The origin of the modern day Olympic Games has been traced to the prehistoric Greek festival on Mount Olympia, home of Zeus, the King of Greek gods.
The games originated from the commemoration of the chariot race in which Pelops defeated Oenomaus and won Hippodamia, the King’s daughter as his bride.
Records indicate that in 776 BC, the festival was recognised and expanded as the founding date of Panhellenic Olympic Games.
The Panhellenic Games reached their peak by 400 BC, but began to decline due largely to the abandonment of the ideals.
At that time, athletes were hired while some foreign competitors were naturalised to make them eligible to compete.
The Games further deteriorated with Roman occupation of Greece, and were banned in 393 AD following the ascension of Emperor Theodosius I, a Christian, who described the fiesta as a pagan show.
The ban brought to the fore the need to evaluate the initial ideals of the Olympic Games.
The questions thus arose: Are the Games a blessing to humanity or a curse? Are they a celebration of achievement or a jamboree?
Are they a pagan show or a purposeful and gainful event in the pursuit of human development?
A Frenchman, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, in 1896 tried to provide answers to some of the questions.
His answers are couched in statements which he called the Olympic Creed, and contain the ideals of the Olympic Games.
For Coubertin, ‘’the most important thing is not to win, but to take part; just as the most important thing is not triumph but the struggle.
‘’The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.’’
Armed with the creed, Coubertin in 1896 rekindled the Olympic Games flame giving it its modern form with new dimensions added.
In the new arrangement, Olympic prize winners were decorated either with gold, silver or bronze medals, instead of wearing crowns of wild olive and statues of themselves as well as choral odes honouring them by commissioned poets.
The Olympic flame, however, continued to serve as a symbol of continuity between the ancient and modern Games.
In the ancient version of the Games, a sacred flame burned at the altar of Zeus on Olympia.
But in the modern version, the flame comes from a torch kindled by the sun’s rays at Olympia and carried to the site of the Games by relay runners on foot, in ships or on aeroplanes where necessary.
The Olympic Games had, and still have, a symbol consisting of five coloured rings of yellow, black, green and red on a white background.
This symbolises the five continents of Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and America.
As a follow-up to the repositioning of the Games, a French educator, Fr. Henri Didon, coined the Games’ motto in Latin: ‘’Citius, Altinus, Fortius’’.
This means ‘’Faster’’, ‘’Higher’’, ‘’Braver’’, and interpreted in modern language as ‘’Swifter’’,
‘’Higher’’, ‘’Stronger’’.
These words were to capture the competitive and inspiring sportsmanship spirit of the Games participants.
Women were later included in the Games to suit the fiesta’s modern purpose of ‘’building character through athletic training and discipline’’.
Since 1896, the Games have been enlarging and increasing in the number of sporting events and participants, publicity, politics and commercialisation.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC)web site says the Games have grown from only one race of nearly the length of the stadium at Olympia, about 200 yards (183 metres) for the Greeks only, to a game of more than 201 nations.
The Games now have some 10,625 athletes (4,329 women and 6,296 men), 301 events, 1,500 media professionals, 5,000 volunteers and are watched by 3.9 billion people.
The growth of the Games admittedly has produced many notable sportsmen and women, and contributed to the development of physical structures as well as impacted on the economies of host countries and corporate organisations.
But critics say the Games have faltered in the pursuit of the original ideals.
Brian Martins, a Pan-American Olympic critic,argues that the Games have now become an arena for power politics and corporate interests’ sponsorship tussle.
He says that this is why no African country has won the bid to host the Games to date.
Martins says the Games have become an anti-loser platform as losers lose everything,
while racism is promoted through contemporary Olympic Games which, he notes, have events built around Western sports.
He also criticises the Olympic Games for allegedly fostering celebrity worship and culture of stardom at the expense of non-elite participants.
Spectators identify only with Olympic heroes, attributing to them moral virtues such as courage
and integrity, he notes.
Martins, therefore, calls for the shunning of the Games.
Analysts say reports on the IOC web site confirm that the Games have not escaped the scourge of drug abuse by athletes, particularly those that enhance performance.
Drug testing of athletes was initiated following the death of a Danish runner after taking a strong dose of amphetamines at the Rome Games in 1960.
However, in spite of more than 33 years of progressive drug testing measures, the use of banned substances by contestants surprisingly seems to be on the increase.
This may have prompted Dr Robert Voy, a former Director of Drug Testing for the U.S.
Olympic Committee, to describe Olympic athletes as ‘’walking laboratories’’.
He adds that the Olympics ‘’have become a proving ground for scientists, chemists and unethical doctors’’.
Corroborating Voy’s view, Dr Donald Catlin, a Director at a drug testing laboratory in the U.S., says ‘’the sophisticated athlete who wants to use drug has switched to things we can’t test for.’’
Although the use of drugs has been found to be detrimental to the user’s health, yet the quest for Olympic glory leads many athletes to continue to dope themselves.
The unethical, unbridled quest for bidding to host the Games has also led to a do-or-die approach to securing the hosting right.
This, analysts say, is glaringly against the spirit of the ideals of the Olympic Games, leading to bribery and corruption.
Critics say this was why in 2000, the IOC allegedly compromised standards during the Salt Lake City’s successful bid for the 2002 Winter Games.
They say this act made a mockery of the selection criteria for host countries.
Critics also point to the politicisation and commercialisation of the Olympic Games,
saying this is why no African country has hosted the Games.
They also criticise the fact that modern Olympics involves ‘’big money’’, thereby negating the Olympic ideals.
The international ‘’Awake Magazine’’ says the generation of ‘’high television ratings and lucrative advertisement packages has made the Games a tremendous marketing tool’’.
Commercialisation of the Games grew to a point that the IOC received about 3.5 billion dollars for television rights for a particular Summer Olympics.
Commenting on the ideals of the Games, Robert Badinter, a member of the Olympic Ethics Committee, says: ‘’The Olympic movement has an ethical dimension which must be clearly defined, firmly guarded and scrupulously respected.
‘’We know that like society itself, the Olympic Games need to progress and play an increasingly important role in the world.
‘’But these changes must not be made to the detriment of the ideals which inspired the founders, particularly Pierre de Coubertin.
‘’This ethical dimension is both an individual and corporate heritage that we must preserve and the guarantee of a future which lives up to expectation.’’
Recommendation 34 of the IOC 2000 Reforms Journal says the athletes’ Olympic oath must include a statement concerning a drug free sport, and the mission of the ethics commission.
The commission is responsible for promoting positive ethics, ensuring transparency and responsibility in the application of ethical principles.
The question the IOC has to answer is:
Are all these enumerated principles being followed to the letter? If yes, what result has it yielded?
Numbers 1, 3 and 4 of the IOC Code of Ethics state, among others, that ‘’safeguarding the dignity of the individual is a fundamental requirement of Olympics’’.
The code also states that ‘’no practice constituting any form of physical or mental injury to participants will be tolerated’’ and ‘’all forms of harassment against participants, be they physical, mental, professional or gender-related, are prohibited’’.
Yet, barely four weeks into the Summer Olympics in Sydney 2000, IOC officials announced to the world the committee’s decision to feature homosexuals in a display in the opening ceremony of the Games.
Added to this is the worrisome disclosure that Lukas Pollert, a famous Czech Olympic canoeist, sold his gold and silver Olympic medals which he won in the Barcelona 1992 Games.
But are these the progress and increasing important role the Olympic Games are supposed to play in human development? asks Badintar.
Pollert was peeved by the present standards and condition of the Olympic Games which he dismissed as being no longer attractive and purposeful.
‘’They do not stage the games for sportsmen, only for politicians and sponsors; it is only a matter of money’’, and perhaps vested immoral interests.
‘’The refusal of the IOC to dissociate itself from the abuses directly linked to the preparation of the Beijing Games is undermining human rights in China and flouting the spirit and letter of the Olympic Charter,’’ the Human Rights Watch, a global NGO, has said.
Observers are asking whether the Olympic Games ideals are alive?.
Why have the Games veered off from considering the wellbeing of humanity to sectionalised vested interests?
As the XXIX Olympiad Games open in Beijing with the mantra of “One World One Dream,
I participate, I contribute and I enjoy”, which attempts to integrate sport with culture, the question is: Will the ideals of the Olympic Games remain in focus?
Analysts say that for the Games to return to the celebration of unblemished human development, the organisers have to look back to Greece and Olympia, the source of the Games, for inspiration and guidance.
They also want the IOC to consult widely with stakeholders to ensure that the grouses of displeased parties in relation to Olympic activities are listened to and treated appropriately.
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