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officially Games of the XXIX Olympiad, © IOC/The Olympic Museum© Jack Cronkhite/Shutterstock.com© Zhu Difeng/Shutterstock.comThe Games of the XXIX Olympiad, involving some 200 Olympic committees and as many as 13,000 accredited athletes competing in 28 different sports, were auspiciously scheduled to begin at 8:08 pm on the eighth day of the eighth month of 2008 in Beijing, capital of the world's most populous country. From the time the International Olympic Committee selected Beijing as host city, on July 13, 2001, China invested huge sums of money in urban renewal, expanded infrastructure, and construction of Olympic facilities in Beijing and the six other Olympic venues (Qingdao, Hong Kong, Tianjin, Shanghai, Shenyang, and Qinhuangdao). In the months prior to August 8, a devastating earthquake in Sichuan province, international focus on China's pollution problems, protests over China's human rights record and Tibet, and criticism of the Chinese government's control of information became part of the Olympics story. Nevertheless, China was determined to show the world, also through an Olympics lens, that it had joined the ranks of the world's most modern and influential countries.
Britannica is pleased to showcase a broad selection of information on China and the Olympics, including a brief history of China's association with the Olympics and a special essay by Olympics expert Xu Guoqi; key facts and articles about China, Beijing, and the six other Olympic cities; a calendar of key dates in 2008; an essay on China's explosive growth by researcher Dorothy-Grace Guerrero; the story of the Olympics and Paralympics, with tables of IOC presidents and 2004 medal winners; a colourful photo gallery; and a list of Web sites for additional information.
rank | country | gold | silver | bronze | total |
1 | United States | 36 | 38 | 36 | 110 |
2 | China | 51 | 21 | 28 | 100 |
3 | Russia | 23 | 21 | 28 | 72 |
4 | Great Britain | 19 | 13 | 15 | 47 |
5 | Australia | 14 | 15 | 17 | 46 |
6 | Germany | 16 | 10 | 15 | 41 |
7 | France | 7 | 16 | 17 | 40 |
8 | South Korea | 13 | 10 | 8 | 31 |
9 | Italy | 8 | 10 | 10 | 28 |
10 | Ukraine | 7 | 5 | 15 | 27 |
11 | Japan | 9 | 6 | 10 | 25 |
12 | Cuba | 2 | 11 | 11 | 24 |
13 | Belarus | 4 | 5 | 10 | 19 |
14 | Spain | 5 | 10 | 3 | 18 |
14 | Canada | 3 | 9 | 6 | 18 |
16 | Netherlands | 7 | 5 | 4 | 16 |
17 | Brazil | 3 | 4 | 8 | 15 |
18 | Kenya | 5 | 5 | 4 | 14 |
19 | Kazakhstan | 2 | 4 | 7 | 13 |
20 | Jamaica | 6 | 3 | 2 | 11 |
21 | Poland | 3 | 6 | 1 | 10 |
21 | Hungary | 3 | 5 | 2 | 10 |
21 | Norway | 3 | 5 | 2 | 10 |
24 | New Zealand | 3 | 1 | 5 | 9 |
25 | Romania | 4 | 1 | 3 | 8 |
25 | Turkey | 1 | 4 | 3 | 8 |
27 | Ethiopia | 4 | 1 | 2 | 7 |
27 | Denmark | 2 | 2 | 3 | 7 |
27 | Azerbaijan | 1 | 2 | 4 | 7 |
30 | Czech Republic | 3 | 3 | 0 | 6 |
30 | Slovakia | 3 | 2 | 1 | 6 |
30 | Georgia | 3 | 0 | 3 | 6 |
30 | North Korea | 2 | 1 | 3 | 6 |
30 | Argentina | 2 | 0 | 4 | 6 |
30 | Switzerland | 2 | 0 | 4 | 6 |
30 | Uzbekistan | 1 | 2 | 3 | 6 |
30 | Armenia | 0 | 0 | 6 | 6 |
38 | Slovenia | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
38 | Bulgaria | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 |
38 | Indonesia | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 |
38 | Sweden | 0 | 4 | 1 | 5 |
38 | Croatia | 0 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
38 | Lithuania | 0 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
44 | Mongolia | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 |
44 | Thailand | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 |
44 | Zimbabwe | 1 | 3 | 0 | 4 |
44 | Finland | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
44 | Greece | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
44 | Nigeria | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
44 | Taiwan | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 |
51 | Mexico | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
51 | Latvia | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
51 | India | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
51 | Austria | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
51 | Ireland | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
51 | Serbia | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
57 | Belgium | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
57 | Dominican Republic | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
57 | Estonia | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
57 | Portugal | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
57 | Iran | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
57 | Trinidad and Tobago | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
57 | Algeria | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
57 | Bahamas | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
57 | Colombia | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
57 | Kyrgyzstan | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
57 | Morocco | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
57 | Tajikistan | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
69 | Bahrain | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
69 | Cameroon | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
69 | Panama | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
69 | Tunisia | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
69 | Chile | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
69 | Ecuador | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
69 | Iceland | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
69 | Malaysia | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
69 | Singapore | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
69 | South Africa | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
69 | Sudan | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
69 | Vietnam | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
69 | Afghanistan | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
69 | Egypt | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
69 | Israel | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
69 | Mauritius | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
69 | Moldova | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
69 | Togo | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
69 | Venezuela | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Total | 302 | 303 | 353 | 958 | |
China's association with the Olympic movement progressed slowly in the early years. The first Chinese member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Wang Zhengting, was elected in 1922 at the 21st IOC Session Meeting in Paris. It was not until 1932, however, that China actually sent a delegation to the Olympics, the Games of the X Olympiad, held in Los Angeles. Three months before those Games, Chinese newspapers suddenly reported that the puppet state of Manchukuo (Manchuguo), created by the Japanese in China's Northeast (Manchuria), was planning to send two athletes. People throughout China expressed their anger and resentment over this. Under fire from the public, China's Nationalist government quickly decided to send a delegation, which included only one athlete, runner Liu Changchun, to the Games. Although Liu failed to qualify in the 100-metre event after his long ocean journey, he became the first Chinese athlete to compete in the Olympic Games, and thus the 1932 Los Angeles Games became the first Olympics for China.
After the Chinese communists took control of mainland China, establishing the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) in 1949, and the Nationalist government (Republic of China, ROC) fled to Taiwan, the question of which side should represent China at the Olympic Games became a big political issue. From the PRC's point of view, two Olympic Committees representing one nation violated the Olympic Charter, and thus it refused to participate in the Games for some two decades. During that time, the ROC maintained its position on the IOC, and athletes from Taiwan participated under the name of China in several Games in different countries. Yang Ch'uan-kuang (Pinyin: Yang Chuanguang), an athlete from Taiwan, won a silver medal in the men's decathlon at the 1960 Rome Games, the first medal ever won by a Chinese participant in the Olympics. In 1968 Chi Cheng (Pinyin: Ji Zheng), also from Taiwan, won a bronze medal in the women's 80-metre hurdles in the Mexico City Games, becoming the first female Chinese athlete to win an Olympic medal.
John G. Mabanglo—AFP/Getty ImagesIn October 1979 the Executive Committee of the IOC reinstated the PRC's membership on that committee, while Taiwan was allowed to compete under the name Chinese Taipei. Because the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan led many countries to boycott the 1980 Moscow Olympics, the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics became the first Summer Games to which the PRC sent a delegation. The delegation consisted of 353 members, with 224 athletes participating in 16 events. Sharpshooter Xu Haifeng won a gold medal in the men's 50-metre pistol event and became the first Chinese in Olympic history to win the highest honour. In addition, Wu Xiaoxuan won a gold medal in the women's 50-metre rifle three-positions shooting competition, becoming the first Chinese woman to win a gold medal. Their success was called "breaking through zero" in China. Altogether, the Chinese athletes won 15 gold, 8 silver, and 9 bronze medals at those Games, ranking fourth overall in the gold medal tally. Athletes from Taiwan also won 2 bronzes.
Having successfully hosted the 11th Asia Games in 1990, the city of Beijing felt encouraged to bid for the right to host the Olympic Games. Early in 1991 the city government of Beijing and the National Olympic Committee of China decided to bid for the XXVII Olympic Games in 2000. Beijing was selected by the IOC as one of the candidate cities, along with Sydney, Berlin, Brasilia, Istanbul, and Manchester, Eng. At the 101st session of the IOC, held in Monte Carlo in 1993, the representatives of the candidate cities made their final presentations, and the 88 IOC members voted on the selection. Although a number of Western countries, citing human rights issues, refused to vote for Beijing, it was one of two cities left after the third round of voting. In the last round, Beijing lost to Sydney by the narrow margin of two votes.
In 1999 China launched its second bid. On September 6 the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Bid Committee was established, and in mid-2000, Beijing submitted its bid to the IOC. Included in it were answers to 22 questions from the IOC questionnaire as well as the plan and conceptual goals for the Games, which were to take as their motto "New Beijing, Great Olympics" and focus on being a "green" Olympics, a "hi-tech" Olympics, and the "people's" Olympics. Of the 10 cities bidding for the 2008 Games, the IOC in August 2000 selected five candidates: Beijing, Toronto, Paris, Istanbul, and Ōsaka, Japan.
On January 13, 2001, the Beijing Olympic Games Bid Committee officially submitted its bid to the IOC. The three-volume report contained 18 themes, some of which were national, regional, and candidate-city characteristics; customs and immigration formalities; environmental protection and meteorology; finances; marketing; provisions for the Paralympic Games; plans for the Olympic Village; medical/health services; security; accommodations; transport; and guarantees. Support letters from national and city government leaders were also included. One month later an IOC evaluation team visited Beijing to determine the city's capacity to host the Games. In an appraisal by the Evaluation Commission on May 15, 2001, Beijing's bid was rated "excellent," the city receiving the support of 94.9 percent of its residents to host the Games. The report concluded that a Beijing Olympics would "leave a unique legacy to China and to sports."
At the 112th session of the IOC in Moscow, on July 13, 2001, the final decision was made. All five candidate cities made a 45-minute presentation and took 15 minutes of questions from committee members. Beijing was the fourth to give its presentation. After speeches by Vice Premier Li Lanqing and other representatives of the Beijing Olympic Games Bid Committee, Chinese IOC member He Zhengliang said:
Mr. President, dear colleagues, no matter what decision you make today, it will be recorded in history. However, one decision will certainly serve to make history. In your decision here today, you can move the world and China toward an embrace of friendship through sports that will benefit all mankind. By voting for Beijing, you will bring the Games—for the first time in the history of the Olympics—to a country with one-fifth of the world's population and give to this billion people the opportunity to serve the Olympic Movement with creativity and devotion. If you honor Beijing with the right to host the 2008 Olympic Games, I can assure you, my dear colleagues, in seven years Beijing will make you proud of the decision you make here today.
Burson-Marsteller Beijing/PRNewsFoto/AP ImagesAfter the presentation, the IOC started to vote. In the first round, Beijing received 44 votes, Toronto 20, Istanbul 17, Paris 15, and Ōsaka 6. In the second round, Beijing had 56 votes, more than half of the total, Toronto 22, Paris 18, and Istanbul 9, with Ōsaka eliminated due to the results of the first round. Thus Beijing was honoured to be awarded the 2008 Olympic Games, the first time in Olympic history that a city in the world's most populous country would host the world's most important sporting event.
With the staging of the Olympic Games in Beijing in August 2008, China's century-long dream became a reality, the culmination of collective efforts of several generations of the Chinese people.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.Chinese interest in the Olympics coincided with a search for a new national identity and a move toward internationalization, which began by the turn of the 20th century—when the modern Olympic movement started. Following the first Sino-Japanese war in 1895, many Chinese felt that their country had become a "sick man" who needed strong medicine. The Olympic Games and modern sports in general became such medicine. The Chinese began to associate physical training and the health of the public with the fate of the nation. Ideas such as social Darwinism and survival of the fittest, which were introduced at this point in time, prepared the Chinese mentally for their embrace of Western sports. This idea of using sports to save the nation—and later to showcase China's greatness—became a widespread notion among many Chinese. Not surprisingly, Mao Zedong's first known published article was about physical culture, and, when in 2001 the IOC awarded the 2008 Olympics to Beijing, the leaders of China launched an all-out effort to make their Olympic Games a success.
To a great extent, China's involvement in the modern Olympic movement reflects its determination to use sports to join the world as an equal and respected member. The China National Amateur Athletic Federation was established in 1921 and was subsequently recognized by the IOC as the Chinese Olympic Committee. In 1922, when Wang Zhengting became the first Chinese member of the IOC (and the second member from Asia), his election symbolized the beginning of China's official link with the Olympic movement.
China's first participation in the Olympic Games came about largely for diplomatic reasons, when Japan tried to legitimatize its control of Manchukuo with a plan to send a team to the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics to represent that puppet state. China responded by sending sprinter Liu Changchun, who was called in the official 1932 Olympic Games report "a sole representative of 400 million Chinese." Chinese athletes under the Nationalist regime took part in both the 1936 and the 1948 Olympics despite a long war with Japan and later with the communists.
In 1949 the Communist Party defeated the Nationalist government and forced the Nationalist retreat to Taiwan. From the 1950s until the late 1970s, both Beijing and Taipei claimed to represent China and did everything possible to block the other from membership in the Olympic family. Heated disputes surrounding their exclusive membership claims plagued the international Olympic movement for many years. In 1958, to protest Taiwan's membership in the Olympic family, Beijing withdrew from the Olympic movement, and it did not return until 1979.
Steve Powell—Allsport/Getty ImagesThe 1980 Summer Olympic Games would have been an excellent moment for Beijing to showcase the arrival of a new and open China after its return to the Olympic movement. Unfortunately, the Olympic Games that year were held in Moscow, and the Chinese government decided to follow the U.S. boycott of the Games. Beijing had to wait another four years until the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. However, there seemed to be no better place and timing for Beijing than the 1984 Games. After all, it was in Los Angeles 52 years earlier that China had taken part in the Olympic Games for the first time, and, because of the Soviet Union's boycott of the Los Angeles Games, China had a chance to claim more medals, garner special treatment from the American fans, and even play a saviour's role for that year's Olympics. It was a glorious moment for China. Chinese athletes had never before won an Olympic gold medal, but in 1984 they earned 15. In 1932 China had sent only one athlete to take part in its first Olympic Games, but 52 years later, in the same city, 353 Chinese athletes competed for their country. During the 1984 Los Angeles Games, China officially informed the world that it wanted to host the Olympics.
© Reuters/CorbisThe 1984 Olympic Games were just a beginning, as China's growing success as a world-class economic power was paralleled in the realm of sports. At the 2004 Athens Olympics, China competed with the United States for medal supremacy: the U.S. took 36 gold medals, while China finished a close second with 32. The 2008 Beijing Games were seen as an excellent opportunity for the Chinese to show the world a new China—open, prosperous, and internationalized—and to help the Chinese demonstrate their can-do spirit and cure their past strong sense of inferiority and thus become confident in themselves and their nation. The Olympic Games bring along many challenges to their host and to the rest of the world, but, no matter what results, the 2008 Games in Beijing will be remembered as a major turning point in China's search for national identity and its relations with the world community.
President | Liu Peng | ||
Honorary Presidents | Yuan Weimin | Li Menghua | He Zhenliang |
Vice Presidents | Li Zhijian | Hu Jiayan | Yu Zaiqing |
Duan Shijie | Wang Jun | Feng Jianzhong | |
Xiao Tian | Yang Shu'an | Cui Dalin | |
Cai Zhenhua | Zhang Xinsheng | Xiao Min | |
Zhang Faqiang | Li Furong | Wang Baoliang | |
He Huixian | Wu Shouzhang | Tu Mingde | |
Secretary General | Song Luzeng | ||
Deputy Secretaries General | Ni Huizhong | Sheng Zhiguo | Liu Fumin |
Zhang Jian | Shi Kangcheng | Liu Baoli | |
Jiang Zhixue | Zhang Haifeng | Zuo Zhiyong | |
Song Keqin | |||
Executive Members | Liu Peng | He Zhenliang | Li Zhijian |
Hu Jiayan | Yu Zaiqing | Duan Shijie | |
Wang Jun | Feng Jianzhong | Xiao Tian | |
Yang Shu'an | Cui Dalin | Cai Zhenhua | |
Zhang Xinsheng | Xiao Min | Zhang Faqiang | |
Li Furong | Wang Baoliang | He Huixian | |
Wu Shouzhang | Tu Mingde | Song Luzeng | |
Ni Huizhong | Sheng Zhiguo | Liu Fumin | |
Zhang Jian | Shi Kangcheng | Liu Baoli | |
Jiang Zhixue | Zhang Haifeng | Zuo Zhiyong | |
Song Keqin | Sun Jinfang | Shi Mei | |
Zhu Ling | Zha Dalin | Deji Zhuoga | |
Li Minghua | Yang Yang | Deng Yaping | |
Li Lingwei | |||
Members | Liu Peng | He Zhenliang | Li Zhijian |
Hu Jiayan | Yu Zaiqing | Duan Shijie | |
Wang Jun | Feng Jianzhong | Xiao Tian | |
Yang Shu'an | Cui Dalin | Cai Zhenhua | |
Zhang Xinsheng | Xiao Min | Zhang Faqiang | |
Li Furong | Wang Baoliang | He Huixian | |
Wu Shouzhang | Tu Mingde | Song Luzeng | |
Ni Huizhong | Sheng Zhiguo | Liu Fumin | |
Zhang Jian | Shi Kangcheng | Liu Baoli | |
Jiang Zhixue | Zhang Haifeng | Zuo Zhiyong | |
Song Keqin | Sun Jinfang | Shi Mei | |
Zhu Ling | Zha Dalin | Deji Zhuoga | |
Li Minghua | Yang Yang | Deng Yaping | |
Li Lingwei | Wang Jitao | Gao Zhidan | |
Cai Jiadong | Wei Di | Ma Wenguang | |
Chang Jianping | Luo Chaoyi | Li Hua | |
Gao Jian | Lei Jun | Xie Yalong | |
Li Yuanwei | Xu Li | Liu Yanfeng | |
Wang Xiaolin | Yan Shiduo | Li Ruilin | |
Tian Ye | Li Guoping | Du Lijun | |
Yang Hua | Zhao Li | Sun Daguang | |
Ma Jilong | Sun Kanglin | Han Zhenduo | |
Nie Ruiping | Su Yajun | Sun Yongyan | |
Zhao Fengpei | Ye Caiyun | Yu Chen | |
Li Yining | Li Yunlin | Feng Chao | |
Xu Zhengguo | Liu Ying | Zhang Hongtao | |
Han Shiying | Li Jianming | Li Shun | |
Yang Naijun | Wu Yubin | Xu Zhuang | |
Wu Jianhua | Cai Guoxiang | Yang Wei | |
Feng Jianping | Yang Yujing | Li Guangming | |
Chen Zhaohai | Zhang Xinan | Huang Yubin | |
Yao Ming | Xu Haifeng | Li Yongbo | |
Xin Lancheng | Zhang Jian | ||
Honour Member | Lü Shengrong | ||
IOC Executive Board Member | Yu Zaiqing | ||
IOC Member | He Zhenliang | ||
IOC Commission Members in China | |||
Olympic Congress 2009 Commission | Yu Zaiqing (Executive Member) | ||
Olympic Congress 2009 Commission | He Zhenliang | ||
IOC Culture and Olympic Education Commission | He Zhenliang (Chairman) | ||
IOC Athletes Commission | Deng Yaping | ||
IOC Women and Sport Commission | Lü Shengrong | Yang Yang | |
IOC Medical Commission | Wu Moutian | ||
IOC Press Commission | Gao Dianmin | ||
IOC Sports and Environment Commission | Deng Yaping | ||
IOC Olympic Programme Commission | Li Lingwei | ||
IOC Sport for All Commission | Tu Mingde | ||
IOC International Relations Commission | Yu Zaiqing | ||
IOC Radio and Television Commission | Yu Zaiqing |
Key facts and statistics on China are provided in the table.
Official name: Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo (People's Republic of China). | ||||
Form of government: single-party people's republic with one legislative house (National People's Congress [2,9801]). | ||||
Chief of state: President Hu Jintao. | ||||
Head of government: Premier Wen Jiabao. | ||||
Capital: Beijing (Peking). | ||||
Official language: Mandarin Chinese. | ||||
Official religion: none. | ||||
Monetary unit: renminbi (yuan) (Y). | ||||
Demography | ||||
area3 | population | |||
Provinces5 | Capitals5 | sq mi | sq km | 20074 estimate |
Anhui (Anhwei) | Hefei | 54,000 | 139,900 | 61,100,000 |
Fujian (Fukien) | Fuzhou | 47,500 | 123,100 | 35,580,000 |
Gansu (Kansu) | Lanzhou | 141,500 | 366,500 | 26,060,000 |
Guangdong (Kwangtung) | Guangzhou (Canton) | 76,100 | 197,100 | 93,040,000 |
Guizhou (Kweichow) | Guiyang | 67,200 | 174,000 | 37,570,000 |
Hainan | Haikou | 13,200 | 34,300 | 8,360,000 |
Hebei (Hopeh) | Shijiazhuang | 78,200 | 202,700 | 68,980,000 |
Heilongjiang (Heilungkiang) | Harbin | 179,000 | 463,600 | 38,230,000 |
Henan (Honan) | Zhengzhou | 64,500 | 167,000 | 93,920,000 |
Hubei (Hupeh) | Wuhan | 72,400 | 187,500 | 56,930,000 |
Hunan | Changsha | 81,300 | 210,500 | 63,420,000 |
Jiangsu (Kiangsu) | Nanjing (Nanking) | 39,600 | 102,600 | 75,500,000 |
Jiangxi (Kiangsi) | Nanchang | 63,600 | 164,800 | 43,390,000 |
Jilin (Kirin) | Changchun | 72,200 | 187,000 | 27,230,000 |
Liaoning (Liaoning) | Shenyang | 58,300 | 151,000 | 42,710,000 |
Qinghai (Tsinghai) | Xining | 278,400 | 721,000 | 5,480,000 |
Shaanxi (Shensi) | Xi'an (Sian) | 75,600 | 195,800 | 37,350,000 |
Shandong (Shantung) | Jinan | 59,200 | 153,300 | 93,090,000 |
Shanxi (Shansi) | Taiyuan | 60,700 | 157,100 | 33,750,000 |
Sichuan (Szechwan) | Chengdu | 188,000 | 487,000 | 81,690,000 |
Yunnan | Kunming | 168,400 | 436,200 | 44,830,000 |
Zhejiang (Chekiang) | Hangzhou | 39,300 | 101,800 | 49,800,000 |
Autonomous regions5 | ||||
Guangxi Zhuang (Kwangsi Chuang) | Nanning | 85,100 | 220,400 | 47,190,000 |
Inner Mongolia (Nei Mongol) | Hohhot | 454,600 | 1,177,500 | 23,970,000 |
Ningxia Hui (Ningsia Hui) | Yinchuan | 25,600 | 66,400 | 6,040,000 |
Tibet (Xizang) | Lhasa | 471,700 | 1,221,600 | 2,810,000 |
Xinjiang Uygur (Sinkiang Uighur) | Ürümqi (Urumchi) | 635,900 | 1,646,900 | 20,500,000 |
Municipalities5 | ||||
Beijing (Peking) | — | 6,500 | 16,800 | 15,810,000 |
Chongqing (Chungking) | — | 31,700 | 82,000 | 28,080,000 |
Shanghai | — | 2,400 | 6,200 | 18,150,000 |
Tianjin (Tientsin) | — | 4,400 | 11,300 | 10,750,000 |
Population (2008): 1,324,681,000. | ||||
Density (2008): persons per sq mi 358.4, persons per sq km 138.4. | ||||
Urban-rural (20074): urban 43.9%; rural 56.1%. | ||||
Sex distribution (20074): male 51.52%; female 48.48%. | ||||
Age breakdown (2004): under 15, 19.3%; 15–29, 22.1%; 30–44, 27.2%; 45–59, 19.0%; 60–74, 9.6%; 75–84, 2.4%; 85 and over, 0.4%. | ||||
Population projection: (2010) 1,338,442,000; (2020) 1,407,520,000. | ||||
Ethnic composition (2000): Han (Chinese) 91.53%; Chuang 1.30%; Manchu 0.86%; Hui 0.79%; Miao 0.72%; Uighur 0.68%; Tuchia 0.65%; Yi 0.62%; Mongolian 0.47%; Tibetan 0.44%; Puyi 0.24%; Tung 0.24%; Yao 0.21%; Korean 0.15%; Pai 0.15%; Hani 0.12%; Kazakh 0.10%; Li 0.10%; Tai 0.09%; other 0.54%. | ||||
Religious affiliation (2005): nonreligious 39.2%; Chinese folk-religionist 28.7%; Christian 10.0%, of which unregistered Protestant 7.7%7, registered Protestant 1.2%7, unregistered Roman Catholic 0.5%7, registered Roman Catholic 0.4%7; Buddhist 8.4%; atheist 7.8%; traditional beliefs 4.4%; Muslim 1.5%. | ||||
Major urban agglomerations (2005): Shanghai 14,503,000; Beijing 10,717,000; Guangzhou 8,425,000; Shenzhen 7,233,000; Wuhan 7,093,000; Tianjin 7,040,000; Chongqing 6,363,000; Shenyang 4,720,000; Dongguan 4,320,000; Chengdu 4,065,000; Xi'an 3,926,000; Harbin 3,695,000; Nanjing 3,621,000; Guiyang 3,447,000; Dalian 3,073,000; Changchun 3,046,000; Zibo 2,982,000; Kunming 2,837,000; Hangzhou 2,831,000; Qingdao 2,817,000; Taiyuan 2,794,000; Jinan 2,743,000; Zhengzhou 2,590,000; Fuzhou 2,453,000; Changsha 2,451,000; Lanzhou 2,411,000. | ||||
Households. Average household size8 (2004) 3.6, of which urban households 3.08, rural households 4.18; 1 person 7.8%, 2 persons 19.6%, 3 persons 31.4%, 4 persons 21.8%, 5 persons 12.4%, 6 or more persons 7.0%; non-family households 0.8%. | ||||
Vital statistics | ||||
Birth rate per 1,000 population (2006): 12.1 (world avg. 20.3). | ||||
Death rate per 1,000 population (2006): 6.8 (world avg. 8.6). | ||||
Natural increase rate per 1,000 population (2006): 5.3 (world avg. 11.7). | ||||
Total fertility rate (avg. births per childbearing woman; 2005): 1.72. | ||||
Life expectancy at birth (2005): male 70.9 years; female 74.3 years. | ||||
National economy | ||||
Gross national product (2006): U.S.$2,641,846,000,000 (U.S.$2,035 per capita). | ||||
Budget (2004). Revenue: Y 2,639,647,000,000 (tax revenue 91.5%, of which VAT 34.2%, corporate income taxes 15.0%, business tax 13.6%, consumption tax 5.7%; nontax revenue 8.5%). | ||||
Expenditures: Y 2,848,689,000,000 (economic development 27.8%, of which agriculture 8.3%; social, cultural, and educational development 26.3%; administration 19.4%; defense 7.7%; other 18.8%). | ||||
Public debt (external, outstanding; 2005): U.S.$82,853,000,000. | ||||
Environment | ||||
Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from consumption and flaring of fossil fuels (in '000 metric tons of CO2; 2005): 5,322,690 (of which from: petroleum 16.5%, natural gas 1.9%, coal 81.6%) (% of world total 18.9); CO2 emissions per capita 4.1 metric tons. | ||||
Foreign trade9 | ||||
Imports (2006): U.S.$791,461,000,000 (machinery and apparatus 41.4%, of which electronic integrated circuits and micro-assemblies 13.4%, computers and office machines 5.1%, telecommunications equipment and parts 4.1%; mineral fuels 11.2%, of which crude petroleum 8.4%; chemicals and chemical products 11.0%; metal ore and metal scrap 5.6%; optical devices [particularly lasers] 4.5%). | ||||
Major import sources: Japan 14.6%; South Korea 11.3%; Taiwan 11.0%; China free trade zones 9.3%; United States 7.5%; Germany 4.8%; Malaysia 3.0%; Australia 2.4%; Thailand 2.3%; Philippines 2.2%. | ||||
Exports (2006): U.S.$968,936,000,000 (machinery and apparatus 43.2%, of which computers and office machines 13.9%, electrical machinery 10.5%, telecommunications equipment and parts 8.8%; apparel and clothing accessories 9.8%; textile yarn, fabrics, made-up articles 5.0%; chemicals and chemical products 4.6%; fabricated metal products 3.7%; iron and steel 3.4%). | ||||
Major export destinations: United States 21.0%; Hong Kong 16.0%; Japan 9.5%; South Korea 4.6%; Germany 4.2%; The Netherlands 3.2%; United Kingdom 2.5%; Singapore 2.4%; Taiwan 2.1%; Italy 1.6%. | ||||
Food: undernourished population (2002–04) 150,000,000 (12% of total population based on the consumption of a minimum daily requirement of 1,930 calories). | ||||
Military | ||||
Total active duty personnel (Nov. 2007): 2,105,000 (army 76.0%, navy 12.1%, air force 11.9%). | ||||
Military expenditure as percentage of GDP (2005): 2.0%; per capita expenditure U.S.$34. | ||||
1Includes 36 seats allotted to Hong Kong and 12 to Macau. 2Data for Taiwan, Quemoy, and Matsu (parts of Fujian province occupied by Taiwan), Hong Kong, and Macau are excluded. 3Estimated figures. 4January 1. 5Preferred names in all instances are based on Pinyin transliteration (except for Inner Mongolia and Tibet, which are current English-language conventional names). 6Total includes military personnel not distributed by province, autonomous region, or municipality. 7Percentage is rough estimate. 8Family households only. 9Imports c.i.f., exports f.o.b. | ||||
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John Wang/Shostal AssociatesThe People's Republic of China (Chinese: Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo) is the largest of all Asian countries and has the largest population of any country in the world. Occupying nearly the entire East Asian landmass, it occupies approximately one-fourteenth of the land area of the Earth. Among the major countries of the world, China is surpassed in area by only Russia and Canada, and it is almost as large as the whole of Europe.
China has 33 administrative units directly under the central government; these consist of 22 provinces, 5 autonomous regions, 4 municipalities (Chongqing, Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin), and 2 special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macau). The island province of Taiwan, which has been under separate administration since 1949, is discussed in the article Taiwan. Beijing (Peking), the capital of the People's Republic, is also the cultural, economic, and communications centre of the country. Shanghai is the main industrial city; Hong Kong is the leading commercial centre and port.
Within China's boundaries exists a highly diverse and complex country. Its topography encompasses the highest and one of the lowest places on Earth, and its relief varies from nearly impenetrable mountainous terrain to vast coastal lowlands. Its climate ranges from extremely dry, desertlike conditions in the northwest to tropical monsoon in the southeast, and China has the greatest contrast in temperature between its northern and southern borders of any country in the world.
The diversity of both China's relief and its climate has resulted in one of the world's widest arrays of ecological niches, and these niches have been filled by a vast number of plant and animal species. Indeed, practically all types of Northern Hemisphere plants, except those of the polar tundra, are found in China, and, despite the continuous inroads of humans over the millennia, China still is home to some of the world's most exotic animals.
Probably the single most identifiable characteristic of China to the people of the rest of the world is the size of its population. Some one-fifth of humanity is of Chinese nationality. The great majority of the population is Chinese (Han), and thus China is often characterized as an ethnically homogeneous country, but few countries have as wide a variety of indigenous peoples as does China. Even among the Han there are cultural and linguistic differences between regions; for example, the only point of linguistic commonality between two individuals from different parts of China may be the written Chinese language. Because China's population is so enormous, the population density of the country is also often thought to be uniformly high, but vast areas of China are either uninhabited or sparsely populated.
With more than 4,000 years of recorded history, China is one of the few existing countries that also flourished economically and culturally in the earliest stages of world civilization. Indeed, despite the political and social upheavals that frequently have ravaged the country, China is unique among nations in its longevity and resilience as a discrete politico-cultural unit. Much of China's cultural development has been accomplished with relatively little outside influence, the introduction of Buddhism from India constituting a major exception. Even when the country was penetrated by such "barbarian" peoples as the Manchu, these groups soon became largely absorbed into the fabric of Han Chinese culture.
This relative isolation from the outside world made possible over the centuries the flowering and refinement of the Chinese culture, but it also left China ill prepared to cope with that world when, from the mid-19th century, it was confronted by technologically superior foreign nations. There followed a century of decline and decrepitude, as China found itself relatively helpless in the face of a foreign onslaught. The trauma of this external challenge became the catalyst for a revolution that began in the early 20th century against the old regime and culminated in the establishment of a communist government in 1949. This event reshaped global political geography, and China has since come to rank among the most influential countries in the world.
Central to China's long-enduring identity as a unitary country is the province, or sheng ("secretariat"). The provinces are traceable in their current form to the Tang dynasty (618–907 ce). Over the centuries, provinces gained in importance as centres of political and economic authority and increasingly became the focus of regional identification and loyalty. Provincial power reached its peak in the first two decades of the 20th century, but, since the establishment of the People's Republic, that power has been curtailed by a strong central leadership in Beijing. Nonetheless, while the Chinese state has remained unitary in form, the vast size and population of China's provinces—which are comparable to large and midsize nations—dictate their continuing importance as a level of subnational administration.
Since the 1980s, China has been undergoing a radical and far-reaching economic transformation that has been spurred by a liberalized and much more open economic policy than in the first decades after 1949. As a result, China has become one of the world's top industrial powers, and it has been engaged in a massive program to build and upgrade all aspects of its transportation system. In 2001, after Beijing had successfully won the bid to stage the 2008 Olympic Games, the pace of this construction work increased dramatically in and around the Beijing metropolis, as new sports venues, housing for athletes, hotels and office towers, and roads and subway lines were built. Six other cities were selected to host events during the Olympic Games: Hong Kong (equestrian events), Qingdao (yachting), and Qinhuangdao, Shanghai, Shenyang, and Tianjin (football [soccer]).
On May 12, 2008, a magnitude-7.9 earthquake brought enormous devastation to the mountainous central region of Sichuan province in southwestern China. The epicentre was in the city of Wenchuan, and some 80% of the structures in the area were flattened. Whole villages and towns in the mountains were destroyed, and many schools collapsed. China's government quickly deployed 130,000 soldiers and other relief workers to the stricken area, but the damage from the earthquake made many remote villages difficult to reach. After a few days, China asked for outside help. Hundreds of thousands of people were made homeless, and the death toll, which reached 68,500 on May 29, was expected to continue rising; at least 19,000 people were missing, and some 5 million people were made homeless. Hundreds of dams, including two major ones, were found to have sustained damage. Some 200 relief workers were reported to have died in mud slides in the affected area, where damming of rivers and lakes by rocks, mud, and earthquake debris made flooding a major threat. The full extent of the damage was likely to remain unclear for some time. One week after the temblor China declared three days of official mourning for the earthquake victims.
In China the notable political events of 2007 were the holding of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 10th National People's Congress in March and the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in October. The former was the scene of some breaks with convention and a shift toward populist politics, while the October congress was widely seen as having failed to achieve the complete consolidation of power by Pres. Hu Jintao that most Chinese and foreign observers had expected.
The March National People's Congress was attended by representatives from China's provinces and municipalities. In a first, foreign journalists were given unrestricted access to People's Congress members. Premier Wen Jiabao's government report for 2006 was seen as a departure from the norm insofar as it addressed populist issues. Heading the bill were pressing domestic issues such as health care, education, and rural poverty, but the report also dwelled at some length on more-sensitive issues such as the environment and corruption, particularly in relationship to real estate—an area that had seen large-scale collusion between business and local political interests.
Wen paid particular attention in his report to the Three Rural Issues, or san nong, which referred to agriculture, rural communities, and peasants. He made a commitment to provide funding for infrastructure and new technologies to aid China's more than 800 million rural dwellers, whose living standards and incomes dragged significantly behind China's increasingly affluent urban population. Other issues addressed by Wen included the virtual absence of rural insurance and a new plan to provide basic rural health care. In terms of education, Wen made a commitment to abolish all tuition fees for rural children. In a rare hint at possible future political reform, Wen also spoke briefly of the need for "government transparency" and "public participation" in politics.
Perhaps of most significance at the Fifth Plenary Session, however, was the passing of the Property Law of the People's Republic of China, which had failed to pass in seven readings since 2002 owing to content disputes. The law covered the creation, transfer, and ownership of property and was widely seen as an important development in the creation of a market economy and a civil code. Falling short of abolishing the constitutional right of the government to own all land, the law nevertheless provided new protections for of private homes, for businesses, and for farmers with long-term leases on land. The law, which covered both state and private ownership, had long been mired in controversy; more-conservative party members were critical of the legislation because it seemed to erode the fundamental principle that state ownership came first.
Hints at the need for political reform in the National People's Congress came amid some unusually public debate on the subject in 2007. In a widely publicized speech in June, President Hu followed up on Wen's March comments by acknowledging growing public demand for a say in political decisions. Although the president did not set an agenda for changes leading to increased participatory politics, he did say that changes should be expanded in an "orderly way." In late September, in the Beijing magazine China Across the Ages, Li Rui, a 90-year-old former secretary to Mao Zedong, called for expanded citizens' rights and limits to party power. Li argued that democratization needed to keep apace of market reforms if China was to maintain stability. His comments appeared on the eve of the CPC National Congress.
In the months ahead of the party congress, in which the CPC set government agenda for the next five years, an Internet crackdown was carried out. Across the country, police shut down IDCs (Internet data centres), the computers that Web sites rent to host their content. Meanwhile, ISPs (Internet service providers) voluntarily disabled forums and chat rooms that were possibly unacceptable to authorities. These moves came amid international criticism that Beijing was violating a commitment to the International Olympics Committee that it was prepared to make substantial improvements in human rights ahead of the 2008 Olympics.
The CPC National Congress began on October 15 in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. It voted in a new Central Committee, which endorsed a new Political Bureau and Political Bureau Standing Committee, the innermost circle of power in China. The Central Committee elevated four new members to the Political Bureau Standing Committee, but only one of them, Li Keqiang, party secretary of Liaoning province, owed his promotion to Hu's patronage. Shanghai party boss Xi Jinping also joined the Political Bureau Standing Committee. Outranking Li, he was considered more likely to succeed Hu in 2012 as chief of state. Hu's retired predecessor, Jiang Zemin, was said to have had broad influence ahead of the National Congress in the negotiations on the new leadership lineup.
A reshuffle of the People's Liberation Army top brass, with older officers retiring in favour of a younger lineup, reflected Hu's dominance as chairman of the Central Military Commission. Of particular note was that Hu promoted a number of generals with Taiwan-affairs experience—most prominently a new chief of general staff, Gen. Chen Bingde, who had previously served as head of the Nanjing Military Region, which had direct responsibility for the Taiwan Strait.
The promotions were a sign of increasingly icy relations with Taiwan ahead of a Taipei referendum to enlist support for a UN membership bid under the name Taiwan rather than the Republic of China. Under the leadership of Taiwanese Pres. Chen Shui-bian, the self-ruled island in 2007 continued to make no concessions to China's claims of sovereignty, failing to open up Taiwan to Chinese tourism and refusing to allow the Olympic torch to pass through Taiwan on its way to Beijing.
In 2007 China's economy continued its meteoric rise. GDP grew at around 11 percent; the trade surplus approached $260 billion at year's end; foreign exchange reserves were up a spectacular $135.7 billion in the first quarter of 2007 from year's end 2006; and the Chinese renminbi continued to appreciate against the U.S. dollar at an annual rate of about 5 percent. In late September the Chinese government launched Asia's biggest state-owned investment company—a $200 billion sovereign wealth fund—after massive trade surpluses boosted the country's currency reserves to a record $1.33 trillion. Such good news came, however, amid a rising tide of voices warning of risks and challenges. The main areas of concern were surging inflation—which reached a 10-year high in 2007—an emerging stock-market bubble, the environmental fallout from China's fast-growing economy, and corruption.
In August consumer-price inflation surged to 6.5 percent, while fixed-asset investment in urban areas jumped 26.7 percent in the first half of 2007 year on year, prompting China's highest leadership to call on officials at all levels to take steps to stop the economy from overheating. The call followed a warning in May by the National Bureau of Statistics that the economy was "at risk of going from rapid growth to overheating." Beijing responded at midyear by raising benchmark interest rates for the fourth time since April 2006 and raising banks' reserve ration requirement for the eighth time since July 2006. Meanwhile, China's benchmark Shanghai Composite index continued to reach record highs throughout 2007, having surged more than 400 percent in the past two years despite government attempts to cool the market by imposing transaction taxes and higher interest rates.
Imaginechina/APChinese exporters struggled to redeem their image after a succession of product recalls of tainted goods. Safety scares emerged over Chinese shipments of dangerous and toxic lead-tainted toys as well as toxic toothpaste, seafood, and automotive tires, among other goods. Early in the year, more than 100 pet-food products were pulled from American shelves, and toy manufacturer Mattel, Inc., recalled nearly 20 million Chinese-made products, most of which contained lead-tainted paint. In July the former head of China's State Food and Drug Administration was executed for having taken $850,000 in bribes from eight pharmaceutical companies and for having approved fake drugs during his tenure (1998–2005). In September the government appointed Vice-Premier Wu Yi to head a panel tasked with overseeing a four-month war on tainted food, drugs, and exports.
Corruption hit the headlines with the prosecution in late July of former Shanghai party chief Chen Liangyu. Chen had been the subject of a high-profile one-year investigation after some $390 million was found to be missing from Shanghai's pension fund. Another 20 local officials were implicated. For some observers the prosecution was evidence that China was doing more to combat what was seen as an endemic problem, but for others the Chen case was simply the tip of the iceberg, and his prosecution was seen, at least in some quarters, as being politically motivated by his association with the so-called Shanghai clique, political rivals to President Hu and Premier Wen.
The environmental consequences of China's economic boom came under increased government scrutiny. Reports emerged showing that just 1 percent of China's approximately 560 million urban residents were breathing air considered safe by the European Union, and some 500 million people lacked access to clean drinking water. A 2007 World Bank report said that some 500,000 Chinese died annually as a result of pollution. Meanwhile, China was expected to become the global leader in terms of greenhouse emissions by the end of 2007. This toxic side effect of China's economic success story was thought to be behind thousands of incidents of social unrest across the country, and in July the head of China's environmental agency, Zhou Shengxian, called for a "struggle" against polluters. Most such incidents passed unreported, owing to a muzzled media, but in May thousands of people in Xiamen, Fujian province, took to the streets to protest a dirty petrochemical plant. Another sign of China's growing environmental crisis was an outbreak of toxic cyanobacteria in Lake Tai in the Yangtze River delta; water supplies for nearly two million people were poisoned.
There were signs in 2007 that China was moderating its foreign policy—possibly ahead of the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008—so as to be more of a global "team player," particularly in its most contentious foreign policy alignments: North Korea, Myanmar (Burma), and The Sudan.
China had long been North Korea's most important ally, but after a test explosion of a nuclear device by North Korea in October 2006, China worked hard to bring North Korea to the negotiating table. Six-country negotiations early in 2007 succeeded in achieving a solution that saw North Korea agree to dismantle its nuclear program in return for compensation. China's foreign policy came under intense pressure when monk-led protests erupted in Myanmar in September. Although China helped arrange for a UN envoy to visit Myanmar during the crisis and called on the government and demonstrators to show restraint, Beijing resisted calls for sanctions in keeping with its policy of noninterference in the internal affairs of other countries. Despite Beijing's opposition, additional sanctions were imposed by the U.S. and the EU independently of the UN as the crisis continued into October, and China increasingly came to be seen as Myanmar's major backer despite the fact that India, Russia, and Thailand also had important relationships with the ruling junta in Yangon. For China, the long-term significance of the crisis was that its support for the Myanmar government was seen as support for other countries with controversial human rights records.
China also continued to oppose international sanctions against the Sudanese government but allowed UN Security Council Resolution 1769, authorizing the deployment of peacekeepers to The Sudan, and helped persuade the Sudanese government to accept them. Like Myanmar, The Sudan was an important source of natural resources, and China imported 7 percent of its oil supplies from there. In a sign of the close relations between the Sudanese government and China, President Hu visited The Sudan in February. China also committed to investing $20 billion in Africa in 2007. This commitment brought China closer to Zimbabwean Pres. Robert Mugabe, whose regime was increasingly dependent on Chinese aid.
Relations with the U.S. got off to a rocky start after China shot down a weather satellite during an unannounced test, demonstrating the country's military-space capabilities. Continuing trade tensions led U.S. lawmakers to introduce legislation intended to force China to revalue its currency. While attending the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in September, U.S. Pres. George W. Bush accepted an invitation by Hu to attend the 2008 Olympics, but in October Bush angered Beijing by appearing in public with the Dalai Lama as the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader received a Congressional Gold Medal at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi condemned the appearance, stating that it "seriously wounded the feelings of the Chinese people and interfered with China's internal affairs."
Relations between Germany and China were also strained over the Dalai Lama after German Chancellor Angela Merkel met the spiritual leader in Berlin. In response to the meeting, China canceled human rights talks with Germany scheduled for December.
Sino-Japanese relations thawed as Premier Wen visited Japan in April and agreed to hold talks on disputes over territorial waters. The sudden resignation of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in September elevated Yasuo Fukuda, who succeeded Abe. Fukuda's moderate views on China promised to help improve relations between the two economic giants. Fukuda also indicated that as prime minister he would not visit the Yasukuni Shrine (where Japan's war dead, notably those of World War II, are enshrined); trips by Japanese leaders to the memorial had proved a perennial irritant in Sino-Japanese relations.
by Dorothy-Grace Guerrero
APThe China of 2007 was indeed a far cry from the country that in the 1950s Swedish Nobel Prize-winning economist Gunnar Myrdal predicted would remain mired in poverty. In anticipation of the 2008 Olympic Games, Beijing was undergoing a huge makeover that would show how fast change could happen in a country of 1.3 billion people. New subway lines were close to completion, and more skyscrapers were being added each month to the landscape to replace the fast-disappearing hutongs ("residential alleyways"). As the world's fourth largest economy and third largest trading country, China accounted for approximately 5 percent of world GDP and had recently graduated in status to a middle-income country. Beijing was also emerging as a key global aid donor. In terms of production, China supplied more than one-third of the world's steel, half of its cement, and about a third of its aluminum.
China's achievements in poverty reduction from the post-Mao Zedong era, in terms of both scope and speed, were impressive; about 400 million people had been lifted from poverty. The standard of living for many Chinese was improving, and this led to a widespread optimism that the government's goal of achieving an overall well-off, or Xiaokang, society, was possible in the near future.
The figures that illustrated China's remarkable economic achievements, however, concealed huge and outstanding challenges that, if neglected, could jeopardize those very same gains. Many local and foreign-development analysts agreed that China's unsustainable and reckless approach to growth was putting the country and the world on the brink of environmental catastrophe. China was already coping with limited natural resources that were fast disappearing. In addition, not everyone was sharing the benefits of growth—about 135 million people, or one-tenth of the population, still lived below the international absolute poverty line of $1 per day. There was a huge inequality between the urban and rural population, as well as between the poor and the rich. The increasing number of protests (termed mass incidents in China) was attributed to both environmental causes and experiences of injustice. If these social problems remained, it could imperil the "harmonious development," or Hexie Fazhan, project of the government and eventually erode the Communist Party of China's continued monopoly of political power.
Teh Eng Koon—AFP/Getty ImagesChina consumed more coal than the U.S., Europe, and Japan combined and was about to surpass, or had already surpassed, the U.S. as the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases. Beijing was also the biggest emitter of sulfur dioxide, which contributes to acid rain. Chinese scholars blamed the increase in emissions on rapid economic growth and the fact that China relied on coal for 70 percent of its energy needs. More than 300,000 premature deaths annually were attributed to airborne pollution. The changing lifestyle of the increasing number of middle-class families also contributed to the problem. In Beijing alone, 1,000 new cars were added to the roads every day. Seven of the 10 most polluted cities in the world were located in China.
The UN 2006 Human Development Report cited China's worsening water pollution and its failure to restrict heavy polluters. More than 300 million people lacked access to clean drinking water. About 60 percent of the water in China's seven major river systems was classified as being unsuitable for human contact, and more than one-third of industrial wastewater and two-thirds of municipal wastewater were released into waterways without any treatment. China had about 7 percent of the world's water resources and roughly 20 percent of its population. In addition, this supply was severely regionally imbalanced—about four-fifths of China's water was situated in the southern part of the country.
The Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River delta, two regions well developed owing to recent export-oriented growth, suffered from extensive contamination from heavy-metal and persistent organic pollutants. The pollutants emanated from industries outsourced from the developed countries and electronic wastes that were illegally imported from the U.S. According to an investigation of official records conducted by the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE), a domestic environmental nongovernmental organization, 34 multinational corporations (MNCs) with operations in China had violated water-pollution-control guidelines. These MNCs included PepsiCo, Inc., Panasonic Battery Co., and Foster's Group Ltd. The IPE's data were based on reports by government bodies at local and national levels.
China was beginning to realize, however, that its growth path was not cost-free. According to the State Environmental Protection Administration and the World Bank, air and water pollution was costing China 5.8 percent of its GDP. Though the Chinese government carried the responsibility for fixing the overwhelming environmental consequences of China's breakneck growth, help, if offered, from the transnational companies and consumers from industrialized countries that benefited greatly from China's cheap labour and polluting industries could also be utilized in the challenging cleanup task.
When the Chinese government in 2004 began setting targets for reducing energy use and cutting emissions, the idea of adopting a slower growth model and the predictions about the looming environmental disaster were not received with enthusiasm at first. By 2007, however, targets had been established for shifting to renewable energy, for employing energy conservation, and for embracing emission-control schemes. The target was to produce 16 percent of energy needs from alternative fuels (hydro and other renewable sources) by 2020.
APInside China, people were more concerned about issues related to the problem of widespread inequality than they were about showcasing the upcoming Olympics. The Gini coefficient (which indicates how inequality has grown in relation to economic growth) had increased in China by 50 percent since the late 1970s. Less than 1 percent of Chinese households controlled more than 60 percent of the country's wealth. This inequality was more pronounced when seen in urban versus rural per capita income. In the countryside, life was harsh, and people were poor. The ratio of urban versus rural per capita income grew from 1.8:1 in the early 1980s to 3.23:1 in 2003. (The world average was between 1.5:1 and 2:1.) Added to the problem of low income, Chinese rural residents also shouldered disproportionate tax burdens while having less access to public services, such as education and health care. Recently, the government abolished a number of taxes to help address poverty in the countryside.
The temporary migration from rural areas to the cities of 100 million–150 million Chinese peasants was not an easy transition. The rural migrant workers who kept factories and construction sites running were denied access to urban housing and to urban schooling for their children. Women migrant workers faced triple discrimination for being poor unskilled labour, female, and rural in origin. The anger and bitterness that set off riots and protests (reportedly more than 80,000 in 2006) in the countryside was not so much about poverty as it was about fairness. Agricultural land in China was communally owned. (In theory, each village owned the land around it, and each family held a small tract of land on a long-term lease.) In the past 20 years, however, urbanization had claimed 6,475,000 ha (about 16 million ac) of farmland; people saw their land being taken from them and then turned into homes that were sold to the new rich for several million dollars, and they witnessed local officials lining their own pockets. Meanwhile, they received little compensation in return and spent years away from home to live tenuous hand-to-mouth existences as factory or construction workers. Many were cheated of their wages by unscrupulous bosses. Given the reports of mass public protests, it was evident that many in China were clamouring for a more equitable distribution of China's bounty from its two-decades-long growth.
Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesJust how far back in history organized athletic contests were held remains a matter of debate, but it is reasonably certain that they occurred in Greece almost 3,000 years ago. However ancient in origin, by the end of the 6th century bc at least four Greek sporting festivals, sometimes called "classical games," had achieved major importance: the Olympic Games, held at Olympia; the Pythian Games at Delphi; the Nemean Games at Nemea; and the Isthmian Games, held near Corinth. Later, similar festivals were held in nearly 150 cities as far afield as Rome, Naples, Odessus, Antioch, and Alexandria.
Of all the games held throughout Greece, the Olympic Games were the most famous. Held every four years between August 6 and September 19, they occupied such an important place in Greek history that in late antiquity historians measured time by the interval between them—an Olympiad. The Olympic Games, like almost all Greek games, were an intrinsic part of a religious festival. They were held in honour of Zeus at Olympia by the city-state of Elis in the northwestern Peloponnese. The first Olympic champion listed in the records was Coroebus of Elis, a cook, who won the sprint race in 776 bc. Notions that the Olympics began much earlier than 776 bc are founded on myth, not historical evidence. According to one legend, for example, the Games were founded by Heracles, son of Zeus and Alcmene.
At the meeting in 776 bc there was apparently only one event, a footrace that covered one length of the track at Olympia, but other events were added over the ensuing decades. The race, known as the stade, was about 192 metres (210 yards) long. The word stade also came to refer to the track on which the race was held and is the origin of the modern English word stadium. In 724 bc a two-length race, the diaulos, roughly similar to the 400-metre race, was included, and four years later the dolichos, a long-distance race possibly comparable to the modern 1,500- or 5,000-metre events, was added. Wrestling and the pentathlon were introduced in 708 bc. The latter was an all-around competition consisting of five events—the long jump, the javelin throw, the discus throw, a footrace, and wrestling.
© Gianni Dagli Orti/CorbisBoxing was introduced in 688 bc and chariot racing eight years later. In 648 bc the pancratium (from Greek pankration), a kind of no-holds-barred combat, was included. This brutal contest combined wrestling, boxing, and street fighting. Kicking and hitting a downed opponent were allowed; only biting and gouging (thrusting a finger or thumb into an opponent's eye) were forbidden. Between 632 and 616 bc events for boys were introduced. And from time to time further events were added, including a footrace in which athletes ran in partial armour and contests for heralds and for trumpeters. The program, however, was not nearly so varied as that of the modern Olympics. There were neither team games nor ball games, and the athletics (track and field) events were limited to the four running events and the pentathlon mentioned above. Chariot races and horse racing, which became part of the ancient Games, were held in the hippodrome south of the stadium.
In the early centuries of Olympic competition, all the contests took place on one day; later the Games were spread over four days, with a fifth devoted to the closing-ceremony presentation of prizes and a banquet for the champions. In most events the athletes participated in the nude. Through the centuries scholars have sought to explain this practice. Theories have ranged from the eccentric (to be nude in public without an erection demonstrated self-control) to the usual anthropological, religious, and social explanations, including the following: (1) nudity bespeaks a rite of passage, (2) nudity was a holdover from the days of hunting and gathering, (3) nudity had, for the Greeks, a magical power to ward off harm, and (4) public nudity was a kind of costume of the upper class. Historians grasp at dubious theories because, in Judeo-Christian society, to compete nude in public seems odd, if not scandalous. Yet ancient Greeks found nothing shameful about nudity, especially male nudity. Therefore, the many modern explanations of Greek athletic nudity are in the main unnecessary.
The Olympic Games were technically restricted to freeborn Greeks. Many Greek competitors came from the Greek colonies on the Italian peninsula and in Asia Minor and Africa. Most of the participants were professionals who trained full-time for the events. These athletes earned substantial prizes for winning at many other preliminary festivals, and, although the only prize at Olympia was a wreath or garland, an Olympic champion also received widespread adulation and often lavish benefits from his home city.
Although there were no women's events in the ancient Olympics, several women appear in the official lists of Olympic victors as the owners of the stables of some victorious chariot entries. In Sparta, girls and young women did practice and compete locally. But, apart from Sparta, contests for young Greek women were very rare and probably limited to an annual local footrace. At Olympia, however, the Herean festival, held every four years in honour of the goddess Hera, included a race for young women, who were divided into three age groups. Yet the Herean race was not part of the Olympics (they took place at another time of the year) and probably was not instituted before the advent of the Roman Empire. Then for a brief period girls competed at a few other important athletic venues.
The 2nd-century-ad traveler Pausanias wrote that women were banned from Olympia during the actual Games under penalty of death. Yet he also remarked that the law and penalty had never been invoked. His account later incongruously stated that unmarried women were allowed as Olympic spectators. Many historians believe that a later scribe simply made an error copying this passage of Pausanias's text here. Nonetheless, the notion that all or only married women were banned from the Games endured in popular writing on the topic, though the evidence regarding women as spectators remains unclear.
Greece lost its independence to Rome in the middle of the 2nd century bc, and support for the competitions at Olympia and elsewhere fell off considerably during the next century. The Romans looked on athletics with contempt—to strip naked and compete in public was degrading in their eyes. The Romans realized the political value of the Greek festivals, however, and Emperor Augustus staged games for Greek athletes in a temporary wooden stadium erected near the Circus Maximus in Rome and instituted major new athletic festivals in Italy and in Greece. Emperor Nero was also a keen patron of the festivals in Greece, but he disgraced himself and the Olympic Games when he entered a chariot race, fell off his vehicle, and then declared himself the winner anyway.
Romans neither trained for nor participated in Greek athletics. Roman gladiator shows and team chariot racing were not related to the Olympic Games or to Greek athletics. The main difference between the Greek and Roman attitudes is reflected in the words each culture used to describe its festivals: for the Greeks they were contests (agōnes), while for the Romans they were games (ludi). The Greeks originally organized their festivals for the competitors, the Romans for the public. One was primarily competition, the other entertainment. The Olympic Games were finally abolished about ad 400 by the Roman emperor Theodosius I or his son because of the festival's pagan associations.
The ideas and work of several people led to the creation of the modern Olympics. The best-known architect of the modern Games was Pierre, baron de Coubertin, born in Paris on New Year's Day, 1863. Family tradition pointed to an army career or possibly politics, but at age 24 Coubertin decided that his future lay in education, especially physical education. In 1890 he traveled to England to meet Dr. William Penny Brookes, who had written some articles on education that attracted the Frenchman's attention. Brookes also had tried for decades to revive the ancient Olympic Games, getting the idea from a series of modern Greek Olympiads held in Athens starting in 1859. The Greek Olympics were founded by Evangelis Zappas, who, in turn, got the idea from Panagiotis Soutsos, a Greek poet who was the first to call for a modern revival and began to promote the idea in 1833. Brookes's first British Olympiad, held in London in 1866, was successful, with many spectators and good athletes in attendance. But his subsequent attempts met with less success and were beset by public apathy and opposition from rival sporting groups. Rather than give up, in the 1880s Brookes began to argue for the founding of international Olympics in Athens.
When Coubertin sought to confer with Brookes about physical education, Brookes talked more about Olympic revivals and showed him documents relating to both the Greek and the British Olympiads. He also showed Coubertin newspaper articles reporting his own proposal for international Olympic Games. On November 25, 1892, at a meeting of the Union des Sports Athlétiques in Paris, with no mention of Brookes or these previous modern Olympiads, Coubertin himself advocated the idea of reviving the Olympic Games, and he propounded his desire for a new era in international sport when he said:
Let us export our oarsmen, our runners, our fencers into other lands. That is the true Free Trade of the future; and the day it is introduced into Europe the cause of Peace will have received a new and strong ally.
He then asked his audience to help him in "the splendid and beneficent task of reviving the Olympic Games." The speech did not produce any appreciable activity, but Coubertin reiterated his proposal for an Olympic revival in Paris in June 1894 at a conference on international sport attended by 79 delegates representing 49 organizations from 9 countries. Coubertin himself wrote that, except for his coworkers Dimítrios Vikélas of Greece, who was to be the first president of the International Olympic Committee, and Professor William M. Sloane of the United States, from the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University), no one had any real interest in the revival of the Games. Nevertheless, and to quote Coubertin again, "a unanimous vote in favour of revival was rendered at the end of the Congress chiefly to please me."
It was at first agreed that the Games should be held in Paris in 1900. Six years seemed a long time to wait, however, and it was decided (how and by whom remains obscure) to change the venue to Athens and the date to April 1896. A great deal of indifference, if not opposition, had to be overcome, including a refusal by the Greek prime minister to stage the Games at all. But when a new prime minister took office, Coubertin and Vikélas were able to carry their point, and the Games were opened by the king of Greece in the first week of April 1896, on Greek Independence Day.
At the Congress of Paris in 1894, the control and development of the modern Olympic Games were entrusted to the International Olympic Committee (IOC; Comité International Olympique). During World War I Coubertin moved its headquarters to Lausanne, Switzerland, where they have remained. The IOC is responsible for maintaining the regular celebration of the Olympic Games, seeing that the Games are carried out in the spirit that inspired their revival, and promoting the development of sports throughout the world. The original committee in 1894 consisted of 14 members and Coubertin.
IOC members are regarded as ambassadors from the committee to their national sports organizations. They are in no sense delegates to the committee and may not accept, from the government of their country or from any organization or individual, any instructions that in any way affect their independence.
The IOC is a permanent organization that elects its own members. Reforms in 1999 set the maximum membership at 115, of whom 70 are individuals, 15 current Olympic athletes, 15 national Olympic committee presidents, and 15 international sports federation presidents. The members are elected to renewable eight-year terms, but they must retire at age 70. Term limits were also applied to future presidents.
The IOC elects its president for a period of eight years, at the end of which the president is eligible for reelection for further periods of four years each. The executive board of 15 members holds periodic meetings with the international federations and national Olympic committees. The IOC as a whole meets annually, and a meeting can be convened at any time that one-third of the members so request.
The honour of holding the Olympic Games is entrusted to a city, not to a country. The choice of the city lies solely with the IOC. Application to hold the Games is made by the chief authority of the city, with the support of the national government.
Applications must state that no political meetings or demonstrations will be held in the stadium or other sports grounds or in the Olympic Village. Applicants also promise that every competitor shall be given free entry without any discrimination on grounds of religion, colour, or political affiliation. This involves the assurance that the national government will not refuse visas to any of the competitors. At the Montreal Olympics in 1976, however, the Canadian government refused visas to the representatives of Taiwan because they were unwilling to forgo the title of the Republic of China, under which their national Olympic committee had been admitted to the IOC. This Canadian decision, in the opinion of the IOC, did great damage to the Olympic Games, and it was later resolved that any country in which the Games are organized must undertake to strictly observe the rules. It was acknowledged that enforcement would be difficult, and even the use of severe penalties by the IOC might not guarantee elimination of infractions.
In December 1998 the sporting world was shocked by allegations of widespread corruption within the IOC. It was charged that IOC members had accepted bribes—in the form of cash, gifts, entertainment, business favours, travel expenses, medical expenses, and even college tuition for members' children—from members of the committee that had successfully advanced the bid of Salt Lake City, Utah, as the site for the 2002 Winter Games. Accusations of impropriety were also alleged in the conduct of several previous bid committees. The IOC responded by expelling six committee members; several others resigned. In December 1999 an IOC commission announced a 50-point reform package covering the selection and conduct of the IOC members, the bid process, the transparency of financial dealings, the size and conduct of the Games, and drug regulation. The reform package also contained a number of provisions regulating the site-selection process and clarifying the obligations of the IOC, the bid cities, and the national Olympic committees. An independent IOC Ethics Commission also was established.
Because the Olympics take place on an international stage, it is not surprising that they have been plagued by the nationalism, manipulation, and propaganda associated with world politics. Attempts to politicize the Olympics were evident as early as the first modern Games at Athens in 1896, when the British compelled an Australian athlete to declare himself British. Other prominent examples of the politicization of the Games include the Nazi propaganda that pervaded the Berlin Games of 1936; the Soviet-Hungarian friction at the 1956 Games in Melbourne, Australia, which followed shortly after the U.S.S.R. had brutally suppressed a revolution in Hungary that year; the forbidden, unofficial, but prominent contests for "points" (medals counts) between the United States and the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War; the controversy between China and Taiwan leading up to the 1976 Montreal Games; the manifold disputes resulting from South Africa's apartheid policy from 1968 to 1988; the U.S.-led boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games (in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979), followed by the retaliatory boycott of the 1984 Los Angeles Games by the Soviet bloc; and, worst of all, the murder of Israeli athletes by terrorists at the 1972 Games in Munich, West Germany.
Even national politics has affected the Games, most notably in 1968 in Mexico City, where, shortly before the Games opened, Mexican troops fired upon Mexican students (killing hundreds) who were protesting government expenditures on the Olympics while the country had pressing social problems. Political tension within the United States also boiled to the top at Mexico City when African American athletes either boycotted the Games or staged demonstrations to protest continuing racism at home.
In the latter half of the 20th century, the IOC sought to more actively promote peace through sports. The IOC and relevant Olympic organizing committees worked with political leaders to allow the participation of former Yugoslav republics at the 1992 Games in Barcelona, Spain, as well as the participation of East Timorese and Palestinian athletes at the 2000 Games in Sydney, Australia. In 2000 the IOC revived and modernized the ancient Olympic truce, making it the focal point of its peace initiatives.
Commercialism has never been wholly absent from the Games, but two large industries have eclipsed all others—namely, television and makers of sports apparel, especially shoes. The IOC, organizing committees of the Olympic Games (OCOGs), and to some degree the international sport federations depend heavily on television revenues, and many of the best athletes depend on money from apparel endorsements. Vigorous bidding for the television rights began in earnest before the Rome Games in 1960; what have been called the "sneaker wars" started an Olympiad later in Tokyo.
The Los Angeles Games of 1984, however, ushered in a new Olympic era. In view of Montreal's huge financial losses from the 1976 Olympics, Peter Ueberroth, head of the Los Angeles OCOG, sold exclusive "official sponsor" rights to the highest bidder in a variety of corporate categories. Now almost everything is commercialized with "official" items ranging from credit cards to beer. And while American decathlete Bill Toomey lost his Olympic eligibility in 1964 for endorsing a nutritional supplement, now athletes openly endorse allergy medicines and blue jeans.
Each country that desires to participate in the Olympic Games must have a national Olympic committee accepted by the IOC. By the early 21st century, there were more than 200 such committees.
A national Olympic committee (NOC) must be composed of at least five national sporting federations, each affiliated with an appropriate international federation. The ostensible purpose of these NOCs is the development and promotion of the Olympic movement. NOCs arrange to equip, transport, and house their country's representatives at the Olympic Games. According to the rules of the NOCs, they must be not-for-profit organizations, must not associate themselves with affairs of a political or commercial nature, and must be completely independent and autonomous as well as in a position to resist all political, religious, or commercial pressure.
For each Olympic sport there must be an international federation (IF), to which a requisite number of applicable national governing bodies must belong. The IFs promote and regulate their sport on an international level. Since 1986 they have been responsible for determining all questions of Olympic eligibility and competition in their sport. The International Federation of Rowing Associations was founded in 1892, even before the IOC. In 1912 Sigfrid Edström, later president of the IOC, founded the IF for athletics (track and field), the earliest of Olympic sports and perhaps the Games' special focus. Because such sports as football (soccer) and basketball attract great numbers of participants and spectators in all parts of the world, their respective IFs possess great power and sometimes exercise it.
When the IOC awards the Olympic Games to a city, an organizing committee for the Olympic Games (OCOG) replaces the successful bid committee, often including many of that committee's members. Although the IOC retains ultimate authority over all aspects of an Olympiad, the local OCOG has full responsibility for the festival, including finance, facilities, staffing, and accommodations.
In Paris in 1924, a number of cabins were built near the stadium to house visiting athletes; the complex was called "Olympic Village." But the first Olympic Village with kitchens, dining rooms, and other amenities was introduced at Los Angeles in 1932. Now each organizing committee provides such a village so that competitors and team officials can be housed together and fed at a reasonable price. Menus for each team are prepared in accord with its own national cuisine. Today, with so many athletes and venues, OCOGs may need to provide more than one village. The villages are located as close as possible to the main stadium and other venues and have separate accommodations for men and women. Only competitors and officials may live in the village, and the number of team officials is limited.
The Olympic Games celebrate an Olympiad, or period of four years. The first Olympiad of modern times was celebrated in 1896, and subsequent Olympiads are numbered consecutively, even when no Games take place (as was the case in 1916, 1940, and 1944).
Olympic Winter Games have been held separately from the Games of the Olympiad (Summer Games) since 1924 and were initially held in the same year. In 1986 the IOC voted to alternate the Winter and Summer Games every two years, beginning in 1994. The Winter Games were held in 1992 and again in 1994 and thereafter every four years; the Summer Games maintained their original four-year cycle.
The maximum number of entries permitted for individual events is three per country. The number is fixed (but can be varied) by the IOC in consultation with the international federation concerned. In most team events only one team per country is allowed. In general, an NOC may enter only a citizen of the country concerned. There is no age limit for competitors unless one has been established by a sport's international federation. No discrimination is allowed on grounds of "race," religion, or political affiliation. The Games are contests between individuals and not between countries.
Gerard Julien—AFP/Getty ImagesThe Summer Olympic program includes the following sports: aquatics (including swimming, synchronized swimming, diving, and water polo), archery, athletics (track and field), badminton, baseball, basketball, boxing, canoeing and kayaking, cycling, equestrian sports, fencing, field hockey, football (soccer), gymnastics, team handball, judo, modern pentathlon, rowing, sailing (formerly yachting), shooting, softball, table tennis, tae kwon do, tennis, triathlon, volleyball, weightlifting, and wrestling. Women participate in all these sports except baseball and boxing. Men do not compete in softball and synchronized swimming. The Winter Olympic program includes sports played on snow or ice: biathlon, bobsledding, curling, ice hockey, ice skating (figure skating and speed skating), luge, skeleton (headfirst) sledding, skiing, ski jumping, and snowboarding. Athletes of either gender may compete in all these sports. An Olympic program must include national exhibitions and demonstrations of fine arts (architecture, literature, music, painting, sculpture, photography, and sports philately).
The particular events included in the different sports are a matter for agreement between the IOC and the international federations. In 2005 the IOC reviewed the summer sports program, and members voted to drop baseball and softball from the 2012 Games. While sports such as rugby and karate were considered, none won the 75 percent favourable vote needed for inclusion.
To be allowed to compete, an athlete must meet the eligibility requirements as defined by the international body of the particular sport and also by the rules of the IOC.
In the final decades of the 20th century there was a shift in policy away from the IOC's traditionally strict definition of amateur status. In 1971 the IOC decided to eliminate the term amateur from the Olympic Charter. Subsequently the eligibility rules were amended to permit "broken-time" payments to compensate athletes for time spent away from work during training and competition. The IOC also legitimized the sponsorship of athletes by NOCs, sports organizations, and private businesses. In 1984 some of the world's best athletes were still banned from the Games because they competed for money, but in 1986 the IOC adopted rules that permit the international federation governing each Olympic sport to decide whether to permit professional athletes in Olympic competition. Professionals in ice hockey, tennis, soccer, and equestrian sports were permitted to compete in the 1988 Olympics, although their eligibility was subject to some restrictions. By the 21st century the presence of professional athletes at the Olympic Games was common.
At the 1960 Rome Olympics, a Danish cyclist collapsed and died after his coach had given him amphetamines. Formal drug tests seemed necessary and were instituted at the 1968 Winter Games in Grenoble, France. There only one athlete was disqualified for taking a banned substance—beer. But in the 1970s and '80s athletes tested positive for a variety of performance-enhancing drugs, and since the '70s doping has remained the most difficult challenge facing the Olympic movement. As the fame and potential monetary gains for Olympic champions grew in the latter half of the 20th century, so too did the use of performance-enhancing drugs. Tests for anabolic steroids and other substances improved, but so did doping practices, with the design of new substances often a year or two ahead of the new tests. When 100-metre-sprint champion Ben Johnson of Canada tested positive for the drug stanozolol at the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul, South Korea, the world was shocked, and the Games themselves were tainted. To more effectively police doping practices, the IOC formed the World Anti-Doping Agency in 1999. There is now a long list of banned substances and a thorough testing process. Blood and urine samples are collected from athletes before and after competition and sent to a lab for testing. Positive tests for banned substances lead to disqualification, and athletes may be banned from competition for periods ranging from a year to life. Yet, despite the harsh penalties and threat of public humiliation, athletes continue to test positive for banned substances.
The form of the opening ceremony is laid down by the IOC in great detail, from the moment when the chief of state of the host country is received by the president of the IOC and the organizing committee at the entrance to the stadium to the end of the proceedings, when the last team files out.
When the head of state has reached the appointed place in the tribune and is greeted with the national anthem, the parade of competitors begins. The Greek team is always the first to enter the stadium, and, except for the host team, which is always last, the other countries follow in alphabetical order as determined by the language of the organizing country. Each contingent, dressed in its official uniform, is preceded by a shield with the name of its country, while an athlete carries its national flag. At the 1980 Games, some of the countries protesting the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan the previous year carried the Olympic flag in place of their national flag, in deference to a boycott of those Games by other countries. The competitors march around the stadium and then form in groups in the centre facing the tribune.
The president of the OCOG then delivers a brief speech of welcome, followed by another brief speech from the president of the IOC, who asks the chief of state to proclaim the Games open.
A fanfare of trumpets sound as the Olympic flag is slowly raised. The Olympic flame is then carried into the stadium by the last of a series of runners who have brought the torch on a very long journey from Olympia, Greece. The runner circles the track, mounts the steps, and lights the Olympic fire that burns night and day during the Games.
Tony Duffy—Allsport/Getty ImagesIn individual Olympic events, the award for first place is a gold (silver-gilt, with six grams of fine gold) medal, for second place a silver medal, and for third place a bronze medal. Solid gold medals were last given in 1912. The obverse side of the medal awarded in 2004 at Athens was altered for the first time since 1928 to better reflect the Greek origins of both the ancient and modern Games, depicting the goddess Nike flying above a Greek stadium. The reverse side, changed for each Olympiad, often displayed the official emblem of the particular Games. At the 2004 Athens Games, athletes received authentic olive-leaf crowns as well as medals. Diplomas are awarded for fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth places. All competitors and officials receive a commemorative medal.
Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesMedals are presented during the Games at the various venues, usually soon after the conclusion of each event. The competitors who have won the first three places proceed to the rostrum, with the gold medalist in the centre, the silver medalist on his or her right, and the bronze medalist on the left. Each medal, attached to a chain or ribbon, is hung around the neck of the winner by a member of the IOC, and the flags of the countries concerned are raised to the top of the flagpoles while an abbreviated form of the national anthem of the gold medalist is played. The spectators are expected to stand and face the flags, as do the three successful athletes.
The closing ceremony takes place after the final event, which at the Summer Games is usually the equestrian Prix des Nations. The president of the IOC calls the youth of the world to assemble again in four years to celebrate the Games of the next Olympiad. A fanfare is sounded, the Olympic fire is extinguished, and, to the strains of the Olympic anthem, the Olympic flag is lowered and the Games are over. But the festivities do not end there. The 1956 Olympics in Melbourne introduced one of the most important and effective of all Olympic customs. At the suggestion of John Ian Wing, a Chinese teenager living in Australia, the traditional parade of athletes divided into national teams was discarded, allowing athletes to mingle, many hand in hand, as they move around the stadium. This informal parade of athletes without distinction of nationality signifies the friendly bonds of Olympic sports and helps to foster a party atmosphere in the stadium.
In the stadium and its immediate surroundings, the Olympic flag is flown freely together with the flags of the participating countries. The Olympic flag presented by Coubertin in 1914 is the prototype: it has a white background, and in the centre there are five interlaced rings—blue, yellow, black, green, and red. The blue ring is farthest left, nearest the pole. These rings represent the "five parts of the world" joined together in the Olympic movement.
In the 19th century, sporting organizations regularly chose a distinctive motto. As the official motto of the Olympic Games, Coubertin adopted "Citius, altius, fortius," Latin for "Faster, higher, stronger," a phrase apparently coined by his friend Henri Didon, a friar, teacher, and athletics enthusiast. Some people are now wary of this motto, fearing that it may be misinterpreted as a validation of performance-enhancing drugs. Equally well known is the saying known as the "credo": "The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to participate." Coubertin made that statement on a day when the British and Americans were bitterly disputing who had won the 400-metre race at the 1908 London Games. Although Coubertin attributed the words to Ethelbert Talbot, an American bishop, recent research suggests that the words are Coubertin's own, that he tactfully cited Talbot so as not to appear to admonish personally his English-speaking friends.
© Yannis Behrakis—Reuters/CorbisContrary to popular belief, the torch relay from the temple of Hera in Olympia to the host city has no predecessor or parallel in antiquity. No relay was needed to run the torch from Olympia to Olympia. A perpetual fire was indeed maintained in Hera's temple, but it had no role in the ancient Games. The Olympic flame first appeared at the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam. The torch relay was the idea of Carl Diem, organizer of the 1936 Berlin Games, where the relay made its debut. Subsequent editions have grown larger and larger, with more runners, more spectators, and greater distances. The 2004 relay reached all seven continents on its way from Olympia to Athens. The relay is now one of the most splendid and cherished of all Olympic rituals; it emphasizes not only the ancient source of the Olympics but also the internationalism of the modern Games. The flame is now recognized everywhere as an emotionally charged symbol of peace.
The organizers of the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France, devised as an emblem of their Games a cartoonlike figure of a skiing man and called him Schuss. The 1972 Games in Munich, West Germany, adopted the idea and produced the first "official mascot," a dachshund named Waldi who appeared on related publications and memorabilia. Since then each edition of the Olympic Games has had its own distinctive mascot, sometimes more than one. Typically the mascot is derived from characters or animals especially associated with the host country. Thus, Moscow chose a bear, Norway two figures from Norwegian mythology, and Sydney three animals native to Australia. The strangest mascot was Whatizit, or Izzy, of the 1996 Games in Atlanta, Georgia, a rather amorphous "abstract fantasy figure." His name comes from people asking "What is it?" He gained more features as the months went by, but his uncertain character and origins contrast strongly with the Athena and Phoebus (Apollo) of the Athens Games of 2004, based on figurines of those gods that were more than 2,500 years old.
Courtesy of the International Olympic CommitteeThe Olympic flag consists of a white field bearing five equal interlocking rings of blue, dark yellow, black, green, and red with separations wherever two rings intersect. The width-to-length ratio of the flag is 2:3.
In 1914, when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) held its 20th anniversary meeting in Paris, the Olympic flag was displayed for the first time. The design had been conceived by the French educator Pierre, baron de Coubertin, who developed the modern Olympic movement. It has been claimed that Coubertin found the design of five interlocked rings on an ancient altar in Delphi, Greece. The five rings symbolized the "five parts of the world" in which the Olympic movement was active, according to Coubertin. Contrary to popular belief, however, the colours of the rings are not associated with specific continents. Rather, those five colours and white were chosen because they incorporated the colours of all national flags in existence at the time the Olympic flag was created.
During the opening ceremony of the Winter or Summer Games, an Olympic flag is ceremonially raised at the main venue. The Olympic oath is then taken by specially chosen participants, each of whom holds the Olympic flag in the left hand and raises the right hand while taking the oath. At the closing ceremony, the end of the Games is symbolized by lowering the flag at the main venue and presenting it to the president of the IOC, who then delivers it to the organizers of the next Games. In addition to flying the traditional Olympic flag, Olympic organizing committees in cities hosting the Games often fly a flag of their own incorporating a version of the five-ring logo.
The Olympic flag and rings are protected by law in nearly every country in order to prevent their exploitation by unauthorized individuals or institutions. Since the 1980s the IOC has earned considerable revenue by licensing reproductions of the flag or logo.
On Aug. 13, 2004, the Olympic Games returned home to Greece, birthplace of the ancient Games and site of the inaugural modern Olympics. The first recorded Olympic champion was Coroebus of Elis, winner of a 192-metre (210-yard) sprint race in 776 bc. Over the next century the quadrennial tournament added longer-distance races, wrestling, the five-event pentathlon, boxing, and chariot racing. The Games gradually disappeared until French educator Pierre, baron de Coubertin, revived the competition in 1896. Under the auspices of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that he founded, the Games of the I Olympiad took place in Athens in April of that year—241 men, representing 14 countries, competed in 43 events in 9 sports (cycling, fencing, gymnastics, shooting, swimming, tennis, track and field [athletics], weight lifting, and wrestling).
© Clive Brunskill/Getty ImagesIn 2004 a record 202 national Olympic committees were represented, including a returning Afghanistan and first-time participants East Timor (Timor-Leste) and Kiribati. Nearly 11,100 accredited athletes competed in 37 disciplines in 28 sports; women participated in freestyle wrestling and sabre fencing for the first time. Competitors from 74 countries took home medals, with 57 countries winning at least one gold. The United States tallied 102 (including 36 gold) of the 929 medals awarded, followed by Russia with 92 (27 gold) and China with 63 (32 gold). Greece won 16 medals, three more than at the 2000 Games in Sydney, Australia.
Serious construction delays and worries that Athens's hot, humid weather and high levels of air pollution would be detrimental to the athletes—combined with fears that terrorists might disrupt the proceedings—almost led the IOC to move the Games to another city. The heat did affect some competitors; spectator attendance was poor for many events; and more than 20 athletes were disqualified after failing tests for performance-enhancing drugs. Controversies over scoring in gymnastics and fencing even led some observers to question whether judged events should be dropped entirely from the Olympics. Nevertheless, most of the 17-day event went smoothly; the 35 competition venues were deemed excellent; and the IOC president, Jacques Rogge, declared the Athens Olympics "unforgettable, dream Games."
Ezra Shaw/Getty ImagesAmerican swimming phenomenon Michael Phelps topped the medals table with a record-tying eight (six gold and two bronze), while Ukrainian swimmer Yana Klochkova continued her dominance in the individual medley. On the track, Kelly Holmes of Great Britain and Ethiopia's Hicham El Guerrouj were double gold medalists, and hurdler Liu Xiang won China's first men's athletics gold. Other notable competitors included Japanese judo star Ryoko Tani, American all-around gymnastics titlists Paul Hamm and Carly Patterson, Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva, and rowers Matthew Pinsent of Great Britain and Elisabeta Lipa of Romania. The concluding event, the men's marathon, was won by Stefano Baldini of Italy after the leader, Brazil's Vanderlei Lima, was assaulted by a deranged spectator about four miles from the finish line. Lima, who recovered to take the bronze, was awarded the Pierre de Coubertin medal for ''his exceptional demonstration of fair play and Olympic values.''
The foregoing account is from Britannica Book of the Year (2005). For another account of the 2004 Games and for descriptions of the individual Summer Olympic Games through history, see History of the modern Summer Games in Britannica's article "Olympic Games."
The table provides the final medal rankings of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.
rank | country | gold | silver | bronze | total |
1 | United States | 36 | 39 | 27 | 102 |
2 | Russia | 27 | 27 | 38 | 92 |
3 | China | 32 | 17 | 14 | 63 |
4 | Australia | 17 | 16 | 16 | 49 |
5 | Germany | 13 | 16 | 20 | 49 |
6 | Japan | 16 | 9 | 12 | 37 |
7 | France | 11 | 9 | 13 | 33 |
8 | Italy | 10 | 11 | 11 | 32 |
9 | South Korea | 9 | 12 | 9 | 30 |
10 | Great Britain | 9 | 9 | 12 | 30 |
11 | Cuba | 9 | 7 | 11 | 27 |
12 | Ukraine | 9 | 5 | 9 | 23 |
13 | Netherlands | 4 | 9 | 9 | 22 |
14 | Romania | 8 | 5 | 6 | 19 |
15 | Spain | 3 | 11 | 5 | 19 |
16 | Hungary | 8 | 6 | 3 | 17 |
17 | Greece | 6 | 6 | 4 | 16 |
18 | Belarus | 2 | 6 | 7 | 15 |
19 | Canada | 3 | 6 | 3 | 12 |
20 | Bulgaria | 2 | 1 | 9 | 12 |
21 | Brazil | 5 | 2 | 3 | 10 |
22 | Turkey | 3 | 3 | 4 | 10 |
23 | Poland | 3 | 2 | 5 | 10 |
24 | Thailand | 3 | 1 | 4 | 8 |
25 | Denmark | 2 | 0 | 6 | 8 |
26 | Kazakhstan | 1 | 4 | 3 | 8 |
27 | Czech Republic | 1 | 3 | 4 | 8 |
28 | Sweden | 4 | 2 | 1 | 7 |
29 | Austria | 2 | 4 | 1 | 7 |
30 | Ethiopia | 2 | 3 | 2 | 7 |
31 | Kenya | 1 | 4 | 2 | 7 |
32 | Norway | 5 | 0 | 1 | 6 |
33 | Iran | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 |
33 | Slovakia | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 |
34 | Argentina | 2 | 0 | 4 | 6 |
35 | South Africa | 1 | 3 | 2 | 6 |
36 | New Zealand | 3 | 2 | 0 | 5 |
37 | Taiwan | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
38 | Jamaica | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 |
38 | Uzbekistan | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 |
39 | Croatia | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
40 | Egypt | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 |
40 | Switzerland | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 |
41 | Azerbaijan | 1 | 0 | 4 | 5 |
42 | North Korea | 0 | 4 | 1 | 5 |
43 | Georgia | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 |
44 | Indonesia | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
45 | Latvia | 0 | 4 | 0 | 4 |
46 | Mexico | 0 | 3 | 1 | 4 |
47 | Slovenia | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
48 | Morocco | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
49 | Chile | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
50 | Lithuania | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
51 | Zimbabwe | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
52 | Belgium | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
53 | Portugal | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
54 | Estonia | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
55 | Bahamas | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
55 | Israel | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
56 | Finland | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
56 | Serbia and Montenegro | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
57 | Colombia | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
57 | Nigeria | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
57 | Venezuela | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
58 | Cameroon | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
58 | Dominican Republic | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
58 | United Arab Emirates | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
59 | Hong Kong | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
59 | India | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
59 | Paraguay | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
60 | Eritrea | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
60 | Mongolia | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
60 | Syria | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
60 | Trinidad and Tobago | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
The table provides a list of the sites of the modern Olympic Games.
year | Summer Games | Winter Games |
1896 | Athens | * |
1900 | Paris | * |
1904 | St. Louis, Mo., U.S. | * |
1908 | London | * |
1912 | Stockholm | * |
1916 | ** | * |
1920 | Antwerp, Belg. | * |
1924 | Paris | Chamonix, France |
1928 | Amsterdam | St. Moritz, Switz. |
1932 | Los Angeles | Lake Placid, N.Y., U.S. |
1936 | Berlin | Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Ger. |
1940 | ** | ** |
1944 | ** | ** |
1948 | London | St. Moritz, Switz. |
1952 | Helsinki, Fin. | Oslo, Nor. |
1956 | Melbourne, Austl. | Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy |
1960 | Rome | Squaw Valley, Calif., U.S. |
1964 | Tokyo | Innsbruck, Austria |
1968 | Mexico City | Grenoble, France |
1972 | Munich, W.Ger. | Sapporo, Japan |
1976 | Montreal | Innsbruck, Austria |
1980 | Moscow | Lake Placid, N.Y., U.S. |
1984 | Los Angeles | Sarajevo, Yugos. |
1988 | Seoul, S.Kor. | Calgary, Alta., Can. |
1992 | Barcelona, Spain | Albertville, France |
1994 | *** | Lillehammer, Nor. |
1996 | Atlanta, Ga., U.S. | *** |
1998 | *** | Nagano, Japan |
2000 | Sydney, Austl. | *** |
2002 | *** | Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S. |
2004 | Athens | *** |
2006 | *** | Turin, Italy |
2008 | Beijing | *** |
2010 | *** | Vancouver, B.C., Can. |
2012 | London | *** |
2014 | *** | Sochi, Russia |
2016 | Rio de Janeiro | *** |
2018 | *** | P'yŏngch'ang, S.Kor. |
2020 | Tokyo | *** |
*The Winter Games were not held until 1924. **Games were not held during World War I and World War II. ***From 1992 the Summer and Winter Games were held on a staggered two-year schedule. |
The table provides a list of the International Olympic Committee presidents.
name | country | years |
Dimítrios Vikélas | Greece | 1894-96 |
Pierre, baron de Coubertin | France | 1896-1925 |
Henri, comte de Baillet-Latour | Belgium | 1925-42 |
J. Sigfrid Edström | Sweden | 1946-52 |
Avery Brundage | United States | 1952-72 |
Michael Morris, Lord Killanin | Ireland | 1972-80 |
Juan António Samaranch | Spain | 1980-2001 |
Jacques Rogge | Belgium | 2001-13 |
Thomas Bach | Germany | 2013-present |
"It would be no exaggeration," declared The New York Times, to say that the finish of the marathon at the 1908 Olympics in London was "the most thrilling athletic event that has occurred since that Marathon race in ancient Greece, where the victor fell at the goal and, with a wave of triumph, died."
Dorando Pietri's run to the finish line was indeed dramatic. He staggered into the Olympic stadium at Shepherd's Bush before an enthusiastic crowd of 100,000, then tottered and fell, rose up, fell again, and was swarmed by doctors and officials who, giving way to the pleadings of the by-then overwrought crowd, seized the unconscious Pietri and dragged him across the finish line to tremendous applause. The effort marked the beginnings of a surge in the popularity of marathon racing despite the fact that the courageous Italian did not win.
Pietri, a confectioner from Capri, Italy, was disqualified because of the assistance he received, but he won the sympathies of the British for his heroic ordeal. English author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle described Pietri's finish: "It is horrible, yet fascinating, this struggle between a set purpose and an utterly exhausted frame." Pietri's time for the distance was 2 hours 54 minutes 46 seconds. Rushed immediately to the hospital, he hovered near death for two and a half hours following the race. When he recovered later, Queen Alexandra bestowed on him an enormous gold cup, reflecting the sentiments of the spectators.
Pietri and the winner, John Joseph Hayes of the United States, had both been long shots. The favourite, Charles Hefferon of South Africa, led until the final six miles. Pietri's handler reportedly then gave the Italian an invigorating shot of strychnine. With less than 2 miles (3 km) to the stadium, Pietri sprinted past Hefferon, who was tiring in the July heat and humidity. Nearing the stadium, Hayes also overtook Hefferon. Pietri entered the stadium clearly disoriented, turning left instead of right. After the Italian's collapse, Hayes trotted across the finish line 32 seconds later. The race inspired American songwriter Irving Berlin to compose his first hit, "Dorando.
No one is quite certain why the Estonian Greco-Roman wrestler Martin Klein, who had competed in several international events under his nation's flag, chose to appear at the 1912 Olympic Games wearing the uniform of tsarist Russia. It was a choice that may have stirred the spirit of his formidable semifinal opponent, the Finn Alfred Asikainen. Like many of his countrymen, Asikainen felt no love for Russia, which had controlled Finland since 1809. The International Olympic Committee evidently sympathized with the Finns, allowing Finnish athletes to compete in neighboring Sweden under their own flag—a decision the Russians hotly contested.
Klein's semifinal match with Asikainen was hotly contested as well. Under a blazing summer sun, the two middleweights grappled for long minutes, each seeking to throw the other off balance. As the minutes stretched into an hour, the referees allowed Klein and Asikainen to take a short rest break. The event continued for another half hour, when the referees ordered another rest break. On it went until, after 11 gruelling hours, Klein finally pinned Asikainen to the mat.
Despite his defeat, Finnish nationalists and the international press alike hailed Asikainen as a hero, a symbol of their small country's capacity to resist their much larger neighbor; Klein, for his part, was all but ignored. His victory, won after what remains the longest wrestling match in Olympic history, was Pyrrhic. Still exhausted after his ordeal, Klein refused to compete against Claes Johansson, the Swedish favorite, the next day. Johansson took the gold medal in the event by default, with Klein being awarded the silver and Asikainen the bronze.
UPI/Corbis-BettmannThe stories of British runners Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams are known to many through the 1981 Academy Award-winning film Chariots of Fire. As the movie tells it, Liddell was boarding a boat to the 1924 Paris Olympics when he discovered that the qualifying heats for his event, the 100-metre sprint, were scheduled for a Sunday. A devout Christian, he refused to run on the Sabbath and was at the last minute switched to the 400 metres.
In truth, Liddell had known the schedule for months and had decided not to compete in the 100 metres, the 4 × 100-metre relay, or the 4 × 400-metre relay because they all required running on a Sunday. The press roundly criticized the Scotsman and called his decision unpatriotic, but Liddell devoted his training to the 200 metres and the 400 metres, races that would not require him to break the Sabbath. He won a bronze medal in the 200 and won the 400 in a world-record time. Liddell ignored the media's subsequent hero worship and soon returned to China, where he had been born, to continue his family's missionary work. He died there in 1945 in a Japanese internment camp.
IOC Olympic Museum/Allsport/Getty ImagesAbrahams's religion is also a strong force in the film, which links the discrimination he faced as a Jew with his motivation to win Olympic gold in Paris. Abrahams, however, was hardly an outsider. A University of Cambridge undergraduate, he had already represented Britain at the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium. His drive to win in Paris was fueled more by his desire to redeem his loss in Antwerp and by his rivalry with his two older brothers (one of whom had competed at the 1912 Stockholm Games) than by his status as a Jew. To achieve his goal, Abrahams hired a personal coach, the renowned Sam Mussabini, and trained with single-minded energy. He even lobbied anonymously to have himself dropped from the long-jump event (in which he had previously set a British record) so that he could concentrate on his running. The movie also errs in showing Abrahams failing in the 200 metres before eventually triumphing in the 100 metres. He actually won the 100 first; the 200-metre final was held two days later.
Abrahams suffered an injury in 1925 that ended his athletic career. He later became an attorney, radio broadcaster, and sports administrator, serving as chairman of the British Amateur Athletics Board from 1968 to 1975. He wrote widely about athletics and was the author of a number of books, including The Olympic Games, 1896–1952. He also contributed the classic article "Olympic Games
" to the 15th edition of Encyclopædia Britannica.
© Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesBabe Didrikson Zaharias was one of the most accomplished female athletes of the 20th century and the star of the 1932 Olympic Games. Born Mildred Didriksen in Port Arthur, Texas, she excelled at every sport she played, from basketball and baseball to swimming and skating.
In July 1932, at age 18, Didrikson arrived at the Amateur Athletic Union championships in Evanston, Illinois, as the sole member of the Employers Casualty Company of Dallas (Texas) team. There she participated in 8 of the 10 sporting events, winning 5—all in one afternoon. She not only won the shot put, long jump, and baseball throw but also broke world records in the 80-metre hurdles and the javelin and tied Jean Shiley with a world record in the high jump. Perhaps most remarkable, she also won the team trophy.
A few weeks later Didrikson was on her way to the Olympic Games in Los Angeles with her mind set on winning as many medals as possible. On the train to California she delighted journalists and annoyed teammates with countless tales of her athletic achievements. Although she would have probably chosen to compete in five or more events, Olympic rules forced her to choose only three.
APDidrikson began by winning the javelin event with a world record throw of 143 feet 4 inches (43.68 metres). She then set another world record while winning the 80-metre hurdles in 11.7 seconds. The high jump, her last event, found her in a tie with teammate Shiley. Both women had cleared 5 feet 51/4 inches (1.657 metres), a world record, and had failed at 5 feet 6 inches. Judges called for a jump off at 5 feet 53/4 inches. When both women cleared the height, the judges scrambled for a way to fairly declare a winner. Their solution hardly seemed fair. While both women were credited with the world record, Shiley was awarded the gold medal and Didrikson the silver on the basis that Didrikson's western-roll style of jumping (diving over the bar) was illegal.
After the Games Didrikson took up golf and became the dominant women's golfer of her era. In 1938 she married wrestler George Zaharias, and in 1950 the Associated Press named her the greatest female athlete of the half-century.
© Getty ImagesThe performance of Jesse Owens at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin is well known and rightfully acclaimed. He not only dominated the sprint competition, garnering three gold medals (he won a fourth in the long jump) and earning the title of "fastest man in the world," but he also was credited with punching a hole in Nazi theories of racial superiority. Yet Owens's experience in Berlin was quite different from the stories reported in many papers.
One popular tale that arose from Owens's victories was that of the "snub." On the first day of competition, Adolf Hitler publicly congratulated a few German and Finnish winners. He left the stadium, however, after the German competitors were eliminated from the day's final event. The International Olympic Committee president, Henri de Baillet-Latour, angry at Hitler's actions, told him to congratulate all or none of the victors. Hitler chose to no longer publicly congratulate anyone (though he did have private meetings with German medalists). On the second day of competition, Owens won the gold medal in the 100 metres but did not receive a handshake from Hitler. American papers, unaware of Hitler's deal with the IOC, printed the story that Hitler had "snubbed" Owens, who was African American. Over the following years the myth of Hitler's snub grew and grew.
Despite the politically charged atmosphere of the Games, Owens was adored by the German public, who screamed his name and hounded him for photos and autographs. The friendship that many Germans felt for him was most evident during the long jump. Accustomed to U.S. competitions that allowed practice jumps, he took a preliminary jump and was astonished when the officials counted it as his first attempt. Unsettled, he foot-faulted the second attempt. Before his last jump, German competitor Carl Ludwig ("Luz") Long approached Owens. Popular accounts suggest that Long told Owens to place a towel several inches in front of the takeoff board. With Owens's jumping ability, Long felt this maneuver would allow him to safely qualify for the finals. Owens used the towel, qualified, and eventually sailed 26 feet 81/4 inches (8.134 metres) to beat Long for the gold. The two men became close friends.
Owens's last gold medal came in the 400-metre relay, an event he had never expected to run. The U.S. coaches replaced Jewish team members Sam Stoller and Marty Glickman with Owens and Ralph Metcalfe, spurring rumors of anti-Semitism. Despite the controversy, the team set the Olympic record with a time of 39.8 seconds.
Officially known at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin as Son Kitei, marathon runner Sohn Kee-chung symbolized the fierce nationalistic tensions of the era. A native Korean, Sohn lived under the rule of Japan, which had annexed Korea in 1910. From an early age Sohn had chafed under Japanese domination. Though he was forced to represent Japan and take a Japanese name in order to compete in the Olympics, he signed the Olympic roster with his Korean name and drew a small Korean flag next to it.
With the Japanese symbol of the rising sun on his uniform, Sohn joined 55 other entrants in the marathon. The early leader was Argentine Juan Carlos Zabala, the favourite and defending champion from the 1932 Games. Zabala emerged far in front of the pack, but his strategy backfired as the race wore on. Sohn, who was running with Great Britain's Ernest Harper, gradually gained on Zabala and eventually passed him. As the champion of the first modern Olympic marathon in 1896, Spyridon Louis, looked on, Sohn crossed the finish line in a record 2 hours 29 minutes 19.2 seconds. His Korean teammate Nam Sung-yong, competing under the Japanese name of Nan Shoryu, finished third.
On the medal stand the two Koreans bowed their heads during the playing of the Japanese national anthem. Afterward Sohn explained to reporters that their bowed heads were an act of defiance and an expression of the runners' anger over Japanese control of Korea. The reporters, however, were much more interested in the race. Describing the physical pain he endured and his strategy in the race's late stages, Sohn said, "The human body can do so much. Then the heart and spirit must take over."
Back in Korea Sohn was a hero. He continued to represent Korean athletics, and in 1948 he carried the South Korean flag in the opening ceremonies of the London Olympics, the first Olympiad attended by an independent Korea. At the 1988 Games in Seoul, South Korea, Sohn proudly carried the Olympic flame to the stadium.
Bettmann/CorbisFanny Blankers-Koen of The Netherlands was a 30-year-old mother of two by the time the 1948 Olympic Games in London began. Although she had been a participant in the 1936 Games in Berlin, World War II created a 12-year break in her Olympic appearances.
Blankers-Koen, however, had not been idle. Going into the Games, she held six track-and-field world records—in the 100 yards, 80-metre hurdles, the high jump, the long jump, and two relays. Despite her list of accomplishments, Blankers-Koen had her detractors. Some thought she was too old to be an Olympic sprint champion, and others denounced her for not attending to her duties as a wife and mother. At the Games she quickly set her critics straight by recording a three-yard victory in the 100 metres with a time of 11.9 seconds.
Her victory in the 80-metre hurdles was much closer. Great Britain's Maureen Gardner, a 19-year-old, took an early lead in the race. At the fifth hurdle, Blankers-Koen caught Gardner but also hit the barrier, which threw her off balance and caused her to lurch over the finish line. The race was so close the top three finishers had to wait for the results to be posted to see who had won: Blankers-Koen, with an Olympic-record time of 11.2 seconds.
Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesDespite winning gold in her first two events, an emotionally spent Blankers-Koen was not confident going into the 200-metre dash. Feeling both pressured to win and reviled for even participating, she burst into tears and told her husband and coach Jan Blankers that she wanted to withdraw. She reconsidered, however, and went on to win the final by seven yards, despite muddy conditions. It was the largest margin of victory in that event in Olympic history. In her last event, the 4 × 100-metre relay, Blankers-Koen sparked her team to victory. In fourth place when she received the baton, Blankers-Koen put on a show, chasing down the field and catching the lead runner at the finish line.
Nicknamed "The Flying Housewife" by the press, Blankers-Koen received a hero's welcome when she returned to The Netherlands with her four gold medals. Appreciative fans cheered wildly as she rode through the streets of Amsterdam in a horse-drawn carriage.
© Allsport/Getty ImagesKároly Takács of Hungary overcame great adversity to win back-to-back Olympic titles in rapid-fire pistol shooting. The European champion and a member of the Hungarian world-championship team in 1938, Takács was ready to make his mark in the 1940 Olympics, which his team was expected to dominate. War and a tragic accident in 1938, however, put Takács's Olympic dreams on hold.
At age 28, Takács, a sergeant in the Hungarian army, was severely injured while practicing maneuvers with his squad—a grenade with a defective pin blew up before Takács could throw it. His right hand, which was his shooting hand, was horribly maimed, and he spent a month in the hospital. Determined not to let his injury change him, Takács taught himself to shoot left-handed. By 1939 he was back in top form. He won the Hungarian pistol-shooting championship and was allowed to stay in the army due to his shooting fame. Takács was promoted to captain, but his Olympic hopes faded as World War II raged on and caused the cancellation of the 1940 and 1944 Olympic Games.
After the war Takács returned to competition as a left-handed shooter and earned a spot on his country's team at the 1948 Olympic Games in London. He was 38 years old when he finally had his shot at Olympic glory. Argentina's Carlos Valiente, the 1947 world champion, was the favorite to win the title—but it was Takács who was golden. He scored a world-record 580 points to become the Olympic champion, while Valiente compiled 571 points in his second-place effort. Four years later, Takács again rose to the top when he won his second Olympic gold medal at the 1952 Games in Helsinki, Finland. This time Takács notched 579 points, slipping by silver medalist Szilárd Kun, who recorded 578. At age 46, Takács made one more Olympic appearance in the 1956 Games in Melbourne, Australia, where he finished eighth.
APEmil Zátopek, known as the "bouncing Czech," didn't look like the picture of Olympic grace. Although he set a new standard for distance running, his contorted running methods and facial grimaces made observers believe he was about to collapse. Instead, he used his unorthodox style to build a stellar career.
Zátopek had won gold in the 10,000 metres and silver in the 5,000 metres at the 1948 Olympic Games in London, and he arrived at the 1952 Games in Helsinki, Finland, poised to take the gold medal in both. He nearly didn't compete, however. Six weeks before the Games, he collapsed with a virus, and doctors recommended three months rest to stave off heart damage. Zátopek took little notice, fashioning his own remedy with a diet of tea and lemons.
Zátopek defended his 10,000-metre title with ease; his even pace annihilated the field, and he shattered the Olympic record. In the 5,000 metres he faced very real opposition in Germany's Herbert Schade, France's Alain Mimoun, and Great Britain's Christopher Chataway, but his epic final sprint secured the victory and another Olympic record. To add to the Zátopek family glory, a few yards away, his wife, Dana, won a gold medal for the javelin that day.
© Nat Farbman—Time Life Pictures/Getty ImagesDespite these triumphs, Zátopek was not satisfied. He entered the marathon, a distance he had never competed in before. Feeling his way, he stayed close to Jim Peters of Great Britain, the favorite. Believing Peters's remark during the race that the pace was too slow, Zátopek accelerated and left Peters far behind. He won before anyone else had even entered the stadium; his only accompaniment was the Olympic record. Zátopek's three gold medals at Helsinki remain a benchmark in Olympic distance-running history.
Zátopek's success was based upon groundbreaking fitness routines. His tough, military-style training became the stuff of legends—sometimes he would run 50 intervals of 200 metres with just a 200-metre recovery jog in between. His preparation helped him develop a mental as well as physical dominance over his opponents.
A hernia slowed Zátopek's training for the 1956 Games in Melbourne, Australia, and he finished in sixth place in the marathon, his only event. A virtuous and popular national hero who was also beloved by his competitors, Zátopek retired in 1958 with 18 world records and four gold medals.
Allsport/Getty ImagesPrior to the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, Věra Čáslavská of Czechoslovakia had already established a reputation as one of the most graceful and accomplished gymnasts the world has ever known. At the 1964 Tokyo Games she swept up three gold medals, including the all-around title, and at the 1965 and 1967 gymnastics European championships she won every event.
Čáslavská will be best remembered, however, for her performance in Mexico City and the courage she showed in the months leading up to the Games. In June 1968 she signed the "Two Thousand Words,
" a document that called for more rapid progress toward real democracy in Czechoslovakia. After Soviet tanks entered Prague in August of that year, Čáslavská, facing possible arrest for her political stance, fled to the mountain village of Šumperk. There she had only the open fields and dense forests in which to train. She was granted permission to rejoin the Olympic team only a few weeks before the Games. Her patriotic devotion won the admiration of her fellow Czechoslovakians but also ensured that these Games would be the last time she would ever compete in gymnastics.
Čáslavská dominated the gymnastics competition in Mexico City, winning gold medals in the individual all-around, the vault, the uneven bars, and floor exercises and silver medals in the balance beam and team competition. The crowd went wild when she performed her floor exercises to the tune of "The Mexican Hat Dance.
" There were rumors of suspicious judging when Soviet gymnast Larissa Petrik tied with Čáslavská for first place in that competition, and during the medal ceremony Čáslavská reportedly lowered her head and turned away when the Soviet anthem was played.
The day after winning her last gold medal, Čáslavská capped her glorious Olympic career by marrying Josef Odložil, a Czechoslovakian middle-distance runner who had won a silver medal in the 1,500-metre race at the 1964 Olympics (he also competed in the 1968 Olympics).
Upon her return to Prague, Čáslavská was refused employment, and her autobiography was deemed unprintable by the authorities (a heavily edited version was later published in Japan). She was eventually allowed to coach the national gymnastics team. After the collapse of communist rule in 1989, Čáslavská became president of the Czechoslovakian Olympic Committee. She was named president of the Czech Olympic Committee in 1993 and became a member of the IOC in 1995.
APKipchoge (Kip) Keino's superhuman efforts and determination at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City were far more inspiring than the gold and silver medals he won. Keino, now one of Kenya's most beloved national heroes, was suffering from severe abdominal pains (later attributed to gallbladder problems) when he arrived in Mexico City. Doctors warned him of the dangers of running with his condition, but Keino was not to be deterred. He competed in six distance races in eight days, tough for any healthy athlete let alone one suffering from stomach ailments.
Keino, a goatherd and policeman, had been running competitively since age 13 without any substantial support or formal training. Yet he loved to run, and he was able to establish himself as one of the medal favorites heading into Mexico City. In his first final—the 10,000 metres—the Kenyan's stomach pains became unbearable, and he collapsed on the infield with just two laps to go. In the 5,000-metre final, Keino earned a silver medal, finishing just 0.2 second behind Tunisian Mohammed Gammoudi.
On the day of the 1,500-metre race, the doctors had ordered Keino not to run. At first he agreed to stay in the Olympic Village but changed his mind as the start time grew near. Adding to his troubles, Keino became stuck in a traffic jam and had to jog the last mile to the track. In the 1,500 Keino faced race favorite Jim Ryun of the United States. Despite his stomach pains, Keino set a furious pace over the last laps of the race, negating Ryun's powerful finishing kick. Keino won the race by 20 metres.
On that same day, back in Kenya, Keino's wife gave birth to their third daughter, Milka Olympia Chelagat, named in tribute to her father's wondrous Olympic performance. Over the years, Keino and his wife have taken in more than 100 children, and they have seven of their own. Many Kenyans have named their offspring after this beloved hero and father of so many orphaned children. Keino is currently president of the Kenyan national Olympic committee.
© John Dominis—Time Life Pictures/Getty ImagesFor someone who needed a teammate's misfortune to even make the team in 1972, tiny Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut had little trouble snagging the sport's spotlight and endearing herself to millions.
Korbut, 4 feet 11 inches (1.5 metres) tall and 85 pounds (38 kilograms), qualified as an alternate, but the need to replace an injured teammate catapulted her into competition during the Olympic Games in Munich, West Germany. She emerged as a star during the team events, becoming the first person ever to complete a backward somersault on the uneven parallel bars. Her captivating smile and adorable personality shattered the stereotype of the stone-faced, performance-driven Soviet athlete, making Korbut an instant fan favorite.
After helping the Soviet Union win the gold medal in the team competition, Korbut was favored to upset teammate Lyudmila Turishcheva in the all-around individual competition. But disaster struck on the uneven bars. She scuffed her feet on the mat as she mounted, slipped off the bars attempting another move, and botched her remount. Her score was a mere 7.5, effectively eliminating her from the race for the all-around gold. What followed was a scene that was constantly replayed on television for days to come—Korbut weeping uncontrollably as she sat hunched over on the Soviet team's bench.
Tony Duffy—Allsport/Getty ImagesThe next day, in the individual apparatus competition, Korbut would avenge her struggles, winning gold medals for her performance on the balance beam and in the floor exercise, while taking a silver medal for the uneven parallel bars. Korbut's magical smile returned, and her emotional roller coaster of success, failure, and success epitomized the drama of the Games.
Surprisingly, Korbut became an idol in the United States and was invited to the White House in 1973. There, she recounts, Pres. Richard Nixon told her that she "did more for reducing the political tension during the Cold War between our two countries than the embassies were able to do in five years." Korbut won a team gold medal again at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, while picking up a silver medal for the balance beam. She retired in 1977.
Fujimoto Shun's efforts during the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal represent one of the most courageous and self-sacrificing performances in Olympic history.
Fujimoto and the other members of the Japanese men's gymnastics team were defending four consecutive Olympic titles, and they faced stiff competition from the Soviet Union. The Soviet team led by a half-point at the end of compulsories when the Japanese team received a devastating setback. While finishing a tumbling run in the floor exercise, Fujimoto broke his kneecap. Knowing that his team could not afford to lose points and aware of the Olympic rules that prohibited the use of painkillers, Fujimoto chose to continue performing with the pain.
"I did not want to worry my teammates," Fujimoto recalled later. "The competition was so close I didn't want them to lose their concentration with worry about me."
With his teammates and coaches unaware of the injury, Fujimoto scored a 9.5 out of a possible 10 on the pommel horse. The following event, the rings, would prove a greater test of Fujimoto's fortitude—it required a high-flying dismount. But Fujimoto, age 26, gave the performance of his life. He launched a triple somersault dismount and landed with great force on his injured right leg. Despite intense pain throughout the leg, Fujimoto kept his balance and held his position. He then lurched painfully to the sidelines and collapsed into the arms of the Japanese coach. The judges awarded him a 9.7, his highest recorded score on the rings.
Doctors examined Fujimoto and determined the extent of his injury. The dismount had further dislocated his kneecap in addition to tearing ligaments. Fujimoto was determined to continue, but Japanese officials and his teammates would not allow it.
Fujimoto's courage inspired his five remaining teammates to perform impeccably through the final events. After a near-flawless performance on the horizontal bar by Tsukahara Mitsuo, the Japanese won the gold medal for the fifth consecutive time. Japan's gold medal finish, by 0.4 point over the Soviets, is the narrowest margin of victory in team gymnastics in Olympic history.
ALLSPORT UK/John GichigiHow much do the hopes of a nation weigh? Typically, political leaders are the only ones who can answer that question, but in Indonesia badminton legend Susi Susanti may also have an answer. The 1992 Games in Barcelona, Spain, marked the debut of badminton as an Olympic sport, and Susanti was the favorite in the women's competition. To understand the pressure she was under, one must understand what badminton means to her homeland.
Badminton is not just the national sport of Indonesia, it's the national obsession. The game, which most likely originated in India, was popularized at Badminton, a country estate in England, and was introduced to Indonesia by Dutch colonists. Since the 1940s the game, known as bulutangkis, has dominated the national sporting scene, and Indonesian players have been world-renowned for their prowess. Every neighborhood in the densely populated nation has found room for at least one well-used badminton court. In the village of Klaten, the locals still play matches in a bamboo hall.
Like most kids in Indonesia, Susanti grew up playing the game; unlike most, however, she never seemed to lose. She had already won almost every major badminton title in the world, and she was expected to bring home Indonesia's first gold medal in Barcelona. She did not disappoint, defeating Bang Soo Hyun of South Korea in the championship match of the women's singles event. Adding to the excitement was the fact that her fiancé, Alan Budi Kusuma, took the gold medal in the badminton men's singles. In recognition of her Olympic victory, Susanti was greeted on her return to Indonesia with one of the biggest parades the country has ever seen. The proud and appreciative nation also rewarded its young, ponytailed heroine with $200,000 and a house.
At the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, Susanti earned a bronze medal in the singles competition. Susanti and Kusuma, who met at a badminton training camp in 1985, finally married in 1997. They had a baby girl in April 1999, and a few months later the new parents both resigned from the national badminton team—Susanti as a player and Kusuma as a coach.
© Getty ImagesStanding just 4 feet 11 inches (1.5 metres) tall and weighing less than 141 pounds (64 kg), Naim Suleymanoglu is hardly imposing enough to stir thoughts of Hercules. Yet that is the Turkish weight lifter's nickname—"Pocket Hercules," to be exact—and he backed up the moniker no better than at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, in a head-to-head duel with Greece's Valerios Leonidis.
The two rivals dominated the competition, pushing each other further and further. Before they would finish, three new world records would be set, and, for the third time in as many Olympiads, Suleymanoglu would stand atop the podium.
The Bulgarian-born Suleymanoglu, who set his first world record at age 15, attracted crowds of Turkish fans to the match. He began his career competing for Bulgaria, but he defected in 1986, citing the harsh treatment of the country's Turkish minority. Turkey paid Bulgaria $1 million to waive the rule barring athletes from competing for three years after changing nationality so that he would become eligible for the 1988 Games in Seoul, South Korea. Eight years later, Suleymanoglu had become a hero of mythic proportions in his adopted homeland.
With Suleymanoglu's fans on one side and Greeks on the other, the intense match began. In the snatch, part one of the two-part competition, Suleymanoglu failed to lift 325 pounds (147.5 kg) in either of his first two lifts. In order to stay in the competition, the weight would become a necessity in his third and final lift. The chiseled Suleymanoglu let the timer tick away until the final seconds, then squatted to lift the bar. As the weight passed his face, Suleymanoglu allowed himself a small grin—Pocket Hercules could feel his success.
In the second part of the competition, the clean and jerk, Suleymanoglu began by lifting 396.25 pounds (179.6 kg). Leonidis matched him with ease, and so Suleymanoglu increased the weight to 407.75 pounds, breaking the world record by 4.5 pounds. Leonidis wouldn't quit, besting Suleymanoglu as he hoisted 413.25 pounds—a world record of his own.
Pocket Hercules was unfazed. With the now-buzzing crowd anxiously anticipating his next move, Suleymanoglu used his third and last lift to shove 413.5 pounds above his head in two forceful motions. Combined with his lift in the snatch, the weight in the clean set yet another world mark, this one for overall weight, and gave Suleymanoglu the overall lead.
It was now back to Leonidis, who needed 418.75 pounds in his final lift to take the gold. The bar didn't even reach his waist. Pandemonium struck as Suleymanoglu again won gold. He became the first weight lifter to win three consecutive gold medals, adding to the legend of Turkey's most celebrated athlete.
The creation of the Ekecheiria, the Olympic truce, lies within the traditional story of the founding of the ancient Olympic Games. Two warring kings of the area around Olympia, Iphitos and Cleomenes, joined with the Spartan lawgiver Lycurgus in an agreement to hold the Games and to enact and publicize an Olympic truce. Before every Olympiad, then, heralds from Olympia moved around Greece inviting participants and spectators and announcing the truce. Contrary to what many have thought, especially some modern Olympic officials, the Greeks did not cease their wars against one another during the Games or the Olympic truce. Rather, the truce, besides protecting Olympia from invasion, forbade any individual or government to interfere with anyone traveling to and from the Olympics. There is only one known case of the truce being invoked, and the complaint came from Athens, not Olympia.
Because each Greek city was a separate political state, the ancient Games were international. The Greeks themselves saw that the Olympics had special potential for the promotion of peace among their often warring city-states. This potential was especially important to Pierre, baron de Coubertin, and his predecessors in the modern Olympic revival who believed strongly that the Games were capable of advancing international understanding and the cause of world peace. The Olympics have played that role with marked success, especially among athletes and spectators, if not governments.
Emphasis on a kind of Olympic peace has become a major feature of modern Olympic ideology. In the year 2000, Olympic officials established the International Olympic Truce Foundation to encourage the study of world peace and the creation of progress in its pursuit. The foundation is headquartered in Athens and has endeavoured to institute an official Olympic truce that would, unlike the ancient version, persuade countries not to wage war during the Olympic Games.
Hamish Blair/Getty ImagesIn addition to the social practices that contribute actively to a nation's image, national cultures are characterized by competing discourses through which people construct meanings that influence their self-conception and behaviour. These discourses often take the form of stories that are told about the nation in history books, novels, plays, poems, the mass media, and popular culture. Memories of shared experiences—not only triumphs but also sorrows and disasters—are recounted in compelling ways that connect a nation's present with its past. The construction of a national identity in large part involves reference to an imagined community based on a range of characteristics thought to be shared by and specific to a set of people. Stories and memories held in common contribute to the description of those characteristics and give meaning to the notion of nation and national identity. Presented in this way, nationalism can be used to legitimize, or justify, the existence and activities of modern territorial states.
Simon Bruty/Getty ImagesSports, which offer influential representations of individuals and communities, are especially well placed to contribute to this process of identity formation and to the invention of traditions. Sports are inherently dramatic (from Greek dran, "to act, do, perform"). They are physical contests whose meanings can be "read" and understood by everyone. Ordinary citizens who are indifferent to national literary classics can become emotionally engaged in the discourses promoted in and through sports. Sometimes the nationhood of countries is viewed as indivisible from the fortunes of the national teams of specific sports. Uruguay, which hosted and won the first World Cup football championship in 1930, and Wales, where rugby union is closely woven with religion and community to reflect Welsh values, are prime examples. In both cases national identity has been closely tied to the fortunes of male athletes engaged in the "national sport." England's eclipse as a cricket power is often thought, illogically, to be symptomatic of a wider social malaise. These examples highlight the fact that a sport can be used to support, or undermine, a sense of national identity. Clifford Geertz's classic study of Balinese cockfighting, Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight (1972), illustrates another case in point. Although Balinese culture is based on the avoidance of conflict, men's identification with their birds allows for the vicarious expression of hostility.
By the beginning of the final decades of the 19th century, sports had become a form of "patriot games" in which particular views of national identity were constructed. Both established and outsider groups used and continue to use sports to represent, maintain, and challenge identities. In this way sports can either support or undermine hegemonic social relations. The interweaving of sports and national identity politics can be illustrated with several telling examples.
In 1896 a team of Japanese schoolboys soundly defeated a team of Americans from the Yokohama Athletic Club in a series of highly publicized baseball games. Their victories, "beating them at their own game," were seen as a national triumph and as a repudiation of the American stereotype of the Japanese as myopic weaklings.
Similarly, the "bodyline" controversy of the 1932–33 cricket Test series between Australia and England exemplifies the convergence of sports and politics. At issue were the violent tactics employed by the English bowlers, who deliberately threw at the bodies of the Australian batsmen in order to injure or intimidate them. The bowlers' "unsporting" behaviour raised questions about fair play, good sportsmanship, and national honour. It also jeopardized Australia's political relationship with Great Britain. So great was the resulting controversy that the Australian and British governments became involved. Arguably, one consequence was the forging of a more independent attitude in Australians' dealings with the British in the political, economic, and cultural realms.
The Soviet Union's military suppression of reformist efforts to create "socialism with a human face" in Hungary (1956) and in Czechoslovakia (1968) were followed by famous symbolic reenactments of the conflicts in the form of an Olympic water-polo match (U.S.S.R. versus Hungary) and an ice hockey encounter (U.S.S.R. versus Czechoslovakia). In both cases, sports were invested with tremendous political significance, and the Soviet team's defeat was seen as a vindication of national identity.
(For more on the relationship of sports to national character and national traditions and myths, see Britannica's article sports, from which the foregoing was excerpted.)
The globalization of sports is part of a much larger—and much more controversial—globalization process. Examined historically and analytically, this larger globalization process can be understood as the development of a worldwide network of interdependencies. The 20th century witnessed the advent of a global economy, a transnational cosmopolitan culture, and a variety of international social movements. As a result of modern technology, people, money, images, and ideas are able to traverse the globe with tremendous speed. The development of modern sports was influenced by the interwoven economic, political, social, and cultural patterns of globalization. These patterns both enable and constrain people's actions, which means that there are winners and losers in the diffusion of modern sports from Europe and North America to the rest of the world.
The emergence and diffusion of modern sports in the 19th and 20th centuries are clearly part of the larger process of globalization. The globalization of sports has been characterized by the creation of national and international sports organizations, the standardization and worldwide acceptance of the rules and regulations for individual and team sports, the development of regularly scheduled international competitions, and the establishment of special competitions, such as the Olympic Games and the various world championships, that aspire to involve athletes from nations in all corners of the globe.
The emergence and diffusion of modern sports is bound up in complex networks and interdependency chains that are marked by unequal power relations. The world can be understood as an interdependent whole, where groups constantly compete for dominant (or less-subordinate) positions. In sports as in other social realms, Europe and North America have been hegemonic. Modern sports are to an overwhelming degree Western sports. As modern sports spread throughout the world, the myriad traditional sports of Asia, Africa, and South America were marginalized. Sports such as Japanese kemari and Afghan buzkashi survive as folkloric curiosities.
No master plan has governed the process of sports globalization. Throughout the period of Western imperialism that reached its apogee in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, colonized peoples were often forced to adopt Western sports. (This was especially true at missionary schools.) More often than not, however, politically and economically colonized peoples were motivated by emulation. Anglophile Argentines formed football teams not because they were coerced to play but rather because football was the game played by the English whom they admired. More recently, however, as transnational corporations have sought to sell every kind of product to every reachable consumer, modern sports have been systematically marketed to the entire world, not only as sources of pleasure but also as signs of distinction, prestige, and power.
Western values and capitalist marketing, advertising, and consumption have influenced the ways people throughout the world construct, use, represent, imagine, and feel about their bodies. Unquestionably, there is a political economy at work in the production and consumption of global sports and leisure products that has resulted in the relative ascendancy of a narrow selection of Western sports, but non-Western sports and attitudes toward the physical self have not completely disappeared. Not only have they survived, but some of them, such as the martial arts and yoga, have also found a prominent place in the sports and body cultures of Europe and North America.
Al Bello/Getty ImagesIt is possible, therefore, to overstate the extent to which the West has dominated in terms of global sports structures, organizations, and ideologies. As noted, non-Western cultures resist and reinterpret Western sports and maintain, foster, and promote on a global scale their own indigenous recreational pursuits. The popularity of Asian martial arts in Europe and the Americas is one sign of this. In other words, global sports processes involve multidirectional movements of people, practices, customs, and ideas that reflect a series of shifting power balances. These processes have unintended as well as intended consequences. While the intentional actions of transnational agencies or corporations such as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) or Nike, Inc., are probably more significant in the short term, over the longer term the unintentional, relatively autonomous transnational practices predominate. The 19th-century diffusion of football (soccer) is one example of this sort of globalization. The 20th-century diffusion of surfboarding from Hawaii is another.
In sum, the speed, scale, and volume of sports development can be imagined as eddies within the broader global flows of people, technology, finance, images, and ideologies that are dominated by Europe and North America (whose elites are predominantly white males). There are, however, signs that global processes may be leading to the diminution of Western power in a variety of contexts, including sports. Sports may become increasingly contested, with Asian and African cultures challenging 19th- and 20th-century hegemonic masculine notions regarding the content, meaning, control, organization, and ideology of sports. Moreover, global flows are simultaneously increasing the varieties of body cultures and identities available to people in local cultures. Global sports, then, seem to be leading not only to the reduction in contrasts between societies but also to the simultaneous emergence of new varieties of body cultures and identities.
(For more on the social and cultural aspects of sports, see Britannica's article sports, from which the foregoing was excerpted.)
AFP/Getty ImagesThat international sports success in the late 20th century involved a contest between systems located within a global context was vividly displayed in the sporting struggles of the Cold War era. From the 1950s to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, there was intense athletic rivalry between the Soviet bloc on the one hand and the United States and its allies on the other. On both sides of the Iron Curtain, sports victories were touted as proof of ideological superiority. A partial list of the most memorable Soviet-Western showdowns might include the Soviet Union's disputed victory over the U.S. basketball team in the final seconds of the gold medal game of the 1972 Summer Olympics; Canada's last-minute goal against the Soviet Union in the concluding game of their 1972 eight-game ice hockey series; the defeat of the veteran Soviet ice hockey team by a much younger American squad at the 1980 Winter Olympics; and a number of track-and-field showdowns between East and West Germany.
Success in these encounters depended on several factors, among them the identification and recruitment of human resources (including coaches and trainers as well as athletes), innovations in coaching and training, advances in sports medicine and sports psychology, and—not surprisingly—the expenditure of a significant portion of the gross domestic product to support these systems. While neglecting the infrastructure for recreational sports for ordinary citizens, the Soviet Union and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) sought to enhance their international prestige by investing huge sums in elite sports. At universities and sports centres in Moscow, Leipzig, Bucharest, and elsewhere, Soviet-bloc countries developed an elaborate sports-medicine and sports-science program (allied in the case of East Germany with a state-sponsored drug regime). For a time, the Soviet-bloc countries were outcompeting their Western counterparts, but the major Western sporting nations began to create similar state-sponsored programs. Poorer nations, with the notable exception of Fidel Castro's Cuba, were for the most part unable or unwilling to dedicate scarce economic resources to the athletic "arms race." As a result, they had difficulty competing on the world stage.
© Getty ImagesEven after the dissolution of the Soviet bloc, an international order persists in which nations can be grouped into core, semiperipheral, and peripheral blocs, not by geography but rather by politics, economics, and culture. The core of the sports world comprises the United States, Russia, western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. Japan, South Korea, China, Cuba, Brazil, and several of the former Soviet-bloc states can be classified as semiperipheral sports powers. On the periphery are most Asian, African, and Latin American nations. The core may be challenged on the field of play in one sport or another (East African runners dominate middle-distance races), but control over the ideological and economic resources associated with sports still tends to lie in the West, where the IOC and the headquarters of nearly all the international sports federations are located. Despite their relative weakness in international competition, noncore countries have used regularly recurring sports festivals, such as the Asian Games, to solidify regional and national identities and to enhance international recognition and prestige.
Despite programs such as Olympic Solidarity, which provides aid and technical assistance to poorer nations, material resources still tend to be concentrated in the core nations, while those on the periphery lack the means to develop and retain their athletic talent. They lose many of their best athletes to more powerful nations that can offer better training facilities, stiffer competition, and greater financial rewards. The more commercialized the sport, the greater the "brawn drain." At the turn of the 21st century, Western nations recruited not only sports scientists and coaches from the former Soviet bloc but also athletic talent from Africa and South America. This was especially true in sports such as football, where players were lured by the lucrative contracts offered by European and Japanese clubs. Noncore leagues remain in a dependent relationship with the dominant European core. In other sports, such as track and field and baseball, this drain of talent flows to the United States. Despite some competition from Japan, the West also remains overwhelmingly dominant in terms of the design, production, and marketing of sportswear and equipment.
(For more on the social and cultural aspects of sports, see Britannica's article sports, from which the foregoing was excerpted.)
Jamie Squire/Getty ImagesThe Olympic Games' return to Athens in 2004 came with great fanfare. The Games have expanded from 241 to 10,500 competitors since their original reestablishment in Athens with the 1896 Games. Dozens of additions and changes have been made in the Olympic program since 1896, with almost 100 events being added since 1980 alone. Although enthusiasts of many activities hope to see their avocations become Olympic sports, only a few receive one of the coveted slots in the Olympic program.
The first step in the process of becoming an Olympic sport is recognition as a sport from the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The IOC requires that the activity have administration by an international non-governmental organization that oversees at least one sport. Once a sport is recognized, it then moves to International Sports Federation (IF) status. At that point, the international organization administering the sport must enforce the Olympic Movement Anti-Doping Code, including conducting effective out-of-competition tests on the sport's competitors, while maintaining rules set forth by the Olympic Charter.
© Doug Pensinger/Getty ImagesA sport may gain IOC recognition but not become a competing event at the Olympic Games. Bowling, rugby, and chess are recognized sports, but they do not compete at the Games. To become a part of the Games the sport's IF must apply for admittance by filing a petition establishing its criteria of eligibility to the IOC. The IOC may then admit an activity into the Olympic program in one of three different ways: as a sport, a discipline, which is a branch of a sport, or an event, which is a competition within a discipline. For instance, triathlon was admitted as a sport, debuting at the 2000 Games in Sydney. Women's wrestling was a new discipline in the sport of wrestling at the Athens Games, and women's pole vaulting was the most recently added track and field event. Rules for admittance vary slightly between a new sport, a discipline, and an event, but the intent is the same.
Once an IF has presented its petition, many rules and regulations control whether the sport will become part of the Olympic Games. The Olympic Charter indicates that to be accepted, a sport must be widely practiced by men in at least 75 countries and on four continents, and by women in no fewer than 40 countries and on three continents. The sport must also increase the ''value and appeal'' of the Olympic Games and retain and reflect its modern traditions. There are numerous other rules, including bans on purely ''mind sports'' and sports dependent on mechanical propulsion. These rules have kept chess, automobile racing, and other recognized sports out of the Olympic Games.
In recent years the IOC has worked to manage the scope of the Olympics by permitting new sports only in conjunction with the simultaneous discontinuation of others. Sports that have already been part of the Games are periodically reviewed to determine whether they should be retained. The Olympic Program Commission notes that problems have arisen when trying to find venues to accommodate some sports' specific needs, such as baseball and softball, which will be discontinued from Olympic programming starting with the London Games in 2012. When choosing sports to include in the program the IOC must take into consideration media and public interest, since these are a key drive behind the Olympic Games, but must simultaneously manage costs.
While a number of events have been added to the Games since their resumption in 1896, a good number have been sidelined. Tug-of-war, for example, was once a respected Olympic sport. Cricket, golf, lacrosse, polo, power boating, rackets, rink-hockey, roque, rugby, and water skiing were all once part of the Olympic Games but have been discontinued over the years.
Encyclopædia Britannica Almanac, 2006
The seventh World Games, held in Duisburg, Ger., July 14–24, 2005, was an international event that drew some 500,000 spectators and featured a diverse palette of more than 30 sports in six categories: artistry and dance sports, precision sports, trend sports, martial arts, ball sports, and strength sports. The individual events contested ranged from bodybuilding and mountaineering to bowling and waterskiing. Russia and Germany tied in the overall medal count with 57 medals each, though Russia won more gold (27).
Held every four years in the year following the Summer Olympic Games—and with the support of the International Olympic Committee (IOC)—the World Games were created in 1981 to help celebrate the Olympic movement while allowing non-Olympic sports to have their own elite international competition. Some events, such as triathlon and beach volleyball, were later accepted into the Olympics, while others, such as rugby and tug-of-war, were former Olympic sports.
In order for a sport to be included in the Olympic program, it must be voted into the program seven years prior to the Games in which it would appear. To be eligible, a sport needs to be under the control of an IOC-recognized international sports federation (IF) that is responsible for the integrity of the sport on the international level. The IFs can petition the IOC to become official Olympic sports. They are evaluated on the following principles: history of the sport, worldwide reach, popularity, image, athletes' health and welfare, development of the IF, and venue costs. Each sport in the Games is later reevaluated to make sure that it appeals to Olympic fans.
Four sports contested in the 2005 World Games—karate, roller sports, rugby, and squash—vied to be added to the program for the 2012 Olympics in London. IOC members cast their ballots during the 117th IOC Session, held in July in Singapore. Since the IOC eliminated baseball and softball from the 2012 Games, supporters of the five candidate sports (the four World Games sports and golf) were optimistic. Only squash and karate advanced past the initial vote, gaining the 50 percent of the preliminary votes needed to be considered, but on the second vote neither sport gained the necessary two-thirds majority to be included in the 2012 Games. After the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, each sport would have the opportunity to come up again for an IOC vote into the Olympic program.
Britannica Book of the Year, 2006
The first major sports competition for athletes with disabilities was organized by Sir Ludwig Guttman for British World War II veterans with spinal cord injuries and was held in England in 1948. A follow-up competition took place in 1952, with athletes from The Netherlands joining the British competitors. In 1960 the first quadrennial Olympic-style Games for disabled athletes were held in Rome; the quadrennial Winter Games were added in 1976, in Sweden. Since the 1988 Olympic Games, held in Seoul (and the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France), the Paralympics have been held at the Olympic venues and have used the same facilities. In 2001 the International Olympic Committee and the International Paralympic Committee (founded in 1989) agreed on the practice of "one bid, one city," in which every city that bids to host the Olympics also bids to hold the related Paralympics. In 2008 the Beijing Paralympics were scheduled for September 6–17, following the Summer Games of August 8–24.
The size and diversity of the Paralympic Games have increased greatly over the years. At the 2004 Paralympics in Athens, more than 3,800 athletes representing 136 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) participated in 19 sports: archery, athletics (track and field), boccia, cycling, equestrian, association football (both 7-a-side and 5-a-side), goalball, judo, powerlifting, sailing, shooting, swimming, table tennis, and volleyball (sitting), as well as wheelchair competition in basketball, fencing, rugby, and tennis. China captured the most medals, with a total of 141 (63 gold). The 2008 Beijing Paralympics, which anticipated competitors from some 150 NOCs, added rowing to the schedule. At the 2006 Turin (Italy) Winter Paralympics, more than 470 athletes representing 39 NOCs competed in five sports: Alpine and cross-country skiing, ice sledge hockey, biathlon, and wheelchair curling.
Paralympic athletes compete in six different disability groups—amputee, cerebral palsy, visual impairment, spinal cord injuries, intellectual disability, and "les autres" (athletes whose disability does not fit into one of the other categories, including dwarfism). Within each group, athletes are further divided into classes on the basis of the type and extent of their disabilities, though individual athletes may be reclassified at later competitions if their physical status changes.
The following are the official country codes of the International Olympic Committee.
AFG | Afghanistan |
AHO | Netherlands Antilles |
ALB | Albania |
ALG | Algeria |
AND | Andorra |
ANG | Angola |
ANT | Antigua and Barbuda |
ARG | Argentina |
ARM | Armenia |
ARU | Aruba |
ASA | American Samoa |
AUS | Australia |
AUT | Austria |
AZE | Azerbaijan |
BAH | Bahamas, The |
BAN | Bangladesh |
BAR | Barbados |
BDI | Burundi |
BEL | Belgium |
BEN | Benin |
BER | Bermuda |
BHU | Bhutan |
BIH | Bosnia and Herzegovina |
BIZ | Belize |
BLR | Belarus |
BOL | Bolivia |
BOT | Botswana |
BRA | Brazil |
BRN | Bahrain |
BRU | Brunei |
BUL | Bulgaria |
BUR | Burkina Faso |
CAF | Central African Republic |
CAM | Cambodia |
CAN | Canada |
CAY | Cayman Islands |
CGO | Congo, Republic of the |
CHA | Chad |
CHI | Chile |
CHN | China |
CIV | Côte d'Ivoire |
CMR | Cameroon |
COD | Congo, Democratic Republic of the |
COK | Cook Islands |
COL | Colombia |
COM | Comoros |
CPV | Cape Verde |
CRC | Costa Rica |
CRO | Croatia |
CUB | Cuba |
CYP | Cyprus |
CZE | Czech Republic |
DEN | Denmark |
DJI | Djibouti |
DMA | Dominica |
DOM | Dominican Republic |
ECU | Ecuador |
EGY | Egypt |
ERI | Eritrea |
ESA | El Salvador |
ESP | Spain |
EST | Estonia |
ETH | Ethiopia |
FIJ | Fiji |
FIN | Finland |
FRA | France |
FSM | Micronesia |
GAB | Gabon |
GAM | Gambia, The |
GBR | Great Britain |
GBS | Guinea-Bissau |
GEO | Georgia |
GEQ | Equatorial Guinea |
GER | Germany |
GHA | Ghana |
GRE | Greece |
GRN | Grenada |
GUA | Guatemala |
GUI | Guinea |
GUM | Guam |
GUY | Guyana |
HAI | Haiti |
HKG | Hong Kong |
HON | Honduras |
HUN | Hungary |
INA | Indonesia |
IND | India |
IRI | Iran |
IRL | Ireland |
IRQ | Iraq |
ISL | Iceland |
ISR | Israel |
ISV | U.S. Virgin Islands |
ITA | Italy |
IVB | British Virgin Islands |
JAM | Jamaica |
JOR | Jordan |
JPN | Japan |
KAZ | Kazakhstan |
KEN | Kenya |
KGZ | Kyrgyzstan |
KIR | Kiribati |
KOR | South Korea |
KSA | Saudi Arabia |
KUW | Kuwait |
LAO | Laos |
LAT | Latvia |
LBA | Libya |
LBR | Liberia |
LCA | Saint Lucia |
LES | Lesotho |
LIB | Lebanon |
LIE | Liechtenstein |
LTU | Lithuania |
LUX | Luxembourg |
MAD | Madagascar |
MAR | Morocco |
MAS | Malaysia |
MAW | Malawi |
MDA | Moldova |
MDV | Maldives |
MEX | Mexico |
MGL | Mongolia |
MHL | Marshall Islands |
MKD | Macedonia |
MLI | Mali |
MLT | Malta |
MNE | Montenegro |
MON | Monaco |
MOZ | Mozambique |
MRI | Mauritius |
MTN | Mauritania |
MYA | Myanmar (Burma) |
NAM | Namibia |
NCA | Nicaragua |
NED | Netherlands, The |
NEP | Nepal |
NGR | Nigeria |
NIG | Niger |
NOR | Norway |
NRU | Nauru |
NZL | New Zealand |
OMA | Oman |
PAK | Pakistan |
PAN | Panama |
PAR | Paraguay |
PER | Peru |
PHI | Philippines |
PLE | Palestine |
PLW | Palau |
PNG | Papua New Guinea |
POL | Poland |
POR | Portugal |
PRK | North Korea |
PUR | Puerto Rico |
QAT | Qatar |
ROU | Romania |
RSA | South Africa |
RUS | Russia |
RWA | Rwanda |
SAM | Samoa |
SEN | Senegal |
SEY | Seychelles |
SIN | Singapore |
SKN | Saint Kitts and Nevis |
SLE | Sierra Leone |
SLO | Slovenia |
SMR | San Marino |
SOL | Solomon Islands |
SOM | Somalia |
SRB | Serbia |
SRI | Sri Lanka |
STP | São Tomé and Príncipe |
SUD | Sudan, The |
SUI | Switzerland |
SUR | Suriname |
SVK | Slovakia |
SWE | Sweden |
SWZ | Swaziland |
SYR | Syria |
TAN | Tanzania |
TGA | Tonga |
THA | Thailand |
TJK | Tajikistan |
TKM | Turkmenistan |
TLS | East Timor (Timor Leste) |
TOG | Togo |
TPE | Taiwan |
TRI | Trinidad and Tobago |
TUN | Tunisia |
TUR | Turkey |
TUV | Tuvalu |
UAE | United Arab Emirates |
UGA | Uganda |
UKR | Ukraine |
URU | Uruguay |
USA | United States |
UZB | Uzbekistan |
VAN | Vanuatu |
VEN | Venezuela |
VIE | Vietnam |
VIN | Saint Vincent and the Grenadines |
YEM | Yemen |
ZAM | Vietnam |
ZIM | Zimbabwe |