Реферат: Olympic Games Essay Research Paper

liberty of adding an eighth, "Regarding the possibility of the revival of

the Olympic Games"(Gorman 125). Coubertin imparted his enthusiasm so well

that it was "unanimously agreed on June 23, 1894 to revive the Games and an

International Committee was formed to look after their development and well-being"(Gorman

130). Two years later in 1896 Greece celebrated in the rebuilt stadium of Athens

the first Olympic Games of the present cycle and from this beginning, the

world’s greatest athletic spectacle was established. Only the ceaseless labor,

the tenacity and the perseverance of Baron de Coubertin accomplished and

perfected this great work. Its main organization benefited from his methodical

and precise mind and from his wide understanding of the aspirations and needs of

youth. In fact, Coubertin was "the sole director of the Games in regards to

their form and character; the Olympic Charter and Protocol and the athlete’s

oath were his creation, as well as the opening and closing ceremonies of the

Games"(Gary 95). In addition, until 1925, he personally presided over the

IOC, assuming single-handed all the administrative and financial duties. The

work of Coubertin was, above all, a work of peace but there is one basic fact,

almost universally misunderstood which is that peace is not the major aim of the

Olympic Games. "Peace," Coubertin hoped and believed, "would be

furthered by the Olympic Games . . . but peace could be the product only of a

better world; a better world could be brought about only by better individuals;

and better individuals could be developed only by the give and take, the

buffeting and battering, the stress and strain of fierce competition."

Although they were founded as part of a vision of world peace, once the modern

Olympic Games became a truly important international event they also became a

stage for political disputes. The most controversial Olympics were the Berlin

Games of 1936. The IOC had voted in 1931 to hold these Games in Berlin, before

IOC members could have known that the Nazi movement would soon control the

country. When it became known in the early 1930s that under the rule of the

Nazis, German Jewish athletes were being barred from the 1936 German team which