Olympic Games.

Olympic Games. I INTRODUCTION Olympic Games, international sports competition, held every four years at a different site, in which athletes from different nations compete against each other in a variety of sports. There are two types of Olympics, the Summer Olympics and the Winter Olympics. Through 1992 they were held in the same year, but beginning in 1994 they were rescheduled so that they are held in alternate even-numbered years. For example, the Winter Olympics were held in 1994 and the Summer Olympics in 1996. The Winter Olympics were next held in 1998, and the Summer Olympics next occurred in 2000. The modern Olympic Games began in Athens, Greece, in 1896, two years after French educator Pierre de Coubertin proposed that the Olympic Games of ancient Greece be revived to promote a more peaceful world. The program for the 1896 Games, including only summer events (the Winter Olympics were not established until 1924), included about 300 athletes from fewer than 15 countries competing in 43 events in nine different sports. By contrast, when the Summer Olympics returned to Athens in 2004, more than 10,000 athletes from 202 countries competed in 28 different sports. II INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE The Olympic Games are administered by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which is headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland. The IOC was created in 1894 in Paris, France, as an independent committee selecting its own members. (To begin the process, however, Coubertin himself chose the first 15 members.) IOC members are officially considered to be representatives from the IOC to their own nations, not delegates from their own countries to the IOC. Most members are elected to the IOC after serving on the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) of their own countries. The first IOC members were all from Europe or the Americas, with the exception of one from New Zealand. The committee elected its first Asian member in 1908 and its first African member in 1910. Currently, members from European and North American countries still account for much of the IOC membership. IOC members must retire at the end of the year in which they reach the age of 80, unless they were elected before 1966, in which case they can serve for life. The IOC oversees such functions as determining the site of the Olympic Games, the establishment of worldwide Olympic policies, and the negotiation of Olympic television broadcast rights. The IOC works closely with the NOCs and with the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF--the international governing body for track and field), and other international sports federations (ISFs) to organize the Olympics. The ISFs are responsible for the international rules and regulations of the sports they govern. The IOC president, who is chosen by IOC members, is assisted by an executive board, several vice presidents, and a number of IOC commissions. The IOC's first president, Demetrius Vikélas of Greece (served 1894-1896), was succeeded by Coubertin himself (1896-1925). The other IOC presidents have been Count Henri de Baillet-Latour of Belgium (1925-1942), J. Sigfrid Edström of Sweden (1946-1952), Avery Brundage of the United States (1952-1972), Michael Morris, Lord Killanin, of Ireland (1972-1980), Juan Antonio Samaranch of Spain (1980-2001), and Jacques Rogge (2001- ) of Belgium. III AWARDING THE GAMES In order to host the Olympics, a city must submit a proposal to the IOC. After all proposals have been submitted, the IOC votes. If no city is successful in gaining a majority in the first vote, the city with the fewest votes is eliminated, and voting continues in successive rounds until a majority winner is determined. Typically the Games are awarded several years in advance, allowing the winning city time to prepare for the Games. In selecting the site of the Olympic Games, the IOC considers a number of factors, chief among them which city has (or promises to build) the best facilities and which organizing committee seems most likely to stage the Games successfully. The IOC also considers which parts of the world have not yet hosted the Games. For instance, Tokyo, Japan, the host of the 1964 Summer Games, and Mexico City, Mexico, the host of the 1968 Summer Games, were chosen in part to popularize the Olympic movement in Asia and Latin America. Once the Games have been awarded, it is the responsibility of the local organizing committee--not the IOC or the NOC of the host city's country--to finance them. This can be done with a portion of the Olympic television revenues and with corporate sponsorships, ticket sales, and other smaller revenue sources, such as commemorative postage stamps or proceeds from a national lottery. In many cases there is also direct government support. Although many cities have achieved a financial profit by hosting the Games, the Olympics can be financially risky. Montréal, Québec, Canada, for example, spent a great deal of money preparing for the 1976 Summer Games due to extensive design and construction costs for new facilities. When the proceeds from the Games were less than expected, the city was left with such large deficits that residents were still paying the debt off in the early 2000s. Similar financial problems were encountered by Greece in hosting the 2004 Olympics, especially with the huge expenditures required for security at the Games. IV ATHLETES AND ELIGIBILITY Although the Olympic Charter, the official constitution of the Olympic movement, proclaims that the Olympics are contests among individuals and not among nations, the IOC assigns to the various NOCs the task of selecting national Olympic teams. In most cases the NOCs do this by holding Olympic trials or by choosing athletes on the basis of their previous performances. From the start of the modern Olympic Games, male amateur athletes of every race, religion, and nationality have been eligible to participate. Although Coubertin opposed the participation of women in the Olympics and no women competed in 1896, a few female golfers and tennis players were allowed to participate in the 1900 Games. Female swimming and diving were added to the 1912 Games, and female gymnastics and track-and-field events were first held at the 1928 Games. Women's Olympic sports have grown significantly since then, and currently women account for approximately half of the members of teams, except in teams from Islamic nations, where the level of female participation is generally lower. Coubertin and the IOC intended from the start for the Olympics to be open only to amateurs. Amateurism was determined by adherence to the amateur rule, which was originally devised in the 19th century to prevent working-class athletes from participating in sports such as rowing and tennis. Because the amateur rule prevented athletes from earning any pay from activities in any way related to sports, working-class athletes could not afford to make a living and train for competition at the same time. Olympic rules about amateurism, however, have caused many controversies over the years. Questions were raised about whether an amateur could be reimbursed for travel expenses, be compensated for time lost at work, be paid for product endorsements, or be employed to teach sports. These issues were not always satisfactorily resolved by the IOC, leading to confusion about the definition of professionalism in different sports. By 1983 a majority of IOC members acknowledged that most Olympic athletes compete professionally in the sense that sports are their main activity. The IOC then asked each ISF to determine eligibility in its own sport, and over the next decade nearly all the ISFs abolished the distinction between amateurs and professionals, accepting so-called open Games. One of the most visible examples of the policy change came in 1992, when professional players from the National Basketball Association (NBA) were permitted to play in the Summer Games in Barcelona, Spain. Professionals from the National Hockey League (NHL) became eligible to participate beginning with the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. 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. 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. D 1960s and 1970s In the 1960s African runners such as Wilson Kiprugut of Kenya and Abebe Bikila of Ethiopia achieved Olympic prominence, while athletes from Eastern Europe dominated gymnastics and weightlifting events. Each of the three successive Olympics held in the 1960s--1960 (Rome), 1964 (Tokyo), and 1968 (Mexico City)--produced a boxing gold medalist from the United States who later went on to win the professional heavyweight title: Cassius Clay (who would change his name to Muhammad Ali), Joe Frazier, and George Foreman. At the Mexico City games the United States led the total medal standings for the first time since 1952, and East and West Germans participated on separate teams for the first time. At the 1972 Games in Munich, West Germany, American swimmer Mark Spitz set a remarkable record with 7 gold medals. Although Soviet athlete Ludmilla Tourischeva won the all-around gymnastics title in Munich, another Soviet, Olga Korbut, garnered the most attention. She won three gold medals, and her popularity helped start a period of international growth in gymnastics. But the 1972 Games were overshadowed by a horrible act of violence when 11 members of the Israeli team were killed by Palestinian terrorists (see Political Turmoil section). Four years later, at the Montréal Games, Nadia Comaneci of Romania won the women's all-around gymnastics title, and in the uneven-bars event she earned the first perfect score of 10.0 in Olympic gymnastics competition. American runner Bruce Jenner won the decathlon and became one of the decade's best-known athletes. Perhaps the most outstanding performance at the 1976 Games came from the East German women's swimming team, which won 11 of 13 races. With a population of only about 16 million people, East Germany won 40 gold medals in Montréal, six more than the United States. These surprising results were tainted decades later, however, when records were released documenting widespread use of performance-enhancing drugs by the East Germans during the 1970s and 1980s. E 1980s and 1990s Because the 1980 Games in Moscow and the 1984 Games in Los Angeles were affected by large boycotts, the team from the host nation was able to claim an unprecedented triumph in both cases. In 1980, when 62 nations boycotted the first Games ever held in a Communist country, the Soviet team earned 80 gold medals, 69 silver medals, and 46 bronze medals. Comaneci won four more gymnastics medals and Cuban boxer Teófilo Stevenson captured his third consecutive gold medal in the heavyweight division. The running events featured three gold medals by British athletes (including Sebastian Coe who won a silver in the 800 meters and a gold in the 1,500 meters), and two golds for Ethiopia's Miruts Yifter (5,000 meters and 10,000 meters). In 1984, as the USSR and 13 other countries (including East Germany, Cuba, and Czechoslovakia) boycotted the Games, the American team claimed 83 gold medals, 61 silver medals, and 30 bronze medals. American sprinter Carl Lewis, who won four events (100-meter, 200-meter, 4 × 100-meter relay, and long jump), emerged as the greatest track-and-field athlete of his time. American Mary Lou Retton won the women's all-around gymnastics title and five medals overall. U.S. swimmers Nancy Hogshead, Mary T. Meagher, and Tracy Caulkins each won three gold medals. At the 1988 Games in Seoul, South Korea, Lewis repeated his victory in the long jump and was awarded a belated gold in the 100-meter race after the apparent victor, Canadian Ben Johnson, was disqualified for having taken banned drugs. East German swimmers, led by Kristin Otto, won 10 of the 15 events for women in 1988 while American swimmer Matt Biondi won five gold medals. Equally impressive were American track-and-field athletes Florence Griffith Joyner, who won the 100-meter and 200-meter races and was a member of the winning 4 × 100-meter relay team, and Jackie Joyner-Kersee, who won the long jump event and the heptathlon. At the 1992 Games in Barcelona, Spain, no single nation dominated competition. With the USSR dissolved, member nations of the former Soviet bloc competed together for the final time under the banner of the Unified Team. Gymnast Vitaly Scherbo of the Unified Team led all athletes in Barcelona with six gold medals, with the Unified Team edging the United States in the medal standings, 112 to 108. The 1992 Games also marked further relaxation of rules regarding amateur athletes in the Olympics. The most visible symbol of this change was the United States men's Olympic basketball team, which featured top professional players for the first time. Members of the squad, known as the Dream Team, included NBA stars such as Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley, and Magic Johnson. The team completely dominated the competition on its way to the gold medal. In 1996 the centennial anniversary of the modern Olympic Games was celebrated in Atlanta, Georgia. The Games featured several outstanding performances: In diving, Fu Mingxia of China captured gold medals in women's 3-meter springboard and 10-meter platform competition; in track and field, American Michael Johnson won gold medals in the 200-meter and 400-meter dashes; and in track, Canadian Donovan Bailey triumphed in the 100-meter dash. The Games were marred, however, by a terrorist attack in Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park. A pipe bomb, which detonated early in the morning of July 27, left one person dead and more than 100 wounded. Olympic competition continued without another violent incident. F The 2000 and 2004 Games No such terrorist events occurred at the 2000 Summer Games, held in Sydney, Australia. Stars of the Games included Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe, who won three gold medals along with two silver medals; American sprinter Marion Jones, who earned three golds and two bronzes; female swimmers Inge de Bruijn of The Netherlands and Jenny Thompson of the United States, each of whom won three gold medals; Michael Johnson, who became the first man to win consecutive Olympic gold medals in the 400-meter dash; and American tennis player Venus Williams, who won the women's singles gold medal and teamed with sister Serena Williams to capture the gold in doubles. The United States finished first in the medals standings, besting Russia, 97 to 88. The Summer Olympics made a historic return to Greece for the 2004 Games. Preparations in Athens were plagued by delays and security concerns and attendance was low at many events. There were also continued problems with athletes suspected of using performance-enhancing drugs, including a number of U.S. track-and-field competitors. Two prominent Greek athletes withdrew just before the Games under suspicious circumstances, and several other competitors were stripped of their medals in Athens for failing or avoiding drug tests. The United States led the medal standings with 103 total medals, including 35 gold. Russia was second with 92 medals while China, which will host the 2008 Summer Olympics, was third with 63 total medals (including 32 gold). One of the highlights of the Games was the performance of U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps, who tied a record (set in 1980 by USSR gymnast Aleksandr Dityatin) with eight medals in one Olympics (six gold and two bronze). The United States also dominated women's team sports, winning gold medals in soccer, softball, and basketball. VIII WINTER OLYMPICS A The First Winter Games Although figure skating was an event at the Summer Games of 1908 and 1920, and ice hockey was played in 1920, the IOC was hesitant to inaugurate a series of separate Winter Games. The weather requirements for such a competition meant that possible locations for the Games would be geographically limited. When Sweden and Norway first proposed the creation of Winter Games in 1911, the United States opposed it on these grounds. Ironically, the Scandinavians changed their minds at the 1921 meeting of the IOC, arguing that an Olympics with winter sports would not unite athletes from every country. They were outvoted, however, and the IOC established the Winter Games. The Winter Olympic Games were first held as a separate competition in 1924 at Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, France. From that time until 1992, they took place the same year as the Summer Games. However, beginning with the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, the Winter Games were rescheduled to occur in the middle of the Olympic cycle, alternating on even-numbered years with the Summer Games. The 1924 Winter Games included 14 events in five different sports. By comparison, the program for the 2002 Winter Games, held in Salt Lake City, Utah, included more than 75 events in 15 different sports. In the first Winter Olympics the Scandinavian countries dominated competition. Norwegian athletes won all four of the skiing events, while Finnish competitors finished first in four of the five speed-skating events. The Winter Games first gained wide international notice four years later at Saint Moritz, Switzerland, when Norwegian skater Sonja Henie won the first of her three consecutive Olympic skating titles. Her triumphs in 1932 and 1936, in addition to her charisma, contributed to her subsequent success as a motion-picture star. B 1940s Through 1960s The Winter Games were cancelled in 1940 and 1944 because of World War II. (They were to have been held in Sapporo, Japan, and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, respectively.) At the first postwar Winter Games in 1948, held again in Saint Moritz, Canadian Barbara Ann Scott won the gold medal in women's figure skating, while American Dick Button won the men's event. The Canadian team won the gold in ice hockey, and American Gretchen Fraser won a gold in women's downhill skiing (in the slalom event). At the 1952 Games in Oslo, Norway, Button repeated his victory and the Canadians again won the ice hockey gold medal. American skaters continued their success in figure skating at the 1956 Games in Cortina d'Ampezzo, with Hayes Jenkins winning the men's event and Tenley Albright becoming the first American to win the women's event. Austrian downhill skier Toni Sailer won all three of the men's skiing events (downhill, slalom, and giant slalom). David Jenkins, the younger brother of Hayes Jenkins, repeated the American victory in men's figure skating at the 1960 Games in Squaw Valley, California, while another American, Carol Heiss, captured the gold in the women's event. The 1964 Winter Games were held in Innsbruck, Austria. Swedish cross-country skier Sixten Jernberg won the last of his nine Olympic medals, with golds in the 50kilometer individual race and the 4 × 10-kilometer team race and a bronze in the 15-kilometer race, and Soviets Liudmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov won the pairs figure skating competition. The pair repeated their victory at the 1968 Games in Grenoble, France, where American figure skater Peggy Fleming won the gold in the women's event. The 1968 Games were also notable for the accomplishments of French downhill skier Jean-Claude Killy, who repeated Sailer's feat by winning all three of the men's events. C 1970s and 1980s The 1972 Winter Games were held in Sapporo, Japan. One of the top stars of the Games was Dutch speed skater Ard Schenk, who won three gold medals in the 1,500meter, 5,000-meter, and 10,000-meter events. At the 1976 Games, again held in Innsbruck, American Dorothy Hamill won the women's figure skating gold medal and John Curry became the first British man to win the men's skating title. American speed skater Eric Heiden dominated the 1980 Games in Lake Placid, New York, winning all five of the men's speed-skating events (500-meter, 1,000-meter, 1,500-meter, 5,000-meter, and 10,000-meter). The most enduring highlight of the Games was most likely the performance of the United States ice hockey team, which pulled off a "miracle on ice" in defeating a heavily favored Soviet team in the semifinals. The Americans went on to win the gold medal, which the Soviets had captured in the four previous Winter Olympics. At the 1984 Games in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, American Scott Hamilton won the men's figure skating gold medal and East German Katarina Witt won the women's event. Four years later in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Witt repeated her victory and American Brian Boitano won the men's gold medal. Soviet figure skaters Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov won the pairs competition, while American speed skater Bonnie Blair won the 500-meter race, the first of her five gold medals in three Olympiads. Italian downhill skier Alberto Tomba won the men's slalom and giant-slalom events. D 1990s At the 1992 Games in Albertville, France, American Kristi Yamaguchi won the women's ice skating title, and Blair won gold medals in the 500-meter and 1,000-meter races. Tomba repeated his victory in the giant-slalom event. Because of the change in scheduling, the Winter Games occurred again two years later, in Lillehammer, Norway. There, Gordeeva and Grinkov won the pairs skating competition again and Ukrainian Oksana Baiul won the women's skating title. Once again Blair won the 500-meter and 1,000-meter speed-skating races. At the 1998 Games in Nagano, Japan, Norwegian Nordic skier Bjorn Daehlie won three gold medals (10-kilometer, 50-kilometer, and 4 × 10-kilometer relay) and a silver (15-kilometer pursuit). After a major crash in the men's downhill, Austrian skier Hermann Maier recovered and won gold medals in the giant slalom and super giant slalom. The Japanese ski-jumping team combined for four medals, including a gold in the team competition. American women dominated a number of events: Tara Lipinski and Michelle Kwan took gold and silver in the ice skating competition; Alpine skier Picabo Street won the super giant slalom; Nikki Stone won the freestyle skiing aerials; and the U.S. women's ice hockey team went undefeated to capture the gold medal. E 2000s The 2002 Winter Olympics, held in Salt Lake City, were dogged by controversy both before and during competition. First came revelations that Utah organizing officials had given bribes to IOC members to help win the Olympic bid, a practice that was rumored to be common in previous Olympic bidding, as well. Reforms were subsequently enacted to try to eliminate such influences. During the Games a scandal erupted over the judging of the pairs figure skating competition when the Russian team (Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze) was narrowly awarded the gold medal over a Canadian team (Jamie Sale and David Pelletier) that many observers felt had performed better. After a French judge admitted that she had voted for the Russians under enormous pressure, giving rise to allegations of vote trading among certain countries, Olympic officials decided to give the Canadians a gold medal as well--angering Russian officials. Like the bribery controversy, the incident was not seen as an isolated one, and reforms in the judging process were widely demanded. Notable events and individuals in Salt Lake City included the women's figure skating gold medal, won by 16-year-old American Sarah Hughes; Alexei Yagudin of Russia, who won the men's skating competition; Janica Kosteli? of Croatia, who became the first woman to win medals in four alpine skiing events (including three gold); the rising popularity of short-track speed skating, where American Apolo Anton Ohno won a gold and a silver medal; and ice hockey, where Canada won its first gold medal in women's play and its first men's gold since 1952, with the United States collecting both silver medals in the event. The Americans had by far their most successful Winter Olympics, collecting 34 total medals, just one behind overall leader Germany. Compared to the turbulence of the 2002 Games, the 2006 Winter Olympics--held in Turin, Italy--were relatively uneventful. American Michelle Kwan, the dominant figure skater of her era, saw her chance at winning the ever-elusive gold medal erased by an injury. Kwan had to drop out with a groin injury just before the Olympics began. American downhill skier Bode Miller, a top medal contender, did compete, but he struggled just to finish his races and did not take home a prize. Ohno was again one of the stars of the games with three medals, including an individual gold medal in the 500-meter race. The performance pushed his Olympic medal total to five, tying speed skater Eric Heiden for the record for most medals by an American man in the Winter Olympics. Biathlon competitor Michael Greis captured three gold medals to help lead Germany to another overall medal title with 29. The United States was second with 25, while Austria took third place with 23. The Austrian team was at the center of the only major controversy of the Turin Games. After an Austrian coach involved in an earlier blood doping scandal was spotted in Turin and then fled from police, the rooms of a number of Austrian biathletes and cross-country skiers were raided. Incriminating equipment was uncovered, but the athletes involved later tested negative for banned substances. Olympic officials vowed to continue to investigate the matter, however. See also Performance-Enhancing Drugs. IX POLITICAL TURMOIL Although they were founded as part of a vision of world peace, once the modern Olympic Games became a truly important international event they also became a stage for political disputes. The most controversial Olympics were the Summer Games of 1936. The IOC had voted in 1931 to hold these Games in Berlin, Germany, before IOC members could have known the Nazi movement would soon control the country. Shortly after the vote the world learned that the Nazi government planned to bar Jewish athletes from the 1936 German team, a violation of the Olympic Charter. Many countries, including the United States, demanded a boycott of the 1936 Games. The boycott movement ultimately failed because Avery Brundage, head of the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) at the time, was convinced by German officials that Jewish athletes would be permitted to try out for Germany's team. In fact, only two Jewish athletes were named to the 1936 German Olympic team, and both were of mixed religious backgrounds. Ironically, the Berlin Olympics turned out to be a triumph for those opposing the racist policies of the Nazis, as African American sprinter Jesse Owens captured four gold medals and became a hero. A Boycotts There have been several boycotts of the Olympics by various countries. The first came in 1956, when the Egyptian, Lebanese, and Iraqi teams boycotted the Melbourne Games to protest the invasion of Egypt earlier that year by the United Kingdom, France, and Israel. Major boycotts of the Olympics occurred again in 1976, 1980, and 1984 over various issues. In 1976 many African nations demanded that New Zealand be excluded from the Montréal Games because its rugby team had played against South Africa, a country then under apartheid rule (an official policy of racial segregation in effect from 1948 to the early 1990s). When the IOC resisted the demands of the African countries with the argument that rugby was not an Olympic sport, athletes from 28 African nations were called home from the Games by their governments. The issue that prompted the 1980 boycott of the Moscow Games was the 1979 invasion of Afghanistan by the USSR. Although American president Jimmy Carter forced the USOC to stay home from the Moscow Games, many other NOCs defied their governments' requests that they also boycott. Once Carter acted to spoil the Moscow Games (as a total of 62 nations finally refused to participate), it became clear that the USSR and its allies would retaliate with a boycott of the 1984 Games in Los Angeles. Although Romania sent a team, 13 of the USSR's other allies boycotted the Los Angeles Games. B Other Disputes From the 1940s to the 1980s, the IOC also had to deal with the political problems caused by divided nations. One dilemma concerned the Chinese Olympic team, after the political division of China in 1949 into the People's Republic of China on the mainland and the so-called Republic of China on the island of Taiwan. In 1952 the IOC decided to invite teams from both mainland China and Taiwan, but this decision led to decades of boycott by the government of the People's Republic, which did not send a team to the Olympics until the Lake Placid Games in 1980. Another issue was the 1949 political division of Germany into East Germany and West Germany. This raised the question of whether there was to be one German Olympic team or two. The IOC tried to solve this problem by insisting on a combined German team. Negotiations lasted several years, and this solution was first tested at the Melbourne Games in 1956; it lasted until 1968, when two German teams competed separately. There continued to be two German teams until 1992, when reunited Germany sent one team. The IOC also had to cope with the racial segregation in South Africa. The IOC voted in 1968 to exclude the South African team from Olympic competition in order to bring pressure on the government to give up its policy of apartheid. The South Africans were not readmitted until the Barcelona Games in 1992--by which time apartheid had been discontinued. A highly visible racial incident occurred at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. Two African American sprinters, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, won the gold and bronze medals, respectively, in the 200-meter race. During the playing of the American national anthem at the awards ceremony, both athletes raised their left fist--covered with a black glove--as a protest against racial discrimination in the United States. The action provoked outrage and the two athletes were suspended from the U.S. Olympic team and ejected from the Olympic Village. C Terrorism Terrorism has also darkened the Olympic ideal at several different Games. In the midst of the 1972 Munich Games, the Olympic movement experienced its most tragic hour. A band of Palestinian terrorists made their way into the Olympic village (where most athletes live during the Games), murdered two members of the Israeli team, and took nine hostages. When the IOC, meeting in emergency session, learned that a gunfight had broken out and that all nine hostages were dead, along with five of the terrorists, the Games were suspended for a day. The IOC's controversial decision to resume the Games that year was endorsed by the Israeli government. Another violent incident occurred at the Atlanta Games in 1996. During the Games a pipe bomb exploded in the city's Centennial Olympic Park, killing one person and injuring more than 100 others. X A RECENT DEVELOPMENTS Global Popularity Having survived a century of warfare and political turmoil, the Olympic Games have become a gigantic global event in recent years, gaining more popularity and generating more money than ever before. A great deal of this popularity and wealth is due to the development of satellite communications and global telecasts. Not only can more and more people see the Games, but the television rights to the Games can be sold for hundreds of millions of dollars. With more money, the IOC can also subsidize the development of sports in less affluent nations. In return for their money, however, television networks have gained a strong influence on when, where, and how the Olympics will take place. The Olympic movement has also become dependent on multinational corporations, who pay millions of dollars to become official sponsors of the game and to use Olympic symbols in their advertisements. This has led to the commercialization of the Olympic movement. B Drug Use An increasingly serious problem in the Olympics is the use of performance-enhancing drugs, especially anabolic steroids and the human growth hormone. These drugs are banned but have nevertheless been used by athletes who feel that they must resort to them if they are to compete at the Olympic level. After the reunification of Germany in the 1990s came proof of what many observers had long suspected: for more than 20 years East Germany's NOC had systematically administered performance-enhancing drugs to its elite athletes. In response, the IOC helped form the independent World Anti-Doping Agency in 1999 to coordinate a crackdown on drug use in international sports competition. As part of the effort, each country formed an enforcement agency to monitor and test their own athletes. New drug tests are constantly developed to detect the growing number of sophisticated substances that athletes use to aid their performance. Mandatory testing is now part of every event at the Olympic Games. At the 2004 Games in Greece, more than 20 athletes were disqualified for drug violations, a record number. C Scandal In 1999 the executive board of the IOC began to reform the process by which cities are selected to host the Olympics. The changes occurred after it was discovered that several IOC officials violated their oath to the Olympic Charter during the selection process by allegedly accepting cash payments and improper gifts from cities competing for the Games. The violations took place when Salt Lake City bid on and was awarded the 2002 Winter Games. Salt Lake City retained its right to host the 2002 Games, but several officials from the local organizing committee resigned and some IOC officials were expelled for their role in the scandal. In July 2001, longtime IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch stepped down from the post. He was replaced by Jacques Rogge of Belgium. D Future Concerns After the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001 and the ensuing U.S.-Iraq War, some critics declared that the future of the Olympic Games was threatened. Greek organizers spent more than $1 billion on security for the 2004 Summer Olympics, which went off without a major incident. The total budget of the 2004 Games was estimated at more than $7 billion, raising concerns about the large financial burdens that could plague future Olympic hosts. Similar worries were expressed at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, which suffered from low attendance at many events. Contributed By: Allen Guttmann Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.