Olympism Through The Olympics

The Olympics originated from the Greeks around 776 BC were actually once abolished after the Romans took over, and it was not until 1894 that the Games were revived (International Olympic Committee). Held every four years, the Olympics are sports competitions with competitors from all over the world representing their own country. The Olympics have developed into such a worldwide competition that it became tremendously popular with a large amount of people. The founder of the International Olympic Committee, Pierre de Coubertin, is often called the father of the Olympics. The IOC wants to create Olympism through the Games. Olympism is the beliefs introduced through the fundamental principles of core values in the Olympic charter. Three of the …show more content…
One of the most known events is the bribery scandal that happened during late 1998 and early 1999 to bid for the 2002 Olympics’ host site. According to the New York Times, the chief organizers of the Salt Lake City’s bid were impeached and charged with bribery to buy votes from the IOC delegates (Longman 2000). This scandal led to not only the corruption of the intention of the Olympic games, but also led to the deterioration of the credibility of the IOC. This indicates that even the IOC delegates themselves do not follow nor respect the basic moral values of authenticity to function for the society’s well being. Furthermore, along with the scandal, it was revealed from a confidential IOC that bribery is not something that has just happened in the recent Games, but has been occurring for many years already (Daley 2011). Even though during the bribery scandal one of the IOC delegates intending to show the high standards that an IOC member abide by revealed that he once turned down a bribery of one million dollars, there are many counter-examples from all over the world, such as bids for the Olympics in Nagano, Australia, and …show more content…
Likewise, the Olympics’ influence on society is more positive and helpful in comparison to the rather negative and damaging bribery scandals. Furthermore, cases of athletes caught are relatively small when compared to the number of competitors in the Olympics. Yet, the best efforts that the competitors are giving were not joy of efforts, but rather laborious efforts with erroneous intentions. Also, although the society may seemingly be benefiting more positively through the Olympics because more publicized and that cases of athletes caught cheating are small, many of the negative sides such as cheatings and briberies are covered and done so privately that it is unknown to many people; nevertheless, it is actually affecting many