Modern Olympic Movement

Throughout 1892 to 2002, many events happened that helped shape the modern Olympic movement. There were new problems and new improvements that affected the Olympics. WIth the documents we’re given, we are able to analyze the factors that created these new problems and improvements. Through these years, we can see that the world has become more acceptable to women, people being pressured because of pride, people trying to work harder to earn more money, and people working harder for world peace.

Within the many years of Olympics, women was able to gain acceptance and respect from others. From this gain, women were beginning to attend the Olympic games. In document 2, a picture taken in 1908 was given a caption, “2 percent of the athletes were women”. On one hand, this caption showed how women was starting to participate in the Olympics. On the other hand, the caption also showed how little women participated. Although 2 percent of the athletes were women, many of them were still judged and criticized by others. A woman athlete, Hassiba Boulmerka, who attended the Olympics in 1992 when “29 percent of the athletes were women,” was interviewed in 1995. “My victories give me confidence, and they give confidence to my country. I represent my country and all the women in my country who aspire to be athletes… They have to become stronger in the mind, not just in the body,” (cite doc #8), what Hassiba Boulmerka meant by that was she’s very proud of herself for being able to attend and represent her country as a woman at the Olympics.

She probably believed this because in the 29 percent, she’s able to be one of them and since 29 percent is such a small number, she must have worked her hardest to become physically and mentally stronger so she can be apart of that percentage. With both documents, we can see how women’s participation increased in just 80 years and how some people made women feel as if they weren’t good enough to be in the Olympics. Though the number of women did increase, it didn’t increased as much as we would have expected. The good thing is women was able to start gaining respect from others during the modern Olympic movement.

Because of a country’s pride, many teams and athletes were often pressured. “Germans sought to prove not that they were better skiers than other people but more importantly, that Nazism was better than democracy. The only thing
that mattered to them was victory,” (cite doc #3), what Arnold Lunn meant by that was Germans worked really hard to defeat other teams and all they wanted to do was win. The Germans on the team probably wanted to win and bring a medal back home but there was probably more pressure on them since their country wanted to prove that Nazism was better than democracy. “There were many pressures on American athletes because of the presence of the Soviet team in 1952,” (cite Doc #4) what Bob Matthais meant by that was when there’s a stronger and much more competitive opponent, the athletes were much more pressured. He probably believed this because he might have felt the extra amount of pressure on him when he competed again the Soviet team in 1952 and from this experience, he’s able to speak for his team. “The rise and fall of Pakistan’s men’s field hockey team in the 200 Olympics reflects our social values which have shrunk from that of national pride to self-promotion,”(cite Doc #10), what Ali Kabir meant by that was through the ups and downs it shows the changes in Pakistan’s men and that they wanted pride for themselves instead of their country.

Although the way pressure and pride influenced Pakistan’s men’s field hockey team differently, it’s allows us to analyze the different types of pressure and pride there was. Because of the pressure put on the Pakistan’s men, they changed from working hard for their country’s pride to their own pride. The documents we are given helps us understand some of the pressure that the teams have today.

Many people worked hard to earn more money and help promote the Olympics. Some of these people worked to make the Olympics better but some other people just worked to make things better for themselves. “Regardless of who takes home the medals, corporations from the United States, Japan, and some other countries stand to make a lot of gold at the Seoul Olympics,” (cite Doc #7), what the newspaper meant by that was that even though some won gold, the corporations that helped broadcast have earned them gold as well. Though these corporations were a big help in the Olympics and it made a really big influence in the Olympics now, some corporations may have taken advantage of the Olympics just to make profit.

Document 9’s bar graph was given a title “Fees Paid to the International Olympic Committee for International TV and Radio Broadcast Rights” and with the bar graph we can see that during 1980 to 2000 the countries paid more and more to promote the olympics. This graph might have also been made because they wanted to show how people worked harder to help make the Olympic more popular and be watched by different people around the world to help show our world is developing into a more diverse society. Lots of people worked hard to promote the Olympics and some did it just to help the Olympics and some others took advantage of this event.

From the Olympics, people were able to try to bring peace and unity to the world. Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic movement, gave a speech to the Athletic Society of France and his speech showed he thought the Olympics brought peace to the world, “Through the Olympics let us export our oarsmen, our runners, and our fencers into other lands…the cause of peace will have received a new and strong ally,” (city Doc #1). What he meant by that was the Olympics allowed us to bring our athletes to different places, which is a good thing since people will be able to explore different places in the world and get a different idea of the world and he also meant that because of the Olympics, it brought us peace and new things. He probably believed this because he’s the founder of the modern Olympic movement and he’s very proud of this creation that he believes that can bring peace and unity to the world. “The fact that Moscow has been chosen to stage the 1980 Olympic Games is the result of the consistent and peaceful foreign policy pursued by the Soviet Union, which is a beacon of peace, democracy, and social progress,” (cite Doc #6), what he meant by that was Moscow was picked to host the 1980 Olympic games was a good thing because they had a good policy which could help everyone stay peaceful and it was a good sign of peace, democracy and social progress. Throughout the years of Olympics, we can see how many people tried to help bring peace to the world and to do that, they put lots of thought to plan for the Olympics.

Within the many years of Olympics, there’s many factors that influenced the Olympics today. The documents we were given were all written by writers, athletes and other people who were somewhat related to the Olympics. Since none of these documents were written by someone who wanted to participate in the Olympics, I’d like to read a journal entry written by someone who tried to be apart of the Olympics but failed to reach their goal. I would like to
read two journal entries by that person, one that’s before they found out they won’t be able to be in the Olympics and one that’s after that. I want to read a journal entry of someone who has experienced that because I want to see their thoughts about the Olympics before and after they know the bad news. Since many people thought the Olympics was a good thing to our society, I want to know if that person would bash on the Olympics after not making it into the Olympics. There were many things that happened throughout 1892 to 2002 that made a big influence on the Olympics we have now and because of these documents, we’re able to analyze some of these factors that shaped the modern Olympic movement.