The Olympic Games is a world competition in which various nations come together for a friendly competition to see which country competes best at each particular sport. The modern Olympic Games were inspired by the ancient Greek Olympic games in the 8th century BC, which were held in Olympia, Greece. Presently, the Olympic Games are broken apart into the summer and winter Olympic Games and take place every 4 years, but alternate every 2 years from each other. The IOC stands for the International Olympic Committee, who is a non-profit independent international organization made up of volunteers who want “to develop, promote and protect the Olympic Movement in their respective countries” (About the IOC Institution, 2016). The IOC is dedicated …show more content…
While “Sports, of course, remain at the center of the Olympics”, “commercialism has overwhelmed whatever other values the Olympics hope to embody” (The Commercial Games, 2008). The commercialism carries on to sponsorships by companies that sell unhealthy food. Much like the alcohol companies sponsoring the IOC, “two of the 12 Olympic TOP sponsors run businesses centered around the sales of unhealthy food: Coca-Cola and McDonald’s”, for the 2008 Beijing Olympics (Weisman, 2008). The Olympic Games are games dealing with competition of sports, and accepting a sponsorship from a soda company and a fast-food company seems to be the opposite of what sports involve: athleticism and healthy living. Also commercialism is abundant in the areas of clothing and apparel that the athletes and coaches wear, in which the athletes, coaches and teams in general all take profits off. As stated in the same Huffington Post article, the IOC signed Adidas, Nike, and Speedo for sponsorships for the 2008 Olympics, all of which “source their products from sweatshop factories” (Weisman, 2008). These companies use sweatshops and use extremely cheap labor to sell and promote their products in which their items were flaunted in the …show more content…
For example, with the sponsorships given by the alcohol companies, there should also be some sort of charity funding set up, which would allow the core and true values of the Olympics to be put back in place while generating funds for the Olympics at the same time. As for the sponsorships gained from the fast food and soda companies such as Coca Cola and McDonalds, there should be a scholarship funding system that they hold to provide funding for less fortunate athletes competing. This would also bring back some of the Olympic values by giving back to the community and helping less fortunate athletes come together and compete at what they have earned to do. Another problem that would need to be addressed as far as commercialism goes, is the apparel companies. While it is inevitable that these sporting apparel companies will sponsor the athletes and also give sponsorships to the IOC in general, their activities dealing with sweatshops producing their products can be made aware to the public. The only real way that this situation of unfair labor with these apparel companies can be avoided is by making each and every athlete competing in each event wear the same clothing, provided by the IOC. The requirement of making athletes all wearing the same thing would not corrupt the IOC and the Olympic Games values, and would prove to
Since 776 BCE, the Olympics have been a way for people of different cultures to come together and compete in friendly competition. In 1892 the first modern Olympics were held in Athens, although it had been over a thousand years since the last game it still had brought together an assortment of different religions and ethnic groups together. Many factors shaping the Olympic Games reflect the changes that have taken place in our world since the last game in 393 CE in Greece such changes include woman’s suffrage, global economy, world wars, and proving competency.
A spokesman for McDonald's, Jack Greenberg, believed that McDonald's were a "unique company, capable of bringing the fun and excitement of the world's premiere sporting event to 43 million customers every day. " However the real reason behind this sponsor was chosen as it was offering the Olympic Committee millions of dollars in sponsorship. McDonald's, as an example, wanted to exploit the Games, using it as an advertising tool, to imply their company has a clean, reliable and idealistic image like that of the Olympics. The Salt Lake Organising Committee received approximately US$ 1,390.5 million from Olympic marketing programmes, but a question asked by many is Where exactly does all the money come from?
Today we owe one of the largest global social gatherings to the Greeks, the Olympic games. The Olympic games were held every four years in Olympia, Greece. Today “the Olympic games are held every four years, with the summer and the Winter Games alternating by occurring every four years but two years apart.” Just like the Ancient Olympic games, today’s Olympics are designed to be a time of peace in which all nations can come together to compete in different sports.
Billions of dollars are spent by millions of people watching these events and expecting greatness from their school’s athletes. People give little thought to why they paid group A for group B’s talent. Athletes do not have time to give the people greatness and earn money in another fashion while maintaining a high academic profile. Athletes are seen more than any other person on any given campus. Athletes are being exploited. Running out of time is one thing, but running out of money to feed yourself and purchase necessities is much different. Major college athletes are running out of everything and there is a simple solution, pay
Modern Day Olympics are a huge tradition that sweeps the screens of televisions across the world. Competitors take the arena with uniforms that dawn their countries colors and designs that are meant to resemble their designated flag. For months the news is centered around the games; the preparation, the athletes, and of course the competition. Countries aren 't obsessed, they are inspired and full of pride seeing athletes from their country compete and show their incredible skill. This tradition dates back to ancient Greece where the games began. Tony Perrottet writes about the traditions of the ancient game in his book The Naked Olympics.
The Ancient Greek Olympics were not only sporting events, it was a celebration to honor the great and powerful Zeus. The Ancient Olympics were held every four years at the famous Olympia, a district of Elis, here all free Greek men were allowed to compete. The first record of the Olympic Games was held in 776 B.C. The main sports were the Pentathlon, the Equestrian Events, Pankration, and Boxing.
The Olympic Games are the leading worldwide sport event that held every 4 years, featuring thousands of international athletes from more than 200 nations participating in a variety of sports competitions. Although the Games are about winning the sports competitions, they also provide a platform for the nations throughout the world to learn different cultures and share uniqueness. The Games are important, and have to be held because they transmit a message of friendship and peaceful between nations.
The Olympic Games plays a significant role in the world. The relationship between it and host countries is important to investigate for comprehending cultural studies. According to Xu and Kirby (2008), the Olympic Games has a considerable impact on the expression of national identity. For example, London applied this approach to promote its national identity. This can be discovered from the BBC video called James Bond escorts The Queen to the opening ceremony in 2012 (2012): an amiable identity is perceived by the audience through presenting corgi at Buckingham Palace. Moreover, China is no exception. There is an image about the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympics, it shows a spectacular drumming performance. In addition, an article about
The Olympic Games were started by the Greeks a long time ago. It was in the honor of Zeus, the kings of the gods and were part of a religious festivals. They started in 776 B.C. The games were held every four years in Olympia, which is located in southeast Greece. People came from all around Greece to take part or just watch the games. Events in the Ancient Olympic Games were boxing, chariot racing, riding, pentathlon, discus, javelin, jump, running, and wrestling. Events in modern Olympic Games are swimming, diving,
One may disagree that hosting Olympics is not worthwhile as it requires a city or a country to bring out an enormous sum of money for the preparation and planning of hosting the Olympics. Zimbalist (2012, pp. 116) says that the summer Games roughly generates a total of $5-$6 billion and almost half of it belongs to the International Olympic Committee. On the other hand, the cost of the games has increased roughly
Many people would question if the cost of the Olympics is worth it. Billions of dollars are used to make the Olympics what it is, and a lot of money is spent on manufacturing medals, and building arenas for the sports events. The arenas also require lots of money to maintain during the Olympics, as well as afterwards if they are to be recycled as sporting event centres. Housing for the athletes also takes quite a few million to create, even though they are only used for athlete housing for a couple of weeks. So much money was put into things like accommodation, but there were many complaints from everyone residing there that most parts of the building were incomplete or malfunctioning. The 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi’s original budget was twelv...
I believe commercialization comes along and has to be present once you make sport into a business. It is has to. Athletes, coaches, and owners today make millions of dollars more than some wealthy business owners. However, there are critics of sport commercialization that believe commerce corrupts sport. The Corruption Thesis according to Simon on pg. 190 of Fair Play: The Ethics of Sport:
Most at times do not really realize how important history and its events greatly influence the way we live and what we do today! Every four years we celebrate the beginning of something that was brought up long ago, the Olympics! This great event in which, now the whole world participates in started way back in the year 776 BC. It started from people playing for the God Zeus to people playing for their country and a medal, the Olympic Games sure did evolve as the time and beliefs changed.
Every four years, there will be an international sports event held. Under this topic, we are not talking about the FIFA World Cup, which hold in the next month, but the Olympics Games. Most of the Olympics Games can hold successfully, the credit of an international organization is indispensable. This international organization is International Olympic Committee (IOC).
The Olympic Games were a vital part of Greek culture which was heavily influenced by athletics. Today, the Olympic Games are the world's largest presentation of athletic skill and competitive spirit. Thousands of athletes and spectators participate in this universal event. Revived in 1896, the Olympic Games had their beginnings in ancient Greece, and since then the event is very much comparable to modern Olympic events.