The Olympic Games and South Africa
What are the Olympic games?
The Olympic Games (according to Wikipedia) is an international event featuring a variety of winter
and summer sports. This also includes the Paralympic games where athletes with disabilities can
compete for gold, silver and bronze medals.
The games take place every four years in different countries all over the globe. The Ancient Olympic
Games took part in Greece from 776 BC to 393 AD.
Ancient Olympic Games
These competitions were held in Olympia, Ancient Greece in hour of the god Zeus. They also
ereected a huge statue of Zeus to stand guard over the proceedings. Sadly, this statue no longer
exists. There are however detailed desciptions and images on old coins. The statue was created of
ivory and gold plated bronze.
The athletes would gather every four years to compete and a peace truce would be declared so that
people could travel safely to Greece. People came together from all over to watch, and also to
display their works of art and waeres at the Olympic Games.
The winners received laurel leaves arranged into whreaths. They also received free lodging and food
for life and were heroes of their respective countries. They were heralded in poems and other
pieces of literature.
Interestingly the games are said to have started from a foot race for young women to honour the
Greek goddess Hera. Later on only free men who could speak Greek were allowed to take part. In
the beginning, there was only one event, a sprint the length of the stadium, and later on this was
lengthened to approximately a 3 mile race.
As the years passed, more sports were added, boxing, wrestling and so on. The sporting events
were very brutal and vicious (maybe because it was male orientated) and the competitors competed
in the nude as a celebration of the male body, which was covered in olyve oil to make it more
appealing to the crowds.
The ancient Olympic Games went on for about 1200 years and were abolished because of religious
reasons by Theodosius I, a Christian Roman emperor.
Modern Olympic Games
About 1500 later, a Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin revived the Olympic Games. He did this purely
because he wanted to revive interest in sport. At a meeting of the Union des Sports Athlétiques in
Paris on November 25, 1892, Coubertin stated,
“Let us export our oarsmen, our runners, our fencers into other lands. That is the true Free Trade
of the future; and the day it is introduced into Europe the cause of Peace will have received a new
and strong ally. It inspires me to touch upon another step I now propose and in it I shall ask that
the help you have given me hitherto you will extend again, so that together we may attempt to
realise [sic], upon a basis suitable to the conditions of our modern life, the splendid and
beneficent task of reviving the Olympic Games.”
After lobbying for a few years, de Coubertin got enough interest in the idea of the Olympic Games’
return that a committee was formed: The International Olympic Comittee.
History of the Modern Games
The first games in 1896 was sponsored by a wealthy architect and was a huge success, much more so
than the second games in 1900, which was a failure as it was part of the World Exhibition and poorly
organised. The next event was in 1904 and not hugely successful because of a fight between the
two proposed host cities, Chicago and St Louis.
In 1908 London was the host city, and almost failed because of bickering between the British and
other countries regarding the rules and regulations. The Swedes had a well organised Olympics in
1912. Although all wars were interrupted with a truce due to the Games, this tradition was not
honoured with the modern Olympics. The 1916 Games were canceled due to the World War 1.
Because of the devastation of the First World War, the 1920 games was not a big success and was
held in Belgium. The losers of the war were not allowed to compete. This included Germany,
Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary and Turkey.
In 1924, both the Summer and Winter Olympics were held in Paris. Although this Olympics Games
was counted as a success, again the behaviour of the host country led to some countries lobbying for
the end of all Olympics.
The 1928 Olympics was held in Amsterdam and was successful, but moving across the Atlantic in
1932, the Great Depression put a damper on the Games. The games in Los Angeles saw the
introduction of a photo finish camera and automatic timing.
When Berlin was chosen for the 1936 Olympics, the rest of the world was still oblivious to the
potential danger of Hitler’s coming to power. Although the Jews asked for a boycott, it went ahead
anyway. It was the first televised Olympics.
Japan won the hosting for the 1940 Olympics, but it was revoked when they invaded China. In 1948,
London got the chance to host the Games, although public opinion was that it was a waste of
money. It went well, although a few communist athletes used this opportunity to defect to the
west, as this was the first time the communist countries were allowed to compete.
Scandinavia did such a good job of organising the Olympics in 1952 that some people suggested that
all future games be hosted there. It was also the first year USSR took part.
The Games in 1956 moved to Melbourne, Australia but was hampered by two boycotts and was not
well attended. The Pope was one of the most famous spectators in 1960 at the Rome Olympics.
1964, and the Games in Tokyo went on without a hitch. In 1968, in Mexico, the Olympics was
disrupted by political unrest and strikes. It also saw the introduction of sex tests for women.
Montreal hosted the Games in 1976, Africa refused to take part and due to bad planning, the city of
Montreal suffered great financial loss.
In 1980, the boycotts went on when Jimmy Carter pulled the American teams out of the Moscow
Olympics in protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The Moscow spectators also rivalled
the French as the wortst spectators in the history of the games.
Following ‘tradition’ the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles was boycotted in a revenge action by the
Soviets. It didn’t stop the Games as going down in history as very successful!
1988 saw the Games in Seoul, which was boycotted by North Korea and a few other nations, but
they got top marks for hospitality.
1992 in Barcelona, South Africa took part again. Estonia took part as independent states and after
all the political upheaval of the past Olympics, it was a welcome relief to all participants.
1996 took place in the USA and it was the first time the Summer games was staged in a different
year than the Winter games. Sidney hosted the 2000 games and it was only the second time that
the games were hosted in the Southern Hemisphere.
The Olympics went home in 2004 to Greece, Athens and was hugely successful with 201 countries
taking part. The motto was “Welcome Home”. The 2008 Olympics took part in Beijing. More than
11000 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees took part in this event. China also won the
most gold medals (51). There was criticism about the host city, because of China’s human rights
record and there were some protests during the torch relay.
