The upcoming 2008 Olympic Games will be held in Beijing and already groups are threatening to boycott these Games in protest to China’s poor human rights record in Tibet, Darfur and Taiwan. Read more about the current Beijing Olympics controversy in magazines like Time, Newsweek and U.S News & World Report.
The original ancient Olympic Games were held in 776 BC in Olympia, Greece. The first modern Olympic Games were held in 1859. In 1894 Frenchman Pierre Fredy initiated the formation of the International Olympic committee and the first IOC-sponsored games were held in 1896 in Athens, Greece. For more on the ancient Olympic Games, read magazines like Sports Illustrated, Discover and Scientific American.
Though generally one of the biggest international events, the Olympic Games have at times struggled to be popular. Early on the Games competed with the World’s Fair. In later years, politics, terrorism and international affairs have also interfered with the Games. The 1916, 1940 and 1944 Games were cancelled because of war.
One of the most famous instances when politics interfered was in the 1936 Olympics Games, which were held in Berlin. During these Games Nazi Germany used the Games as propaganda. In the 1968 Games held in Mexico City two American track and field athletes displayed the Black Power salute and the U.S. was forced by the IOC to send the athletes home.
In the 1972 Games held in Munich, Germany terrorism interfered with the Games. Terrorist group Black September took eleven Israeli Olympic athletes hostage. Nine of the athletes, a policeman and five of the terrorists were killed in what is now known as the Munich Massacre.
An American domestic terrorist named Eric Robert Rudolph bombed the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, killing two and injuring more than 100. After the terrorist attacks of 2001 in the U.S. the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City required intense security measures.
In 1956 the first boycott occurred. The Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland boycotted the games and refused to attend because of the repression of the Hungarian Uprising by the Soviet Union. In 1972 and 1976 many African countries threatened the IOC with a boycott to force a ban on South Africa, Rhodesia and New Zealand.
Later in 1980 Cold War opponents boycotted each other’s games reducing the participants to 16 countries, the lowest since 1956.
Another problem with the modern Olympic Games has been the practice of doping, or using performance enhancing drugs. Starting in 1968 athletes have been required to be tested for drugs. In the late 1990s the IOC formed the World Anti-Doping Agency to combat this growing problem. Sports magazines like Sports Illustrated, ESPN The Magazine and muscle & Fitness continue to thoroughly cover this controversy.
For more magazines that cover the Olympics, visit www.magazines.com/ncom/mag?id=4156120179480&subject=0034
Jessica Vandelay is a free-lance writer in New York City.
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