After Professor Babiak came to talk to us about the Olympics, I began to think about what role these bi-annual games play in the lives of people across the globe. For years, both the summer and winter versions of the Olympics were outlets for the best athletes from hundreds of countries to display their skills on a world stage. There was a certain romance that existed within the games, and it was infrequent to hear people question the legality of certain events. However, in the last ten to fifteen years, it seems as though scandals have flood the Olympics to a point where the entire spectacle feels impure.
In recent Olympics, no sport has been free of scandal. In 2002, a French figure skating judge admitted to being pressured to pick a Russian couple to win the pairs event regardless of the results, when many felt that the Canadian team of Jamie Sale and David Pelletier deserved to win. The scandal took on an even greater presence when the judge attempted to retract these statements, causing further controversy and chaos. More recently, in the summer games in Beijing in 2008, serious questions were raised about the ages of some of the Chinese women gymnasts, who appeared to be much younger than their reported age. Regardless of the truth in either of these cases, the public attention brought to these scandals severely tainted the result of the respective competitions. Gymnastics and figure skating, long two of the Olympics purest and most graceful sports, have been tainted by recent controversies, raising the question: what has happened to the Olympics?
I grew up a huge fan of the Olympics. I have distinct memories of watching every Olympics starting at just six years old, with the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. Therefore, when faced with the question of how relevant or “believable” the Olympics are now, I will admit I am the first to come to their defense. Sure, there is no shortage of scandal in every sport across both kinds of games, but I am hesitant to think that these take away the legitimacy of winning a gold medal. After all, I find it hard to believe that there has been a true increase in scandals in Olympics of recent years, and instead believe it can be better attributed to the increase in media and the speed of news travel over the last thirty years. In our class discussion of the Olympics, we came up with at least ten downsides of the modern games, also known as reasons one might not want to watch. Many of these reasons had to do with scandal, yet viewership for both the Winter and Summer Games has continued to increase. So, while we may be more skeptical of the results we see, my opinion is that the Olympics are no worse than they were decades ago, when scandals were more rare and less reported.
What does everyone else think?
- Alex Jacobs
Alex, I completely agree with what you have to say here. I think that the Olympics are just as "scandalous" now, if not more than they were in the past. I just think that the media portrays every little aspect as a bigger deal.
ReplyDeleteThis is somewhat similar to how I think about the UM DPS crime alerts. In the last year or so, the University of Michigan student body has received dozens of crime alerts regarding danger on campus. This has therefore caused people to believe that the Michigan campus is very unsafe. However, if you think about it, this type of crime goes on in any city in the world, most people just don't get a notification to their phone every time something happens. Therefore, in a way, the "media" is over exposing the some aspects of danger on this campus leading people to believe it is a lot more dangerous than it actually is. While it is obviously still important to take these alerts seriously, and be safe when walking alone at night, I think this is very similar to what has happened with the Olympics. "Scandals" have been going on forever; however, more recently the media has exposed every individual aspect of the Olympics. Overall, I think this was a very interesting post.
Emma Kessler
Alex, I agree with you to a certain extent. I definitely agree that the increased media presence has brought out more scandals, so perhaps it appears that there are more now than in the past. However, this may not be completely true. As the audience of the Olympics continues to grow, so does the scrutiny and pressure that the athletes and judges face, pressure that may not have existed 50 or 60 years ago. Perhaps this also causes more athletes to try and cheat their way to victory whether through doping or whatever means necessary because they feel like they need to win. This may have been the case in the 2002 judging scandal since maybe the judge felt so much pressure to help the Russian couple win because of how big the Olympics has become.
ReplyDeleteAlex, this is a very interesting point you brought up about media attention in the Olympics. I agree that the extreme attention on the Olympics, from all of the world, does make the small things that once slipped by a much bigger deal. However, on the opposite side, since there is more attention regarding every part of the games, there is a lot more positive attention as well and more people feel connected the the tradition and history.
ReplyDeleteFor the WInter Olympics held in Salt Lake City a while back my mom was chosen as a person to help run the torch through Philadelphia since she has always been a positive role model in my community (I live right outside of Philadelphia). The media attention given to the lives of the people chosen was very inspiring. Every person had a piece done on them and why they were chosen to represent us in this historic event. Because the media is so large and has the means to give more attention to the little things (good and bad) in regards to the Olympics, I think they have become much more relatable to the common person. Instead of idolizing every person involved, they are made more real, and hence connectable to the general public.
Alex, I agree with you in many aspects of your post. I think that the reason there are so many scandals now is predominately because of an increased media coverage. On the other hand, I do think that there are more athletes doping now and therefore more scandals. When the Olympics started it was meant for only Amateurs, and the athletes were not paid for their contributions. Now most of the athletes, especially from the United States, are professionals, who have millions of dollars of sponsorship money on the line. Because of this, the athletes feel the need to get a leg up on the competition, and there in lies the problem. In my opinion, the Amateur Act of 1978 ruined the Olympics. This act allowed for professional athletes to compete in competition, and therefore most amateurs were overlooked for team selection. The Olympics went from an incredible opportunity for amateur athletes to show case their talents while representing their country, to an event in which pro athletes represent their country, while making millions of dollars on the side. In order for the Olympics to cut back on scandals, I think they need to cut back on the pro athletes that participate. But lets be real, everything is about money, so they will never go back to way the Olympics were set out to be when they were created by Pierre de Coubertin.
ReplyDeleteYou make some very good points Alex. I want to expand on one very prevalent point. Both of the sports you referenced scandal in have one thing in common: judges. I have a very hard time admitting that an activity is in fact a sport when it is judged by other people. I would like to think that these people are honorable and knowledgable on the sport, but everything gymnasts and figure skaters do are incredibly difficult. Do they always realize the subtle aspects of a performance? I prefer my sports to be more concrete. I like to see a final score determined by the play on the field or court, not based on an outsider who may be an expert but is still a human being. Human beings have emotions and preferences. It is only natural to want to support certain people and dislike others. So how can we entrust a person to judge a performance who, even if they weren't bribed, could easily use their opinion to rob a person of a medal.
ReplyDeleteThis upcoming summer from April 30 till May 12, I will be going with a group of 25 Michigan students to London to study the 2012 London Olympics. We are going to be meeting with NBC, BBC, Deloitte, IMG, Octagon, and many other organizations. What is the common thread linking all of these organizations: they want to profit on the Olympic games. When it comes down to it, the Olympics are about the money. Companies like McDonalds and Visa spend approximately $80-100 million dollars to be sponsors of the Olympics. As much as the games are about the competition, the Olympics are a business and they need companies like these to exist.
Finally, in response to your question, I think the Olympics has lost a little bit of its pureness. You also make a very good point that in this era with all our technological advancements we are able to hear about news instantly. So I don't believe more scandals are happening now, they are just more easily accessible to the general public. I would like to think that the Olympics are an event free of scandal and exist only for the thrill of competition, but the facts are overwhelming that that simply isn't true.