The Olympic Games, which originated in ancient Greece were reinvented in the late 1800s and have become a world recognized sporting competition. From the 8th century B.C. to the 4th century A.D., the Games were held every four years in Olympia, Greece in honor of the god Zeus (Young). The first modern Olympics took place in 1896 in Athens, and featured 280 participants from 13 nations, competing in 43 events (Young). Created by Pierre de Coubertin, the modern Olympics have tried to take on an aura of “amateurism,” “ritual sacrifice of physical energy,” “higher, faster, stronger,” and “not the triumph, but the struggle”. In both the 2002 and 2008 Official Olympic films and open ceremony video packages produced by NBC they show these principles. Through this paper, multiple questions will be asked. How is the tension between “amateurism” and “professionalism” captured by the story of the Olympic movement in both the opening ceremonies of the 2002 and 2008 Olympic games? Additionally, how are the ideas of the “ritual sacrifice of physical energy,” “higher, faster, stronger,” and “not the triumph, but the struggle” shown in those ceremonies’ packages and in their corresponding official documentaries?
Looking back through history it is hard to say that the Olympics was ever amateur in nature, but it is easy to see how hard athletes try to succeed. To understand this, it is best to look back at the root and definition of amateurism. The word amateur derives from the Latin word, “amator”, or “lover” (OED). In a sense, that is what it means to be an amateur—someone who dedicates himself or herself to a pursuit not for the money, but for love. The Oxford English Dictionary defines amateur as "A person who engages in a pursuit, especially a sport, on an unpaid basis" (OED). Amateur athletes cannot get money in any form to lift their performance; they do it for the love and on a non-compensational basis of their respective sport.
In amateurism, an amateur can clearly operate on a masterful level while not necessarily being a professional. In the vast history of the Olympic Games, an athlete's career outside of the stadium was not always of the utmost concern. Olympic officials turned a blind eye to athletes hiring trainers to make themselves better. This clearly violates the definition of what it means to be an amateur. Having a trainer gives a competitive edge to an athlete beyond just having a love for the game and having money is being spent on making themselves better. Coubertin also made this moniker with an ode to the original Olympics where athletes would compete for their respective states city states and feel honor just for being chosen to compete. Effectively the sportsperson would be doing it for the strength of their own body and the “love of the game”. Today, things are very different, and capitalism and politics are much more a part of the modern Olympics. Since the Nazi Olympics in 1938, capitalism has been a part of the reality because of “the advent of television” and “the Olympic Games have also become a place where companies look to market their product lines” (Milillo). Since then, athletes have extended themselves in the modern Olympics games to make profit off of their love of the games. They compete in professional tournaments and take endorsement deals with companies. During the latter half of the 20th century, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has adapted to a number of political and economic advancements and one of these was the growing issue of corporate endorsements and sponsorships. These dealings blurred the lines of amateurism and professionalism resulting in the rules being steadily relaxed for almost all sports in the Olympic movement, allowing professionals to compete in all sports. They were highly compensated in a manner that skirted the rules, but they were essentially professionals. They were competing against university athletes and other true amateurs.
In the 2008 Opening Ceremony package numerous athletes are shown. Most of them are American and very few are Chinese. The sole Chinese athlete, Liu Xiang, a 110-meter Olympic hurdler who was the first to win gold for the country in that event during the 2004 Athens Olympics (2:45). During his career, Xiang was a professional competing in multiple competitions outside of the Olympics getting endorsement deals from companies like Coca Cola, Yili-Group (a Chinese Dairy Company), Nike, Bank of Communications, Cadillac, and many more to make money (Yuanfang). He made running over hurdles his life work and did it more than just for the love of the game. He did it for money and fame across the most populous country in the world China. Xiang exemplifies a professional just like Michael Phelps who was shown in the video. He also participates to win and get awarded for his accomplishments not just to be a part of the Olympics but to beat out everyone else. The hurdler wants the triumph without the struggle. Xiang does have to struggle to even get to the games but, not many were on his level; he can easily get onto the Olympic stage.
In comparison, the official film of 2008 has similar footage disproving amateurism and the notion of “not the triumph, but the struggle” with various quotes and shots. Just when you look at the running of the 200-meter rivalry between Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell, one sees numerous advertisements for companies from Nike to Omega (33:06). Though it may not directly affect these athletes the International Olympic Committee is profiting off the athletes. This revenue visually makes the Olympics not amateur in nature, but rather makes young boys and girls want to come to the Olympics to profit. Also, after Usian Bolt won the final against Asafa Powell to gain the world record, Bolt made a comment. A reporter asked him after winning, “Do you still want a car?” and Usain Bolt answers “I’m going straight to the dealership!” (34:57). This shows that Hyundai and other companies that were sponsoring the race and the Olympics made a sponsorship deal for athletes to make money off endorsements. The athletes who have won numerous medals usually get them and both films say this and talk about it. Again, this violates the principles that are at stake.
Coubertin had the ideal of “not the triumph, but the struggle” billed as the motto for the original Olympic games. He wanted to make competitors believe in an idea that they are going to the Olympics to win and be determined to do his or her utmost to win. Over the years some took this to mean something else. What he tried to explain in his words becomes obvious when it is realized that only a few of the great company of national champions could win. If winning was the sole reason for competing, the number of competitors would be small. Most nations will leave the Olympic arena without having gained a single medal, but their participation is of the highest importance nevertheless. Some countries like the United States come to the Olympics with massive delegations of people overshadowing the small countries that might only have one competitor. He explains in this motto that people must struggle to win. What is most important out of everything is what you do to win and your mentality at the games. Athletes are to be models of civility in their participation by just being happy to be at the games. This has many meanings to the current state of the Olympics.
In 2002 the Olympics were held in the United States months after the attack on the World Trade Center in New York City. The country was in strife and was looking to seize the moment to make their own citizens feel more triumphant. Both the official documentary and the NBC package accentuate this emotion. In the first few shots of the Utah Opening Ceremony in the official film, the tattered flag of the towers was shown as a symbol of American Culture and history. The flag was originally asked by the International Olympic Committee not to be shown in the opening ceremony because it was “too political and it violated the committee and the US flag code”b (Schwarz-Pimer). As learned in Dr. Stephen Mosher’s course, the Olympic flag must not be tattered and must be facing horizontally to the people barring the flag. This flag covered neither law, however was still allowed. This decision can be used to better understand the way in which Olympic ceremonies allow for the advancement of a country’s national narrative in the international community. The tattered flag from the World Trade Center was effective in its embodiment of the War on Terror’s dominance in America’s post-9/11 cultural narrative. It was said that “September 11th, 2001 seemingly took place in a cultural vacuum and can therefore be defined as “trauma” for the United States because it was an event that could not be fully experienced at the time” (Schwarz-Pimer). This was clear at the time and was the sole rationale for the United States to make such a cry to the IOC. The addition of firefighters in the 2002 NBC package for the opening ceremony brought similar effects to the heartstrings. The images of sullen firefighters looking off into the abyss helps clear the idea of having ritualistic sacrifices the exertion of energy. Both officials of the United States Olympic committee and the firefighters show sacrificed energy to make the country stronger and allow the athletes of the 2002 Olympics to become better and train harder. Each training session of the athletes is ritualistic in manner however, this is part of the definition of “ritual sacrifice of physical energy” however, it is incomplete. It goes beyond this interpretation. Before the invention of sport, in the cave man days, there was the ritualistic hunt of animals for food (Sansone). Man was driven for “the paradoxical conviction that man must give up or use up something in order to get something” (Sansone). Sport was created to fill this energy gap and fill the purpose of exercise as stated before.
Many man hours were spent putting together this ritual of an opening ceremony and sacrificing time to make the United States look good. NBC tries to accentuate this idea in the opening package of the 2002 games when the narrator says, “The games are wrapped around the ceremony of innocents that we will never see again” (0:30-0:35). This quotation is false, the same ritual practice was done with the 2008 Opening Ceremony as well. The viewer will see a similar practice every opening ceremony. The difference is in the cultures of each games. In both opening ceremonies portrayed by Bud Greenspan, the Olympic torch was brought in to be light and show examples of their culture. Other differences are in the amount of political implications that were brought upon their respective countries for the carrying out of the games. No hard-hitting international political problem were going on to make the China 2008 games go off with problems that would create large political symbols like a tattered flag that shown he Olympics 6 years prior. In 2008 many countries did not want to participate because the human rights violations that the country had and still has (Calagary). Moreover, both ceremonies wanted enough pomp and circumstance that couldn’t be stronger then the next. Each ceremony is trying to be stronger than the next building larger facilities and sports complexes, sell more tickets, book more hotels, and profit off of what they could get. This ritual sacrifice is sacrificing to make one better at presentational optics. In reality, each tournament has small protests and has things to gain. What they gain is a mentality of being stronger physically and mentally being a competition for athletes to work hard for.
The idea of "higher, faster, stronger" one of the mottos of the Olympic games carries its own definition. In this motto, there is no mention of a specific competitor or competition, just an idea of levels that can be obtained. The motto also is left up to the interpreter. They could be talking about the competition to one's left or could be talking about overcoming the pain in one's muscles or the voices in one's head, always willing oneself to push just a little further. Each athlete is fighting his own battle in the Games, and his goal is to simply do even more than he could ever imagine. It would be like running a race and being so far in the lead that you can't see the competitors next to you — even though you can't see them, you don't slow down, you keep pushing yourself to go faster. Why? Because you can, and your mentality is there for yourself to succeed.
The ritual sacrifice of energy and the fostering of the idea higher, faster, stronger ideas played a large part of the official documentary shown in 2002. Right off the bat the film shows images of Jimmy Shea a skeleton athlete training for the games. The storyline going into the Olympics was that he is in a family who has 3 generations of Olympic athletes, Jimmy being the third generation. His grandfather, Jack Shea, became the first American to win two Winter Olympic gold medals in 1932. Shea's father, Jim Shea Sr., compete in the Nordic Combined event in the 1964 Winter Olympic Games. His family and himself, exemplify the sacrifice of energy with the amount of pressure put on Jimmy to succeed. Jimmy had to make the Olympics and compete, this was the main pressure. What else he would do is up to fate but, he trains very hard sacrificing time and energy just to compete and to be stronger than any other opponent. Jimmy while he is in the Olympics had to compete with the fact that his grandfather died just weeks before he had to compete. He had to mentally compete stronger, faster, and higher than anyone else on the hill. In fact, Jimmy tells the audience of the film that “race day [my dad] is nervous enough for the both of us” (12:09). The mental battle is real, and the pressure of the country and family were on the line. On race days he flips himself on and is “deadly focused” and “usually lets out a scream” (13:02). Athletes like him have a lot of pressure and he dealt with it well. During the race Jimmy lead in the first heat of the competition in first place then slipped behind with other lower ranked opponents getting ahead of him. This struggle of being behind and the snow picking up to change the speed of the track played a role in his later triumph. Jimmy did win gold but, he had to sacrifice to win.
Liu Xiang had a similar occurrence during the 2008 Olympics shown through the official filmmakers. Xiang had the weight of his country on his shoulders winning a gold medal the last Olympic games. Fans called out saying to him “You will always remain number one” and “Go Xiang go” (37:23). This adds a lot of pressure to him especially being mentally tough through telling himself that he is not in pain a lot he was in heal and ankle pain. He goes through the practice with the pain but quietly withdraws from the competition after a false start. He crippled under the pressure and the pain to not compete in the rest of the hurdling of the 2008 games. Shots of Chinese spectators in shock and disbelief following the withdrawal followed. Xiang was risking his life just being a competitor and could not hold himself up to hurt himself further. He was there to practice, use his body for exercise, and for glory having won gold previously. Liu sacrificed hard just to get there. However, his story was different and did not have generations of people in his family that forged the way for him. Xiang had to do it himself proving his worth to get to the Olympics. By contrast, Jimmy Shea Jr. did not have an endorsement deal like Liu Xiang. Xiang won money and forged deals with international companies from his country after winning gold and before the 2002 games most of the world had no idea who Jimmy Shea was besides being part of a dynasty of athletes. After winning gold, Jimmy did not get the endorsement deals with no articles suggesting that he did. In the participation of the games in trying to be amateur in nature athletes have to struggle with corporations that want to give them sponsorship deals when they are triumphant and when they lose, the deals and checks become lower and lower in nature. Athletes have to deal with corporate greed when they are not in their areas when they are taking money and deals.
At the Olympics’ core the ideas of “amateurism”, “ritual sacrifice of physical energy”, “higher, faster, stronger”, and “not the triumph, but the struggle” are apparent. In the Beijing 2008 package it is largely apparent. When the narrator is starts talking about how China is “outside time and in a bewildering rush of transformation” (1:21). The narrator is talking how the country had a past that might have been troubling but, they are working on making the country and their athletes better. Shots of athletes practicing and competing ensues but, it is odd to see that there are not many athletes of Chinese dissent are shown because of this idea. The athletes “have submitted to an uncompromising search or mastery” working hard in training to get what they want in just being an athlete that can win (1:37). The video goes to repeat the phrase, not the triumph, but the struggle” to emphasize this idea of athletes have to train and find failure in order to succeed. Each other video echoes this sentiment when they show the athletes in each and every event that they participate in.
“Amateurism”, “ritual sacrifice of physical energy”, “higher, faster, stronger”, and “not the triumph, but the struggle” are apparent in both official Olympic films and in the NBC packages. These examples were present in the athletes and general competitions with the paying athletes through endorsements. The athletes show in both films and packages showed emotion and strength to compete fulfilling the Olympic principles. In the viewing of future Olympics viewers will see these principles again being either fulfilled or broken.