A brief history of the Olympic Games!

The Olympic Games are those sports games that vividly experience all the drama, strong emotions, excitement and atmosphere of each season, once every 4 years in summer or winter, since their birth, 120 years ago. They have now become the biggest event in world sports. For a sportswoman, regardless of the number of world or continental titles won, the Olympic Games remain the highest goal and ambition .

Since their inception in 1896, the modern Olympic Games have faced several political crises and their fate has often been foretold. However, the Olympic movement has been able to survive two world wars, as well as periods of chaos, coup d’etats and various revolutions – although in most cases these phenomena have changed the external circumstances and political considerations that must be taken into account. The origin of the Olympic Games has its roots in the ancient world, which were treated as a ritual festival. The idea of victory in those games of antiquity had a completely different meaning about 2500 years ago, compared to the Olympic philosophy laid down by Pierre De Couberten. In fact, the victory was of great importance, while the loser brought shame and loss of honor in the entire “polis” (the city – state it represented). Not being recorded during the time when these games were organized, only some of the performances of the athletes have been able to penetrate the years, however it is known that the winners were rewarded with an olive branch. However, there are records and details of winners only from v games. 776 BC.

Furthermore, archaeologists have shown with facts that the Olympics originated around the second millennium BC. The games, which lasted 5 days, included in their program running, wrestling, pentathlon, cavalry, chariot racing, and also a competition, a competition between news trumpeters.

The ceremony to honor the winners was held on the last closing day of these Olympic Games. The temporary end of these Games arrived in 391 AD, when a decree issued by the Roman emperor Theodosius I prohibited pagan worship including the Olympic Games which were considered as such. During the medieval years, athletic activities had no significance and were largely unimportant. There from c. 19th, new sports were developed, including Boxing, Cricket, and Golf. Meanwhile, Football, Tennis and Gymnastics had spread in importance from the end of the 1800s onwards.

People gathered together to practice these sports, even forming different sports clubs and societies. The scientists discussed from time to time the important role that sport could play in society for humanity in general, and in particular for teenagers it brought physical benefits. The “healthy mind in a healthy body” ideal of developing the body and mind in harmony with each other begins to be re-discovered. It was a time when some new sports were played dominantly by the aristocratic upper class. It is the year 1880, when Pierre de Coubertin, born in Paris on January 1, 1863, with a distant origin of a French family of noble origin, conducted a study regarding the impact that Sport can have on human society. In his youth, he was particularly interested in the ancient Olympic Games and was also very interested in the archaeological excavations that were being carried out in Greece.

In 1766, the British scientist Richard Chandler discovered the location of ancient Olympia, the place where the Olympic Games were held in ancient times. It will take 100 years later for it to be rediscovered, around 1875-81 by the German archaeologist of Berlin, Ernst Curtius, who would remove the mud that had covered Olympia. So Pierre De Coubertin, in his studies about physical exercises, was influenced by the concept of antiquity for man on the one hand and by the views of the British educator Thomas Arnold on the other. Coubertin is convinced that exercises are the basis of practical education. The fact that France had difficulty defeating, let alone the defeat by Germany in the war of 1870-71, plus the desire of his native country to regain national pride and strength, this is where de Coubertin’s theories would have originated.

However, the new French social order would not be based on the development of new enmities, on the contrary, it was to be expressed by means of honest competition between nations. De Coubertin was convinced that equal opportunities for all participants was a prerequisite for the competitors, as well as it would benefit physical education as practiced in Britain. It was again the concept of Greek antiquity which served as de Coubertin’s idea, since those days when all the athletes came together to compete. The amateurish idea was a precondition for Coubert to underline the “noble and knightly character” of physical exercises. Of course, the rewards were expected to come from the sports activities themselves. Material gifts, desire for profits, business interests were not allowed in Sports, because it was believed to prejudice the union of athletes. To start with the impact of these theories, it was limited to the aristocratic class who could afford to continue sports activities in this way. So the difficulties came out soon. Finally, at the end of the 1920s, after a long time of negotiations, the IOC gives its permission for compensation with loss of income to be paid to athletes.

Despite the initial difficulty in recruiting followers to the “religion of sport”, de Coubertin continued to look forward to spreading his ideas in the Olympic renaissance. In a lecture held in 1892, he will mention for the first time the idea of reviving the Olympic Games. Thus, he will invite interested persons from all over the world to participate in the sports congress in Paris in June 1894. The congress, which was held in the Sorbonne, part of the University of Paris, was closed with the unanimous decision in support of the idea. of the revival of the Olympic Games in 1896. The project was such that after the celebration of the Games that would be held in Athens, the Olympic event would continue to be held once in four years in the different capitals of the world. The new activation of the Olympic movement had to be coordinated and directed by a panel that would be named “International Olympic Committee (IOC).

In addition to Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Games, the other members of this committee consisted of Lord Arthur O. Ampthill (Great Britain); Viktor Balck (Sweden); Dimitrios Vikelas (Greece); Aleksei Butovski (Russia); Ernest Callot (France); Leonard A. Cuff (New Zealand); Jiri Guth (Bohemia); Charles Herber (Great Britain); Ferenc Kemeny (Hungary); Ferdinando Luchesi-Palli (Italy); William M. Sloane (USA) and Jose` Zubiaur (Argentina). At first, Pierre de Coubertin held the position of general secretary of the Olympic committee and later, from 1896 to 1925, he will be the president of this committee – IOC. After a promising start with the Games in Athens in 1896, the Olympic organization, I walk a little with the games of 1900 and 1904, leaving something to be desired. Held as part of the world fairs at that time, those with more difficulties had the right attention and importance.

The importance for them returned in the right direction in v. 1906, with an “intermediate” celebration when they saved the setting on the stage of the Olympic movement and finally helped to stabilize the Olympic Games as a world sports event, even though the games of v. 1906 was not officially considered an Olympic holiday in the eyes of the IOC. Political developments began to affect the competitions held since the beginning of the 1st World War, the cause of which brought the cancellation of the 6th Olympic Games, which were scheduled to be organized in Berlin next year. 1916. However, the Olympic movement was in existence and activity continued immediately when the world conflict ended.

The big sports party was organized in Antwerp, Belgium, a country that was actually destroyed by this conflict. Although the Berlin Games were never held, they were named as the 6th in a row, just to preserve the ranking. Meanwhile, those in Antwerp are officially known as the VII Olympic Games. Belgium itself excelled in the organization of these games, even though in a short time and in not very favorable circumstances they achieved a success for the time in this direction. 29 countries were participating in these Games, among them missing: Germany, Austria, Hungary and Bulgaria, which were excluded from the IOC as a result of the war. With the exception of Figure Skating included in the program of the London Games in v. 1908, and in ice hockey, in the program of the Antwerp games, winter sports generally remain outside this program.

The campaign for the presentation of winter sports and their organization in the Olympic Games will be long, so that from the beginning of 1920 this sports activity had gained a lot of popularity, which pushed the IOC four years later in 1924, contrary to the initial objections, I allow the organization of an International Week of Winter Sports which would be held in Chamonix, France. These games were such an extraordinary success that the IOC agreed and decided to accept them as the Winter Olympics. They would be organized in the same year as the summer games but in different places. In 1925, the Belgian Henri de Baillet-Latour was appointed president of the International Olympic Committee, replacing Pierre de Coubertin.

He continued the work started by the French until 1942. Like his predecessor, the Belgian Baillet-Latour tried in some way not to allow the increase in the number of women participating in the games, but it was still not in time. In the Olympic Games of Antiquity, the participation of farms was completely forbidden and in fact they were punished by death if only they were found watching these games. Even in the early years of the modern Olympic Games, the IOC also looked down on the idea of women’s participation in these games. Although there have been female athletes in competitions since 1900, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) did not take their presence into consideration, until 1912, when swimming competitions for women were approved.

The number of female participants increased in each Olympics, but it would take 1928 for the IOC to finally allow them to participate in athletics competitions. Also, after the 1928 Games held in Amsterdam, the IOC forbids women to compete in distances no longer than 200 m, a decision which will last until 1960. The last Olympic Games before World War II were organized in Berlin in 1936, and the Nazis turned them into a unique case for their propaganda, while everywhere they were made public in these games, photos showing Peace and the love of the German Reich. In 1938, the infamous war broke out, and the XII Summer Games that were scheduled to be organized in Japan in 1940, were transferred to Helsinki, Finland, due to the conflict of the Sino-Japanese war that began in 1938. 1937.

This is what happened with the Winter Olympic Games, which were set in Japan. The IOC transfers them first to St Moritz and then to Garmisch-Partenkirchen. However, the Russian invasion of Finland in 1939 and the beginning of World War II resulted in the cancellation of the Olympic Games in these designated countries as well. Likewise, the Games scheduled to be held in 1944 in Cortina d’Ampezzo and London were also canceled, while very few members of the Olympic Committee had the opportunity to arrive in Lausanne for the ceremony that marked the 50th anniversary of the founding of these Games, of the Olympic ideal that was held in 1944. In 1948, in the presence of the Swede Sigfrid Edstrom, who was elected president of the IOC, in 1946, the Olympic Games resumed their organization in London. However, while the post-war period was progressing day by day, the quality of the sports performance could not cover the fact that these peaceful joint meetings of the “world youth” were taking place in a struggle to gain prestige.

The cold war between the West and the East began to spread through the stadiums, while the ideal of international understanding was abandoned as a result of ideology, incompatibility and bans on contact between athletes. With the suppression of the uprising in Hungary, the intervention of Britain and the French in the Suez crisis, the practice of apartheid in South Africa and Rhodesia, and even in Zimbabwe as well, the intervention of the Soviets in Afghanistan, boycotts and exclusions from time to time cast a shadow on the Olympic Games. since 1956 until their continuation. In 1952, the IOC had appointed as its president the American Avery Brandage, as the next new president who served in this function until v. 1972.

He was considered a strong supporter of amateurism which penalized violations up to the immediate exclusion of the perpetrators, as in the case of the alpine skier, Austrian Karl Schranz in 1972. The last days of Brandage’s term as president cast a shadow on the career of from the attack that was made against the Olympic team of Israel in the Olympic Village in Munich, in which case he confirms his fear by saying with confidence that “the wider and more important the Games were becoming, the more these games will they were suffering from both political and economic problems, even from this case of attack, they would be under the pressure of crimes.

With the boycott of the 1980 and 1984 games, political pressures reached their peak. While in the 1980 games in Moscow, the Americans and a considerable number of their allies boycotted them because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the games of four years later, in Los Angeles, were boycotted by the Soviets, who united on the side more of their eastern allies dismissed the reason, citing concerns about security measures. The 1984 Summer Olympics revealed for the first time that the Olympics were no longer viable without marketing, sponsorships and television rights revenue.

Television companies would pay hundreds of millions of dollars to have the broadcast rights. The fact that the main disciplines were planned together with the most tempting offers and advertisements, brought about the growth of commercialism. The pressure on athletes also intensified. When the public became more interested only about the champions and henceforth, the business world will also consider only these champions to sell their products. Under the presidency of the Spaniard Juan Antonio Samaranch, who won the leadership position in v. 1980, the IOC had partially opened the doors of the Olympic Games to professional sports, putting an end to clause 26. The rule regarding the special admission of amateur athletes was deleted by this Olympic committee in 1981. Meanwhile, a serious problem arose and that will continue to appear, it will be that of drug use. Although the IOC took a drastic measure in 1988, disqualifying the Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson (who was stripped of his gold medal and all the titles won in the world championships), the elimination of this problem still did not succeed, even with the tests of the controls raised, he again could not eliminate the use of anabolics by athletes or sportsmen from all countries of the world.

Criticisms were raised, that athletes were forced to achieve high results under the influence of drugs to convert their efforts into monetary values through victories and profitable contracts from commercials, television companies meanwhile, and the public on the other hand demanded more and more high achievements by athletes. Samaranch is considered the president who supported and supported commercialism in the Olympic Games. In his eyes, he saw that only through commercialism, after 100 years of rebirth, Olympism would continue to remain sufficient and survive even during the 21st century.

The German Thomas Bach is still the current president of the IOC since September 10 of last year. 2013 who was elected at the 125th meeting of this Committee organized in Buenos Aires. Bach is the replacement of Jacques Rogge, where the latter has led the IOC since 2001. Together with Rogge, Thomas Bach is the third president who has been an athlete participating in the Olympics and even the only one who has won gold medals in the year 1976.

Previously published in July 2016 on the Facebook page of SV/THHCH

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“Sports Vision + / The Hour of Champions” , in activity since 2013