Introduction

Political contentions have increasingly interfered with an avowed aim of the modern Olympics, that of fostering international peace and unity. At the August 1994 Twelfth Congress of the International Olympic Committee, President Juan Antonio Samaranch said, "I wish to speak to the world and show what we've done for solidarity and peace over a century.

Track and Field, 1900

I want to tell the world that it was not only the centennial congress, but also the congress of unity." i Unfortunately, the Olympic Games and international politics are inextricably intertwined. Olympic history is as much about politics as it is about medals. And that is nothing new. The ancient Olympics were disbanded in 393 A.D. almost as much for politics as for the more commonly cited reasons of commercialism and corruption.i The Games were revived under lofty ideals in 1896 and the first modern Games were played politics-free in Athens, Greece, with 13 nations taking part. In 1908, at London, the real politics of the Olympics emerged. The Americans didn't help the cause when their flag bearer refused to dip the flag in front of the British monarchy. The Russians tried to block their rivals, the Finns, from displaying the flag. The British tried the same on the Irish. As in 1912 in Stockholm, the royalty attended the Games, but the Swedes brought it a step further by having the Czar of Russia hand out awards, too.

In 1916, the modern Olympics made their truest break with the Ancient Games. In the early Games, wars were stopped while athletes competed. That year, the Games scheduled for Berlin were canceled because of World War I. And when the Games were revived in 1920, the losers of the war were further penalized: Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey were banned.

The Games returned to Paris in 1924 and a new element was added. The U.S. government had criticized France's occupation of a former German territory, and the French fans decided to take it out on the American athletes. They saved some of their wrath for other visiting teams, too. Booing during national anthems became common. Amsterdam held a fairly sane Olympics in 1928 but only after many countries, spurred by the French rudeness, called for an end to the Games.

Until 1936, politics were mostly local and petty. But Hitler brought an end to that as the Games moved to Berlin. He built magnificent facilities and tuned up a powerful German athletic machine in special training camps, wanting to prove his Aryan theories of superiority.

Blacks and Jews were allowed to compete—Hitler had no choice—but he was determined that his athletes would show them up. His propaganda machine was at its peak. Nazi flags and Heil Hitler salutes were everywhere, inside and outside the stadium. His plan succeeded. The Germans, who won 21 medals in the previous Olympics, led all countries with 89, including 33 golds. But the real stars of the 1936 Games were a group of black American track stars, led by Jesse Owens.

Still the politics of the Olympics were established and they have not stopped to this day. The 1940 Games were to be in Japan, but they and the 1944 Games were canceled by World War II. So were the invitations to Germany and Japan when the Games were resumed in London in 1948. Olympic politics took its next big leap in 1952. The USSR brought its Big Red Machine to the Games for the first time and nearly matched the U.S. in the medal count. Other post-war Communist countries did well, too. The Hungarians were third and the Czechs finished in the top 10.

With the Communist governments revving up their propaganda campaigns, the Games would never be the same until the 1990s. Judging prejudices became common, and the Big Red Machine concentrated on many somewhat obscure sports where it could build up its medal count.

In Melbourne, Australia, in 1956, the Soviets overtook the U.S. in medals, something they would do five out of the next seven times the two teams competed. But publicity-wise, the Soviets paid a big price. The Olympics were held in November and December that year, and in October, the Soviets had invaded Hungary. There were some nasty confrontations between Hungarians and the Soviets at the Games, including a water polo game in which the pool was filled with Soviet blood. Many Hungarians defected during the Games.

The 1960 Olympics in Rome were considered one of the most politics-free ever, the last at which South Africa was allowed to compete before the country was banned for its practice of apartheid. However, while on the first day of track and field competition, the day after the opening ceremonies, Americans may have been pleased over how the largely

Opening Ceremonies, 1988

Italian crowd had cheered the U.S. contingent as it marched into and around the stadium with the American flag, the U.S. team was loudly booed by a large group of Italian Communists, and the Soviet team was cheered. After the 1960 Olympics, in which the International Olympic Committee (IOC) forced the East and West Germans to compete as one team, the IOC got involved in politics again, forcing out South Africa because of its apartheid system. The 1964 Games began the era of boycotts. Indonesia and North Korea withdrew for political reasons. In 1968, the first of the major televised Olympics, students protested at the Games in Mexico, and the government tried to solve the problem by firing on them, killing an unknown number of them. The IOC ignored that protest but "solved" one of its own by suspending two Americans, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, after their "Black Protest" on the victory stand after the 200-meter dash. They were banned from the Olympic Village.

Now, protesters found the international attention brought by worldwide television to their liking. In 1972, Palestinian terrorists took hostage and murdered Israeli athletes and officials at Munich, causing a one-day delay in the Games and an Olympic Stadium memorial service. Mark Spitz, a Jewish American who was the hero of the Games, was spirited out of town after his last event. In 1976, the African nations boycotted the Games in Montreal, because a New Zealand rugby team had competed in South Africa, although rugby was not an Olympic sport. The Olympics-as-a-protest attention-gainer did not quit.

The United States, after much debate, withdrew from the 1980 games held in Moscow, to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. About 64 other nations also boycotted. The USSR, citing doubts about security measures, withdrew from the 1984 games in Los Angeles; 15 other nations followed suit.

The IOC knew it was going to have a problem in 1988 with the Games in South Korea, but everything was done to appease the North Koreans by offering them a chance to host some of the events. In the end, the North declined and took Cuba, Ethiopia and Nicaragua with them. And Albania set its only Olympic record: it staged its fourth straight boycott, reasons unknown. The 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, reflected a changed political landscape: the 172 participating nations and territories include the Unified Team (with athletes from 12 former Soviet republics), a reunited Germany, and South Africa, which was allowed to compete for the first time since 1960. The 1992 Games were fairly sane, but not without Basque separatist threats.

Contrary to the lofty ideals established by the founders of the modern Olympic Games, national political ideologies and international political confrontations have tainted what should have been purely athletic contests among the finest athletes of each sport. Though political conflicts may always be a part of international sport, there is hope in the changing world order. With the end of the Cold War and the on-going peace process in regions such and the Middle East and the Balkans, athletes may finally be allowed to train and compete free of the burdens their political leaders may place on them. In fact, it may be the athletes themselves who help foster friendly and peaceful competition among nations.