OLYMPIC GAMES
When people see the new brand, we want them to be inspired to make a positive change in their life” said Tony Blair, after seing the new logo for the next Olimpic games in London in 2012.
But it seems that the logo provoked some very controversial response. Why?
The new logo for the event, which is a jagged emblem based on the date 2012, was unveiled just a week ago. It comes in a series of shades of pink, blue, green and orange and will evolve in the run-up to the Games. The word London and the Olympic rings are included in the first two digits of the new logo.
As London 2012 organising committee chairman Seb Coe."This is the vision at the very heart of our brand." It is supposed to be very creative, very young and very dynamic, never static and always moving. However, the marketeers perhaps did not anticipate the way "new media" would be so quickly turned against their new brand It seems that it caused some serious health concerns, namely fears that it could trigger epileptic seizures. Charity Epilepsy Action said it had received calls from people who had suffered fits after seeing it. Prof Graham Harding, who developed the test used to measure photo-sensitivity levels in TV material, said it should not be broadcast again.
Ofcourse the organiser of London 2012 said it will re-edit the film and look into it as a matter of urgency. The final decision has not been reached yet, however he chairman of the International Olympic Committee has pledged support for the controversial London 2012 logo.
We will as always have to wait and see what will happen, although I am personally quite surprised that with such a variety of different proposals, which I am sure were presented to the organisers, they choose the one, that in fact is nothing special. – but that is just my opinion, ofcourse.
Meanwhile, according to the organisers the preparations for the Olimpics were "on time and on track" will prove to be a model for future host cities. The IOC inspection committee had spent the last three days assessing the London 2012 team's preparations, ranging from venue construction to transport. The IOC team was told key targets for the project include making the UK a leading sporting nation and securing 50,000 new jobs. The Committee will continue to inspect venues once a year until 2008, when progress will be subject to scrutiny every six months.
At the same time also the preparations for the Olimpic games in China are already (v polnem teku). And there too seems, that everything is not going that smooth. Apparently, a Chinese company making products related to the Beijing Olympics has admitted it used child workers, despite initially denying the allegation. Leter Stationery said children aged 12 and 13 were employed by one of its sub-contractors, although they did not work on Olympic-related products. As the manager of the company claims, the children were hired during the school holidays last winter and they were each paid 20 yuan (about $2.50) a day. One of the officials added that the children had gone to work at Leter Stationery because their parents had no time to look after them during the holidays. He said they were only involved in "light work" such as wrapping up products- if you believe.
Regarless the problems with the forecoming Olympic games, I think there are many of you, who don`t know much about the Olympic games in general and its history, which is quite interesting, as I found out and very long as well!
The Olympic Games is an international multi-sport event subdivided into summer and winter sporting events. The summer and winter games are each held every four years. Until 1992, they were held in the same year. Since then, they have been celebrated two years apart.
There are many myths and legends surrounding the origin of the ancient Olympic Games. The most popular legend describes that Heracles was the creator of the Olympic Games, and built the Olympic stadium and surrounding buildings as an honor to his father Zeus, after completing his 12 labors. According to that legend he walked in a straight line for 400 strides and called this distance a "stadion", which later also became a distance calculation unit. This is also why a modern stadium is 400 meters long. The date of the Games' inception based on the count of years in Olympiads is reconstructed as 776 BC, although there are many different opinios about that.
From then on, the Games quickly became much more important throughout ancient Greece, reaching their zenith in the sixth and fifth centuries BC. The Olympics were of fundamental religious importance, although they gradually declined in importance as the Romans gained power in Greece.
During the ancient times normally only young men could participate.[8] Competitors were usually naked, not only as the weather was appropriate but also as the festival was meant to be, in part, a celebration of the achievements of the human body. Upon winning the games, the victor would have not only the prestige of being in first place but would also be presented with a crown of olive leaves. The olive branch is a sign of hope and peace.
Even though the bearing of a torch formed an integral aspect of Greek ceremonies, the ancient Olympic Games did not include it, nor was there a symbol formed by interconnecting rings. These Olympic symbols were introduced as part of the modern Olympic Games.
When Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, the Olympic Games were seen as a pagan festival and in discord with Christian ethics.
The interest in reviving the Olympics as an international event grew when the ruins of ancient Olympia were uncovered and they were uncovered by German archaeologists in the mid-nineteenth century. At the same time, Pierre de Coubertin was searching for a reason for the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. He thought the reason was that the French had not received proper physical education, and sought to improve this. Coubertin also sought a way to bring nations closer together, to have the youth of the world compete in sports, rather than fight in war. So in 1890 he decided that the recovery of the Olympic Games would achieve both of his goals.
In a congress at the Sorbonne University, in Paris, in 1894 he presented his ideas to an international audience. On the last day of the congress, it was decided that the first modern Olympic Games would take place in 1896 in Athens, in the country of their birth. To organise the Games, the International Olympic Committee was established.
The total number of athletes at the the first modern Olympic Games, which were less than 250, seems small by modern standards, but the games were the largest international sports event ever held until that time. The Greek officials and public were also very enthusiastic, and they even proposed to have the monopoly of organizing the Olympics. But the IOC decided differently, and the second Olympic Games took place in Paris. Paris was also the first Olympic Games where women were allowed to compete.
After the initial success, the Olympics struggled. The celebrations in Paris and St. Louis were overshadowed by the world's fair exhibitions in which they were included. Luckily the Games in 1906 again attracted a broad international field of participants and great public interest, and thus marked beginning of a rise in popularity and size of the Games.
From the 241 participants from 14 nations in 1896, the Games grew to nearly 11,100 competitors, from 202 countries at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. The number of competitors at the Winter Olympics is much smaller than at the Summer Games; at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin Italy for example 2,633 athletes from 80 countries competed in 84 events.
TODAY The Olympics are one of the largest media events. In Sydney in 2000 there were over 16,000 broadcasters and journalists, and an estimated 3.8 billion viewers watched the games on television. The growth of the Olympics is one of the largest problems the Olympics face today. Although financial problems were solved when professional athletes were allowed to attract sponsorships from major international companies, the large number of athletes, media and spectators makes it difficult and expensive for host cities to organize the Olympics.
Currently 203 countries participate in the Olympics. This is a noticeably higher number than the number of countries recognised by the United Nations, which is only 193. The International Olympic Committee allows nations to compete which do not meet the strict requirements for political sovereignty that many other international organizations demand. As a result, many colonies are permitted to host their own Olympic teams and athletes even if such competitors hold the same citizenship as another member nation. Examples of this include territories such as Puerto Rico, Bermuda, and Hong Kong. They all compete as separate nations despite being legally a part of another country. Also, since 1980, Taiwan has competed under the name "Chinese Taipei. Prior to that year the People's Republic of China refused to participate in the Games because Taiwan had been competing under the name "Republic of China".
One of the main problems facing the Olympics (and international sports in general) is doping, or performance enhancing drugs. In the early 20th century, many Olympic athletes began using drugs to enhance their performance. For example, the winner of the marathon at the 1904 Games, Thomas J. Hicks, was given strychnine and brandy by his coach, even during the race. As these methods became more extreme, gradually the awareness grew that this was no longer a matter of health through sports. In the mid-1960s, sports federations put a ban on doping, and the IOC followed suit in 1967.
The first and so far only Olympic death caused by doping occurred in 1960. At the cycling road race in Rome the Danish Knut Enemark Jensen fell from his bicycle and later died. A coronor's inquiry found that he was under the influence of amphetamines.
The first Olympic athlete to test positive for doping use was a Swedish pentathlete at the Summer Olympics in1968. He lost his bronze medal for alcohol use.
The most publicised doping-related disqualification was that of Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson, who won the 100m at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, but tested positive for stanozolol.
Despite the testing, many athletes continued to use doping without getting caught. In 1990, documents were revealed that showed many East German female athletes had been unknowingly administered anabolic steroids and other drugs by their coaches and trainers as a government policy.
In the late 1990s, the IOC took initiative in a more organised battle against doping. They formed the World Anti-Doping Agency in 1999. Despite the new agency, the 2002 Winter Olympics have shown that this battle is not nearly over.
Most recently, during the 2006 Winter Olympics, only one athlete failed a drug test and had a medal revoked. The only other case involved 12 members with high levels of haemoglobin and their punishment was a five day suspension for health reasons.
The International Olympic Committee introduced blood testing for the first time during these games.
VIOLENCE
Despite what Coubertin had hoped for, the Olympics did not bring total peace to the world. In fact, three Olympiads had to pass without Olympics because of war: due to World War I the 1916 Games were canceled, and the summer and winter games of 1940 and 1944 were canceled because of World War II.
Terrorism has also become a recent threat to the Olympic Games. In 1972, when the Summer Games were held in Munich, West Germany, eleven members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage by Palestinian terrorist group Black September in what is known as the Munich massacre. A bungled liberation attempt led to the deaths of the nine abducted athletes who had not been killed prior to the rescue as well as that of a policeman, with five of the terrorists also being killed.
During the Summer Olympics in 1996 in Atlanta, a bombing at the Centennial Olympic Park killed two and injured 111 others. The bomb was set by Eric Robert Rudolph, an American domestic terrorist, who is currently serving a life sentence at Supermax in Florence, Colorado.
The 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City were the first Olympic Games since the September 11, 2001 attacks. Olympic Games since then have required an extremely high degree of security due to the fear of possible terrorist activities.