The Olympic Games : Athletes

The Olympic games originated in Athens in 776 B.C. The more popular modern day Olympic games began nearly 2300 years later in 1896. The games no longer represented a religious festival, but a sports competition instead. The games can be studied via multiple aspects such as political, social, and economic, but this paper will concentrate on the economic aspect of the games and more specifically, the macroeconomic impacts the games possess.

The modern Olympic movement has been shaped by many differentiating factors over the years. It has been altered by social, political, and economic factors. More specifically, warring times, changes to social structures, and economic activity that varies by country have been the overall leading factors that have shaped the Olympics over the years.

The NCAA’s policy on amateurism has been around since the creation of the NCAA by Theodore Roosevelt. This policy was created to prevent teams from hiring ringers to play in games and to limit point shaving/corruption in collegiate sports. Currently, prospective student athletes have to be certified as an amateur by the NCAA Clearinghouse in order to compete in any competitions. Over the last decade, there has been an increase in the National Collegiate Athletic Association or NCAA’s policy on Amateurism. As previously stated, this policy has been around since the creation of the NCAA, but the elements of the policy are almost the same. According to the NCAA Manual, a student-athlete is considered an amateur if they have not: “signed a contract with a professional team, received payment for participating in athletics, played with professionals, received benefits from an agent or prospective agent, or agreed to be represented by an agent” (NCAA, 2015).

The Olympics were revived in 1896 thanks to Pierre de Coubertin. Since its reemergence in 1896, the modern Olympic movement has been shaped and influenced politically through the tensions between countries, economically through financial gain opportunity, and socially by promoting women’s rights. Another document I would like to have seen would be one containing a record of third world countries that have attended the Olympics. This document would have shown how wealth effects and shapes the modern Olympics.

As the governing body over collegiate sports, the NCAA demands athletes to maintain an amateur status while competing throughout their collegiate career. With global recruiting becoming more common, determining the amateur status of prospective student-athletes can be challenging. All student-athletes, including international students, are required to adhere to NCAA amateurism requirements to remain eligible for intercollegiate competition.(NCAA) To maintain amateur status, student athletes must not obtain contracts with professional teams, salary for participating in athletics, prize money above actual and necessary expenses, benefits from an agent or prospective agent, agreement to be represented by an agent, nor delayed initial full-time collegiate enrollment to participate in organized sports competition. They are also unable to tryout, practice, or compete with a professional team.(NCAA)

In the Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia’s definition of “Amateur” it states, during the early 20th century “the American intercollegiate athletic system… adopted amateurism, claiming it developed competitors who were morally superior to professionals” (“Amateur”). Amateurism is the concept that athletes should compete without payment. Until recently, playing collegiate sports as an amateur was thought to be a noble calling. As time surpassed, college sports became a commercialized industry, generating billions of dollars in revenue. When this became apparent, the implementation of athletic scholarships became more relevant. The athletic scholarship seemed to be a more than fair way to delight athletes with some sort of incentive to ensure

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).

Amateurism is defined as one who engages in an art, science, study, or athletic activity as a pastime rather than as a profession. ("Definition of AMATEURISM", 2017). In sports terms, an amateur is an athlete who has never accepted money, or who accepts money under restrictions specified by a regulatory body, for participating in a competition. According to the NCAA, amateurism is the bedrock principle of college athletics and the NCAA. Maintaining amateurism is crucial to preserving an academic environment in which acquiring a quality education is the first priority. ("Amateurism", 2017). Though the argument on whether or not to pay student athletes is nothing new and has endured the test of time. The NCAA has remained strong in their

Throughout the history of the Olympic games, there has been many changes on how the Olympic Games has come to be interpreted and how they are generally viewed in our modern era. These views range from, Nationalism fueled by the Olympic Games, Women trying to create equality through the Olympic Games, Economic supremacy shown by the Olympic games and the responsibilities held by countries and the self-preservation of a country when presenting the Olympic games. Each view states an interpretation of the Olympic games through the years of 1892-2002 showing a distinct view on the Olympic games depending on the times they were hosted at such as when the Olympic Games were hosted when women weren’t equal to men or who the Games were hosted

When it comes to the world of sports, all sports, many topics come into debate when discussing the day to day issues facing athletes and their chosen careers. Many concerns with athletes are usually two sided and are black and white arguments without much gray area in between. Most of these issues with sport revolve around the athletes who play them. Such problems that sports spectators argue about are the leagues and athletes choices and if they are beneficiary to the sport that they consume. Many athletes of all levels make great sacrifices for the sport that they play,

With the multi-billions of dollars that the Olympics earn and spend, it’s certainly is in the best interest of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to remain under the circumstances of keeping sport open to professional athletes, not only financially, but as well as the majority of their viewers. In this position statement, I will use historic International Olympic Committee guidelines (1964) and official IOC reports as a basis for proving that professional athletes should be allowed to participate in the Olympic Games.

Although the original ancient Olympic Games can be traced back to 776 B.C, Homer’s Iliad indicates they may have existed as early as the twelfth century BC. The Games were then continued for twelve centuries and were devoted to Olympian deities. Olympia turned into the site of these memorable ancient Olympic games that scattered the seeds for the largest global sporting events of current times, the Modern Olympics. The location of the Ancient Olympics is situated in the western part of Peloponnese. The Ancient Olympic Games continued until 393 A.D when Emperor Theodosius I of Rome discontinued them. There were not any more Olympic games for fifteen hundred years before they were resurrected in 1896 in the city of Athens. The man in charge of the recreation of the Olympic games was a Frenchman named Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who introduced the thought in 1894. He proposed to stage the games in Paris in 1900 but representatives, from thirty-four nations were so captivated with the idea that they persuaded him to move the Games up to 1896 and have Athens serve as the host.

While there are clear contrasts between the ancient and the modern Olympics there is still the respect for the athlete striving to perform at the highest level. Today, the Olympic Games are the world's largest carnival of athletic skill and competitive spirit. They are displays of nationalism, commerce, and politics. These important elements of the Olympics are not a modern invention, as the first Olympics was in 776 BC in Ancient Greece. After 1503 years, in 1896 the Olympic Games were recreated as what we know today. The Ancient Games were once dedicated to the Olympian God, Zeus Olympios and were staged on the ancient plains of Olympia, which is also how the word ‘Olympics’ originated from. The modern Olympics is the largest international sporting event, which feature both summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of respectable athletes from over 200 different nations compete against one another. There are clear contrast between the modern and ancient forms of the Olympic Games regarding uniforms, participants, religion, events, politics and the concept of amateurism. However both the Ancient Greeks and the people in the modern world still respect and admire the athletics achievements of the participants making the Olympics the most highly regarded contest in sport.

The 2012 London Olympic Games, lasting from 25 July to 12 August 2012, was one of the largest events ever hosted in the UK. During this world-wide sport event, 4 billion people watched the opening ceremonies on television; more than 10,000 athletes from over 200 countries participated; 20 million people visited the city; and approximately $14 billion were generated (Kubo, 2014).

The Olympics are a set of games that occur every 4 years in the winter and the summer. These games bring countries from all around the world together for friendly competition.