Growing up there were two sporting events that mattered. Both were such big events they were separated by two years. They were the Football World Cup and the Olympic Games.
They were the pinnacle in sport.
The modern Olympic Games has been taking place every four years from 1896 and the Football World Cup since 1930. Few, if any other sports had a World Championship, and that was what gave an Olympic Champion so much prestige.
In the 1970’s we saw a seismic shift. In 1971 Hockey played its first World Cup competition, but it received little coverage back then. The women’s event started in 1974. In Cricket it was the Women who played their sport’s first World Cup in 1973, with the men following in 1975. In 1973 the first FINA World Championships for swimming were contested, and has taken place every two years since.
Athletics is the centrepiece event at the Olympic Games. They did not enter the World Championship fray until later, but the rumblings started prior to the 1970’s and a decision was made in that decade for their own event. As far back as 1913, the International Amateur Athletic Federation decided that the Olympic Games would serve as the World Championships for athletics. This was fine for over 50 years. Then in the late 1960s many IAAF members expressed a desire to have their own World Championships. In 1976 an Athletics World Championships separate from the Olympic Games was approved. The first event took place in 1983.
Rugby Union’s first world cup would take place in 1987. By the end of the 1980’s almost every sport had their own World Championships.
It should come as no surprise that at the same time as these world championships were under discussion, in 1968 came the first push for the Olympic Games to drop its amateur athlete restrictions. The main reason was because a number of nations, especially those in the former Eastern Bloc were running programs in which the athletes were ‘amateur,’ but were receiving full board and lodge and had everything provided for them. Other nations used the military as a mask for their athletes being to all intents and purposes ‘professional.’
The Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992 were the first to allow paid athletes to compete. The International Olympic Committee was under immense pressure to move with the times. They also realised that by allowing professionals to compete the doors would open to huge amounts of sponsorship money and revenue from television rights.
Never was the shift more evident than in the Men’s Basketball event in Barcelona. The US team, known as the “Dream Team” was made up of some of the most famous players ever to play in the NBA, including Charles Barkley, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, and Patrick Ewing. Some said it was the greatest sports team ever to be assembled. It came as no surprise that they romped to the gold medal, beating Croatia 117-85 in the final.
Did professionalism save the Olympic Games? It is hard to say if that is true. For the Games had struggled along at the start of the last century and there were strong discussions to abandon the idea following the 1920 Antwerp Games.
Then, as has been the case repeatedly in the history of the Olympic Games a couple of cities hosted truly successful events and a belief in the event was revived. That was the case in 1924 and 1928 in Paris and Amsterdam. Then despite the goings on behind the scenes, and in some cases right in front of their noses the IOC heralded the Berlin Games of 1936.
After the War the Olympics became more political than ever before. In 1952 the counting of medals won by each nation came to the fore as the West and the Soviet countries vied for World supremacy. The Games of ’56, ’60 and ’64 lifted them to where their modern day creator had always wanted them to be.
The terrorist events in Munich in 1972 changed the Olympic Games forever. The Olympic village would now have far greater security, and for the athletes would become a unique place that quite rightly only they are privy to. A special sanctuary away from the prying eye of the public and the media, where like-minded athletes can be amongst their own. The uniqueness of this set up is one that many treasure most from their Olympic experience.
The Seventies was a bad decade for the Olympic Games with the terrorism at Munich and a disastrous Games in Montreal, Canada. The African boycott in ’76 was a sign of things to come. Many nations aligned with the USA boycotted Moscow in 1980, 65 in total. Then four years later in Los Angeles 14 of the Eastern Bloc countries boycotted the USA games.
Despite the boycott in ’84 the Los Angeles Games were hugely successful. Why? Simple, corporate America threw millions of dollars at the event. They commercialised the Games. Having been faced with the Games dying after Montreal these Games finished USD$225million in the black.
That pattern has continued over the next thirty years. Atlanta has been remembered as the Games where commercialism overstepped its mark. Sydney and London have been the stand out events in the past 20 years and they have again have kept the Olympic Games alive.
However has the Olympic Games lost its place in the public psyche?
Understandably to the athletes it still holds a special place. However to some modern day athletes the title “World Champion” now means more than that of “Olympic Champion.” Although most concede they would like both!
On June 23rd it was ‘Olympic Day.’ What exactly was ‘Olympic Day’ and what does it mean?
It was interesting to see many sporting organisations leap onboard the day. We also saw Politicians try and share a slice of the limelight. Both regrettably soiling the day with what can be only described as misguided BS.
As covered in Counting the Days the United Nations has 172 designated “Days” each year, and some days have more than one cause linked to it. Maybe there will soon be a Grab-a-headline Day.
So what was Olympic Day all about? According to the three organisations, the World Health Organisation, The United Nations and the IOC who were behind the creation of such a day, it was about encouraging “individuals and communities around the world to be #HEALTHYTogether.” The premise was a good one. At a time when across the globe health is on everybody’s mind the aim was to use “the voices of Olympic athletes – voices that symbolize perseverance, dedication and endurance – qualities all individuals need during this public health challenge.”
So how did this message get so horribly lost?
We started to see quotes on Olympism and the words of Baron Pierre de Coubertin trotted out by PR people who clearly had no idea about the aim of the day. In some cases they were relevant. In others they were so far from what the IOC, UN and WHO were trying to achieve it wasn’t funny.
In this current climate to be quoting de Coubertin is an interesting one as here was a man who opposed the Winter Olympics, Team sports at the Olympics, female competitors and was none too keen on non-white competitors. In 1912 he said “Alas for the white races to be pitted against the brute might of the savage. If these other races are allowed to compete, the white man, who is the flower of civilisation, will never win another race…”
Some will argue that they were different times, and we should not judge by todays standards. That is a fair comment. However it is incumbent on those using such a person to make a point to be aware of their views, as the message they are trying to convey can become tarnished.
The ideals of de Coubertin have long been left behind. “Winning medals wasn’t the point of the Olympics. It’s the participating that counts.” This is the view of many athletes that attend the Olympic Games, knowing that they will never make the final or win a medal. Yet to those who now fund the athletic programs in many other countries the sole focus is winning medals. Their whole sporting programs are based on that fact, as is their funding from Government.
Ironically the term ‘Olympic Spirit’ is bandied about by many of those who fall in the category above, but what is the Olympic Spirit? Baron de Coubertin stated that “The Olympic Spirit is neither the property of one race nor of one age;” something that is important to remember as it is now used more for marketing purposes than to reflect those who participate. In 2008 exploring this very issue the Agence France-Presse ironically wrote: “True Olympic spirit is often found away from gold medallists with their agents and sponsorship deals — it is found in its purest sense in those that come last.”
As stated at the beginning the Olympic Games are no longer what they used to be despite the money and commercialism. They have lost some of their significance on the sporting calendar as the IOC introduce new sports to try and pull in more sponsorship dollars and stay relevant in an arena where a World Championship title has now taken precedence. The Olympic Games are still a wonderful event, but no longer do they hold such an esteemed place in the public consciousness.
So was ‘Olympic Day’ really about “individuals and communities around the world to be #HEALTHYTogether?” Or was this purely spin, to keep the postponed Olympic Games in people’s minds? While Olympians understandably and deservedly reminisced, cynics questioned the real motives behind ‘Olympic Day.’
The postponement of the Tokyo Olympic Games by a year has given the IOC the chance to reboot. Time to think about re-invigorating the Games if they are to survive beyond Paris or Los Angeles in 2024 and 2028. Certainly few Governments can afford such a commitment for two weeks of attention in the future. As suggested An Olympic Year may be the answer.
As so many were so quick to quote de Coubertin on ‘Olympic Day’ maybe it is best to finish with his words. “The Olympic Games are not just ordinary world championships but a quadrennial festival of universal youth. . . celebrated by each succeeding generation as it arrives on the threshold of adulthood.”
Maybe the Games’ future lies in those very words. Maybe the Olympic movement needs to turn its attention to it’s Youth Games and make that it’s focus. A platform on which the world can see the World Champions of the future and leaders of the future as they step across that threshold from youth to adulthood. A place where there are not yet any personal sponsorship deals, agents and managers. A place where athletes are unspoiled and can compete for the sheer joy of it. Compete with the Olympic Games three core values in their minds, ‘Excellence, Respect and Friendship.’
Maybe…
