Since the days of ancient Rome, men, and now women, have been competing to show their strengths in a worldwide event known as the Olympics. Over the years, the Olympics have become larger and more intense, leading to all the aspects that make up the event becoming grander with time. Nowadays, the most important aspects of the Olympics have seem to become the venues and their appearances. Venues that are intended to live up to spectators expectations do not just arise from the ground; they require time and a large sum of money. Along with this, it is necessary to pick a country and city that is ready to host an event such as this, but there have been several cases which have not lived up to the Olympic standards. When a chosen country is already experiencing problems within their country, it would be assumed that they would not be a suitable country to host the Olympics, which Sochi, Russia and Beijing, China have both shown. When contemplating the location of the next Olympics, it is of the upmost importance to pick a venue that is not only safe, but prepared for the large task at hand in order to insure the safety of both athletes and civilians. In Beijing, China and Sochi, Russia, problems that ran rapid previously to the Olympics continued throughout, tainting the rest of the world.
What China is stereotypically known for is its unsafe pollution and rapid health concerns, which were existent before and during the summer Olympic Games in 2008. In desperate effort to bandage them over, the government had ordered work stoppages at construction sites, chemical plants, cement manufacturers and mines by July 20, 2008, to try and cut down on the pollution they let out into the surrounding area. But, even if Beijing could eli...
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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.
The year is 1972 and people are ready for the summer Olympics. Unfortunately for the eager sports spectators the 1972 Munich Olympics have a much more tragic story line. People don’t talk about any records broken or international competitiveness, instead people remember the Munich Games because of the hostage situation. A Palestinian formed group called the Black September terrorist captured nine Israeli Olympic athletes. Jim McKay one of the Olympic sportscasters at the games says, “The Munich tragedy was the biggest event in my career and the most terrible.” Truly Munich’s is tarnishing the Olympic Games. Even today the impact and repercussions of the game can be felt not only with the heightened security protocol but a lasting social impact as well.
The Penn Museum site on the Olympic Games in Greece presents a well-organized home page that entices the viewer in. It compares, in the first few sentences you see, the similarities between the ancient Olympics and today’s Olympics. As a reader, I am already enticed to learn more because of the comparisons made, it feels relatable and relevant to me. It is organized into five sections, the games, the athletes, the women, the politics, and the commercialism. Bentley and Ziegler present information on the Olympic Games very differently. The information is a small paragraph within the books chapter on Greece; it does not go into any real detail but rather offers an idea of what the Olympic Games were. The paragraph simply states that the Olympics started in 776 BCE as a part of the PanHellenic festivals; it gives a short list of some events, and says that winners were heroes and it happened every four years. In contrast, the website has many details and small interesting tidbits of information that make the viewer want to read more. The first section, the games, focuses on where the games took place and some common misconceptions about the Olympics in regards to the marathon, nudity, and the Olympic flame. The next section, the athletes, discusses the athletes and amateur vs. professionals and prizes, and rewards. I learned that in anc...
As the base of this essay is on how the Olympics have been used in the
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The Olympic Games showcase a rare opportunity for the host country to show the world their culture, hospitality, talent, and acceptance of others. The Berlin Olympics of 1936 were no exception. Declared the best of their day, Germany spared no expense to impress the thousands of tourists who flooded the country. By building of a new sports field, an enormous Olympic Stadium, and the first official Olympic Village, Germany was determined to amaze the world. Despite these lavish projects, the Nazi Olympics were, at their very core, a gleaming illusion used to hide a nation on the verge of annihilating a decade of peace.
China’s economy is one very large indicator of its role in globalization. “In 2010 China became the world’s largest exporter” (CIA World Factbook). Without China many places such as the United States of America would be without billions of goods imported from China annually. An influx of companies moving their manufacturing to China has allowed people to flock to cities and find jobs. China’s economy has grown exponentially over the last few decades. In the last three years China’s economy has grown by nearly ten percent every year. Despite this influx of money to China it has also resulted in many drawbacks. For example, China’s environment has been obliterated. China burns more coal than every country in the world combined. Beijing has been so badly polluted that there are actually companies that sell cans of fresh air to people, and gas masks are a common sight. On January 12th 2013 Beijing’s air pollution reached a record setting 775 PPM. To put that into perspective, the scale for measuring pollution is 0-500 PPM. This set an all-time recorded high. In Los Angeles a high ...
The Olympic Games of 1972 and 1980 were games to remember for their surprising outcomes. The Cold War had been going on for since 1947 and the bitter rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union was at a peek. Both the United State’s basketball team and the Soviet Union’s hockey team remained undefeated until these games. During these Olympics, the superior team was beaten by the weaker one, and tensions between the two nations were affected. Each nation experienced extraordinary Olympic victories, but for very different reasons.
By using critical discourse analysis, I will explore how the media coverage of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics provides its viewers from their home country with a sense of nationalism and pride through the emphasize of physical fitness and athleticism. In additional to that, I will also draw from the Spartans millenarian mentality that also emphasized physical excellence from a young age for competitive purposes. I gather information by reading article of the Sochi Olympics from The New York Times and the NBC network as well as comparing them with Russian newspaper such as The Moscow Times and the Rossiyskaya Gazeta to see what type of strategies and themes are used by both country in conveying nationalism and fitness to their viewers.
The ancient Olympic Games are heralded divine because it was dedicated one of the Greek’s most important gods, the almighty Zeus, and the cooperative time it created of no conflict amongst the fighting Greek city-states. Despite the role it played in uniting the city-states together, it eventually went away due to natural and human intervention. However, it has been brought back in the name of the modern day Olympics, which to this day, has recreated that sense of peace ancient Greece was able to achieve in the days of its golden age.
The Olympics were originally created with the intention of creating an international community of peace. As stated in document 1 and 6 the Olympics were supposed to become “the true free trade of the future.” This means that through the Olympics, peace would become international, similar to peace created by free trade. Similarly, document 6 describes that the ****** promulgated by the Olympic Games are those of peaceful foreign policy, democracy, and social progress. In the document, the Soviets write that they have been chosen as hosts because they retain an ideal peace, which is the ****** of the Olympics. Documents 1’s author, the creator of the Olympics is a reliable source because it describes what the actual innovator ****** for the Olympics. However, document 6 may not be a reliable source. This is because during the 1980’s the USSR was a communist country. The supposed “peaceful foreign policy” and “democracy” described in the document is not characteristic of the USSR in that ******. In fact, the USSR was en...
The Olympic Games are held every four years with the main intent to “promote people’s physical and psychological level, likewise to promote different country’s people, have more communication and to help maintaining world peace” (official website of Olympic movement). However, there are many risks in hosting the Olympic Games, for example the effects of an economic downturn after the closure of a host country’s
Every two years the Olympic Games take place on the world’s stage. People are mesmerized as they cheer on their home team. Whether it be the summer or winter games, for two weeks, biannually, people are inundated with the games. But, many may fail to realize the competition and game behind the Games. This is the never ceasing game of the bidding process and subsequent creation and construction of new Olympic venues as newly selected host cities prepare for their opportunity to host the Olympics. But this little known game has only a few select winners, and their prize is not a medal, rather it is huge financial gains. The losers are many, and they are the most vulnerable inhabitants of the city, the poor; they are not simply losing out on a medal, they are losing their homes.
...ing and honorable events in world history. There were four crucial parts in the Olympic history that change the games forever. Meaning it changed in all equality from the origin in 766 B.C.E all the way to modern day today which is the latest games in 2012. These games always kept running because it gave people a new way of living by seeing all the different types of countries competing and showing off the skill. This was what most athletes worked for. These games set honorable meaning as the modern day games begun they would light a torch that would symbolize the games had begun. These games weren't just games to some people these games were ways to get a worldwide message across no matter if it was about race, gender, or even life. These games shifted in a way that no one could really explain but it gave everyone a sense of what's really out there in this world.
For the past few years there has been a very controversy issue that has been plaguing the Summer Olympics. The Summer Olympics was first held in 1896, it’s an international multi-sport where athletes around the world come to compete with other athletes from different countries. There are many events that are held in the Summer Olympics ranging from Track and Field all the way to Volleyball and Basketball. In each Olympic event there are medals that earned to the winners, the first place winners get a gold medal, the second place winners get a silver medal, and the third place winners gets a bronze medal.