three main points I will be covering in this essay.

The Olympic games are held to show pride and diversity of the many different countries throughout the world through sports. The Olympics are held to bring all countries together to meet. When people from around the world are watching the Olympic games, they are not rooting for one individual athlete, but for their country. The Olympic games should not have a permanent host site because it is an opportunity to showcase that country to the world, gives countries economic gains, and provides an opportunity for infrastructure improvements.

Despite determining to achieve the “joy of effort” among the athletes, as well as the people who are interested in and watch the Games, the IOC constantly reminds the public of the significance and the power of winning the Games and receiving the medals. As found in many official Olympics websites from the Sochi Olympics 2014, London Olympics 2012, dated back to Beijing Olympics 2008, and also more, the ranking of the medals for each country could easily be located, while the Olympic Charter (2015) itself states that “the IOC and the OCOG [the Organising Committees for the Olympic Games] shall not draw up any global ranking per country” (as cited in Davis, 2014). Even though the instinct to win might already be innate or pre-constructed in humans, clearly, the act of the IOC in illustrating the medal rank of each country can influence the degree of awareness in the concept of winning and losing, as well as the physical and emotional aspects of an intense competition resulted from nationalism. Therefore, regardless of the goal of the IOC to uphold the ideals of the Olympics, the standards cannot be completely achieved because the IOC also violate the value of “joy of effort”

The Olympic Games are a set of friendly competitions that bring countries from all around the world together, but many social, political, and economic problems in the past and present including racial and sexual discrimination and apartheid have prevented the Olympic Games from fulfilling their promise to bring countries together.