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Title: POLITICAL USES OF THE OLYMPICS

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POLITICAL USES OF THE OLYMPICS
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In the name of Sport-Politics in Sport
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POLITICAL USES OF THE OLYMPICS
AN INTRODUCTION
How have the Olympic Games been used by
governments and individuals for propaganda
purposes? January 1999
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POLITICAL USES OF THE OLYMPICS

With the continual increase in the popularity of
sport and sports international profile sport
has become a powerful political tool.
Some countries use sports events as patriotic
displays or even use elite performers as
political ambassadors.

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POLITICAL USES OF THE OLYMPICS

One of the main objectives stated in the Olympic
Charter is
to oppose any political abuse of sport and
athletes
However the Olympic Games has been influenced by
politics for many years.

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The Olympics Politics
In spite of wars the ancient Olympics were held
every four years without a break for over a
thousand years. The modern Olympics have been
canceled 3 times 1916, 1940 and 1944 because of
the two World Wars.
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The Olympics Politics
The other major issues has been the use of the
Boycott Boycott - refusal by a country to
compete in an event usually for political
reasons Boycotts affected the 1956,1976, 1980
1984 Games in particular.
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Melbourne Olympics - 1956
The Suez crisis of 1956 prompted the withdrawal
of Egypt, Iraq and Lebanon with Spain and
Switzerland objecting to the soviet invasion of
Hungary in the same year.
In response the IOC President Avery Brundage made
the following comment
by their decisions these countries show that
they are unaware of one of our most important
principles, namely that sport is completely free
of politics.

When the modern Games were founded by De
Coubertin, his main hope was that they would help
countries to get on more readily and so bring
about world peace.
In 1996 the Atlanta Games organizers called their
games
The largest peacetime social event in human
history

The first time politics entered the Olympics was
in the games of 1936- Berlin
The Nazi Olympics
Problems occurred even before the Games took
place, due to Germanys treatment of their Jewish
Communities. This went against the terms of the
Olympic Charter which states that no group should
be at a disadvantage.
Hitler was determined to turn the Olympics into a
display to show the strength of the German nation
and the superiority of his aryan race.

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This was the first use of propaganda on the
Olympic GamesPropaganda - information put out
to convince people of an idea However,Hitler
failed in his attempt to use the games as a stage
for a demonstration of racial superiority due to
the extraordinary performances of Jesse Owens, a
Black American who won four gold medals.
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Further Political involvement at the Olympics

International sport has become a powerful
political tool. It is hardly surprising therefore
that clashes occur between political and Olympic
ideals.
The Olympic Charter opposes any political abuse
of sport.
The games of 1916 were cancelled due to the first
world war and invitations to the 1920 games were
withdrawn by the IOC from Austria, Bulgaria,
Germany, Hungary and Turkey, because of their
role in the conflict.

Similarly, the games of 1940 were cancelled and
invitations to Germany and Japan to the games of
1948 were cancelled.
Very few Olympiads have passed without some
political involvement- willingly or otherwise.
The Suez crisis of 1956 prompted the withdrawal
of Egypt, Iraq and Lebanon with Spain and
Switzerland objecting to the soviet invasion of
Hungary in the same year.
In the case of the expulsion of South Africa, the
IOC was proactive with South Africa missing from
the 1964 games and not returning until the 1992
games.

The mass boycotts of the 70s and 80s grew out
of a combination of New Zealands insistence on
maintaining sporting links with South Africa
unlike many other countries and the invasion of
Afghanistan by the Soviet Union prior to the
games of 1980.
It was ,however, the games of 1936- Berlin- which
caused most political controversy and brought the
most indignation down on the head of the IOC and
its commissioners.
In the event, Hitler used the games as a display
vehicle to show the world the strength of Nazi
Germany and its Third Reich. The games was
superbly organised, but Jewish athletes were
excluded from selection for the German team.

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However ,Hitler failed in his attempt to use the
games as a stage for a demonstration of racial
superiority due to the extraordinary performances
of Jesse Owens, a Black American who won four
gold medals.
In 1968 East Germany first participated as a
separate nation. These games are also remembered
for the protest of the American Black Power
salute which was simultaneously both a political
and cultural statement.These were the days of the
American Civil Rights Movement.

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The 1972 Olympic games in Munich saw the horror
of Terrorism brought to an Olympiad, when 8 Arab
Terrorists killed 11 Israeli athletes.

The 1972 Munich Games
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There was much opposition to Britains intention
to compete at the Moscow 1980 games. The
withdrawal of the US team, directed to do so by
its government, subsequently led to the
withdrawal of Russia and other Soviet Bloc
countries from Los Angeles in 1984 in
retaliation.
Following the breakup of the former Soviet Union,
some of the newly independent states initially
competed as a unified team in the 1992 games but
by 1996 the Ukraine, Russia and others were
entering teams in their own name.
However the centralised government money Pot
was gone and this forced many former communist
athletes into the market place as professional
athletes and sportspersons.

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OTHER POLITICAL INVOLVEMENTS IN SPORT
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Ping Pong Diplomacy

Ping Pong Diplomacy was so called because of the
visit of American Table Tennis players and later
Swimmers, to China as part of an attempt by the
USA to restore diplomatic relations with China.
The issue centred on Chinas refusal to recognise
the right of Taiwan to compete as an independent
nation in international competition but also on
its human rights record.

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Shop Window Policy

This refers to the use of a countrys sporting
youth to show their political system in a good
light.
This was a feature of the former communist bloc
countries. It embraced the notion of the
subjugation of the individual to the greater
cause of the Motherland.
Most individual nations now recognise that an
impressive performance in olympic competition has
spin off effects for business and commerce, as
well as national pride.
The olympic games has transcended the morality of
the purist and become the worlds most effective
Shop Window

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Apartheid

The policy of Apartheid supported by former South
African governments segregated people on the
basis of their race- to the distinct disadvantage
of the majority black population.
After years of international pressure, the IOC
finally withdrew South Africas invitation to
compete in the 1960 games.

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The Olympic movement became involved in the
Apartheid issue not only because of its initial
reluctance to exclude South Africa from
membership but because of New Zealands
insistence on continuing its sporting links with
that country.
New Zealands intransigence in this matter led
directly to the African boycotts of 1976.

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SANOC, the South African Olympic Committee, was
in fact a non racial organisation but had little
influence on its own governments policy.
In 1992 South Africa was re admitted to the
Olympic fold, Apartheid was ended and the
opportunity was there for all citizens, of
whatever colour, to represent their country in
sport.

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The Olympics as a Political Tool

Almost every olympics- certainly all those in
more recent times- has become associated with
various political incidents. The games can be
categorised as a political tool in the following
ways-
1 RECONCILIATION- The awarding of the 1964 games
to Tokyo in an attempt to heal old wounds
following the conduct of Japan in the second
world war.
2 RECOGNITION- The entry of East Germany as an
independent state to the 1968 Mexico games

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3 GLOBAL NON SYSTEMATIC PROTEST- The black power
salute in 1968 Mexico Games, Arab terrorists in
1972, Terrorist bomb in Atlanta in 1996 4 GLOBAL
SYSTEMATIC PROTEST- The boycotts by the African
nations of Montreal in 1976, the mass boycott of
Moscow in 1980, the tit for tat boycott by the
soviet bloc of Los Angeles in 1984. 5
PROPAGANDA- Berlin in 1936, Los Angeles in 1984
and Atlanta in 1996 (Americanisation)
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6 DEVOLUTION- Sydney 2000 7 CORRUPTION- Salt
Lake City 2002.
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The leave it alone policies adopted by many
governments in relation to their aspiring olympic
sportsmen/women now seems to be definitely on the
decline. Once the stakes had been raised by the
former soviet bloc countries, without lavish
government funding,it was perhaps inevitable that
the rest of the world would have to follow suit
without the attendant allegations of doping and
cheating that accompanied their arrival.
Many governments are now funding the olympic
preparations of their national associations and
national academies of sport are becoming the norm
rather than the exception.
The previous assertions that politics and sport
should have no connection, seem to have a very
hollow ring in the current climate.

Government support for the olympic programmes is
ever increasing and the games are used more and
more as a vehicle for the propagation of a range
of politically motivated agendas.

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KEY WORDS