This article treats only modern Plays. For the ancient Plays, to see ancient Olympic Games.  

The Olympic Games are a whole of organized world competitions Sport ives every four years (a Olympiade is one four years period).

Originally held in the ancient Greece (see ancient Olympic Games), they were given to the taste of the time and reintroduced by the baron Pierre de Coubertin at the end of the 19th century. The modern Olympic Games take place since 1896 every four years, except at the time from both world wars.

The Olympic Games include/understand two competitions:

History

Ancient Olympic Games

See also: ancient Olympic Games

The restoration of the Plays

The French general sports federation USFSA festival its fifth birthday the November 25th 1892 in the large amphitheater of the Sorbonne to Paris. On this occasion, Pierre de Coubertin calls with the restoration of the Olympic Games.

Two years later, the June 23rd 1894, is also held with the Sorbonne the “Congress for the re-establishment of the Olympic Games”. In front of the absence of reactions to its call two years earlier, Pierre de Coubertin manages to convince the British and American representatives, but also of other nations, in particular the Jamaica, the New Zealand or the Sweden. More than 2000 people representing twelve nations finally attend the congress, which votes the restoration of the Olympic Games unanimously. The other important decision made at the time of this Congress is the judgment of the sporting payments of certain federations (British in particular) excluding the workmen and the craftsmen in the name of a social elitism which went against the French levelling ideals.

Modern Olympic Games

See also: Olympic Games of summer, Winter Olympics

Of 245 participants originating in 15 nations in 1896, the Plays gather 10500 athletes of 200 delegations at the time of the last Olympic Games of summer. The number of the participants in the Winter Olympics is more modest with approximately 2500 awaited athletes with Turin in 2006.

Origin of the Latin currency of the modern Olympic Games

The Latin currency of the Olympic Games is, since 1894, year of the first Olympic congress: citius, altius, fortius… (more quickly, higher, more extremely…). It is Pierre de Coubertin which proposed this currency, borrowed from his/her friend the abbot Henri Didon. A loan neither fortuitous, nor pain-killer. Three years before, the March 7th 1891, at the end of the sporting events of the Albert-the-Large college of Arcueil of which he is director, the Didon abbot, in the presence of his friend of Coubertin, had launched to the present: “My children, I give you like currency on the stages as in the life: citius, altius, fortius . ” Pierre de Coubertin considered the sport from a teaching point of view: he saw there a means of sociabilisation and raising the moral standard. (see: Olympic Currency)

This loan is also a homage. Born in 1840 in Touvet (Isere), ordered priest at 22 years, Henri Didon was a highly skilled sportsman who put the sport in the middle of his pedagogy.

Especially it should be known that the first Olympic Games of the modern era were born in… 1832, for the small seminar of the Rondo, with the foot of Chartreuse. All was envisaged: Olympic charter, opening ceremony, sporting tests, given of medals. In 1896, the Didon abbot attends the first Olympic Games and celebrates an oecumenical and Olympic mass in the cathedral of Athens in front of four thousand people. In 1897, three years before dying, it opens the second international Olympic congress. In spite of that, the role of the Didon abbot remains ignored, like the east the Christian contribution to the modern Olympic ideal.

Localization

Political interferences

War

In spite of the wishes of Coubertin, the two world wars prevented the behavior of the Olympic appointment. The Plays of 1916 were thus cancelled during the First World War, and those of 1940 and 1944 during the Second world war.

Terrorism

See also: Taken hostages of the Olympic Games of Munich

In 1972, at the time of the Olympic Games of Munich, a commando of Palestinian terrorists took as an hostage eleven members of the Israeli delegation in the Olympic village. Little prepared with this type of action, the German police force restored the order at the price of a massacre. Since this incident, the police forces of the Western countries include/understand antiterrorist sections very pointed. Moreover, safety is reinforced around the great events like the Olympic Games. The Olympic village is sometimes compared with a bunker.

In 1996, at the time of the Olympic Games of Atlanta, a bomb explodes on the principal place of the city wounding more than one hundred people.

Policy

The policy seizes the Olympic symbol sometimes. Initially opposed to the behavior of the Olympic Games in Germany, Adolf Hitler uses this demonstration at ends of propaganda. It is also the case with Moscow in 1980. The Soviet Union however entered tardily within the Olympic movement. The USSR will stop taking part in the Spartakiades, for the Olympic Games in 1952, with Helsinki, in order to alleviate the West-east relations and the threats of the Cold war.

Boycotts

In 1956, the Plays are boycotted by the Netherlands, the Spain and the Suisse which thus express their dissension with Russian repression of the time in Hungary. At the time of these same Plays, the Kampuchea, the Egypt, the Iraq and the Lebanon were absent because of the Crise of Suez.

In 1968, 1972 and 1976, many African countries boycott the Plays in order to protest against the modes of African southern apartheid. The exclusion of the New Zealand is also claimed, because its team of Rugby had gone in South Africa to play there of the matches. With Montreal, 21 countries African and Guyana miss with the call.

In 1980, the the United States and 64 other delegations boycott the Jeux of Moscow because of the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan. The France or the the United Kingdom is not solidarized with this movement and goes to Moscow with fourteen other Western nations. In counterpart with the boycott of 1980, the USSR and 14 of its satellite countries boycott the Jeux of Los Angeles under pretext which the safety of the delegations was not guaranteed. The Romania was distinguished from the Eastern bloc while going to Los Angeles.

In 1988, Cuba, the Ethiopia and the Nicaragua boycott the Plays of Seoul to protest against the setting with the variation of the North Korea in the organization of the Plays.

A protest movement, carried out by Reporters without borders, tries to convince the most country possible to boycott the Jeux of Beijing in 2008 to protest against bafouement of the Human rights in China.

Symbols

See also: Olympic Flag, Olympic flame, Olympic Anthem, Olympic Mascot

The flag of the Olympic Games, drawn by Coubertin itself, consists of five rings intertwined on white zone, inspired by a Greek engraving. The six colors (blue, black, red, yellow, green and white) of the flag are the sign of the universality of the plays: thus, each country finds on the Olympic flag the colors of its own flag (to be noted that is inaccurate at present, because certain flags use the pink mauve, it or orange; but at the time of the very first Games Olympic there was only eight country in string and this symbolism was true strictly speaking ). An interpretation associating each continent with a precise color was used as of the creation of the flag but is regarded since as erroneous (to avoid any form of racism), like CIO specifies it in a document published on its Web site: “the six colors (including the white zone of the flag), combined this way, are representative of the colors of all the nations without exception. It is thus false to believe that each color is associated with a precise continent. ” (cf).

The Olympic flame, another strong element symbolic system of the Plays, is employed since 1928 to symbolize the bond between the modern plays and the ancient Greece.

In 1896 the Olympic Hymne made up and was played at the time of I Olympic Games. For more information, to consult this document of the Olympic museum of Lausanne.

The Olympic Mascotte appears officially during the Plays of winter of 1968 in Grenoble. Since, each edition creates its own mascot in order to symbolize the values of the Olympic ideal.

Economic issues

The Olympic Games of summer of 1984 with Los Angeles were the first profit plays. Today the majority of the receipts come from the televisual rights and the business partners.

The tourist repercussions and in infrastructures (sports equipment, but also works of Civil engineering, Hotel trade…) are also crucial for the organizing cities. Several cities are thus candidates for the next expiries, and the competition between them is wild. The economic impact is such as temptation to resort to the Corruption is large to carry the decision of the CIO and to be seen allotting the organization of the Plays.

Olympic Games and literature

The Olympic Games inspired a certain number of writers, who wrote pages with the glory of the sport. Among the many books on this topic one can quote:

And they also inspired a dystopie which constitutes a reflection of the universe concentrationnaire, in W or the memory of childhood , of Georges Perec.

See too

External bonds

  • Official site of the International Olympic committee
  • Olympic and Sporting National committee French
  • All official programs and results of the Olympic Games
  • Dicolympic - All the Olympic Games of A to Z
  • Documents on the Olympic ideal
  • the official lexicon of the Olympiques sport and paralympic
  • the Olympic protocol

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