Olympic Games

V

Ceremonies

The Olympic Games have always included a number of ceremonies, many of which emphasize the themes of international friendship and peaceful cooperation. The opening ceremony has always included the parade of nations, in which the teams from each nation enter the main stadium as part of a procession. The Greek team always enters first, to commemorate the ancient origins of the modern Games, and the team of the host nation always enters last. The opening ceremony has evolved over the years into a complex extravaganza, with music, speeches, and pageantry. It is eagerly anticipated and well attended.

The torch relay, in which the Olympic Flame symbolizes the transmission of Olympic ideals from ancient Greece to the modern world, was introduced as part of the opening ceremony at the 1936 Summer Games in Berlin, Germany. In the relay, the torch is lit in Olympia, Greece, and is carried over several weeks or months from there to the host city by a series of runners. After the last runner lights the Olympic Flame in the main Olympic stadium (considered a great honor), the host country’s head of state declares the Games officially open, and doves are released to symbolize the hope of world peace.

Two other important ceremonial innovations had appeared earlier at the 1920 Games in Antwerp, Belgium. The Olympic Flag, with its five interlocking rings of different colors against a white background, was flown for the first time. The five rings represent unity among the nations of Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia, and Europe. Another innovation occurring in 1920 was the first reciting of the Olympic Oath, taken in the name of all the athletes by a member of the host’s team. The oath asserts the athletes’ commitment to the ideals of sportsmanship in competition.

Medal ceremonies are also an important part of the Games. After each individual event during the Games, medals are awarded in a ceremony to the first-, second-, and third-place finishers. The ceremony occurs after each event, when these competitors mount a podium to receive gold (actually gold-plated), silver, and bronze medals. While the national flags of all three competitors are hoisted, the national anthem of the winner’s country is played. Some critics have suggested that because the medal ceremony seems to contradict the IOC’s avowed internationalism, these national symbols be replaced by the hoisting of the Olympic Flag and the playing of the official Olympic Hymn.

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Originally there was another parade of nations during the closing ceremonies of the Games. At the end of the 1956 Summer Games in Melbourne, Australia, however, the athletes broke ranks and mingled together to celebrate the occasion. This custom was continued in subsequent Games. After the athletes join in the main Olympic stadium in celebration, the president of the IOC invites the athletes and spectators to meet again at the site of the next Games. The IOC president then declares the Games ended, and the Olympic Flame is extinguished.

VI

Beginnings

After they had achieved national independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1829, the Greeks sought repeatedly to revive the Olympic Games of ancient times in order to emphasize their ancient heritage. Their Games, which were limited to ethnic Greeks, were unsuccessful, were staged sporadically, and gained little international attention. They ceased entirely in 1889. Pierre de Coubertin succeeded in his effort to reestablish the Games primarily because his conception of the Games was international rather than nationalistic. Although earlier in his career he had been interested in sports as a way to improve the military preparedness of France, he eventually envisioned them as an instrument to overcome conflicts among nations.

Coubertin had begun developing his ideas for an international sports competition in the 1880s. In 1894 he invited delegates to come to Paris, France, to discuss amateur sports at an international athletic congress. The conference hosted 78 delegates from nine countries. During the conference Coubertin used art and music with classical themes to influence the delegates. When he surprised them with a proposal to revive the Olympic Games of classical times, they voted unanimously to begin the modern cycle.

Coubertin wanted the modern Olympic Games to feature both ancient and modern sports. The discus event, for instance, symbolized continuity with the past, because the ancient Greeks had practiced the sport. Bicycle races, on the other hand, were a more recent sporting innovation that represented modernity. The marathon race was meant to commemorate the distance from the village of Marathon to Athens, run by a Greek soldier in 490 bc to announce a Greek victory over the invading Persians. The actual distance was slightly less than the current marathon distance of 42.2 km (26.2 mi). (The longest race of the ancient Olympics was about 1,000 m [about 1,100 yd].)

Instability in the Greek government threatened preparations for the 1896 Games, but Coubertin traveled to Athens and enlisted support from the Greek royal family to help organize the event. Although there were then no NOCs to choose athletes and send them to the Games, Coubertin knew many European and American sportsmen, whom he convinced to form national teams. Roughly half of the American team came from Princeton University because a friend of Coubertin’s, William Milligan Sloane, taught history there. Fewer than 300 athletes competed in the 1896 Games, and there was very little mention of the Games in the international press, but there was enough momentum for Coubertin to persuade the IOC to continue the quadrennial series.

VII

Summer Olympics

A

The First Modern Games

The 1896 Games included events in cycling, fencing, gymnastics, target shooting, swimming, tennis, track and field, weightlifting, and wrestling. American athletes dominated the Games, which were considered a success by both spectators and participants. The Games came to an appropriate conclusion when a Greek athlete, Spyridon Louis, won the marathon race.

B

1900s Through 1920s

Coubertin was disappointed by the public response to the 1900 Games in Paris and the 1904 Games in St. Louis, Missouri, because both were held within international fairs that attracted more attention than the Olympics. In 1906 a special Olympic Games was staged in Athens over Coubertin’s objections. Although the Games were successful, the results have never been considered part of official Olympic history. The 1908 Games were held in London, England, and the rivalry between the British and American teams was intense, culminating when British officials carried Italian marathon runner Dorando Pietri across the finish line after he collapsed near the end of the race. This help ensured that American Johnny Hayes came in second. After American officials protested, however, Hayes was declared the winner.

At the 1912 Games in Stockholm, Sweden, American Jim Thorpe won both the pentathlon and the decathlon only to have his medals revoked in 1913 when it became known that he had once played semiprofessional baseball. (The IOC restored Thorpe’s medals and official victories in 1982.) The first Olympic swimming events for women were also held in 1912 and were dominated by two Australians, Fanny Durack and Wilhelmina Wylie. James Sullivan, who ran the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) at the time, disapproved of women’s sports and did not permit American women to swim in 1912 (they were permitted to swim beginning in 1920).

World War I (1914-1918) forced the cancellation of the 1916 Games, planned for Berlin, Germany. Four years later, sympathy for Belgium, which had been devastated by the German invasion during the war, induced the IOC to award the 1920 Games to Antwerp. In 1920 Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi, nicknamed the Flying Finn, won three of his nine career Olympic gold medals, with victories in the 10,000-meter race, the individual cross-country race, and the team cross-country race.

At the 1924 Games in Paris, Nurmi and American swimmer Johnny Weissmuller were the outstanding athletes. Nurmi’s major victories included wins in the 1,500-meter and 5,000-meter races. Weissmuller won the 100-meter and 400-meter freestyle races and was a member of the winning 4 × 200-meter freestyle relay team. The 1928 Games in Amsterdam, Netherlands, were notable for the debut of women’s track-and-field events.

Despite some complaints about the 800-meter track-and-field race in 1928, which was considered too strenuous for women and was dropped until 1960, the IOC decided in 1930 to continue its experiment with women’s sports in the Olympics. Because of this decision, American Babe Didrikson became the most celebrated athlete of the 1932 Games in Los Angeles, California. She won gold medals in the 80-meter hurdles race and the javelin event—establishing new world records in both events—and captured a silver medal in the high jump event.

Japanese swimmers first achieved great Olympic success in 1932, with at least one Japanese swimmer reaching the finals in every one of the men’s swimming races. The Japanese team had trained much longer and harder than their opponents, and their success demonstrated the benefits of pursuing sports as a full-time vocation rather than as a part-time amateur pursuit. Another sign of change at the Los Angeles Games was the success of very young athletes: Japanese swimmer Kusuo Kitamura, who won gold the 1,500-meter freestyle, was only 14 years old.

C

1930s Through 1950s

The emotion of the competition ran especially high at the 1936 Games in Berlin, fueled by the host country’s Nazi government and its leader, Adolf Hitler, who preached a doctrine of white racial superiority. The most dramatic story of the Berlin Games was black American athlete Jesse Owens, who disproved the Nazi beliefs by winning the 100-meter dash, the 200-meter dash, and the long jump event. Owens also won a fourth gold medal in the 4 × 100-meter relay race.

The 1940 and 1944 Olympics, scheduled for Tokyo and London, respectively, were cancelled because of World War II (1939-1945). The 1948 Games, however, were held despite the fact that many IOC members felt that the horrors of World War II had made a mockery of Coubertin’s dream of universal peace. The proponents of continuing the Olympic movement prevailed, however, and London hosted the Games.

Although the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) had always considered the Olympics to be a conspiracy of capitalism, its leaders decided to send a team to the 1952 Games, held in Helsinki, Finland. The Soviet team encountered great success, and Americans were shocked that until the last day of competition the Soviet athletes had won more medals than the Americans. (Although not a formal part of the Olympics, an unofficial tally of medals won by each country is typically kept.) Four years later, at the Melbourne Games in Australia, the Soviets easily topped the United States in the medal standings. The Australian team, led by swimmers Murray Rose and Dawn Fraser and runners Betty Cuthbert and Shirley Strickland, finished third in the national medal count.

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