Реферат: Olympic Games Essay Research Paper

Olympic Games Essay, Research Paper

The Olympic Games, an international sports competition, are held once every four

years at a different site, where athletes from different nations compete against

each other in a wide variety of sports. There are two classifications of

Olympics, the Summer Olympics and the Winter Olympics. Through 1992 they were

held in the same year, but beginning in 1994 they were rescheduled so that they

are held in alternate even-numbered years. For example, the Winter Olympics were

held in 1994 and the Summer Olympics in 1996. The Winter Olympics were next held

in 1998 in Nagano, Japan, while the Summer Olympics will next occur in 2000 in

Sydney, Australia. The Olympic Games are administered by the International

Olympic Committee (IOC), which is headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland. The

IOC was created in Paris in 1894 as an independent committee selecting its own

members but "to begin the process, however, Coubertin himself chose the

first 15 members"(White 60). IOC members are officially considered to be

"representatives from the IOC to their own nations, not delegates from

their own countries to the IOC"(White 65). Most members are elected to the

IOC after serving on the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) of their own

countries. The first IOC members were all from either Europe or the Americas,

with the exception of one representative from New Zealand. Currently, members

from European and North American countries still account for a majority of the

IOC membership. IOC members must retire at the end of the year in which they

reach the age of 80, unless they were elected before 1966, in which case they

can serve for life. The IOC oversees such functions as determining the site of

the Olympic Games, the establishment of worldwide Olympic policies, and the

negotiation of Olympic television broadcast rights. The IOC works closely with

the NOCs and with the International Amateur Athletic Federation (the

international governing body for track and field), and other international

sports federations (ISFs) to organize the Olympics. The ISFs are responsible for

the "international rules and regulations of the sports they

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