‘The old days of amateurism are over’: the Samaranch revolution and the return of Olympic tennis

Tennis featured in every Olympics from 1896 to 1924, after which disagreements between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF) on matters pertaining to organisational control and the amateur eligibility of players led to tennis being removed from the Olympic Games as a full-medal event until the 1988 Seoul Olympics. This paper traces the steps of the sport’s reinstatement, from when efforts commenced in the 1950s, setting this development in the contexts of: broader political movements, shifting IOC leadership, burgeoning commercialisation of Olympic sport, the concomitant push for professionalisation and the declining influence of amateur ideals within both the Olympic movement and international tennis. Under the leadership of the amateur stalwart Avery Brundage, the IOC stymied attempts to facilitate tennis’s re-entry, challenging both the ILTF on failing to deal with widespread ‘sham-amateur’ practices and the avaricious promoters luring amateur players toward the professional ranks. Brundage and the IOC also strongly condemned the move to ‘open’ tennis and an acceptance of full-blown professionalism. Only a change in leadership, firstly with Lord Killanin and then the progressive reformer Juan Antonio Samaranch, did the IOC recognise the value of tennis within the Olympic movement, which by then had itself become increasingly money-oriented.     

Rogge’s Games: Establishing the Youth Olympic Games as a New Event in the Olympic Movement

Abstract

The Youth Olympic Games (YOG) were established as a new event in the Olympic family at a session of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in July 2007. This paper illuminates why and how this new event was established. It turns out that the formally unanimous decision to establish the event was taken in a contested terrain. Much attention has been put on the agency of the then president of the IOC, Jacques Rogge, and his role as an institutional leader is discussed in a context where the pressure of tradition is strong. Securing the character of an organization which has become an institution is a central task for institutional leadership, and developing an ‘external mechanism’ or a new subfield like the YOG is a way to explore this. Appealing to original ideas and values, such as the educational role of the games, is of importance but would in itself not be enough to convince the fellow members of the IOC’s decision-making bodies. Acting politically as a ‘statesman’ with the skills and ability to manoeuvre among different interests and wills was equally a necessity to convince the decision makers to welcome this new event into the Olympic movement.     

‘Nothing but Trouble’: The Soviet Union's Push to ‘Democratise’ International Sports During the Cold War, 1959–1962

Analysing internal documents from recently accessible Soviet archives as well as International Olympic Committee (IOC) correspondence, this article explores how Soviet sports administrators sought to gain influence and authority in international sports in order to advance Soviet state goals during the Cold War. To counter the ‘reactionary’, ‘Anglo-American’ bloc they perceived in the IOC and International Federations (IFs), members of the Soviet All-Union Committee on Physical Culture and Sport sought to ‘democratise’ international sports organisations by transforming them into truly international bodies that included representatives from all regions of the world, especially those sympathetic to the Soviet Union. Because of the governing culture of the IOC and the personalities of many of its members, any stance taken on by Soviet members could not overtly challenge Olympic ideals. Couching their call to expand Olympism in the principles of international cooperation, democracy and the right for everyone to participate in sports, Soviet administrators could present themselves as dedicated promoters of sport and use their clout to further Soviet interests. Through their efforts to increase Soviet influence globally, Soviet administrators challenged the insularity of the IOC and IFs and helped to transform international sports and the Olympic Games into a truly global movement.     

The Youth Olympic Games: Past,Present and Future

Hailed as the flagship of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) strategy regarding young people, the organising of the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) was approved by the IOC in 2007 and Singapore was subsequently selected as the first host city for the summer YOG. Although the YOG is going to be the first new event the IOC has staged since the 1924 winter Olympic Games, its novelty may not be as radical as first impressions may suggest. This paper charts the chronological development of the YOG through a broad overview of little-known Youth Olympic Festivals, which the YOG is reported to be modelled after, and traces the political/economical/ideological contexts for the conception of the YOG. Despite being the latest addition to the Olympics family, the YOG is not spared from conflicts and tensions which inundated the Olympic Games. This paper aims to exemplify the range of debates presented by the launch of the YOG and contribute to the literature examining the opportunities and challenges presented by the launch of the YOG.     

权利抑或特权：奥运会参赛权法律性质辨析——平昌冬奥会俄罗斯运动员及辅助人员体育仲裁案例述评

俄罗斯国家奥委会遭国际奥委会(IOC)暂停成员资格,导致很多无辜运动员无法参加平昌冬奥会,国际体育仲裁院(CAS)平昌冬奥会特别仲裁机构处理的数起案件均涉及俄罗斯运动员的参赛资格问题。俄罗斯运动员在仲裁程序中败诉的主要原因是《奥林匹克宪章》规定:奥运会是IOC的专属财产、任何人不拥有参加奥运会的所谓权利、IOC可以拒绝任何人参赛而无须出具理由。IOC运用对奥运会的专属权利,无正当合理理由拒绝符合参赛条件的俄罗斯清白运动员参赛,有构成垄断的嫌疑。符合参赛选拔条件、且不存在禁止性限制因素(如兴奋剂禁赛处罚在身)的清白运动员参加奥运会,是他们的权利,而不是IOC赋予他们的特权。切实保护运动员参赛权利是各国法院和国际体育仲裁院在处理体育参赛资格案件中的一贯立场,平昌冬奥会仲裁庭的实践过于保守。奥林匹克运动体育善治的改革,要求必须对《奥林匹克宪章》进行修改,最大限度地保护运动员的参赛权利,实现《运动员权利与义务宣言》的宗旨。     

Economic Changes Resulting from Seoul 1988: Implications for London 2012 and Future Games

South Korea has often been considered a successful host nation after the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games and their apparent positive economic, cultural, social and environmental legacies. The purpose of this essay is to offer an analysis of economic growth as a consequence of earlier Olympic Games and to extrapolate to the 2012 London Olympic Games and beyond to the forthcoming 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. It is the intention of this essay to examine previous studies, economic indices of world banks and reports of each Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (OCOG). The hypothesis is that the Olympic Games have not positively influenced the economic growth of the host nations. The essay explores this conclusion with reference to London 2012. The essay will reveal past negative influences of the Olympic Games and ask the International Olympic Committee (IOC): ‘What is the IOC's responsibility to the host city after the Games?’ Finally, the essay will propose and recommend an economic tool to the IOC to ensure sustainable outcomes after the Games.     

Political Protection: The International Olympic Committee’s UN Diplomacy in the 1980s

Abstract

In the aftermath of a widespread boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics that challenged the legitimacy of the Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) began a vigorous but unsuccessful effort, lasting from 1982 to 1985, to convince the UN General Assembly to pass a resolution committing governments not to boycott the Games. Drawing on archives in Switzerland, the UK, Ireland, and Canada, this article brings to light this forgotten but important episode from the early years of Juan Antonio Samaranch’s presidency. The ambitious Samaranch and his limelight-seeking ally, Canadian Richard ‘Dick’ Pound, vastly overestimated the IOC’s global political capital in pushing governments to give up one of the most potent sport-related tools at their disposal. The IOC was at this time so weak that most governments failed even to respond to repeated entreaties about the proposal. The organization’s leaders never fully grasped the ironies of turning to what many observers considered the world’s most politicized body for a political measure to reduce political influence on the Olympic Games. Although the IOC has often claimed that it cannot force standards of behaviour on governments, the 1980s campaign was a sustained effort to do exactly that.     

Modern pentathlon and the First World War: when athletes and soldiers met to practise martial manliness

In the nationalistic atmosphere of the early twentieth century, a nurturing medium for sports practising martial manliness abounded throughout Europe. This framework supported the invention of a new multi-disciplinary sport, aided by Baron Pierre de Coubertin himself: modern pentathlon. Though the idea of a new form of pentathlon was already born in 1894, it took 30 years, until Paris 1924, to establish modern pentathlon within the Olympic Games. This study is concerned with the reasons for that delay. It will be assessed whether the active military preparations around the First World War and the contemporary image of masculinity had a decisive influence on the early history of modern pentathlon. By including historical documents from the IOC archives in Lausanne, Switzerland, the research office for military history in Potsdam, Germany, and the LA84 Foundation in Los Angeles, USA, as well as literature on gender, military sport and Olympic history, this study offers an entirely new view on the early history of a sport that was born in an atmosphere of glorifying manliness and apparent militarism. The history of modern pentathlon thereby provides a particularly appropriate area for the analysis of connections between sport, militarism and masculinity. It was not by chance that the implementation of a combined sport, which included besides swimming and running the three military disciplines of shooting, fencing and horse riding, arose in a pre-war context. Though in 1912 the Great War had not yet begun, the awareness of an upcoming battle was rising and led to a higher attention to Coubertin's almost forgotten assumption of a new sport. In 1924 the advantages were finally admitted on two sides: the army recruited modern pentathletes as future military officers; the sports community appointed skilled officers as successful competitors. Thus the lobby for an Olympic recognition of modern pentathlon was found.     

Historical Dictionary of Track and Field

This article, which is based on original archival and press research, examines the origins of the Cold War from the perspective of sport in the post-war occupied zones of Germany. Both the western Allies and Soviet communist victors claimed that they wished to use sport to help establish ‘democracy’ in Germany. However, their conceptions of ‘democracy’ were diametrically opposed and each side used the sporting press to caricature and criticise the other. In the Soviet zone, sports reporting portrayed the West as elitist, professional in their ‘Taylorist’ methods and nationalist in outlook. Reversing their former hostility to the Olympic movement, the Soviet-controlled German sports press argued that only socialist sport could deliver true amateur ‘Olympic’ sport by democratising athletics for the masses. The occupying Allied powers made up of Britain, France and the United States were united in their rejection of unproven claims of Soviet superiority and denounced the ‘undemocratic’ controls imposed by the Soviets across Eastern Europe. The holding of the Olympic Games in London in the summer of 1948 as Cold War tensions increased provides a focus for these divergent views, throwing new light on the political role of the reporting of sport and of the sporting press in post-war Germany.     

The neutrality myth: why international sporting associations and politics cannot be separated

International sporting associations (ISAs) like the International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA), the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) have throughout the twentieth century promoted political neutrality as a source of autonomy. With FIFA and the IOC’s official adherence to the United Nations’ human rights conventions in 2017, FIA remains one of the few large ISAs where neutrality is not underpinned by a corrective on human rights. However, this position is in conflict with the ethical obligations FIA contracted when it was given full recognition by the IOC in 2013. To discuss this problematic, this paper draws upon J.S. Mill’s On Liberty and the concept of ‘inaction’ as a source for ways in which the FIA might reconsider its current stance.

Abbreviations: IOC (International Olympic Committee); FIA (Federation Internationale de l'Automobile); FIFA (International Federation of Football Associations); ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross); ISA (International Sporting Associations); UEFA (Union of European Football Associations)     

Rhodesia's ‘rebel and racist’ Olympic team: Athletic glory,national legitimacy and the clash of politics and sport

This article traces the history of the Olympic participation of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, then the British colony of Southern Rhodesia, and then unilaterally independent settler-ruled Rhodesia after 1965, placing heavy emphasis on the racially integrated aspects of the sporting sphere. Rhodesia's status in the International Olympic Committee inevitably came under assault after 1965 owing to its white government and international sporting sanctions. The battles of the press, the high-level diplomatic manoeuvring, and finally the IOC debate first to exclude Rhodesia from Munich and then to permanently expel the Rhodesian NOC in 1975 are analysed in detail. As a charismatic organization, the IOC operated outside the world of rules and rational principles, devoted to certain values expressed in ‘Olympism’. Because of this commitment, and the resulting belief that politics had no place in sport, the IOC was insulated from the great changes taking place in the world at large. The newly independent world sought to make democratic equality a part of the Olympic vision, trumping the long-held charismatic principles of the IOC; the expulsion of Rhodesia was the culmination of this trend.     

The Legacy of the Games of the New Emerging Forces and Indonesia’s Relationship with the International Olympic Committee

Abstract

The Games of the New Emerging Forces (GANEFO) often serve as an example of the entanglement of sport, Cold War politics and the Non-Aligned Movement in the 1960s. Indonesia as the initiator plays a salient role in the research on this challenge for the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The legacy of GANEFO and Indonesia’s further relationship with the IOC, however, has not yet drawn proper academic attention. This paper analyzes Indonesia’s interactions with the IOC until the present time, with a focus on the country’s involvement in sporting events under the patronage of the IOC (such as the Asian and Southeast Asian Games). In addition, two case studies demonstrate the variable relationship between the two actors. First, Indonesia only narrowly escaped sanctions over a dispute on the use of the Olympic logo in 2015. Yet, the country is named as host of the 2018 Asian Games, hence showing high ambitions to re-enter the international sports arena. These incidents illustrate the significance of conformity of local agencies towards the IOC with regard to political positions and power structures. The study opens the field to local – Asian – perspectives on interactions with the IOC.     

压力、认知与国际形象——百年来中国融入奥林匹克运动的历史阐释

选取压力、认知和国际形象三个变量,从历史角度阐释中国融入奥林匹克运动的发展历程,将百年来中国与国际奥委会之间的关系划分为早期接触、激烈斗争直至决断、恢复关系与积极合作三个阶段,并具体剖析每一个阶段中国与奥林匹克运动之间的关系。研究认为:纵览奥林匹克运动在中国的发展历程,对国家面临的内外压力的认知,以及中国国际形象的关注,是中国与奥林匹克运动之间冲突与融合的根本原因。改革开放以来,中国选择全面、积极融入奥林匹克运动是历史发展的必然。对奥林匹克主义的理解与全面把握,中国要走的道路还很长。     

二战后奥林匹克组织体系变革特点分析

对二战后奥林匹克组织体系变革的特点进行了描述和分析。布伦戴奇时期,奥林匹克“三大支柱”组织体系出现了分裂,国际奥委会与国际单项体育联合会和国家奥委会之间出现了冲突与矛盾,打破了原有的关系机制。萨马兰奇时期,与布伦戴奇时期截然相反：首先,在奥林匹克组织体系内部,国际奥委会与国际单项体育联合会和国家奥委会形成了一个紧密、有效的合作体系,重新巩固了奥林匹克的三大支柱的组织体系。其次,在奥林匹克组织体系外的国际体育舞台上,国际奥委会还与其他一些与奥林匹克运动关系不十分密切的国际体育组织建立联系。最后,在国际社会的大舞台上,国际奥委会为了使奥林匹克运动能真正地融入国际社会,分别与政府间国际组织和非政府间国际组织、跨国公司都建立了联系。     

Olympic or Sacred? The Controversy over the Flame at the Inaugural 1951 Pan-American Games and Its Aftermath

In 1951, Buenos Aires hosted the inaugural Pan-American Games. On February 25 of that year, a Greek athlete carried a flame flown specially from his country onto the stadium where the event’s opening ceremonies took place and lit the cauldron. The uncertain character of the Greek flame transported to Buenos Aires alarmed many in Olympic circles. Confused and concerned, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) investigated the matter, which led to a rapid succession of policy changes seeking to regulate the use of flames in regional games. The flame flown from Greece to Buenos Aires for the 1951 Pan-American Games sparked an intense debate about the status of the Olympic flame. The IOC’s recognition of the power of the Olympic flame ritual and its preoccupation with protecting it along with other Olympic symbols and terminology reveal the contours of the organization’s ideology in this era and its relations with associated entities. The flame debate also illuminates the push by Pan-American Games’ officials for autonomy. Clearly, Olympic officials recognized early in the 1950s that the globalization of the Olympic flame ritual required regulation if the IOC was to ensure control of this and its other symbolic resources.     

中国与国际奥委会关系探析:历史、现状与展望

随着中国体育事业发展和多边外交推进,中国与国际奥委会的关系也备受瞩目。从国际组织研究视角切入,运用历史分析法和演绎推理分析法深入阐述了中国与国际奥委会关系。研究认为:中国与国际奥委会关系可以划分为初次接触、曲折前行和从关系破裂到全面合作3个主要阶段。双方在新时代的互动关系推动了中国特色大国外交、促进了中国体育事业和经济发展、扩大了奥林匹克运动在中国的普及和传播。建议中国积极参与全球体育治理,培养国际组织人才以及拓展合作领域、服务国家外交大局。     

Circumventing Apartheid: Racial Politics and the Issue of South Africa's Olympic Participation at the 1984 Los Angeles Games

Behind the shadows of an Olympiad replete with tales of Cold War acrimony and lavish commercial excess, emerges South Africa's bureaucratic attempt to achieve readmission to the Olympic Movement prior to the 1984 Los Angeles Games. In the backdrop of the Reagan administration's conciliatory policy of ‘constructive engagement’ towards Pretoria, the all-white South African National Olympic Committee aspired to cease its two-decade-long sporting isolation in the southern California metropolis. Drawing upon archival materials from the International Olympic Studies Center and public debates in the leading national and sporting newspapers and periodicals of the time, this paper will detail and analyse how International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch was forced to navigate a tight political tightrope over the South African issue. Any concession towards Pretoria would have likely agitated the African-bloc nations – a powerful constituency on the IOC with a proclivity for boycotting Olympic Games – as well as the global-nexus of anti-apartheid groups that vehemently opposed South Africa's participation in Los Angeles.     

穷则变变则通在变革中求生存与发展 ———国际奥委会组织机构变革与发展研究

国际奥委会作为国际体育管理组织的领军人物,走过了116 个春秋,这家“百年老店”之所以能够不断地发展壮大,并在全世界范围内普及奥林匹 克运动,不断的进行组织机构变革是它成功的法宝之一,从国际奥委会委员的遴选、任职资格的规定、数量的增加、来源的扩大、决策机构和执行机构的建立、到各专门委员会的设立。国际奥委会的组织变革具有机构的设立灵活多变、紧紧围绕组织目标、与环境不断交融等特点。并就国际奥委会目前面临的奥运会规模过大、内部权力监督和制衡机制不完善、兴奋剂泛滥、过度商业化等主要问题,提出国际奥委会今后组织发展中应遵循的原则。     

Chinese Question in the Olympic Movement: From the Perspective of Taiwan

Title and flag are the baggage of Taiwan's complex past that was brought from China to Taiwan by the Kuomintang. It led to a series of conflicts between the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China. Taiwanese perspective has been used to discuss these sensitive issues. The impact of the international political situation on the China issue is discussed. The roles that IOC presidents – Avery Brundage, Lord Killanin and Antonio Samaranch – played in the development of the Chinese Question are analysed. In summary, due to exchange of international politics and the attitudes of the IOC presidents, the Taipei-based Committee had adopted the following names: the Chinese Olympic Committee (1949–1959), the Taiwan Olympic Committee (1959–1968) and the Republic of China Olympic Committee (1968–1979). Due to international reality, Taiwan finally had to use the name Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee (1981 to present) and pay dearly for its continued participation in the Olympic Movement by changing its national symbols. The other sports federations in Taiwan were furthermore asked to follow the example of the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee and change their names and flags. Otherwise, they would not be allowed to maintain their memberships.     

奥运会申办理念的发展趋势及启示

城市申办奥运会的竞争力一直是学术界的研究热点,而没有很好的申办理念很难获得申办的成功。以国际奥委会候选城市遴选工作组及评估委员会对近几届夏奥会、冬奥会申办城市、候选城市的相关评估,国际奥委会对北京奥运会及其遗产的评价为参考,运用比较分析的方法,提出政府主导、突出奥运会对城市发展的促进作用、强调城市与奥运会共赢已成为奥运会申办理念的发展趋势。分析国际奥委会在评价申办城市时理念上的变化,揭示这种发展趋势对我国城市未来申办冬奥会的启示。