Thijs Smet Sportgeschiedenis en vergelijkende lichamelijke opvoeding Prof. Tolleneer

The modern Olympic Games and alternative Olympiads

ContentsThe Modern Olympic Games........................................................................................................................2

West vs. the rest.......................................................................................................................................2

Sacred vs. secular.....................................................................................................................................2

Man vs. Woman.......................................................................................................................................2

Amateurs vs. Professionals.......................................................................................................................3

The Olympic Games during the interwar......................................................................................................3

Bibliography.................................................................................................................................................5

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Thijs Smet Sportgeschiedenis en vergelijkende lichamelijke opvoeding Prof. Tolleneer

The Modern Olympic GamesThe Modern Olympic Games began as a European phenomenon1. Before Pierre De Coubertin, there were several unsuccessful attempts at a revival of the ancient games. The Greeks for example tried to resuscitate the athletic contests of their ancestors in 1859 but their games were local and limited to ethnic Greeks. Baron Pierre de Coubertin succeeded because he exploited the aura of antiquity in order to obtain his avowedly political goal: international peace. On a congress at the Sorbonne in 1894 he proposed at several delegates of nine nations that an International Olympic Committee should be organized to revive the ancient games2.

The first games of the modern era were symbolically celebrated in Athens in 1896. On the one hand Coubertin respected the ancient games by including contests in hurling the javelin and the discus to the modern track-and-field matches, but on the other hand he also invited swimmer, weight lifters, fencers and gymnasts…2.

West vs. the restIt was obvious that Coubertin’s admiration for the ancient games had its limits when he insisted that the games be peripatetic in order to demonstrate the universality of his ideal. Eventually this ‘universality’ was limited to the western centers of Europe and the United States. It was not until 1956 that the games were celebrated in Melbourne3. The hosts of 1964 and 1968, Tokyo and Mexico City, were chosen in part to realize Coubertin’s aspirations to universality. Based on his universality-ideal he saw sport as a civilizing instrument that could be used in Africa.

Sacred vs. secularThe universality was extended on religious field by substituting the Christian worship as part of the opening ceremony by the secular symbolism of the interlaced rings of the Olympic flag, symbolizing the unity of the globe’s five continents4. Religious ceremonies, predominantly Christian services, were thought inappropriate at a festival to which athletes if every religion were invited.

Man vs. WomanAnother contrast that constituted a challenge to the universality of Coubertin was that of gender. Coubertin deemed female athletes as uninteresting and incorrect. They overcame his opposition and made their appearance as golfers and tennis players in 1900. But at the Olympic Games of 1992 thirty-five countries were still fielding all-male delegations. Jennifer Hargreaves has identifies three phases of women’s participation5:

1. 1896-1928: the exclusion of women and efforts of some of them to resist this dismissal2. 1928-1952: a time of consolidation and struggles for women in the Olympics

1 Guttmann (A.). Sports: the first five millennia. University of Massachusetts Press, 2004, p. 2592 Guttmann (A.). Ibidem. p. 2603 Guttmann (A.). Ibidem. p. 2614 Guttmann (A.). Ibidem. p. 2625 Toohey (K.) & Veal (A.J.). The Olympic Games: a social science perspective. CABI, 2007, p. 198

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Thijs Smet Sportgeschiedenis en vergelijkende lichamelijke opvoeding Prof. Tolleneer

3. 1952-present: definite challenge of the masculine hegemony

At the Olympic Games of 2012, for the first time in Olympic history, all the competing countries included female athletes6.

Amateurs vs. ProfessionalsPierre De Coubertin was a proponent of the saying ‘mens sana in corpore sano’, a sound mind in a sound body. In this ethos, men had to practice to become an all-rounder in sports and not the best at one specific thing. Starting from a concept of fairness practicing or training was considered as cheating. The professionals had an unfair advantage over the amateurs. Therefore Professionals were excluded out of the Modern Olympics. In the course of the 20th century the definition of an amateur athlete as an aristocratic gentleman became outdated. Beginning in the 1970’s they were less severe about amateurism and after 1988 all professional athletes were admitted.

All these examples show that the universalistic idea of Pierre De Coubertin had its limits. Even today we’re struggling with ethical questions to make the Olympic games as universalistic and equal as possible (for example: abled vs. disabled).

The Olympic Games during the interwarThe Olympic games of 1916 in Berlin were cancelled because of the First World War. Belgium had been a battleground for four years, which helped in the final decision for Antwerp as host for the VII Olympic Games. The Central powers (Germany, Bulgaria…) were excluded from this edition. Still the 1920 Antwerp Games drew a record number of competitors.

But the Antwerp Games weren’t the first big international sports meeting. Situated in a political context of the treaty of Versailles, the Inter-Allied Games were organized in Paris in 1919. The Inter-Allied Games brought the soldiers from the trenches to the playing field7. Military personnel from 17 nations participated in different disciplines. The idea behind it was that Allied soldiers could learn to know each other and build lasting friendships8. Second it was a healthy pastime for the soldiers awaiting their return. The American soldiers showed their dominance with 12 first places. We can see the Inter-Allied Games as a demonstration of the useful aspects of sports which could help in the revival of sports in the Allied countries. De Coubertin saw the Inter-Allied Games as a threat to the Olympic Games9.

The VIII edition of the Olympic Games was celebrated in Paris in 1924. It was the last one organized under the presidency of Pierre De Coubertin10. It broke the record of participating competitors of the 1920 Antwerp Games.

6 Sports Illustrated. Saudis to send 2 women to London, make history. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/olympics/2012/07/12/saudi-arabia-women-london-olympics.ap/index.html. 12-07-20127 Vanderbeke (J.). Alternatieve Olympiades in het interbellum: Een onderzoek naar de receptie in de Belgische dagbladpers (1919-1937). Onuitgegeven masterscriptie KUL (promotor: prof. Dr. Vanysacker), 20058 Baker (W.J.). Sports in the western world. University of Illinois Press, 1982, p. 2109 Vanderbeke (J.). Ibidem10 Wikipedia. 1924 Summer Olympics. Geraadpleegd op: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1924_Summer_Olympics

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Thijs Smet Sportgeschiedenis en vergelijkende lichamelijke opvoeding Prof. Tolleneer

Around the period of the Paris Games there grew resistance amongst the working class against the dominant view on sports in the interwar period. The working class in Europe enjoyed more and more leisure time. They began to organize worker’s clubs (e.g. Vooruit in Ghent). There even came an international worker’s sports movement, which grew extremely fast (in 1931: 21940 clubs and 1875870 members)11.

In 1925 the first Worker’s Olympiad was organized in Frankfurt am Main. It had the ambition to be more than a sports festival and had the political message of fraternizing and international peace. Sport was used to improve the standard of living of the working class and to make healthy people of them. The ideological undercurrent of the worker’s sport revolted against the individualism, the economic exploitation and the nationalism of the civil sporting culture12. The worker’s sport wanted to be the sport for everyone and was against the personality cult13. In Frankfurt 1100 athletes from 10 countries competed against each other. There were around 150.000 spectators.

In 1928 the official Olympic Games were held in Amsterdam. They were notable for being the first games which allowed females to compete at track and field athletics14. There were 46 participating nations including Germany, which returned after having been banned in the two previous editions.

In 1931 the worker’s Olympiad was organized in Vienna and is seen as the culmination of the social-democratic worker’s sports. 80.000 athletes competed in these games, which were spectated by about 250.000 fans15. The games were even larger than the official Olympic Games of Los Angeles in 1932, both in number participants and spectators. The reason for this disappointing Xth Olympiad was the Great Depression, whereby many nations and athletes were unable to pay for the trip to Los Angeles.

The third worker’s Olympiad took place in Antwerp in 1937. The political situation of the upcoming fascism placed the Olympiad in the light of a battle for freedom and fraternization. Athletes from the Soviet Union could participate for the first time and they conquered most of the first places.

Germany couldn’t participate at the Olympic games until 1928. Already in 1931 their candidature for hosting the Olympic Games was chosen above Barcelona. Hitler took the power in 1933 and soon there was protest against what would be a Nazi-Olympiad in 1936. These protesting forces culminated in the Popular Olympiad of Barcelona in 1936. From 1933 on the sporting clubs of Catalonia united in the CCEP (Comité Català pro Esport Popular). Spain would boycott the Berlin Olympics and would instead stage alternate Olympic Games (Olimpiada Popular). The people’s Olympiad was an initiative of several groups that found each other in their battle against the Nazi’s, but also in the battle for the Olympic ideal of fraternization of all mankind16. It was against the commercialization of sports. This Olimpiada Popular

11 Vanderbeke (J.). Alternatieve Olympiades in het interbellum: Een onderzoek naar de receptie in de Belgische dagbladpers (1919-1937). Onuitgegeven masterscriptie KUL (promotor: prof. Dr. Vanysacker), 200512 Mallon (B.) & Heijmans (J.). Historical Doctionary of the Olympic Movement. Scarecrow Press, 2011, p. 38713 Vanderbeke (J.). Ibidem14 Wikipedia. 1928 Summer Olympics. Geraadpleegd op: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1928_Summer_Olympics15 Jones (G.J.). Sport, politics and the working class: organised labour and sport in Inter-War Britain. Manchester University Press 1992, p. 17816 Vanderbeke (J.). Alternatieve Olympiades in het interbellum: Een onderzoek naar de receptie in de Belgische dagbladpers (1919-1937). Onuitgegeven masterscriptie KUL (promotor: prof. Dr. Vanysacker), 2005

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Thijs Smet Sportgeschiedenis en vergelijkende lichamelijke opvoeding Prof. Tolleneer

was to be held a few weeks before the Berlin Olympic Games17. 23 national delegations confirmed their participation at the games. On the day before the opening ceremony riots broke out on the occasion of the putsch of General Franco. The Civil war reached Barcelona and the rebel army stood face to face with the government troops. The people’s Olympiad, that characterized peace, had ironically to be cancelled.

In contrast, the XIth Olympiad in Berlin became a success with 49 participating nations. Filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl filmed the masterpiece Olympia with groundbreaking techniques. With the threat of boycotts Hitler allowed Jews and black people to the Olympic Games18. In the end Germans, who were Jewish of Roma, were virtually banned. They wanted to display Aryan supremacy, but notable victories by African American Jesse Owens19 (4 gold medals in sprint and long jump) blunted this message.

The Interwar is a chaotic period for the international sport events. We see different groups using sports as a battleground for their own ideology. The working class organizes worker’s Olympiad to question the elitist amateur Olympic Games. The CCEP invents the People’s Olympiad as a protest against fascism in the Berlin Games of 1936. Despite all these efforts the official Olympic Games remained huge successes, save for the 1932 Games in Los Angeles (Great Depression).

BibliographyBaker (W.J.). Sports in the western world. University of Illinois Press, 1982

Guttmann (A.). Sports: the first five millennia. University of Massachusetts Press, 2004

Hilton (C.). Hitler’s Olympics: the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games. Sutton Press, 2008

Jones (G.J.). Sport, politics and the working class: organised labour and sport in Inter-War Britain. Manchester University Press 1992

Mallon (B.) & Heijmans (J.). Historical Dictionary of the Olympic Movement. Scarecrow Press, 2011

Sports Illustrated. Saudis to send 2 women to London, make history. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/olympics/2012/07/12/saudi-arabia-women-london-olympics.ap/index.html. 12-07-2012

Toohey (K.) & Veal (A.J.). The Olympic Games: a social science perspective. CABI, 2007

Vanderbeke (J.). Alternatieve Olympiades in het interbellum: Een onderzoek naar de receptie in de Belgische dagbladpers (1919-1937). Onuitgegeven masterscriptie KUL (promotor: prof. Dr. Vanysacker), 2005

17 Mallon (B.) & Heijmans (J.). Historical Doctionary of the Olympic Movement. Scarecrow Press, 2011, p. 29618 Hilton (C.). Hitler’s Olympics: the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games. Sutton Press, 2008, p. 3619 Wikipedia. Jesse Owens. Geraadpleegd op: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Owens

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