Olympic
The modern Olympic Games or Olympics(French: Jeux olympiques[1]) are leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games are considered the world's foremost sports competition with more than 200 nations participating.[2] The Olympic Games are held every four years, with the Summer and Winter Games alternating by occurring every four years but two years apart.
Their creation was inspired by the ancient Olympic Games, which were held in Olympia, Greece, from the 8th century BC to the 4th century AD. Baron Pierre de Coubertinfounded the International Olympic Committee(IOC) in 1894, leading to the first modern Games in Athens in 1896. The IOC is the governing body of the Olympic Movement, with the Olympic Charter defining its structure and authority.
The evolution of the Olympic Movement during the 20th and 21st centuries has resulted in several changes to the Olympic Games. Some of these adjustments include the creation of the Winter Olympic Games for ice and winter sports, the Paralympic Gamesfor athletes with a disability, and the Youth Olympic Games for teenage athletes. TheDeaflympics and Special Olympics are also endorsed by the IOC. The IOC has had to adapt to a variety of economic, political, and technological advancements. The advent of the state-sponsored "full-time amateur athlete" of the Eastern Bloc countries further eroded the ideology of the pure amateur, as it put the self-financed amateurs of the Western countries at a disadvantage. The Soviet Union entered teams of athletes who were all nominally students, soldiers, or working in a profession, but many of whom were in reality paid by the state to train on a full-time basis.[3][4] As a result, the Olympics has shifted away from pure amateurism, as envisioned by Coubertin, to allowing participation of professional athletes. The growing importance of mass media created the issue of corporate sponsorship and commercialisation of the Games. World wars led to the cancellation of the 1916, 1940, and 1944 Games. Large boycotts during the Cold War limited participation in the 1980 and 1984 Games. Although a boycott led by the Soviet Union depleted the field in certain sports, 140 National Olympic Committees took part in the1984 Olympics, which was a record at the time.[5]
The Olympic Movement consists ofinternational sports federations (IFs), National Olympic Committees (NOCs), and organising committees for each specific Olympic Games. As the decision-making body, the IOC is responsible for choosing the host city for each Games, and organises and funds the Games according to the Olympic Charter. The IOC also determines the Olympic programme, consisting of the sports to be contested at the Games. There are several Olympic rituals and symbols, such as the Olympic flag and torch, as well as the opening and closing ceremonies. Over 13,000 athletes compete at the Summer and Winter Olympic Games in 33 different sports and nearly 400 events. The first, second, and third-place finishers in each event receive Olympic medals: gold, silver, and bronze, respectively.
The Games have grown so much that nearly every nation is now represented. This growth has created numerous challenges andcontroversies, including boycotts, doping, bribery, and a terrorist attack in 1972. Every two years the Olympics and its media exposure provide unknown athletes with the chance to attain national and sometimes international fame. The Games also constitute an opportunity for the host city and country to showcase themselves to the world.
Ancient Olympics
Stadium in Olympia, Greece
The Ancient Olympic Games were religious and athletic festivals held every four years at the sanctuary of Zeus in Olympia, Greece. Competition was among representatives of several city-states and kingdoms of Ancient Greece. These Games featured mainly athletic but also combat sports such as wrestling and the pankration, horse and chariot racing events. It has been widely written that during the Games, all conflicts among the participating city-states were postponed until the Games were finished. This cessation of hostilities was known as the Olympic peace or truce.[6] This idea is a modern myth because the Greeks never suspended their wars. The truce did allow those religious pilgrims who were travelling to Olympia to pass through warring territories unmolested because they were protected by Zeus.[7] The origin of the Olympics is shrouded in mystery and legend;[8] one of the most popular myths identifies Heracles and his father Zeus as the progenitors of the Games.[9][10][11] According to legend, it was Heracles who first called the Games "Olympic" and established the custom of holding them every four years.[12] The myth continues that after Heracles completed histwelve labours, he built the Olympic Stadiumas an honour to Zeus. Following its completion, he walked in a straight line for 200 steps and called this distance a "stadion" (Greek: στάδιον, Latin: stadium, "stage"), which later became a unit of distance. The most widely accepted inception date for the Ancient Olympics is 776 BC; this is based on inscriptions, found at Olympia, listing the winners of a footrace held every four years starting in 776 BC.[13] The Ancient Games featured running events, a pentathlon (consisting of a jumping event, discus and javelin throws, a foot race, and wrestling), boxing, wrestling, pankration, and equestrianevents.[14][15] Tradition has it that Coroebus, a cook from the city of Elis, was the first Olympic champion.[16]
The Olympics were of fundamental religious importance, featuring sporting events alongside ritual sacrifices honouring both Zeus (whose famous statue by Phidias stood in his temple at Olympia) and Pelops, divine hero and mythical king of Olympia. Pelops was famous for his chariot race with KingOenomaus of Pisatis.[17] The winners of the events were admired and immortalised in poems and statues.[18] The Games were held every four years, and this period, known as anOlympiad, was used by Greeks as one of their units of time measurement. The Games were part of a cycle known as the Panhellenic Games, which included the Pythian Games, the Nemean Games, and the Isthmian Games.[19]
The Olympic Games reached their zenith in the 6th and 5th centuries BC, but then gradually declined in importance as theRomans gained power and influence in Greece. While there is no scholarly consensus as to when the Games officially ended, the most commonly held date is 393 AD, when the emperor Theodosius I decreed that all pagan cults and practices be eliminated.[20]Another date commonly cited is 426 AD, when his successor, Theodosius II, ordered the destruction of all Greek temples.[21]
Modern Games
Forerunners
Baron Pierre de Coubertin
Various uses of the term "Olympic" to describe athletic events in the modern era have been documented since the 17th century. The first such event was theCotswold Games or "Cotswold Olimpick Games", an annual meeting near Chipping Campden, England, involving various sports. It was first organised by the lawyer Robert Dover between 1612 and 1642, with several later celebrations leading up to the present day. The British Olympic Association, in its bid for the 2012 Olympic Games in London, mentioned these games as "the first stirrings of Britain's Olympic beginnings".[22]
L'Olympiade de la République, a national Olympic festival held annually from 1796 to 1798 in Revolutionary France also attempted to emulate the ancient Olympic Games.[23]The competition included several disciplines from the ancient Greek Olympics. The 1796 Games also marked the introduction of themetric system into sport.[23]
In 1850 an Olympian Class was started byWilliam Penny Brookes at Much Wenlock, inShropshire, England. In 1859, Brookes changed the name to the Wenlock Olympian Games. This annual sports festival continues to this day.[24] The Wenlock Olympian Society was founded by Brookes on 15 November 1860.[25]
Between 1862 and 1867, Liverpool held an annual Grand Olympic Festival. Devised byJohn Hulley and Charles Melly, these games were the first to be wholly amateur in nature and international in outlook, although only 'gentlemen amateurs' could compete.[26][27]The programme of the first modern Olympiad in Athens in 1896 was almost identical to that of the Liverpool Olympics.[28] In 1865 Hulley, Brookes and E.G. Ravenstein founded the National Olympian Association in Liverpool, a forerunner of the British Olympic Association. Its articles of foundation provided the framework for the International Olympic Charter.[29] In 1866, a national Olympic Games in Great Britain was organised at London'sCrystal Palace.[30]
Revival
Postage stamp from the first Greek Olympic stamp set
Greek interest in reviving the Olympic Games began with the Greek War of Independencefrom the Ottoman Empire in 1821. It was first proposed by poet and newspaper editorPanagiotis Soutsos in his poem "Dialogue of the Dead", published in 1833.[31] Evangelos Zappas, a wealthy Greek-Romanian philanthropist, first wrote to King Otto of Greece, in 1856, offering to fund a permanent revival of the Olympic Games.[32] Zappas sponsored the first Olympic Games in 1859, which was held in an Athens city square. Athletes participated from Greece and the Ottoman Empire. Zappas funded the restoration of the ancient Panathenaic Stadium so that it could host all future Olympic Games.[32]
The stadium hosted Olympics in 1870 and 1875.[33] Thirty thousand spectators attended that Games in 1870, though no official attendance records are available for the 1875 Games.[34] In 1890, after attending the Olympian Games of the Wenlock Olympian Society, Baron Pierre de Coubertin was inspired to found the International Olympic Committee (IOC).[35] Coubertin built on the ideas and work of Brookes and Zappas with the aim of establishing internationally rotating Olympic Games that would occur every four years.[35] He presented these ideas during the first Olympic Congress of the newly created International Olympic Committee. This meeting was held from 16 to 23 June 1894, at the University of Paris. On the last day of the Congress, it was decided that the first Olympic Games to come under the auspices of the IOC would take place in Athens in 1896.[36] The IOC elected the Greek writerDemetrius Vikelas as its first president.[37]
1896 Games
Opening ceremony in the Panathinaiko Stadium
The first Games held under the auspices of the IOC was hosted in the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens in 1896. The Games brought together 14 nations and 241 athletes who competed in 43 events.[38] Zappas and his cousin Konstantinos Zappas had left the Greek government a trust to fund future Olympic Games. This trust was used to help finance the 1896 Games.[39][40][41] George Averoff contributed generously for the refurbishment of the stadium in preparation for the Games.[42] The Greek government also provided funding, which was expected to be recouped through the sale of tickets and from the sale of the first Olympic commemorative stamp set.[42]
Greek officials and the public were enthusiastic about the experience of hosting an Olympic Games. This feeling was shared by many of the athletes, who even demanded that Athens be the permanent Olympic host city. The IOC intended for subsequent Games to be rotated to various host cities around the world. The second Olympics was held in Paris.[43]
Changes and adaptations
After the success of the 1896 Games, the Olympics entered a period of stagnation that threatened their survival. The Olympic Games held at the Paris Exposition in 1900 and theLouisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis in1904 were side shows. The Games in Paris did not have a stadium, but were notable for being the first time women took part in the Games. When the St. Louis Games were celebrated roughly 650 athletes participated, but 580 were from the United States. The homogeneous nature of these celebrations was a low point for the Olympic Movement.[44]The Games rebounded when the 1906 Intercalated Games (so-called because they were the second Games held within the thirdOlympiad) were held in Athens. These Games were, but are not now, officially recognised by the IOC and no Intercalated Games have been held since. The Games attracted a broad international field of participants and generated great public interest. This marked the beginning of a rise in both the popularity and the size of the Olympics.[45]
Winter Games
The Winter Olympics was created to feature snow and ice sports that were logistically impossible to hold during the Summer Games. Figure skating (in 1908 and 1920) and ice hockey (in 1920) were featured as Olympic events at the Summer Olympics. The IOC desired to expand this list of sports to encompass other winter activities. At the1921 Olympic Congress in Lausanne, it was decided to hold a winter version of the Olympic Games. A winter sports week (it was actually 11 days) was held in 1924 inChamonix, France, in connection with theParis Games held three months later; this event became the first Winter Olympic Games.[46] Although it was intended that the same country host both the Winter and Summer Games in a given year, this idea was quickly abandoned. The IOC mandated that the Winter Games be celebrated every four years on the same year as their summer counterpart.[47] This tradition was upheld until the 1992 Games in Albertville, France; after that, beginning with the 1994 Games, the Winter Olympics were held every four years, two years after each Summer Olympics.[48]
Paralympics
In 1948, Sir Ludwig Guttmann, determined to promote the rehabitation of soldiers afterWorld War II, organised a multi-sport event between several hospitals to coincide with the1948 London Olympics. Guttmann's event, known then as the Stoke Mandeville Games, became an annual sports festival. Over the next twelve years, Guttmann and others continued their efforts to use sports as an avenue to healing. For the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, Guttmann brought 400 athletes to compete in the "Parallel Olympics", which became known as the first Paralympics. Since then, the Paralympics have been held in every Olympic year. Since the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, the host city for the Olympics has also played host to the Paralympics.[49][D] In 2001 the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Paralympic Committee(IPC) signed an agreement guaranteeing that host cities would be contracted to manage both the Olympic and Paralympic Games.[50][51] The agreement came into effect at the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing, and the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver. Chairman of the London organising committee, Lord Coe, said about the 2012 Summer Paralympics and Olympics in London that,
Youth Games
In 2010, the Olympic Games were complemented by the Youth Games, which give athletes between the ages of 14 and 18 the chance to compete. The Youth Olympic Games were conceived by IOC presidentJacques Rogge in 2001 and approved during the 119th Congress of the IOC.[53][54] The first Summer Youth Games were held in Singapore from 14–26 August 2010, while the inaugural Winter Games were hosted in Innsbruck, Austria, two years later.[55] These Games will be shorter than the senior Games; the summer version will last twelve days, while the winter version will last nine days.[56] The IOC allows 3,500 athletes and 875 officials to participate at the Summer Youth Games, and 970 athletes and 580 officials at the Winter Youth Games.[57][58] The sports to be contested will coincide with those scheduled for the senior Games, however there will be variations on the sports including mixed NOC and mixed gender teams as well as a reduced number of disciplines and events.[59]
21st-century games
From 241 participants representing 14 nations in 1896, the Games have grown to about 10,500 competitors from 204 nations at the 2012 Summer Olympics.[60] The scope and scale of the Winter Olympics is smaller. For example, Sochi hosted 2,873 athletes from 88 nations competing in 98 events during the 2014 Winter Olympics. During the Games most athletes and officials are housed in the Olympic Village. This village is intended to be a self-contained home for all the Olympic participants, and is furnished with cafeterias, health clinics, and locations for religious expression.[61]
The IOC allowed the formation of National Olympic Committees representing nations that did not meet the strict requirements for political sovereignty that other international organisations demand. As a result, colonies and dependencies are permitted to compete at Olympic Games. Examples of this include territories such as Puerto Rico, Bermuda, andHong Kong, all of which compete as separate nations despite being legally a part of another country.[62] The current version of the Charter allows for the establishment of new National Olympic Committees to represent nations which qualify as "an independent State recognised by the international community".[63] Therefore, it did not allow the formation of National Olympic Committees for Sint Maarten and Curaçao when they gained the same constitutional status asAruba in 2010, although the IOC had recognised the Aruban Olympic Committee in 1986.[64][65] After 2012, Netherlands Antilles athletes can choose to represent either theNetherlands or Aruba.[66]
Cost of the Games
The Oxford Olympics Study 2016 found that sports-related costs for the Summer Games since 1960 is on average USD 5.2 billion and for the Winter Games USD 3.1 billion. This does not include wider infrastructure costs like roads, urban rail, and airports, which often cost as much or more than the sports-related costs. The most expensive Summer Games are London 2012 at USD 15 billion and the most expensive Winter Games are Sochi 2014 at USD 51 billion.[67][68] Costs per athlete is on average USD 0.6 million for the Summer Games and USD 1.3 million for the Winter Games. For London 2012, cost per athlete was USD 1.4 million; for Sochi 2014, USD 7.9 million.
Where ambitious construction for the 1976 games in Montreal and 1980 games in Moscow had saddled organisers with expenses greatly in excess of revenues, Los Angeles strictly controlled expenses by using existing facilities except a swim stadium and a velodrome that were paid for by corporate sponsors. The Olympic Committee led byPeter Ueberroth used some of the profits to endow the LA84 Foundation to promote youth sports in Southern California, educate coaches and maintain a sports library. The 1984 Summer Olympics are often considered the most financially successful modern Olympics.[69]
Budget overruns are common for the Games. Average overrun for Games since 1960 is 156% in real terms,[70] which means that actual costs turned out to be on average 2.56 times higher than the budget that was estimated at the time of winning the bid to host the Games. Montreal 1976 had the highest cost overrun for Summer Games, and for any Games, at 720%; Lake Placid 1980 had the highest cost overrun for Winter Games, at 324%. London 2012 had a cost overrun of 76%, Sochi 2014 of 289%.[71]
Economic and social impact on host cities and countries
Many economists are sceptical about the economic benefits of hosting the Olympic Games, emphasising that such "mega-events" often have large costs while yielding relatively few tangible benefits in the long run.[72]Conversely hosting (or even bidding for) the Olympics appears to increase the host country's exports, as the host or candidate country sends a signal about trade openness when bidding to host the Games.[73]Moreover, research suggests that hosting the Summer Olympics has a strong positive effect on the philanthropic contributions of corporations headquartered in the host city, which seems to benefit the local nonprofit sector. This positive effect begins in the years leading up to the Games and might persist for several years afterwards, although not permanently. This finding suggests that hosting the Olympics might create opportunities for cities to influence local corporations in ways that benefit the local nonprofit sector and civil society.[74]
The Games have also had significant negative effects on host communities; for example, theCentre on Housing Rights and Evictionsreports that the Olympics displaced more than two million people over two decades, often disproportionately affecting disadvantaged groups.[75] The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi were the most expensive Olympic Games in history, costing in excess of US$50 billion. According to a report by theEuropean Bank for Reconstruction and Development that was released at the time of the games, this cost will not boost Russia's national economy, but may attract business to Sochi and the southern Krasnodar region of Russia in the future as a result of improved services.[76] But by December 2014, The Guardian stated that Sochi "now feels like a ghost town", citing the spread-out nature of the stadiums and arenas, the still-unfinished construction, and the overall effects Russia's political and economic turmoil.[77]Furthermore, at least four cities withdrew their bids for the 2022 Winter Olympics, citing the high costs or the lack of local support,[78]resulting in only a two-city race betweenAlmaty, Kazakhstan and Beijing, China. Thus in July 2016, The Guardian stated that the biggest threat to the future of the Olympics is that very few cities want to host them.[79]
International Olympic Committee
I.O.C. headquarters at Lausanne
The Olympic Movement encompasses a large number of national and international sporting organisations and federations, recognised media partners, as well as athletes, officials, judges, and every other person and institution that agrees to abide by the rules of the Olympic Charter.[80] As the umbrella organisation of the Olympic Movement, theInternational Olympic Committee (IOC) is responsible for selecting the host city, overseeing the planning of the Olympic Games, updating and approving the sports program, and negotiating sponsorship and broadcasting rights.[81]
The Olympic Movement is made of three major elements:
- International Federations (IFs) are thegoverning bodies that supervise a sport at an international level. For example, the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) is the IF for association football, and the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball is the international governing body for volleyball. There are currently 35 IFs in the Olympic Movement, representing each of the Olympic sports.[82]
- National Olympic Committees (NOCs) represent and regulate the Olympic Movement within each country. For example, the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) is the NOC of the United States. There are currently 205 NOCs recognised by the IOC.[83]
- Organising Committees for the Olympic Games (OCOGs) are temporary committees responsible for the organisation of each Olympic Games. OCOGs are dissolved after each Games once the final report is delivered to the IOC.[84]
French and English are the official languages of the Olympic Movement. The other language used at each Olympic Games is the language of the host country (or languages, if a country has more than one official language apart from French or English). Every proclamation (such as the announcement of each country during the parade of nations in the opening ceremony) is spoken in these three (or more) languages, or the main two depending on whether the host country is an English or French speaking country.[85]
Criticism
The IOC has often been criticised for being an intractable organisation, with several members on the committee for life. The presidential terms of Avery Brundage andJuan Antonio Samaranch were especially controversial. Brundage was president for over 20 years, and during his tenure he protected the Olympics from political involvement and the influence of advertising.[86] He was accused of both racism, for resisting exclusion of apartheid South Africa, and antisemitism.[87] Under the Samaranch presidency, the office was accused of both nepotism and corruption.[88]Samaranch's ties with the Franco regime in Spain were also a source of criticism.[89]
In 1998, it was reported that several IOC members had taken bribes from members of the Salt Lake City bid committee for the hosting of the 2002 Winter Olympics. The IOC pursued an investigation which led to the resignation of four members and expulsion of six others. The scandal set off further reforms that changed the way host cities were selected, to avoid similar cases in the future.[90]
The 1999, it was reported that the Nagano Olympic bid committee had spent approximately $14 million to entertain the 62 IOC members and many of their companions. The precise figures are unknown since Nagano, after the IOC asked that the entertainment expenditures not be made public, destroyed the financial records.[91][92]
A BBC documentary entitled Panorama: Buying the Games, aired in August 2004, investigated the taking of bribes in the bidding process for the 2012 Summer Olympics.[93]The documentary claimed it was possible to bribe IOC members into voting for a particular candidate city. After being narrowly defeated in their bid for the 2012 Summer Games,[94]Parisian mayor Bertrand Delanoë specifically accused the British prime minister Tony Blairand the London Bid Committee (headed by former Olympic champion Sebastian Coe) of breaking the bid rules. He cited French president Jacques Chirac as a witness; Chirac gave guarded interviews regarding his involvement.[95] The allegation was never fully explored. The Turin bid for the 2006 Winter Olympics was also shrouded in controversy. A prominent IOC member, Marc Hodler, strongly connected with the rival bid of Sion, Switzerland, alleged bribery of IOC officials by members of the Turin Organising Committee. These accusations led to a wide-ranging investigation. The allegations also served to sour many IOC members against Sion's bid and potentially helped Turin to capture the host city nomination.[96]
In July 2012, the Anti-Defamation Leaguecalled the continued refusal by the International Olympic Committee to hold a moment of silence at the opening ceremony for the eleven Israeli athletes killed by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympics, "a continuing stubborn insensitivity and callousness to the memory of the murdered Israeli athletes."[97]
Commercialisation
Under national organising committees
The Olympics have been commercialised to various degrees since the initial 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens, when a number of companies paid for advertising,[98] includingKodak.[99][100] In 1908, Oxo, Odol mouthwash and Indian Foot Powder became official sponsors of the London Olympic Games.[101][102][103] Coca-Cola sponsored the1928 Summer Olympics, and has subsequently remained a sponsor to the current time.[98] Before the IOC took control of sponsorship, national organising committees were responsible for negotiating their own contracts for sponsorship and the use of the Olympic symbols.[104]
Under IOC control
The IOC originally resisted funding by corporate sponsors. It was not until the retirement of IOC president Avery Brundage, in 1972, that the IOC began to explore the potential of the television medium and the lucrative advertising markets available to them.[104] Under the leadership of Juan Antonio Samaranch the Games began to shift toward international sponsors who sought to link their products to the Olympic brand.[105]
Budget
During the first half of the 20th century theIOC ran on a small budget.[105][106] As president of the IOC from 1952 to 1972, Avery Brundage rejected all attempts to link the Olympics with commercial interest.[104]Brundage believed the lobby of corporate interests would unduly impact the IOC's decision-making.[104] Brundage's resistance to this revenue stream meant the IOC left organising committees to negotiate their own sponsorship contracts and use the Olympic symbols.[104] When Brundage retired the IOC had US$2 million in assets; eight years later the IOC coffers had swelled to US$45 million.[104] This was primarily due to a shift in ideology toward expansion of the Games through corporate sponsorship and the sale of television rights.[104] When Juan Antonio Samaranch was elected IOC president in 1980 his desire was to make the IOC financially independent.[106]
The 1984 Summer Olympics became a watershed moment in Olympic history. The Los Angeles-based organising committee, led by Peter Ueberroth, was able to generate a surplus of US$225 million, which was an unprecedented amount at that time.[107] The organising committee had been able to create such a surplus in part by selling exclusive sponsorship rights to select companies.[107]The IOC sought to gain control of these sponsorship rights. Samaranch helped to establish The Olympic Programme (TOP) in 1985, in order to create an Olympic brand.[105]Membership in TOP was, and is, very exclusive and expensive. Fees cost US$50 million for a four-year membership.[106]Members of TOP received exclusive global advertising rights for their product category, and use of the Olympic symbol, theinterlocking rings, in their publications and advertisements.[108]
Effect of television
A cartoon from the 1936 Olympics imagines the year 2000 when spectators will have been replaced by television and radio, their cheers coming from loudspeakers.
The 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin were the first Games to be broadcast on television, though only to local audiences.[109] The 1956 Winter Olympics were the first internationally televised Olympic Games,[110] and thefollowing Winter Games had their broadcasting rights sold for the first time to specialised television broadcasting networks—CBS paid US$394,000 for the American rights,[111] and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) allocated US$660,000.[105] In the following decades the Olympics became one of the ideological fronts of the Cold War. Superpowers jockeyed for political supremacy, and the IOC wanted to take advantage of this heightened interest via the broadcast medium.[111] The sale of broadcast rights enabled the IOC to increase the exposure of the Olympic Games, thereby generating more interest, which in turn created more appeal to advertisers time on television. This cycle allowed the IOC to charge ever-increasing fees for those rights.[111] For example, CBS paid US$375 million for the American broadcast rights of the 1998 Nagano Games,[112] whileNBC spent US$3.5 billion for the American rights of all the Olympic Games from 2000 to 2012.[105]
Viewership increased exponentially from the 1960s until the end of the century. This was due to the use of satellites to broadcast live television worldwide in 1964, and the introduction of colour television in 1968.[113]Global audience estimates for the 1968 Mexico City Games was 600 million, whereas at the Los Angeles Games of 1984, the audience numbers had increased to 900 million; that number swelled to 3.5 billion by the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.[114] However, at the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney, NBC drew the lowest U.S. ratings for any Summer or Winter Olympics since 1968.[115] This was attributed to two factors: one was the increased competition from cable channels, the second was the internet, which was able to display results and video in real time. Television companies were still relying on tape-delayed content, which was becoming outdated in the information era.[116] A drop in ratings meant that television studios had to give away free advertising time.[117] With such high costs charged to broadcast the Games, the added pressure of the internet, and increased competition from cable, the television lobby demanded concessions from the IOC to boost ratings.[118] The IOC responded by making a number of changes to the Olympic program. At the Summer Games, the gymnastics competition was expanded from seven to nine nights, and a Champions Gala was added to draw greater interest.[119] The IOC also expanded the swimming and diving programs, both popular sports with a broad base of television viewers.[119] Finally, the American television lobby, namely NBC, was able to dictate when certain events were held so that they could be broadcast live during prime time in the United States.[120] The results of these efforts were mixed: ratings for the 2006 Winter Games were significantly lower than those for the 2002 Games, while there was a sharp increase in viewership for the 2008 Summer Olympics, and the 2012 Summer Games became the most watched event in US television history.[117][121][122]
The sale of the Olympic brand has been controversial. The argument is that the Games have become indistinguishable from any other commercialised sporting spectacle.[108] Specific criticism was levelled at the IOC for market saturation during the 1996 Atlanta and 2000 Sydney Games. The cities were awash in corporations and merchants attempting to sell Olympic-related wares.[123] The IOC indicated that they would address this to prevent spectacles of over-marketing at future Games.[123] Another criticism is that the Games are funded by host cities and national governments; the IOC incurs none of the cost, yet controls all the rights and profits from the Olympic symbols. The IOC also takes a percentage of all sponsorship and broadcast income.[108] Host cities continue to compete ardently for the right to host the Games, even though there is no certainty that they will earn back their investments.[124] Research has shown that trade is around 30 percent higher for countries that have hosted the Olympics.[125]
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