The Olympic games manifest ideals of competition, friendship, and culture. Regrettably, controversies and political issues aimed to embarrass the organising states have eaten into the colour and grandeur of Olympics. Things are coming to a stage, where the athletes are losing their stake in Olympics as political jockeying determines its success or failure.

The Beijing Olympic torch relays ran across 20 nations, including the New Delhi leg, and were plagued by protests and outrage against China’s human rights record in Tibet and its silence on Darfur. Throughout history, such social or political controversies, during or before the Olympic Games have been common. China is no exception.

Over the last 25 years, the Olympic games have always been disturbed by domestic or international crises revolved around the host country. The Seoul Olympics showcased Korean crisis; the issue of Spanish ethnic differences disturbed Barcelona; Atlanta highlighted the picture of racial division in the US; and Sydney brought up aborigine issue. The list continues...

Now the Tibet problem has clouded the Beijing Olympic games. “I hope people do not mix sports with politics. This is wrong,” said Chinese action movie actor Jackie Chan. “I don’t understand why people would want to destroy the Olympics,” he added. This reflects the anguish at settling scores bypassing the spirit of the Olympics as a unifier of humanity irrespective of differences.

There is a big majority, which watch this politicisation of Olympics and throw their hands in desperation. What they say is the sympathy to the cause of Tibet must be kept apart from the call for unity in the Olympic movement. Whatever be the protests of social or political causes, the world should not allow any hindrance to holding Olympic games bet it in China or elsewhere. Centuries-old Olympics flame should not die.

Philosophy of the Olympics

The guiding principle of the modern Olympic Games is a quote by the historian Baron de Pierre Coubertin: “The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle.” The Olympic motto consists of the Latin words Citius, Altius, Fortius meaning ‘Swifter, Higher, Stronger.’

The symbolic Olympic flame indicates the continuity between the ancient and modern games. The latter was opened officially by runners carrying a torch brought from the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, except where travel by ship or plane is necessary, the torch is carried overland from Greece by a relay of athletes.

The exact date of the first Olympic Games is still a matter of debate. But it is reasonably certain that it happened in Greece around 3,000 years ago. At the end of 6th century, four Greek sporting festivals—the Olympic Games held at Olympia; the Pythian Games at Delphi; the Nemean Games at Nemea; and the Isthmian Games held near Corinth came into prominence, of which Olympics is the most famous.

Organised every four years, the Greek historians call the four-year time interregnum as Olympiad. Though the Olympic games are closely linked to the religious festivals of the cult of Zeus, the games were never integral part of it.

Olympic Charter

The Olympic Charter (OC) is the codification of the Fundamental Principles of Olympism, Rules, and Byelaws adopted by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The OC serves three main purposes—first, a basic instrument of a constitutional nature that sets forth and recalls the Fundamental Principles and essential values of Olympism, second, it serves as statutes for the IOC, and finally the third, it defines the main reciprocal rights and obligations of the three main constituents of the Olympic Movement. The IOC components are the International Federations and the National Olympic Committees, as well as the Organising Committees for the Olympic Games.

Preamble in the Charter is defined as Pierre de Coubertin, on whose initiative the International Athletic Congress of Paris was held in June 1894, conceived the Modern Olympism. IOC constituted itself on 23 June 1894. The first Olympic Games (Games of the Olympiad) of modern times were celebrated in Athens, Greece in 1896.

In 1914, the Olympic flag presented by Pierre de Coubertin at the Paris Congress was adopted. It includes the five interlaced rings, which represent the union of the five continents and the meeting of athletes throughout the world at the Olympic Games. The first Olympic Winter Games were celebrated in Chamonix, France in 1924.

Sporting Carnival

The Olympics is a rare event where the whole world shares their memorable moments together. The modern Olympics, departing from its religious propensity, over the decades has come up to signify something new. Rather than ‘competition’, the games are more of sporting carnivals for its enthusiastic participants. It is one of the big meeting points for people of different regional and racial backgrounds from all over the world.

The Olympic flag represents this quest for togetherness; interlocking circles represents international sporting friendship. At the core of Olympic is uniting countries in friendship to celebrate and honour the finest Olympians from each country. Says Yang Sun An, Vice President of the Beijing Organising Committee Olympic Games (BOCOG), “We have created a World Peace Wall and named one of our roads as Peace Avenue and their dream at the Olympics is to play sports with fun and harmony.”

When protesters in many parts of the US marched to protest against China during the recent Olympics torch relays, the incidents resembled the then US-led boycott saga of Moscow Olympics in 1980. More than 60 countries joined the US to ban the games following the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. “The overriding feeling among athletes was disappointment and confusion to this day”, said author Tom Caraccioli who interviewed 18 athletes who missed Moscow Olympics before writing his famous book Boycott: Stolen Dreams of the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games.

Is the scene any different now? American athletes kept a low profile when media gathered to have their take on Chinese politics rather than their readiness for the summer’s competition. The athletes’ response—be their grasp of the issues in Darfur and Tibet or their opinions on the irrationality of intermingling of politics and sports—were as varied as their skill sets. What became clear about the controversy surrounding the Beijing Games was that they have to grapple with its fallout and suspense till the Closing Ceremony on 24 August. The bottom line is clear—if Olympics event is not made immune to petty politics, it will only exacerbate the existing divide in the world.