Endorsement

The Olympic Movement has an ancient history and a modern Charter that sets out high ideals:

• Olympism is a philosophy of life, exalting and combining in a balanced whole the qualities of body, will and mind. Blending sport with culture and education, Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy found in effort, the educational value of good example and respect for fundamental ethical principles.
• The focus of the Olympic Movement is to contribute to building a peaceful and better world by educating youth through sport practised without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play.

Each National Olympic Committee is charged under the Olympic Charter with a specific educational role in both schools and universities. It is for this reason – amongst others – that the British Olympic association has been co-operating with the authors in the preparation of this book.

There is a considerable amount of material available to the student of the Olympic Movement but we hope that this volume will be of particular value to the increasing number of students who have the opportunity to include an element of Olympic studies in their further education and/or degree courses.

A case can be made for the inclusion of Olympic studies as an example of an ancient institution which has adapted and modernised itself whilst retaining universal appeal to young people involved in sport and the application of its founding principles to the advantage of all mankind.

The student will find, chapter by chapter, the development of Olympism from the Ancient Games through their re-establishment as the ‘Modern Olympic Games’ in 1896 to the organisation and impact of the world’s greatest sporting event. The role of Britain in the modern history of the Games is chronicled in full and the authors have dealt with the greatly expanded problems of organising this complicated festival of sport in the twenty-first century.

Analysis is made of the increasingly complex relationships between the International Olympic Committee, the Games Organising Committees and modern media, the pressures of the commercial market place and the requirements of economic sustainability and environmental protection.

How these often-conflicting interests are dealt with by the Organising Committee can be the subject of individual studies especially where the overriding interests should be those of the athletes themselves. The challenge is enhanced with the relatively recent inclusion of the Paralympics and the opportunity to promote elite sport for those outstanding athletes who also have disabilities.

Throughout all these challenges – inevitably – the Olympic Movement must confront the world of politics, as there is now a general recognition that sport, as it grows in stature and importance, cannot stand aside from political involvement. Sport must also confront its own ethical standards, which are much wider than the huge challenge of doping in sport. In addition, Olympic sport should review its educational role and its association with culture.

In an attempt to link many of these themes, the book contains three case studies from the successful Olympic Games in Sydney, the equally successful Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, and, topically, the London bid to stage the Olympic Games in 2012.

There are many facets to the Olympic Movement and the organisational challenge in staging them is one of the most complex management problems of all. However, nothing seems to undermine the popularity of the Olympic principles and the attraction of the Games themselves.

The International Olympic Committee has had to face extreme pressures upon its own ethical standards in recent years and now seeks to make the Olympic Games themselves even more universal by reducing the ever-growing requirements on host cities.

Pressures exist across the whole movement: from the creation of new National Olympic Committees – now 202 in number; from sports wishing to join the programme of the Games; from increasing numbers of events or disciplines within individual sports; from ever-increasing standards of the athletes and the need to maintain the correct balance between participation of the elite and participation of all; from the number of cities applying to host the Games; and not least from the endless media scrutiny of the Olympic Movement and all its activities.

I hope first that this work by Vassil Girginov and Jim Parry will help to explain the many and varied relationships that exist because the Olympic Movement does much good. The Olympic Games themselves act as an inspiration for young and old throughout the world. Olympic principles set out a philosophy of life that points to a better world and a wider understanding of all these in this modern world can do nothing but good.

Craig Reedie, CBE
Chair of the British Olympic Association and Member of the International Olympic Committee

Glasgow, 2004