Politics and the Modern Olympics

Jeri Bennett Sports and Society In Ancient Greece and Rome The University of Akron Spring 1999

(26)

At first thought, it may be difficult to understand any possible connection between sports and politics.  The New International Webster's Dictionary of the English Language defines politics as 'the science of government', and sports as 'a particular game or physical activity pursued for diversion'.  On the surface the two concepts have very little in common, yet their connection can be traced to antiquity and the first organized sporting events.  The first Olympic games took place in Greece in the ninth century, b.c.e. to worship the gods, win personal glory, and, most importantly, unite the Greek city-states.  At that time, Greece was made up of many small, isolated communities which, as they flourished, sought to dominate the others.  The first Olympic games brought them together once every four years, and most of the city-states declared truces to allow the athletes and spectators to make their way to the games without being hurt or killed.   The 'sacred truce' beginning the first known Olympic games read, "May the world be delivered from crime and killing and freed from the clash of arms" (8)

(27)

Pierre de Fredy, the Baron de Coubertin, was the founder of the modern Olympic movement.  He drew his inspiration from the ancient Olympic Games.  After visits to England and the United States, Coubertin formulated a plan to revive the games.  In June of 1894, his vision became a reality when delegates meeting in Paris voted to hold modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896 (8).

The first world leader to sponsor the Olympics for an almost purely political motive was Adolph Hitler with the 1936 Summer Games.  For two weeks in August of that year, Germany was the site of the most lavish Olympic games that had been held up to that point.  Hitler knew that hosting the Olympics was a virtual propaganda coup.  His regime aimed to exploit the Games with the intention of dazzling the thousands of foreign spectators and journalists into believing that Germany was peaceful and tolerant instead of the racist and militant country which it actually was.  (16).  Hitler employed artists to create beautiful posters and magazine spreads to advertise and promote the Games.  When they included athletes in their artwork, the artists portrayed them as representatives of the Nazi myth of the "Aryan" race -- blue eyed blondes with strong, chiseled features.  In this way, Hitler wanted to draw a link between Nazi Germany and Ancient Greece. (16). Adolph Hitler opened the Eleventh Olympiad on August 1, 1936.  His arrival was announced by a fanfare directed by the famous composer Richard Strauss to the mostly German spectators.  Establishing a new Olympic tradition, a lone runner carried a flame which traveled by relays of runners from the site of the original ancient Games in Olympia, Greece (16)

(26)

"...Sport is prostituted when sport loses its independent and democratic character and becomes a political institution...Nazi Germany is endeavoring to use the Eleventh Olympiad to serve the necessities and interests of the Nazi regime rather than the Olympic ideals." Committee on Fair Play In Sports, New York, November 15, 1935  (16)

Adolph Hitler wanted the 1936 Berlin Olympics to be a large scale national spectacle.  So that the rest of the world could see the glory of Nazi Germany, he hired film producer Leni Riefenstahl to bring his vision to life..  Leni Riefenstahl was a dancer and actress who became a successful filmmaker.  Her films were full of lush, exotic imagery and she used as yet unheard of filming techniques.  Adolph Hitler was a great admirer of her work, so in 1934 he commissioned her to shoot a propaganda documentary about Nazi Party Day in Nuremberg.  The film was called Triumph of the Will, and it won a gold medal at the 1937 World Exhibition in Paris (15)   Hitler was so pleased with Riefenstahl's treatment of Party Day that he commissioned her to film the Berlin Summer Olympic Games.  During the filming of the Nuremberg rally she was constantly harassed by the Nazi party who did not want her or her crew present, but for this film she would receive their complete support.  She had to be very careful, however, that the International Olympic Committee did not find out that the Nazi party was financing the film.  If they had, the Olympics would have immediately been moved out of Berlin (5) Leni Riefenstahl's film of the 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics is called Olympia, and it was precisely the pageant that Adolf Hitler desired.  It begins with the sunrise over Athens, the birthplace of the Olympics.  The camera slowly pans over the ancient ruins and the statue of a long dead athlete, gradually transforming him into a living athlete (9).  The opening ceremonies showed the athletes from the different countries passing before Hitler; some, such as the Italians and the French, with arms outstretched in the Nazi salute.  The film then goes on to show the separate competitions, many in slow motion for dramatic effect.  Riefenstahl also added many shots of the thousands of spectators, cheering wildly when one of their German countrymen or women did well, and cheering no less for competitors of the other nations.  Riefenstahl called Olympia "a celebration of grace and beauty of the human body, the simple idea of what is beautiful, without any political objective" (18).  It portrays the athletes as masters of their sport and has been called "high art on a messive scale" (9). Because of Leni Riefenstahl's treatment of the Black and Jewish athletes in Olympia, many historians are not sure that the film was intended to be used as Nazi propaganda (5).  The film treats Black athlete Jesse Owens as graciously as any of the other athetes which makes it difficult to accuse Riefenstahl of adhering to Hitler's ideas about race supremacy and using them in this film.  But many of the films critics condemn it by saying that the quest for an ideal beauty is fascist (18) and that, whether it was intentional or not, Leni Riefenstahl propagandized Hitlers Germany very successfully (5).

(23)

(27)

(24)

"I'm afraid the Nazi's have succeeded with their propaganda... (They) have run the games on a lavish scale never before experienced..." Foreign correspondent William Shirer in his diary, Berlin, August 16, 1936 (13)

(27)

The 1940 Summer Olympic Games were originally to have been hosted by Japan.  In 1932, the International Olympic Committee awarded the Games to Tokyo in spite of the fact that Japan was at war with China.  It was, and still is, the policy of the IOC not to allow politics to influence their decisions (3). Preparations for the Games continued in spite of the war.  Many of Japan's existing sports complexes began renovations and many new facilities began construction.  Then, late in 1938, the Tokyo organizing Committee withdrew their bid for the Olympics because of the ever escalating costs of their war with China (3). In July of 1939, just one year before the Games were to be held, The IOC awarded the Games to Helsinki, Finland.  Helsinki's organizing committee began at once to prepare for the Games, but when Finland was attacked by the Soviet Union in November, they too had to withdraw.  The IOC, realizing the futility of trying to find a venue for the Olympics during what would come to be known as World War II, abandoned the idea of holding the Summer Games in 1940 (3).  Tokyo would get a second chance by hosting the 1964 Summer Olympics, and the 1952 Winter Olympics in Helsinki are seen as one of the most successful ever (2).

This is a Finnish cheese label advertising the 1940 Summer Olympics

(20)

The 1940 Winter Olympics fared no better.  Sapporo, Japan was to have hosted the Winter Games, but had to withdraw because of the heavy costs of being at war with China.  St. Moritz, Switzerland was the next choice of the IOC, but the Swiss demanded that their ski instructors not be considered professional, so the bid was withdrawn.  Finally, Garmisch-Partenkirchen was asked to host the games again as they had just four years earlier, but Germany invaded Poland in 1939, and the IOC cancelled the Winter Games (7).

Adolph Hitler was not the only world leader to use sports for the benefit of his political agenda.  In Italy during the first two decades of the century, physical education was greatly valued and a monumental sports complex was constructed in Rome called the Foro Italico.  Here the Academy of the Farnesina, also known as the Academy of Physical Education, was established in 1928 under the guidance of the Fascist Benito Mussolini.  He also supervised the construction of many of the buildings of the complex (10) (21). Mussolini's great dream was to recapture the grandeur and artistry of the ancient Rome and he had many obelisks erected throughout Rome to symbolize his high ideals.  The Obelisk of the Foro Italico is a block of Carrara marble carved to represent a "fasciso littorio", the symbol of authority in ancient Rome which was adopted by Mussolini for his fascist regime (1). Following World War II and Mussolini's death, the Academy of the Farnesina was dissolved and in 1952 was replaced by a new institution, the Higher State Institute of Physical Education, or ISEF.  Many of the buildings belonging to the complex are still seen as great examples of Fascist architecture.  Among these are the Stadio Dei Marmi, which has a seating capacity of 20,000 spectators, and the Olympic Stadium, which was the location of the 1990 Soccer World Cup (10) (21).

(21)

The 1936 Olympics were not the only Games with sharp political overtones, merely one of the more vivid.  At the 1956 Games in Melbourne, Australia, nearly half of the Hungarian Olympic competitors defected because their country had recently been invaded by the Soviet Union.  The International Olympic Committee expelled the Republic of South Africa in 1964 because of its racist policies.  At the 1968 Games in Mexico City Tommy Smith and John Carlos, two African-American sprinters, protested discrimination against blacks in the United States by standing on the victory stand with black-gloved fists held high.  But by far the most horrific Olympic memories happened at the 1972 Munich Games when twelve Israeli athletes and coaches were murdered by Palestinian terrorists, and the 1996 Games in Atlanta when a pipe bomb killed two spectators and injured 111 others in Centennial Park (8). Throughout the history of the modern Olympics, many countries have declined participation as a means of political protest.  At the 1976 Montreal Games, seventeen African and Arab nations boycotted the Olympics to protest New Zealands violation of the international sports ban on South Africa.  For the 1980 Moscow Games, the United States along with a number of other nations boycotted the Games in protest of the Soviet Unions invasion of Afghanistan.  Four years later, the USSR organized an eastern bloc boycott of the 1984 Los Angeles Games because they feared for the safety of their athletes (8).

(28)

Susan V. Lawrence, in her article titled "Ancient Games and Modern Politics", talks about the politics which goes into vying for the privilege to host the Olympic Games.  Regarding China's bid to host the 2000 Summer Olympic Games, she says, "China and its Western supporters see the Games as an enormous opportunity to remake the nation's tarnished image".  She also tells of the House of Representatives passing a non-binding resolution urging the U.S. International Olympic Committee delegate to vote against China's bid, and of a letter to the IOC signed by sixty senators arguing against holding the Games in China (6)

There are only two places where people from all parts of the world gather: The United Nations and the Olympics, and it truly seems that both are equally as political (14)

(28)

In his book Sport and Politics: The Olympics and the Los Angeles Games, Bill Shaikin says that it is crucial to understand the connection between sports and politics because it allows for a more realistic assessment of the Games and their role in society.  His book evaluates, and then rejects, many proposals for Olympic reform saying that it is fruitless to to attempt to minimize the impact of politics on the Olympics because politics are so heavily entrenched in the games (12).

The president of the International Olympic Committee, Juan Antonio Samaranch of Spain, would like to bring back the tradition of the Olympic Truce, which would call for the cessation of all hostilities and warfare for the period of the Olympic Games (8).

(28)

The Olympics were designed to go beyond politics and allow people from other nations to put aside their differences and "meet on the playing field instead of the battlefield" (4).  As one American Olympic athlete has said, "One persons actions are that persons and have nothing to do with the Olympics and what they stand for" (17).  In a larger context, he could also have been speaking about the individual countries as well.

Sources:  Articles 1.)  Coffin, Margaret.  Roman Obelisks 2.)  Finland Online: Unforgettable Helsinki 3.)  Findling, John. Japan and the 1940 Olympic Games. USA Today 1998 4.)  Bronstein, Dennis: article - Illini Media Company Archives for 17 June 1992 5.)  K.M. Johnson:  Leni and the Nazi Party 6.)  Lawrence, Susan V.:  Ancient Games and Modern Politics 7.)  Lycos Almanac Infoplease:  The Winter Olympics 8.)  The Olympic Information Center:  Olympic Primer 9.)  Riefenstahl, Leni.  Review copyright 1992-98 Fringe Ware, Inc. 10.)  The Rome University Institute of Motor Sciences ISEF/IUSM 11.)  Sinutko, Natasha.  Filming with Fascists: Leni Riefenstahl's Horrible Wonderful(?) Life 12.)  Shaikin, Bill. Sport and Politics: The Olympics and the Los Angeles Games. Praeger Publishers. New York. 1988 13.)  Shirer, William. Berlin Diary. The American Past Book of the Month Club. New York. 1940 14.)  ThinkQuest:  The Politics Behind the Olympics 15.)  Toland, John. Adolf Hitler. Doubleday and Co. New York. 1976 16.)  United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C. 17.)  Unsigned article by an American Olympic boxing competitor 18.)  Veng, Jazmin Kuan:  Sins of War

Sources:  Images 19.)  Barrett, Bill.  Internet Resources: Leni Riefenstahl 20.)  Kosmulski, Marek. Homepage created by Michal Kosmulski 21.)  Maratonna della Citta di Roma: Foro Italico 22.)  The Olympic Information Center: Olympic Primer 23.)  Leni Riefenstahl - Filming of Olympia I and II 1938 copyright 1999 artnet.com 24.)  Leni Riefenstahl: Olympiad (1936) 25.)  Stamp of an Olympian. Homepage 26.)  United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C. 27.)  vanKranenberg, Rob: A Strange Kind of Beauty 28.)  SportsLine USA