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The 'Real' Attraction of the Games
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14892 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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10 / 1988 |
2,734 Words |
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Richard Espy
Richard Espy is a writer and lecturer specializing in the
politics of the Olympic Games. He is the author of the book
The Politics of the Olympic Games. |
The Olympic Games have never been just a festival of athletic competition. In fact, politics are so much a part of the Olympic Games that it is difficult to determine which is the real attraction of the Games--sports or politics.
Official Olympic dogma denies that politics are a part of the Games and asserts instead that any politics in the Games and asserts instead that any politics in the Games are an intrusion. Olympic history, however, belies this contention; the politics are not an intrusion; rather, they are inherent in the Games.
The Olympic Games play a dual role in international politics: They are in an instrument of the international political structure and an actor in it. Structurally, the Games are a mirror image of the dominant political structure in the world--the nation-state system. Politics is the essence of nations, and the Olympic Games, where nation is pitted against nation, serve as proxy.
Modern Olympic political history can really be dated from 1936, 40 years after the first Games of the modern era were held. That year's Games, held in Berlin, marked the real beginning of the Olympics as a political event of international significance for two reasons: the severity of the political issues at the Games and the manifest use of the Games as a political tool. Both shaped the later development of the Olympic Games as an instrument of and as an actor in international politics.
In 1936, Adolf Hitler recognized the political values of the Games in galvanizing domestic political support and serving as a showcase of the
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