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15 July 2004 Edition

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And they call them Games

It's the taking part, not the winning that counts. This was the motto of Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who founded the modern Olympics in 1896.

Few of us awaiting this year's Games, which will start in Athens next month, are under the illusion that the Olympics are solely about sportsmanship. And we all know the reason for the vicious competition that is now associated with the Games. Politics.

While the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has always claimed that the Olympics transcend politics, anyone with even a cursory knowledge of the Games' history will argue differently. In fact, many people see the four-year event as just another battlefield for warring nations.

From boycotts, bans and hostage situations, to the breaking of personal and societal barriers, the Olympics have a past that some find more interesting than the Games themselves.

In a special two-part series, An Phoblacht's JOANNE CORCORAN looks at the political issues that have marred the so-called friendly sporting event, and recounts some of the more memorable Olympic occasions. Let the Games begin.

Politics and the Olympics

The Olympics and politics are no strangers and have been linked to each other in a myriad of ways since the Games began. Founded in ancient Greece, the Games were an occasion for the citizens of the scattered Greek city-states to assemble and discuss politics and military alliances. They were also an opportunity for patriotic displays and shows of superiority.

But the Games were not only a forum in which to discuss political events; they were also the cause of political conflict.

Control of the Games brought with it prestige, economic advantage and, most importantly, political influence.

As early as the 7th century BC, disputes broke out over the control of the Sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia (where the Games were held), between the city of Elis and the small town of Pisa.

However, despite disputes, which were rife in ancient Olympics, the Games managed to continue for several hundred years at four-year intervals, until the Byzantine Emperor Theodosios I banned them, claiming they had become too wild.

Modern-day Games

Official Olympic history books tell us that Baron de Coubertin revived the Olympics to unite the world through sport. The unofficial books reveal that he actually saw them as a method of rejuvenating the spirit of young people in France, so that the French would become as physically fit as their neighbours. Ever since, despite the seeming solidarity on show, the Games have been tarnished by boycotts, scandals, corruption and expulsions. They have even been cancelled three times, during the First and Second World Wars.

As early as 1908, flags and anthems had become a mr black, red, green, blue or yellow. The Olympic slogan of Citius, Altius, Fortius (Faster, Higher, Stronger) was also established. However, despite these attempts at neutral flags and symbols, disputes involving flags continued for 50 years.

In the 1956 Melbourne Games, China withdrew when the flag of Taiwan was accidentally raised over the Taiwanese camp (China did not recognise Taiwan and saw the flag raising as a sign that Australia did). The Hungarians also demonstrated over their requirement to compete under the communist flag. They retaliated by taking down the flag that flew over their camp, tearing off the Communist symbol and sending up the flag 'Olympics free Hungary'. In 1976, in Montreal, there were various demonstrations staged by the Ukrainians against the Soviets, including a flag burning outside the Olympic village. And in the 1980 Moscow Games, 16 of the 81 teams refused to carry their national flags.

A new kind of game

But despite the Nazis' best attempts to control and choreograph every aspect of the Games, they couldn't prepare for the upset that took place inside the stadium.

The African American athlete Jesse Owens, who Hitler considered racially inferior because of his colour, won four gold medals; in the 100m, 200m, long jump and 4x100m relay. During the Games, he broke eleven Olympic records and defeated Lutz Lang in a very close long jump final. The German was the first to congratulate Owens when the long jump final was over, embracing him and strolling around the stadium arm in arm. Between the ten African American members of the American athletics team, seven gold, three silver and three bronze medals were won. Hitler refused to present Owens with his gold medals.

US versus them

While no other Olympics caused quite the same sort of controversy as those in Berlin, the onset of the Cold War was to have an effect for many years on the Games.

The 1952 Helsinki Games were the pinnacle of the contest between the communist and non-communist worlds. The former, consisting of Russia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria, were separated from athletes of the west and lived in an Eastern Camp surrounded by barbed wire. No visitors were allowed and large pictures of Joseph Stalin hung on the walls of the buildings. The Soviets viewed the Helsinki Games, and all athletic competition, as a test for their political system. "Each new victory is a victory for the Soviet form of society and the Socialist sport system," the media of the day screamed.

After the Games a member of the American team said: "They were in a sense the real enemies. You just loved to beat 'em. You just had to beat 'em. It wasn't like beating some friendly country like Australia."

This battle between the two superpowers continued into 1960, when the Games were held in Rome. The final standings left 103 medals to the Russians and the Americans with only 71, sparking a debate all over the US. An American Legion spokesman announced that "we should stress victory, not merely participating. In the Olympics and international meets, only the winners are honoured."

The death knell had sounded on de Coubertin's call to make the taking part, not the winning, count. This was never more true than in the 1972 Munich Olympics. A basketball game between the Soviets and Americans saw the latter defeated by their rivals by 51 to 50. However, controversy reigned after an extra three seconds were played not once, or twice, but three times, before the Soviets scored the winning points. The Americans refused to be 'sporting' about it and didn't accept their silver medals.

One of the most serious disruptions to the modern Olympics occurred in 1980 and 1984. In 1980, under strong pressure from the Carter administration, the US Olympic Committee voted to boycott the Summer Games in Moscow to protest the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. About 40 nations followed suit, including West Germany, China, and Japan, depriving the Soviets of their chief athletic competition and raising doubts about the future of the Olympic movement. Although the 1984 Winter Games in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, proceeded without boycotts, the Summer Games in Los Angeles were undercut by an Eastern-bloc boycott led by the USSR. Fear of an openly hostile environment in Los Angeles was cited by the Soviet Olympic Committee as the reason for non-participation, but most commentators believed the reason to be payback.

Boycotts and bans

The boycotts in 1980 and '84 weren't the first, and certainly wouldn't be the last time that method of making a political point was used. In 1956, when Hungary was being attacked by the Soviet Union, the IOC was called on to suspend the Games in Melbourne, Australia. When it didn't, Spain, Switzerland, and the Netherlands withdrew. The conflict between the USSR and Hungary was taken into the pool, when they faced each other for the water polo semi-final. The game degenerated into kicks and punches and was halted by the referee when blood started spilling into the water. Hungary, leading 4-0 at the time, was credited with victory.

In that year also, Egypt, Iraq and Lebanon boycotted the Melbourne Games to protest the Israeli-led takeover of the Suez Canal.

In 1958, the People's Republic of China withdrew from the Olympic Movement and all international federations.

Then, in 1976 (Montreal), 26 countries, the majority from Africa, boycotted the Summer Games after the IOC refused to ban New Zealand from the Games. A New Zealand rugby team had played in South Africa, which had been banned from the Olympics since 1964 for its policies of racial segregation. The track andfield competition was especially affected, because some of the world's best runners were from the boycotting African nations.

However, while some countries have chosen to abstain from the Games, other countries have, in the past, been told very firmly to stay away.

After the First World War, Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary and Turkey found themselves banned and after the Second, Germany and Japan were banned.

As a result of these bans, participation in the Games began to be associated with political acceptance and superiority.

Next week: An Phoblacht looks at some of the most memorable Games in Olympic history, including the 1958 Mexican Olympics, when US athletes John Carlos and Tommie Smith raised their fists in a salute to the Black Power movement, causing a storm in the world's media, and the 1972 Olympics, when Palestinians held the Israeli team hostage in the Olympic village, ending in a shoot-out with the German police. We will also look at the scandals involving drugs, financing and the desire to win that have rocked the Games in recent times.


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