Text 2    

 Exercises

Modern Olympic Games

    The Modern Olympic Games might have remained just a part of history without the dream of one Frenchman, Pierre de Coubertin. Coubertin believed that sport and exercise were very important for the health and happiness of every man and also for the nation. He therefore tried, in 1892, to interest other Frenchmen in his dream of starting a modern form of the early Greek Games. His ideas were strongly criticized by many people, who did not really understand what he was trying to do. It is perhaps sad that the great work Pierre de Coubertin did to bring back the Games was never properly recognized during his lifetime. Gradually, however, people all over the world became interested in his ideas and at a meeting in Paris in 1894, with representatives from twelve different countries, plans were made to hold the first modern Games in Athens in 1899.

    Organizing the first modern Games, however, was not without problems. The Greek government was unhappy with the decision to hold the Games in Athens, as they had serious economic problems at the time and did not feel they were in a position to spend the necessary money. It seemed therefore that the Games would be finished before they had even begun. Prince Constantine of Greece, however, gave his support to Coubertin and the newly-formed Olympic Committee and other rich Greeks soon followed his example. Enough money was collected in Greece and abroad to build a new stadium and pay all the other costs.

    On 5th April, 1896, a crowd of over 60 000 people watched the King of Greece open the first modern Olympic Games. There were, however, very few competitors － only two hundred and eighty-five. Australia, Austria, Britain, Bulgaria, Chile, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Sweden, Switzerland and the USA, were the only countries to send athletes to the Games and most of the athletes who did come had to pay for their own travel and other costs. There were ten sports in the first program － cycling, gymnastics, tennis, swimming, athletics, fencing, weight-lifting, rowing, wrestling and shooting; there were also other non-sporting events, such as concerts and ballet, just as there had been at the early Games.

    At the first modern Olympics almost all the gold medals were won by American sportsmen, but the most famous of all the first medal winners was a young Greek named Spyros Louis, who came from a small village in the mountains near Athens. It was he who won the long and difficult race, the Marathon, and gave the Greeks the national win they had hoped for.

    The Greeks would have been happy to keep the Games in Greece but Coubertin believed strongly that the Olympics should be truly international and would not allow this to happen. It was therefore decided to hold the next Games in Paris in 1900. Sadly, however, the Paris Games and the following Games, held in St. Louis, America, in 1904, were poor examples of Coubertin's dream and Coubertin himself did not even travel to the St. Louis Games. For these two Games were more like circus shows than serious international sports meetings. Only fifteen non-Americans went to the 1904 Games, mainly because the high travel costs prevented others from competing. Olympic events were mixed with other sports and events, and the Games were organized to continue over many months, so that as much money as possible could be made by the organizers from the selling of tickets.

    It was not until 1908, when the Games were held in London, that international rules and distances were introduced； until then the events had been the decision of the organizing nation alone. The London Games were far better organized than any of the other modern Games but it took many more years before Coubertin's dream of a truly international meeting of sportsmen became a reality. It was necessary to make many changes before the Olympic Games became as well-organized and as popular as they are today.

    Since 1896 the Games have been held every four years, except for a break during the years of the two World Wars. Gradually the number of competitors who take part in each Games has grown and so has the number of countries. In 1896, only thirteen countries were represented and only two hundred and eighty-five competitors took part. Today, however, as many as one hundred and twenty-two countries send athletes to the Games and more than seven thousand men and women come to the Games to take part. In recent years, the number of events has grown to twenty-one, eleven of which are also open to women.

    It is interesting that Coubertin, whose ideas were born in the late nineteenth century, probably never imagined that women would ever play a part in the new Olympics. Women had never competed in the early Greek Games; indeed, for many years they were not even allowed to watch. In modern times, the London Games in 1908 were the first in which women took a serious part － 36 women came to the Games to compete. The first woman to win an Olympic event was the British Tennis Player, Charlotte Cooper, who won a tennis event in 1900. From 1908, however, the number of events began to grow with the introduction of ladies’ gymnastics. Athletics events for women were introduced in 1928 at the Games held in Amsterdam. Today, women are as highly-trained and as fit as men. Although in almost every sport women and men compete separately, in horse-riding events they compete against each other and women have shown over the years that they are just as good.

    Pierre de Coubertin once said, "The most important thing in the Olympics is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the fight."

    This idea, together with the Olympic motto "Citius, Altius, Fortius" (Faster, higher, stronger), helps to explain why so many men and women train long and hard to come to the Olympics, although few have much chance of winning a medal. The reason lies in their wish not only to do better than other sportsmen and women but also to improve on their own personal "best."

    The International Olympic Committee, whose home is in Lausanne in Switzerland, is responsible for all the important decisions of the Olympic Movement. The members of this committee are chosen not by their governments but by members already on the committee and they are therefore above politics or group interests. Most of the members are simply rich men who wish to keep Coubertin’s ideas alive. Not every country is represented, therefore, because this would mean more than 120 members and no decisions would ever be made.

    However, each country must form a National Olympic Committee before it is allowed to send competitors to the games and this committee must be recognized by the International Olympic Committee. At present, more than 136 countries have formed such a committee. The National Committees are responsible for organizing the national teams and for deciding which competitors to send. Competitors cannot choose to go to the Games － they must be chosen and this means competing against their own countrymen. It is not even enough to be the best in the country, for each competitor must be able to reach the standard expected for entry to the Games. These standards change each year as sportsmen and sportswomen improve. Some countries are not able to send all the competitors they would like to, even if they have reached the expected standard, because of the cost. The National Committee must then decide whether to send the competitors who have the most chance of winning or whether, instead, to send competitors to represent each sport even though some of them have little hope of doing well.

    Not only the competitors but also the team manager must be paid for. The manager is an extremely important member of the team； he is responsible for the competitors while they are at the Games and his job includes, for example, getting the competitors to each event on time and helping with medical or personal problems. Most countries ask the people for money to help pay for the costs of travel and training. A lot of money is given by businesses and companies who also give, for example, clothes, shoes and uniforms.

    The city where the Games are to be held is chosen by the International Olympic Committee； this is usually decided five years before the Games are to take place. Several cities may wish to hold the Games in any one year and the Committee decides only after it has listened to and seen the arguments and plans of each city. Once chosen, the city then has five years to prepare.

    This may seem a long time but a great amount of organization is needed. Some cities, for example, Montreal in 1976, have had problems finishing all the preparation in time. One of the biggest problems is to find the large amount of money needed to build the Olympic Village, first introduced at the 1932 Games held in Los Angeles. It is thought that the 1980 Moscow Village cost around ￡200 000 000 to build. The Montreal Village was even more expensive and at one time it was thought that it would be necessary to hold the Games somewhere else as the city had difficulty finding enough money to finish the buildings. The total cost of the Montreal Games was more than $3 000 000 000.

    Of course, when planning the Games, the organizers try to design buildings that can later be used by local people. In Lake Placid, home of the 1980 Winter Olympics, for example, the designers of the Village planned to use it as an open prison as soon as the Games were over. The organizers of the Montreal Games had hope to sell the houses used by the competitors to local people but many of them have not yet been sold and the city of Montreal is still paying the bill some five years later.

    Obviously, the city which pays for the Games is able to get some of the money back by selling tickets, special stamps and coins and from the tourists who come in their thousands to watch the Games. Most of the money is earned, however, by selling the television rights to TV companies all over the world. It is also important to remember that a lot of work is given to the thousands of people who are needed to help organize the Games. In Moscow, for example, 12 000 competitors took part； there were also 3 500 judges, 3 000 sports journalists, 400 photographers, 100 film cameramen, 800 TV and radio reporters and 3 000 TV and radio technicians. All of these people depend on the help of other people such as doctors, cooks, cleaners and translators. Transport is one of the biggest problems of any organizer of the Games. Not only must the competitors get to their events on time and without difficulty but so too must all the people who come to watch the Games. This means that the organizers must provide special bus services, car parks and extra taxis. In Moscow the Russians took this job so seriously that they sent 5 000 taxi drivers to school to learn English, French, German and Spanish.

    It is an unpleasant fact that security is another big problem and another cost that must be added to the total bill. There are walls around every modern Olympic Village and no one may go in without showing a special card with their photograph on it to the guards at every gate. This is mainly to keep the public out, but in the last few years, the possibility of a terrorist attack has made security a much more serious problem. The wall, the guards and the guns are of course necessary but unpleasant for the competitors who feel almost like prisoners.

    At last, however, everything is ready for the Games and the world waits for the opening ceremony. This is usually a very colorful event but it is also a serious day － the sportsmen and sportswomen of the world meet together in peace. All the competitors come into the stadium in groups of nationality － and wait in the center. The Olympic flag, with its five rings to represent the five continents, is then raised. (The flag has been used at all the Games since it was first introduced at the Antwerp Games in 1920.) A member of each team, together with one of the judges, then makes the Olympic promise to compete or judge fairly. Then the Olympic Flame, first lit thousands of miles away at the Stadium at Olympia, is carried in by a single runner, and there it is used to light the great flame that burst all through the time of the Games.

    For two short weeks, thousands of men and women from all over the world will compete and millions more will watch them. There will be tears, smiles, happiness and pain, but finally it is all over. The Flame goes out, the flag comes down and the sportsmen and sportswomen of the world are asked to meet again, in peace, in four years time at the next Olympic Games. The name of the next city to hold the Games lights up for all to see and preparations, already started, continue for the next four short years so that the next Games will be just as successful.

    (2 250 words)

 Text