History Of The Winter Olympics

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On February 2014 took place the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia. This event has been the opportunity to speak about many issues occurring in Russia. The Sochi Winter Olympics have been characterized as controversial Games, especially in the field of human rights and environmental protection. This recent event leads us to the general case of the Olympic spirit and the way it was created by people from every part of the world. The Olympic spirit is also a part of the Olympic Games which constitute a huge gathering of people from the world.
To which extent can the Olympic Games be considered as a post colonialism case?
This question will be answered through a definition of post colonialism adapted to the case of the Olympics. Then, some historical facts of the Olympics history will be related with the concept of culture. To conclude, consideration will be given to the effects of the Olympics on the host countries and the way those countries are using the Olympics as a tool will be studied.
I) A definition of post colonialism through the concept of the Olympics
1) The Olympic identity
Identity is an aspect of post colonialism. According to Oxford Dictionaries is composed of “the characteristics determining who or what a person or thing is” . As everybody knows, there are many kinds of characteristics which can determine who or what a person or thing is. But, a focus can be done on particular ones. Indeed, there are two main components of identity which contribute to analyze a person or a thing. The first ones are socio-demographic characteristics which include “characteristics such as gender, age, ethnic group, household size, or employment status” . There is also the benefit sought which deals with “common values and attit...

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...he 20th century has reinforced this idea by showing the evolution of the Olympic spirit from the Ancient Games to the Modern Games. To conclude, the post-colonial notion related to the Olympic Games has been studied in order to show that the Olympics Games, even if they are a kind of colonization, could sometimes have been used as a post-colonial tool in order to make people think differently about socio-political cases.
At the approach of the Winter Games, the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin has totally understood this idea of using the Olympics to help him to succeed in some parts of his role of President. Thus, before the Olympics, in order to improve relations with Western countries, he has decided to release his jailed opponents. But then, he also understood that once the Games were over, he could deliberately invade the Crimean peninsula.

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