The Olympics have seen both its good and bad
days during its journey from early B.C. to this day.
Some of the major issues, which caused problems,
were political involvement, doping, boycotting and
violence.
The most famous political involvement was by the
German Nazis, in the 1936 Berlin's Summer Olympics.
They used it as a platform to spread their ideas.
Until the 1952 Helsinki's Summer Olympics, The
Soviet Union didn't participate in the Olympics and
had conducted international games event of their own
named Spartakiads, since 1928. Many associations
made by communists didn't participated in the
Olympics and instead opted for the Spartakiads and
some of the athletes belonging to these
associations, who wished to participate were barred
from the Olympics.
In the 1968 Summer Olympics, which was held in
Mexico City, another political controversy took
place involving two African Americans, John Carlos
and Tommie Smith, winners of the two hundred track
and field races. They performed the black power
salute on the victory stand. This angered the IOC's
autocratic president Avery Brundage and he ordered
the USOC to either send the two athletes back home
or to withdraw the whole team of track and field.
And because of this the athletes were send back
home. Iran had ordered their athletes not to
participate in any Olympic heat, semi finals or
finals, which had participants from Israel. An
Iranian judo wrestler didn't participate in the
Olympic hear because there was an Israeli wrestler
participating in it, in the 2004 Olympics.
Performance enhancing drugs and doping are other
major threats to the smooth running of the Olympic
games. It was at the start of the twentieth century
that the Olympics participants started using drugs
to better their performance. The first recorded
incident was that of Thomas J. Hicks who was given
brandy and strychnine during the race, which helped
him to get the winning position of the marathon, in
the year 1904. When the drug abuse began to rise to
a considerable level, a ban was levied in the mid
1960s. After that IOC, too, implemented the ban in
1967.
Drugs abuse by athletes took its own toll. Enemark
Jensen was believed to have died of heavy doping,
when he collapsed in a cycling race in Rome. Over a
period of thirty-eight years, seventy-four athletes
were tested positive to doping and they were
deprived of their medals. The very first athlete to
have tested positive for drugs was Hans Gunnar
Liljenwall at the 1968 Summer Olympics, after which
his bronze medal was taken away from him. In spite
of the tests, many athletes have taken the risk of
taking drugs and were not caught in the process.
Some of the East German females participants were
given anabolic steroids by their coaches, as part of
a government policy.
The World Anti-doping Agency was formed in 1999 to
fight doping. Many of the cross-county skiing and
weightlifting medallists who were found guilty were
stripped of their medals in the 2000 Summer Olympic
games.
Switzerland, Spain, and Netherlands boycotted the
1956 Melbourne Olympics due to the restriction set
by the Hungarian Uprising by the Soviet Union.
Because of the Suez Crisis, Egypt, Lebanon, Cambodia
and Iraq also boycotted the Olympics. The number of
nations that participated in the 1980 Moscow
Olympics was merely eighty, which is the lowest
after the 1956 Olympics. This was because United
States and sixty-four other nations rebelled against
Soviet invasion on Afghanistan. As revenge, the
Soviet Union and fourteen other nations didn't
participate in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, giving
the reason that they fear the safety of their
athletes.
Violence was seen in the Olympics since its
inception, although in ancient Greece, wars were
brought to a halt during the games for the safety of
the spectators and the athletes. The 1916 Olympics
was cancelled due to the World War I and the 1940
Summer Olympics and the 1944 Winter Olympics were
cancelled due to the World War II. A bombing at the
1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta killed two and
injured one hundred and eleven people.
The International Olympic Committee has been trying
to make the Olympic events more friendly and
peaceful. They to stop doping and to ensure a
healthy competition also introduced Blood testing.
The security has been tightened to combat any
terrorist attacks. The efforts have been taken to
retain the true sprit of the game.
