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It is August 5th, 1936. A humid morning in Berlin. At the Olympiastadion, a brand new state-of-the-art venue, 100,000 spectators are crammed into the seats for the fourth day of the Berlin Olympics. On a concrete platform jutting above the crowds, German Chancellor Adolf Hitler watches on, surrounded by his officials.
These games are part of a complex propaganda campaign, designed to prove the superiority of the white, blonde, blue-eyed German master race. And so far, so good. The German team have already won gold medals in the hammer throw, shot put, women's javelin, and discus. But right now, Hitler's not happy. Because taking place in the current main event is a young African American who has been making quite the name for himself.
Down at the long jump pit in the center of the arena, 22-year-old world record holder Jesse Owens walks backwards from the takeoff board, measuring his steps. His first jump was a foul. He has two more chances to get through to the final. Owens is one of only 18 African Americans in the 312-strong US team. He's already an Olympic champion, having won gold at the 100 meters the day before.
His main competition, the tall, sandy-haired German Lutz Long, has already made a qualifying distance. Determined that the Fuhrer will hear about his jump, even if he chooses not to watch it, he makes his next attempt. But he's preoccupied and launches too early. The jump isn't long enough to qualify. Sighing in frustration, he waits until it's his turn to try again.
If he fails, Hitler will use it as proof not only of Owen's inferiority as an athlete, but of the inferiority of his race. Everything rides on his third jump. The roar builds from the stands. Cheering or jeering, he can't tell. Finally, when he walks up to the mark, the crowd falls quiet. Owen's crouches. He powers off his forefoot into a sprint, legs and arms slicing through the air.
Then, as he feels the white painted wood of the board under his rubber sole, he springs, legs cycling, his body weightless, soaring. Owens lands in the pit with a thump, feet first, then twists sideways, the sand spraying up around him. The crowd cheers. Glancing up, the athlete notes that Hitler is still absent, but then a tall figure approaches. Owens immediately recognizes him as the German Lutz Long.
He is the picture of Hitler's Aryan ideal. But from the broad grin on his face, it's obvious he doesn't share the fascist leader's disdain for Owens. Flinging an arm around his shoulders, Long is first to congratulate him. He hauls him off to parade around the stadium, waving at the crowds. With Hitler looking on, the pair walk past the platform, grinning and companionable. A show of unity in a world soon to be ripped apart by hatred.
Every four years, the modern Olympic Games takes place as a celebration of athletic excellence. Its rebirth came over 1500 years after the conclusion of its ancient precursor, a regional religious festival in ancient Greece. The modern version, debuting modestly at the end of the 19th century, is now an international phenomenon, the largest sporting festival on Earth.
Combining world-class competition with spectacular ceremony, it unites the international community in the world's greatest display of human physical strength, skill and agility. But how was the Olympics revived? And by whom? How did it evolve? And how have events at the Games reflected changes in culture and world politics throughout the 20th century and beyond?
I'm John Hopkins from the Noisa Network. This is a short history of the modern Olympics. The modern Olympics is inspired by its classical counterpart. These ancient Greek Olympics begin in the 8th century BC as a sporting festival dedicated to Zeus. Growing to a five-day event, its contests are inspired by martial skills and include running, wrestling, and chariot racing.
It becomes the cultural highlight of the Greek calendar, almost comparable to a 21st century music festival. That is, if you replace the music with sport, the yoga classes with altars bloodied by animal sacrifice, and strip the stars naked. But after the Romans conquer Greece, the Olympics wane. Eventually, at the end of the 4th century AD, the Christian emperor Theodosius I puts a stop to what he sees as a pagan festival.
ending a tradition of over a thousand years. The main stadium at Olympia on the Peloponnese Peninsula is struck by an earthquake in 551 AD. Later, repeated catastrophic weather events take their toll. David Goldblatt is a sportswriter and broadcaster and the author of The Games: A Global History of the Olympics.
There is a tsunami in the eastern Mediterranean which washes up the river towards Olympia and pretty much covers the site of the Olympic Games in silt.
and it effectively disappears. It disappears from the historical record, pretty much disappears from the geographical record. I mean, locals still know that there's some stone and some diggings and earthworks, but no one's interested. And if you look at the societies that rule and live in that part of the world over the next 1,200 years, no one's interested in the Olympics. It's just absolutely not on their radar.
And the only reason that anybody from outside of Olympia comes to know about them again is when the works of antiquity are translated into vernacular languages in the 17th and 18th century. And suddenly all of these reports of the Olympic Games, and indeed poetry about the Olympic Games, travel writing about the Olympic Games, become accessible. Smaller scale events do occur in the long hiatus.
Britain's modern Olympic history starts, albeit on a regional scale, in the time of Shakespeare. The Cotswold Olympic Games in central England begins in 1612, when a wealthy lawyer co-opts the Christian festival of Whitsun to hold a series of sporting competitions. The events include running, tug-of-war, horse racing, and a form of wrestling known as shin-kicking. Despite a long break in the 19th to 20th century, these Cotswold Games still thrive today.
Late in the 18th century, though, the seeds are sown for an international revival. A group of English classicists read about the ancient Olympics in newly translated classical poetry and set off to investigate the site. It's mosquito-infested and overgrown, but some ancient remains are visible. A few decades later, a newly independent Greece is forging its own identity. And the question is asked: how about reviving the Olympic Games?
Back in England, a progressive Victorian doctor, William Penny Brooks, creates a local festival to encourage fresh air and exercise to improve the health of the poor. This is put on in the 1840s and is hugely popular. Thousands of people showing up. You know, you've got cheese rolling. You've got boxing. You've got stuff for kids, stuff for adults, stuff for women. Very popular kind of rural festival, which goes on for a bit.
But the true founder of the modern Olympics, as we know it, is the French aristocrat Baron Pierre de Coubertin. Having already made a modest name for himself by promoting sport in schools, in 1894 he heads a meeting in Paris, gathering together around 200 prominent sporting figures. Many are French, but there are delegates from Belgium, Great Britain and Ireland, Greece, Italy, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and the USA.
Coubertin becomes the first president of the International Olympic Committee, the IOC. Coubertin, I mean, he's an amazing chancer because he's actually, he's got no money, he's got no power. He's just got this group of sporting do-gooders in Paris all going, rah, rah, yes, let's have an Olympics in Athens in 1896 and maybe the royal family will help out. And he declares that that's where the next Olympics will be.
The next two years are pretty fraught, but by hook or by crook, de Coubertin manages to arrange for the Olympics to happen with money from other rich Greeks who pay for the remarbling of the Panathenaic Stadium, which is the main ancient stadium in Athens where most of it is staged.
Originally built in 330 BC, the refurbished stadium is now ready to hold a 60,000 strong crowd. The opening ceremony sees the King of Greece proclaiming the event officially open, and the newly composed Olympic anthem is sung by a huge choir. Over 250 athletes take part, representing 13 European nations and the USA. All competitors are male.
There are nine event categories, including nods to their ancient forebears, with athletics and wrestling. The other events include staples of aristocratic sport such as shooting, tennis, and fencing. It is a relatively low-key affair, with little specific infrastructure and an exclusive crowd. But it's already developing its own identity, distinct from its classical inspiration.
Where does one begin to compare the ancient and modern Olympics? I mean, the first thing about the ancient Olympics is that first and foremost, it is a religious festival. It is a celebration of the god Zeus. Secondly, it is a celebration and a collective imagining of Hellenic identity spread across the entirety of the Eastern Mediterranean because there are Greeks and Greek civilization everywhere.
Neither of these things can be said about the modern Olympics. There is a case for saying in its early form, certainly Baron de Coubertin thought of the Olympics as a form of religious festival. And one could describe his own conception of Olympism as a kind of neo-Hellenic cult of the athletic amateur gentleman.
Indeed, both the ancient and modern Olympics are intended for amateurs only, though many ancient champions received enough gifts and perks that they could make a living from competing. Now, winners are awarded silver medals and Olympic laurels at a dignified closing ceremony, inspired by the ancient version, but updated to require top hats and tails. The Athens event is a great success, and other countries are keen to host.
It's already been decided that Paris will hold the second Games. But from now on, bids to host the Games will be submitted to the IOC and decided by secret ballot. The 1900 Games expands significantly, attended by almost a thousand athletes from 24 nations. Paris is also holding the World Exposition at that time, a global event showcasing innovation, culture, arts, and industry.
This much bigger, more prestigious event certainly helps bring in the crowds. But the sports venues are often not fit for purpose, with telephone poles used to make hurdles and swimmers battling strong currents in the Seine. The 1900 iteration sees the introduction of archery, football and rowing, though other competitions new to the program are less traditional, bordering on the downright bizarre. From live pigeon shooting to a swimming obstacle race,
to poodle clipping. One change that the founder Coubertin does not welcome is the inclusion of the first women athletes. So at the first Olympics in 1896, there were no women. And that's how Coubertin liked her.
His vision of the Olympics was that it should be a display of manly virtue for which the reward is the polite applause of women. And he's on record as saying that he found the whole prospect of women playing sport and people watching them to be disgusting, aesthetically as well as morally. So,
The Olympics, and indeed the sporting institutions of the late 19th century, are unbelievably patriarchal and systematically attempted to exclude women from sport. And on the rare occasion in which they were able to participate, police them, what they can do, how they can dress, how they should perform, in pretty exclusively patriarchal form. But Coubertin is fighting a losing battle.
French women's suffrage groups have been lobbying for equal rights since 1847, and upper-class women have been competing in organized sports throughout the 19th century. With a growing number of successful and established women's sports clubs, he finds it impossible to hold back the tide. But even in the early days of this new event, change comes slowly. 22 of the Paris Olympics' 997 athletes are women.
but the IOC allows them only to compete in sports considered feminine, such as tennis, croquet, and golf. It's not much, but it's the first step in a long struggle for equality. The 1904 Olympics in St. Louis, Missouri, sees the first distribution of gold, silver, and bronze medals.
Later, after the Stockholm Games sees all five continents taking part, Coubertin himself draws and colors the Olympic rings on the top of a letter to represent them all. Olympic events of the first half of the 20th century are not confined to sport. In 1912 there are artistic elements, with categories for architecture, literature, music, painting, and sculpture, with all entries inspired by sports.
Submitted works are passed to a jury of experts, though some feel that art is too subjective to be judged in this way. But the idea of the connection between mind and body is important to Coubetin, drawn from the beliefs of the ancient Greeks. Just as the Olympic program is expanding to fulfill Coubetin's vision, global conflict interferes.
In ancient times, the Olympic truce saw the Games continue regardless, with athletes from warring states still competing in peace, sometimes fresh from the battlefield. But the concept of this temporary pause in hostilities collapses under the pressure of World War, and so the Games that should have taken place in 1914 and 1918 are cancelled. Gender politics change rapidly during the war.
With so many men away fighting, women take on traditionally masculine roles, farming and particularly in munitions factories, proving their capability in physically demanding roles. But as the IOC aren't moving with the times quickly enough,
They take matters into their own hands. In 1920, Alternative Women's Olympics is held. Three or four more are held through the 1920s, run by a French organisation, which tries to bring together women athletes and activists in Europe and North America and put pressure on the Olympic movement and the International Sports Federation to say, like, you know, if you're not going to let us in, then we're going to have our own Olympics and screw you.
And the Olympics eventually respond by incorporating them. They're not happy, they don't want to do it, but, you know, the IOC can be quite ideologically lithe when it feels it's threatened. Paris 1924 is the last for Kubota, but his views on women's inclusion will take longer to retire. Women still make up less than 5% of Olympic athletes. Progress is happening, but slowly.
Women are permitted to compete in athletics and gymnastics at the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam, which to all intents and purposes is a great success. However, in the 800 metres, the woman who wins the race crosses the line and is photographed looking tired.
shock, horror. I mean, I don't know if you've ever run an 800 meters, please. Anyway, this photograph is reproduced across Europe and North America with headlines saying, athletics is a danger to women's bodies. Look at this woman. She's literally dead after running 800 meters. And as a consequence, women do not run further than 200 meters at the Olympics until the 1960s.
The exclusion of women from so many events doesn't harm the appeal of the games, which becomes increasingly recognized for their potential to gather a crowd. With the idea of sport as entertainment comes an opportunity to further capitalist interests.
Los Angeles 1932 demonstrated the commercial potential and power and the alignment of the Olympics with sponsorship. Coca-Cola were a huge presence, for example, in 1932, establishing really their long-term relationship with the Olympic Games. And Los Angeles 1932 also recognized that the Olympics first and foremost is show business.
Yeah, you can do all of that religious, spiritual, for the world stuff. But this is entertainment, first and foremost. It's bums on seats. But for sports fans unable to get a ticket, a new era is dawning. Developments in media and communications mean that the Olympics now have a global reach.
Berlin is awarded the 1936 Games before the Nazis come to power. Despite controversy about Germany's current policy of ejecting Jews from sports clubs and competitions, both the UK and US threaten to pull out. But in the end, they attend, as do 47 other countries. Just under 4,000 athletes compete in 129 events across 25 disciplines.
1936 changes everything and the Nazis spend more on the Olympics than all the previous Olympics put together many times over. And the Olympics becomes a physical spectacle in which the host city is actually the most important participant and the most important thing on the screen. L'Equipe, the French sports newspaper, reported from Berlin in 1936 at the Olympics with the headline, "It's a film set."
The opening ceremony at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, the first to incorporate an Olympic flame that moves from Athens to the host city, is broadcast to over 150,000 viewers. The fascist leader states that he will refuse to shake hands with Jewish and black athletes, but the IOC insists on him at least making a show of equality. So in the end, Adolf Hitler doesn't shake hands with any athletes at all.
African-American Jesse Owens becomes the hero of these games, smashing the myth of a white master race by winning four gold medals. One of these is for the long jump, while his German counterpart Lutz Long takes silver. A story circulates that seeing Owens repeatedly being given a foul by the judges, Long gave the American advice that saw him to the podium. Though that part of the tale is now considered apocryphal, a friendship developed between the two that would last for many years.
The world will look back on those Nazi Olympics in grim retrospection, considering the horrors it preempted. World War strikes Europe once again, and two Olympics are cancelled. Post-war, the Games come to London. But the country is still rationing food, clothes and fuel, and money is scarce. No new facilities are built for these so-called "austerity games", and the main venue is what is now known as Wembley Stadium.
The athletes are housed in makeshift camps at military bases and London colleges and told to bring their own towels. 1948 is the last Olympics to host an arts component. Believing sport to be cheapened if payment is involved, Coubetin's original vision was for a competition committed to what he saw as the sanctity of amateurism.
The principle remains a core value of the Olympics, never mind the fact that it comes with a degree of elitism, because mostly only those with other independent income can compete. But the artists taking part in the Olympics are almost all professionals, and so the decision is now taken for these non-sporting events to be discontinued. Though the event is greeted with a spirit of togetherness after the grueling years of conflict, Japan and Germany are not invited.
With the Cold War now getting underway, Soviet athletes declined to attend. But the terrible aftermath of World War II brings other changes to the Olympics and sport as a whole.
The Paralympics grow out of work done at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, which is on the northwest edge of London and which after the Second World War specialised in the rehabilitation of injured service people from the Second World War, of which there were a lot, especially those who had undergone amputations and had very restricted mobility of one kind or another.
And, you know, the rehabilitation programs were dull and unchallenging and kind of reducing people to the status of invalid. And innovative doctors of the era began to think, wouldn't it be better to play sport, have fun and do stuff?
And that really, really from that very basic thought, the Paralympics are born. And the process begins with games amongst ex-servicemen in 1948, known as the Stoke Mandeville Games. And other processes, I mean, Britain is obviously not the only place that has got amputees and war injuries on a large scale.
Immediately after the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, 400 wheelchair users arrive in the city to compete in a parallel Olympics. This separate event features eight sports: archery, para-athletics, darchery , snooker, swimming, table tennis, and wheelchair fencing and basketball. It's a key moment of positive change and a move in the direction of equality.
But while the Olympics begins to accommodate those with disabilities, it cracks down on those who have every physical advantage but choose to cheat. Fairness has always been a key tenet since ancient times, when statues of famous cheats known as Zanes were erected in Olympia to shame the dishonorable. In the modern games, match-fixing controversies arise over the years, but cheating isn't easy in such an open, public event.
But that doesn't stop one team trying something truly brazen. The modern pentathlon is one of the original sports of the modern games conceived by Coubetin himself. Influenced by traditional European gentlemanly pursuits, it comprises five rather disparate disciplines: pistol shooting, swimming, fencing, show jumping and running. In Rome 1960, the three members of the Tunisian modern pentathlon team have not had a good start to their Olympics.
In the first event, show jumping, all three athletes are thrown from their horses. But they hope the second event, fencing, may help them claw back their dignity. The event features 17 nations, all fielding a team of three. Each of the 51 fencers must face every other competitor in a round robin. One touch of sword against body wins the bout, and they move on to their next opponent.
It is Saturday, the 27th of August, 1960, at the Palazzo dei Congressi, a large concrete conference building. Inside, the largest of the exhibition spaces is hosting the fencing event of the modern pentathlon. The floor is striped with 14-meter long white raised boards, or pistes, where the sport takes place.
Waiting for the competition to start, the fencers warm up and talk tactics with their teammates, clad all in white, with high-necked jackets, gloves, and calf-length trousers. The electric sensors in the suits beep as final checks are made, falling silent as black suited officials start the proceedings. One young participant steps up to his line. He pulls down the metal mesh faceguard, and the cable is hooked to his back.
With his suit now live, any touch of his competitor's weapon will set off the censer. His first opponent, the red Tunisian flag on his sleeve, already has his mask in place as he takes position. The bout begins. The action is fast and furious, as around a dozen other pairs fight at the same time. These two fencers parry back and forth along their pist, swords clashing, shoe soles squeaking.
Their weapons, called "epée", are stiff, thin rapiers with a large bell guard to protect the hand, inspired by French 19th century combat. Thrusting out, the younger pentathlete tries to make contact with his Tunisian opponent, weighing up his height, strength, speed and agility as he makes split-second tactical decisions. The Tunisian darts to the side, faints, and then spikes his rival chest, epée bending. The buzzer sounds.
In this competition, one touch is all it takes. Gracious in defeat, the losing player removes his faceguard and shakes hands. The Tunisian nods but doesn't remove his mask. And soon they're both on to the next bout. The competition moves quickly. Three more bouts and the young fencer is back facing another one of the Tunisian teammates. A man who also already has his mask in place. This Tunisian also fights well.
as nimble on his feet as his colleague, and in fact, uncannily similar in height and speed. The young athlete is so distracted by just how alike they are, that when the Tunisian strikes, the tip of his epee makes contact at his hip. Once again, he's beaten. Just like his teammate, once the point is won, this second Tunisian keeps his mask on. But no matter. The young fencer moves on, playing every challenger as best he can.
Eventually he's back in place to try his luck against the third member of the Tunisian team. But his confusion swiftly sours into suspicion when this competitor arrives. He sizes him up immediately. Same height, same stance, and the faceguard still firmly in place. This sharp-eyed Olympic hopeful does not take his position. He turns from his masked opponent and calls for the official.
When the Tunisian reluctantly removes his mask, it is revealed he is the same man who competed in the first and second bouts. The Tunisian team has only one accomplished fencer who attempted to fight for all of them, disguised by the faceguard. Leaving the hall in disgrace, they're disqualified from the fencing, scoring zero. The Tunisians continue the pentathlon, despite the fact that their failure in the fencing means they will likely lose the whole event. And they do not redeem themselves.
In the pistol shooting, a team member is so off target, he nearly hits a judge. During the swimming event, one of the team is rescued after showing signs of drowning. They finish so far behind the others on the scoreboard, their loss margin is record-breaking. Aside from this inept effort, Rome 1960 is a pivotal Olympics for cheating for a very different reason.
The technological advances of World War II have given rise to the widespread use of performance-enhancing drugs developed for soldiers in combat. But it's not the first time artificial stimulants have been tried. The winner of the 1904 marathon in St. Louis is known to have imbibed a mixture of brandy, egg whites and strychnine. Strychnine is a poison, but if you take it in very low doses, it's actually a rather effective stimulant.
So there's really no shortage of that. Amphetamines, which are developed really in the interwar era, particularly by the German chemical industry and pharmaceutical industry, are in widespread use in professional sport.
And then after the Second World War, when a great deal more pharmacological research has been done by the world's militaries, testosterone arrives or artificial testosterone in the form of anabolic steroids. And we know that certainly in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, people are taking them like, you know, there's no tomorrow from the 1950s onwards.
And when American and European athletes encounter this at the Olympics, like in Helsinki in '52, their first question is, "How do I get some of these?" Because at this point, remember, there is no legislation, no rules, no conversation about what you can and what you can't take. On the day of the cycling team trials of the 1960 Olympics, the streets of Rome swelter in temperatures reaching 42 degrees centigrade.
Danish cyclist Knud Jensen collapses from heatstroke during his race, hitting his head and slipping into a coma. Tragically, at just 23 years old, he dies later the same day. But though the heat won't have helped, blood tests reveal traces of a variety of stimulants. There is no clear evidence this is the cause of his premature death, but it begins a panic. It's just one of a number of controversies at this time, prompting sports federations to begin bans on performance-enhancing drugs.
Doping legislation is introduced, but the IOC doesn't yet have doctors or pharmacists, and the infrastructure for widespread testing does not yet exist. The first set of rules are drawn up in 1968, and banned substances include caffeine and marijuana.
I'm really struggling to see how they can win. You know, who has ever won a war on drugs? And the truth is, amongst elite athletes, the pressure and the culture is such that there will always be enough of them who are ready to sell their grandma for another 0.1 of a second. Pharmaceutical developments aside, it's also a time of civil change, albeit still often slow.
It's at the 1960 Olympics that 18-year-old boxer Cassius Clay wins gold, a few years before he converts to Islam and changes his name to Muhammad Ali. But on his return to the USA, when a whites-only restaurant refuses to serve him, he throws the medal in the river in protest at segregation. And while women are now finally permitted to run further than 200 meters, they won't be allowed to run the marathon until 1984.
Women's sport does receive a boost, but it's from an unexpected source. So it's been a slow and steady battle to get women included and to get women on equal terms. The communist world has been a very important component of that struggle.
One thing about the Soviet Union and its post-war allies is that its ideology of sport was super-duper egalitarian. And a lot of money and a lot of time and energy was put into women's sports. So women from communist countries completely wiping the board with everybody in athletics and gymnastics and most other sports through the 1960s and 1970s, which forces everybody else to sort of up their game a bit.
It's an era marked by ideological battles between the capitalist West and communist East. The West is reluctant to be seen as lagging behind the times with antiquated gender politics, and doesn't relish getting fewer medals than its communist rivals either. Competition drives things forward. Technological advances are also now shaping the Olympics into a whole different beast.
The 1968 Games in Mexico City is broadcast live and in color on the east coast of the United States, the world's largest and wealthiest advertising market. But more reliable and extensive news coverage also spreads less palatable truths about the political situation in host countries. Mexico is under the rule of an authoritarian government, with activists frequently demonstrating against the suppression of labor unions.
Ten days before the opening ceremony, 10,000 peaceful student protesters are chanting "We don't want the Olympics, we want revolution" when the army opens fire. The exact number of deaths is uncertain, with reports ranging from 44 to 400. But what becomes known as the Tlatelolco massacre doesn't stop the Games from going ahead.
Another demonstration finds its way to the very heart of these Olympics, when African-American sprinters Tommy Smith and John Carlos make a statement with the Black Power salute on the podium. Standing shoeless, with gloved fists raised, wearing beads to protest against lynchings, their quiet dignity becomes an iconic image of the Olympics. Though their protest is non-violent, the next Games is anything but.
In Munich 1972, members of the Palestinian terror group Black September storm the apartments of the Israeli team in the Olympic Village, killing two and taking nine hostages. They demand the release of 230 prisoners from Israeli jails, but an ensuing shootout at Munich airport results in all nine hostages being killed, as well as five terrorists and a German policeman.
The Games are suspended for 24 hours, but the shockwaves spread worldwide. Security for the Olympic Games will now be the foremost of the IOC's ongoing concerns. And that, as well as other aspects of the Games, comes at a cost. The price tag of hosting the Olympics skyrockets, with Montreal 1976 costing $1.7 billion, overrunning massively from a budget of $124 million.
It saddles the city's taxpayers with debt that takes three decades to pay off. With the Olympics a worldwide stage for political statement, boycotts and bans become a feature of the 70s and early 80s. African nations refused to attend Montreal 1976 in protest at the presence of New Zealand, who have recently defied a widespread sporting boycott of South Africa.
Later, the US refuses to participate in the Moscow 1980 Olympics after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. President Jimmy Carter urges allies of the US to do the same, and in the end, the boycott is joined by 65 other nations. The British team, who do attend, compete under the Olympic flag rather than the Union Jack, and the athletes do not attend the opening ceremony.
At the end of the 80s, the Seoul Olympics are the first where professional athletes are officially accepted. But with sponsorship now a million-dollar business, in practice this has already been happening for decades. Just like for the ancient Olympian champions, considered godlike and showered with gifts, the rewards can be huge. One significant difference between the ancient and modern Olympics is the concept of Olympic spirit.
The ancients valued winning above all. Only victory would honor their gods, and there was no glory in second place. But some of the most enduring and celebrated modern Olympian moments have been acts of extreme bravery and true sportsmanship. It's September 24, 1988, and the Olympic sailing events are in full swing off the coast near the busy South Korean port of Busan. The conditions began with calm seas and a gentle breeze.
but by the fifth race of the day the wind has picked up to a gnarly 35 knots. 35-year-old Lawrence "Larry" Lemieux is unfazed. In his 4.5-meter dinghy, known as a "Fin," he ducks expertly as the boom of his 10-meter sail swings across, the fabric immediately blown taut as he perfects his direction. A Canadian medal hopeful in "Fin" class, Lemieux is in the lead,
The racecourse is a triangle of open water with around a mile and a half between the markers on the corners. With his rivals sailing perilously close, he approaches the first turn demarcated by a large inflatable cylinder. Trouble is, the waves are so high, the float keeps disappearing when the boat sinks into a trough. Lemieux stands to spot it, and his sail goes slack for a second, ready for the turn. Another sailor speeds ahead of him, swinging around the marker.
Lemur passes the waypoint in second place, but the rest of the pack are further behind. He's still in with a good chance of silver, but then he spots something outside of his events triangle. On the adjacent course, the 470-class two-handed dinghy race is underway. But though most of the competitors are busily navigating through the frothy crests, what's caught his eye is something much less ordinary. The glinting white underside of a capsized boat, its centerboard sticking up,
One man is hanging on to the hull, but there's no sign of his teammate. Lemur acts on pure instinct. Yanking the tiller, he whips the sail around, breaking out of his own course and racing towards the troubled boat. Just as he starts pumping the sail to build up speed, he spots the second crew member, his head bobbing just above the water. All thoughts of his medal are relegated. This is life or death. In seas this high, it's possible no one else will spot these casualties.
Streaking towards the men, he recognizes the Singaporean flag on their jackets. He shouts out for their attention, but his calls are whipped away by the gale-force wind. He closes in. Guiding his speeding craft past the struggling sailor in the water, he reaches out to grab the back of his life jacket, then swings him into the fin. The man coughs and splutters, half drowned, exhausted, and badly hurt. Now Lemieux speeds towards the capsized dinghy, picking up the second Singaporean.
He then delivers them to the approaching patrol boat, which has finally spotted them. By the time Lemieux turns back towards his own race, the tail end of the pack of Finns is racing down the final straight. He skims across the waves towards them, determined to at least finish the race, though he knows his detour will have cost him a medal. Larry Lemieux finishes in 22nd place in a field of 32 boats, but he wins the unending respect of his sailing community and Olympic viewers worldwide.
By its first centenary, the modern Olympics has become famed for its moving ceremonies almost as much as its display of athletic prowess. At 1996 Atlanta, USA, Muhammad Ali, now 64, has been suffering with Parkinson's disease for 12 years. Despite his very obviously failing health, he lights the Olympic torch in an emotional ceremony. He also receives a replacement medal for the one he threw away in protest at segregation.
Costs of hosting continue to rise into the new millennium, but broadcasting rights have now become a huge source of revenue. This alone brings in $1.3 billion for Sydney 2000, though the Games themselves cost over $6 billion. By 2003, the Olympic Games is seen as a way to bring about urban development and positively impact the wider society in host countries. Every country bidding to host must now submit a long-term plan for how the event will improve outcomes for their citizens.
In London 2012, Great Britain hopes that the injection of money into venues and new sports will filter down to improve the fitness of the nation. But the costs overrun by over 300% to £8.7 billion, and its specialised spaces are not easily repurposed as leisure facilities for the general public.
Some Olympics commit themselves to the notion of urban transformation, that hosting the Olympics will be good for the city and remake the city. Other people kind of have looked at that process and said, well, actually, the Olympics is an instrument of gentrification and of a heinous waste of public money and of building inappropriate infrastructure. But London also is proud to be the first Olympics where women compete in every sport.
From this point on, no new sports will be considered unless they have both male and female competitors. Rio de Janeiro's 2016 games are dogged with more controversy. As well as the now familiar overspending, there are preparations running behind schedule, attendance affected by fear of crime, and open water that is too polluted for swimmers. But Rio is also the first Olympics to host a refugee team of 10 athletes from war-torn countries who are displaced with no home nation.
Named the IOC Refugee Olympic Team, they compete in swimming, athletics, and judo. There is widespread praise for this Olympics putting the plight of the world's refugee crisis on a world stage. Though some complain that this festival of sport shouldn't concern itself with politics, the Olympics has always been a mirror to culture and societal change.
The delay of Tokyo's 2020 competition until 2021, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, makes it the first and only Olympics held in an odd-numbered year. And with Paris hosting in 2024, Goubetin would surely be pleased that his revival is back on home soil. But he might barely recognize the event. Nearly 10,500 athletes will compete from 206 nations in over 300 events.
For the first time, there will be equal numbers of men and women athletes. Taking place immediately afterwards, the Paralympics will welcome almost 4,500 competitors in almost 550 events. You know, the original 251 were all white blokes from Northern Europe and North America. Now it is a truly cosmopolitan festival of humanity. The challenges for an event this size are ever-changing, and questions are raised about their impact on the world around them.
Paris 2024 would be the first carbon-neutral Olympics, with single-use plastics banned. But further alterations to the programme may still be on the horizon. They're already making plans at Paris 2024 for what they do if one of the heat waves that has hit France in the last decade or so comes during the Games, during which it will be impossible to safely conduct sport outdoors.
Climate change, which was already impacting upon the Tokyo Olympics, where typhoons, unusually strong, meant that sailing and surfing events had to be cancelled. Intense daytime heat saw tennis games being moved to the evening. One of the most enduring qualities of the Olympics is its ability to move with the times.
Indeed, the ancient Greeks managed to continue their Olympics for another 600 years, even after they were subsumed into the Roman Empire. The innovations at Paris 24 show that progress continues to accompany every iteration. And almost 130 years since Coubetin's grand plan first came to fruition, the Olympic Games is still the greatest sporting show on Earth.
It fascinates me that an essentially late 19th century neo-Hellenic pagan cult of the amateur athletic gentleman has been A, able to survive,
130 years and transform itself into both the center of governance of global sport as well as staging these unbelievable enormous sporting festivals and spectacles. I find it fascinating that it's managed to shed its skin on many occasions and reinvent itself in new guises.
We live in a fragmented but globalized world.
It is therefore very important to have festivals of a collective and common cosmopolitan humanity. Sport is a very, very good instrument for doing that because it's a non-linguistic form. Everybody gets it. An amazing goal, a beautiful piece of gymnastics is the same in Malaysia as Paraguay as Belgium. It reaches everyone. So I think that in and of itself is a really important thing to have a space in which the world gathers.
Next time on Short History Hub, we'll bring you a short history of Constantinople. When Constantine re-found Byzantium as Constantinople, Constantinopolis,
It's not just the rebuilding of a city, it's given very special status because he gives it a Senate and there was only one other Senate, the Senate in Rome. Admittedly, the senators initially are of lower status than those in Rome, but it's already set up as something more important than just a new city where the emperor has decided to lavish his patronage. What's next time?
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