Olympic Games

1. Submitted by: Submitted to:
NAME: ARPIT Dr. Priyanka Sharma
COURSE: BCA
ENROLLMENT NO.A50504822040

2. THE OLYMPIC GAMES
• Objectives
• In the two lessons on the Olympics you should learn
about:-
• The History of the Ancient Games and modern games
• The advantages and disadvantages of hosting this event.
• The controversies surrounding various Games in the
modern era.
• The importance of The Olympic games as an
international event.

3. THE OLYMPIC GAMES
• A N C I E N T O LY M P I C GA M E S
• The first recorded Ancient Olympic Games were in 776BC. They lasted for approximately
1000 years. Then in 394AD they were banned by the Roman Emperor, Theodosius.
He forbade any pagan festivals, which included the Olympic Games.
• The Games were held in Olympia. A village in a sacred fertile valley, approximately 500km
south west of Mount Olympus, after which it is named. Originally, organised as a religious, sporting
and cultural festival, the Ancient Olympic Games were held in honour of Zeus, the father of the gods.
• The Ancient Greeks believed that both the body and mind needed discipline. They believed
that those who practiced this discipline could best honour Zeus. The perfect human would
come from a “marriage of mind and muscle”.
• The name “Olympic” is derived from Mount Olympus, the home of the Greek gods. The Games of
Olympia were held in honour of Zeus. They were held every four years. This time span has become
known as an Olympiad. Only Greek citizens were allowed to compete. For centuries Greece was
divided into independent states. These states were often at war with one another. However, during
the Olympic festival there was a guaranteed official truce, called the Ekecheiria. This allowed athletes
to travel safely from their cities, across the Greek Empire, to take part in the Games. A violation of this
truce was punishable by death. And yes they
had to compete naked!!!!

4. THE OLYMPIC GAMES
• THE BIRTH OF THE NEW GAMES
• It was Baron Pierre de Coubertin of France who dreamt up this ambitious project.
Drawing inspiration from the ancient Olympic Games, plus from Much Wenlock!
Coubertin decided to create the modern Olympics and founded the International
Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1894 in Paris. This new committee set itself the
objective of organising the first modern games.
• The first modern Olympic Games in 1896 featured many references to the original
Greek Games
• They were held in Athens as a reminder that the Olympic Games originated in
Greece.
• Most of the sports on the programme of the ancient Olympic Games were echoed
in the modern Games. The organisers even went as far as to invent the marathon

5. THE OLYMPIC GAMES
• De Coubertin liked the way that sport was organised in Britain and visited lots of
events including the Henley Regatta – this combined with the discovery of the ruins
of the original stadium in Olympia gave him the push to start the Olympics.
• He believed that the games would promote world peace and harmony as
seen in his quote which is still displayed on the scoreboards at each games.
• “The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to
take part. Just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the
struggle”
The IOC which was originally chosen by the Baron is now huge and has
representatives from all the countries who take part. They decide where the games
will take part and chose the city 6 years before the event.
• At first not many cities wanted the ‘honour’ as the games are extremely expensive
and usually made a loss. This changed after 1984 when because of marketing and
sponsorship the games resulted in a ‘surplus’
• It now costs nearly as much to make a bid as host the games!

6. THE OLYMPIC GAMES
• Rings, motto and flame —Transmitting the
values of Olympism through symbols :
universality, excellence, peace and openness
to others.
• The Rings
• Five interlacing rings to illustrate the
universality of the Olympic Movement and
the Olympic Games — Rings and flag
proposed by Pierre de Coubertin in 1914 —
Presence of the rings and flag at the
Olympic Games — Symbol recognised all
over the world.
• Rings represent the five continents and the
colours are in every flag in the world.
• The Motto
• The Olympic motto is made up of three Latin
words :
• Which means :
• FASTER — HIGHER — STRONGER
• The Flame
• Link between the Games of antiquity and
the modern Games — Message of peace
and friendship — Lighting of the flame and
organisation of the relay.

7. THE OLYMPIC GAMES
•The Olympic games were the first major
international sporting event and they are still the
most important and successful of all the events that
take place.
•However, things have not always run smoothly and
nearly all of the recent one have been affected by
problems of one sort or another.

8. THE BERLIN GAMES 1936
• This was a games dominated by politics –
Hitler was in power and wanted the games to
be a propaganda exercise for his ideals and
beliefs. One of these was that the Aryan
master race – that people who were blond,
fair and true Germans – were superior to all
others.
• However Jesse Owens a black USA athlete
won 4 gold medals and this along with many
other black athletes winning medals foiled
Hitler's plans.
• The USA team nearly hadn’t gone to the
games because they were concerned about
what was happening to Jews and Black
people in Germany under Hitler but this
ended up being the best way to counteract
his ideas to the world at large.
• It did make the IOC think much more
carefully about who to let host the games
from then on.

9. THE MEXICO GAMES -1968
• Mexico was a very controversial games for
several reasons. Firstly it was the first one to
be held at high altitude – helps athletes who
train at altitude and those in short explosive
events.
• Secondly Mexico was a very poor country
and people worried that they would not be
able to afford the games – they were still
paying the money off many years later.
• There were also several black American
athletes who gave a black power salute
during their medal ceremonies. This was to
protest at the way black people were
treated in America. Two athletes were sent
home by the American team.

10. THE MUNICH GAMES - 1972
• On the morning of September 5, with six days
left in the Games, the worst tragedy in Olympic
history hit. Eight Arab terrorists stormed into
the Olympic village and raided the apartment
building that housed the Israeli contingent.
Two Israeli athletes were killed and nine more
were seized as hostages. They demanded the
release of over 200 Palestinians serving time in
Israeli jails, along with two renowned German
terrorists.
• After a day of unsuccessful negotiations, the
terrorists collected the hostages and headed
for the military airport in Munich for a flight
back to the Middle East. At the airport, German
sharpshooters opened fire, killing three of the
Palestinians. A horrifying gun battle ensued,
claiming the lives of all nine of the hostages,
along with one policeman and two terrorists.

11. THE MUNICH GAMES - 1972
• Athletic competition was suspended for 24
hours. During a day of mourning, a
memorial service was held at the main
stadium in front of 80,000 spectators. In a
controversial decision, IOC president Avery
Brundage declared, "the Games must go
on." And so they did, with the Olympic
and national flags flying at half-mast.
• The most memorable footage from
Munich should have been that of
American swimmer Mark Spitz winning
his seventh gold medal or 17-year-old
Russian gymnast Olga Korbut wowing the
world on the balance beam. Instead, we're
left with disturbing photos of terrorists in
ski masks and of a policeman standing on
the roof of the compound waiting to
pounce with a semi-automatic weapon.
And ultimately we're left with the video of
ABC announcer Jim McKay uttering his
fateful words, "They're all gone."

12. THE MONTREAL GAMES 1976
• South Africa had been banned from Tokyo
Olympics because of apartheid.
• A New Zealand rugby team had toured South
Africa and therefore upset African Nations.
• A total of 30 nations , mostly African,
boycotted the Montreal Games as a
consequence.
• This was the start of a long period of boycotts
for various political reasons.
• The other reason that Montreal was notable
was the cost of the games – because of
increased security after the Munich Games. It
took Montreal many years to pay off the debt.

13. THE MOSCOW GAMES - 1980
• The choice of Moscow was controversial due to a
poor human rights record.
• The Soviet Union had invaded Afghanistan prior
to the Games and when the games were due to
begin they were still occupying the country.
• Many countries demanded that the Soviets
withdrew but they refused – many countries
boycotted the games as a protest.
• As a result a total of 52 nation, including the USA
and Canada boycotted and also individuals from
many other teams decided that their consciences
would not allow them to go.
• Many people felt that this devalued the Moscow
Games particularly as the American team was
always very strong – i.e. that the standard wasn’t
as high.

14. THE LOS ANGELES GAMES - 1984
• As the venue is chosen 6 years in
advance the IOC could not avoid
America staging the Games after they
had boycotted the Moscow Games.
• The Soviet Union along with 14 other
nations retaliated in turn by boycotting
the Los Angeles Games. Security was the
excuse but in reality it was tit for tat.
• Another excuse was that the Games
were over commercialised and for the
first time ever the Games ran at a large
profit for the host city.
• This was against Communist ideals and
thus was a perfect excuse to boycott.

15. THE SEOUL GAMES - 1988
• Seoul is in S Korea and there had been a
war between them and N Korea –
situation was still bad in 88.
• The IOC was criticized for awarding
Seoul the games – there was a lot of
tension that the facilities wouldn’t be
ready and that N Korea would interfere.
• In the end there was little disruption
and the games were quite successful.
• There were 5 boycotts including N
Korea and Cuba but new rules meant
that the countries who boycotted
would not be involved in future
decisions.
• The biggest controversy was drug
related – in all ten athletes were
banned after testing positive.
• The most famous was Canadian Ben
Johnson who won the 100m but
was stripped of his title 2 days later.

16. THE BARCELONA GAMES - 1992
• After all the previous controversial
events the 1992 were just about
incident free.
• This is basically because the old
Soviet Union had ceased to exist
and the E. European Communist
countries had collapsed and all
these countries could now
compete individually.
• South Africa were also welcomed
back to fold as they had ended
apartheid and entered a mixed race
team.
• There were over 12,000 athletes
competing in 257 medal events.
• Drugs were still an issue and 3
Britons were sent home when they
tested positive.

17. THE ATLANTA GAMES - 1996
• Controversy raged before the games
even started – it was considered that
the time of the games would result in
potential danger for the athletes
because of high humidity and
temperatures but Atlanta had spent 6
yrs getting ready for the biggest
games yet – so it was decided to carry
on.
• Measures were taken to help the
athletes – fans blowing fine mists of
water – particularly used in the
equestrian events and marathons.
• There were problems due to the large
numbers of media and spectators
which meant crushes at many of the
venues – athletes were often held up
getting to their event.
• Drugs were a problem – Michelle
Smith won 3 gold medals but insisted
it was not due to drugs – 1997 tested
positive and eventually banned in
1999.
• On day 9 there was a tragedy – a
pipe bomb blast in Centennial Park
(right next to the stadium) killed 1
person and injured 11. This brought
new fears about the games being a
terrorist target so security was
greatly increased.

18. THE NAGANO GAMES - 1998
• These winter Olympics were the first
ones in which technological
developments created big
controversy.
• Dutch skaters used revolutionary
skates with hinged mechanisms and a
one piece body suit therefore much
more aerodynamic.
• They presented the innovations to the
International Speed skating Union for
approval 48hrs before the races so no
one could copy them. They went on to
win the first 4 places in the 5000m
race.
• The USA and Canadian teams also
protested when the winner of the luge
Georg Hackle wore aerodynamic
boots which shaved 300th of a second
off his time.

19. THE SYDNEY GAMES - 2000
• Thought to be one of the most
successful and friendly games of recent
times. Very little in the way of
controversy or major incident.
• The biggest controversy was the
withdrawal of 27 athletes and 13 team
officials from the Chinese team just
before the games. People thought that
this was because they didn’t want to risk
drugs tests finding positive results.
• Drug testing at the games were the
strictest ever and also the most
advanced ever and low levels of
performance particularly in the
marathon was evidence that less
cheating had taken place.
• Steve Redgrave also won his 5th Gold
medal in rowing – a record in an
endurance event.

20. Hosting the Games
•There is never a shortage of volunteers to host the
Olympics, or other international events, as the
advantages are seen to outweigh the disadvantages.
•ADVANTAGES
• A likelihood of making a profit through sponsorship, media
rights and marketing/merchandise.
• The provision of updated or new facilities that can be used
again later.
• Raising the profile and reputation of the hosts in the eyes of
the rest of the world.

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Hosting the Games
• Disadvantages.
•Security risk and the threat of a terrorist attack.
•Boycotts and protests for political reasons.
•High costs and expenses to provide facilities and
security.
Security bill for London's 2012 Olympics to hit £1.5bn - triple the original estimate
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