From Olympia to Vancouver
Every four years an ancient tradition is revived. Every four years, millions of people are glued to their TVs. Every four years, we watch the Winter Olympic Games in hopes of witnessing some of the most memorable moments in sports.
History of the Games
What started as a religious event that served to strengthen the bond between Ancient Greeks and their sense of national unity in 776 B.C. has turned into a prestigious international sport celebration that inspires millions of people around the world.
According to the Olympic Museum’s Web site, the ancient Games were started around 400 A.C. Determined to improve the education of young people through organized sports, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, a French pedagogue and historian, started a campaign to revive the Olympic movement in the 19th century.
His efforts bore fruits in June 1894 when the International Olympic Committee announced that the first modern international Olympic Games would be held in Athens, Greece, in 1896. Two years after the announcement, on Easter Monday and the Greek Independence day, April 6, the first Summer Olympic Games officially began.
The Games involved 245 athletes from 14 different countries, competing in nine disciplines: athletics, cycling, fencing, gymnastics, shooting, swimming, tennis, weightlifting and wrestling. The first Olympic medalist was an American: James Connolly in triple jump.
Despite the Greek aspirations to be a permanent host of the Games, the International Olympic Committee decided to hold the Olympiad in a different country every four years. The second Olympic Games were held in Paris in 1900, where women competed in tennis and golf.
Prior to 1924, figure skating and ice hockey had been disciplines in the Summer Olympic Games. The first Winter Olympic Games took place in 1924 in Chamonix, France. Cross-country skiing, figure skating, ice hockey, Nordic combined, ski jumping and speed skating have been on the programme at every Winter Olympics ever since.
Commercialization of the Olympics
Until 1992, the Winter and Summer Olympic Games were celebrated in the same year. Commercialization of the Games affected the schedule, and since 1994, the Summer and Winter Olympic Games have been celebrated on alternating even years.
“The same year schedule was abandoned because of the belief that two Olympics in one year resulted in ‘Olympic overkill,’ which hurt the television market for the events and the potential for revenue,” said Joseph Hylton, a professor at the Law School.
This is not the only incident of commercialization and politics involved in the Games.
“People should realize that the modern Olympics have always had a political dimension,” Hylton said, and a host city has to have the financial resources to protect the IOC if the Games lose money.
“Beyond this, political and cultural matters do matter, but it is hard to predict how they affect the outcome,” he added. States that are politically objectionable, such as South Africa in the apartheid era or North Korea today, have no chance to host the Games, even if they could afford to do so.
“Olympic politics are complicated, and it is rare that one factor alone decides who gets to host the Games,” Hylton said.
Despite the commercialization, Hylton said the Winter Olympic Games are still the largest and the most prestigious winter sports celebration. According to Hylton, the Winter Olympics have the greatest number of disciplines on the programme and the greatest number of athletes, making it the largest international sport event.
“It is a truly international competition,” Hylton said.
The Olympic excitement
“An Olympic medal is the greatest award an athlete can receive for her work and dedication,” said Ekaterina Dafovska, Bulgarian Olympic champion in biathlon from Nagano ’98. “There is something magical about hearing your country’s national anthem during the Olympics. It is not about you. It is about your nation. This is what makes the Olympiad so special.”
Athletes start training for an Olympiad years in advance. “Most athletes, who will compete in Vancouver 2010, have been training for the Games since 2006, just a few months after the Olympics in Torino were over,” Dafovska said.
For us, the common people, the excitement starts Feb. 12th, when the Olympic flame will be brought to Vancouver, and the Olympic Cauldron will be lit. This will be the official opening of the XXI Winter Olympic Games, the third Olympics in Canada.
“I know my family and the Calgary community really embraced the Games, when they were in Calgary in 1988. I expect the country to do the same now,” said Mark Rutherford, a senior in the College of Business Administration who is from Canada. “ Overall, I feel the Olympics are a much bigger deal in Canada than in other countries. Everyone is glued to the TV for ten days straight. Even if you don’t like sports back home everyone still gets into it.”
Starting the celebration
The Olympic Torch Relay reflects the celebration of the ancient Olympics and their connection with the modern Games. The Vancouver Olympic Torch Relay started on Oct. 22 in Greece and will be the longest national relay in history.
According to the official Web site of the Games, the Vancouver Olympic Torch Relay will last 106 days and will travel 45,000 km across Canada through more than 1,000 communities. The Olympic flame will be transported by 12,000 torchbearers via more than 100 different means of transportation known to the people of Canada such as canoe, dog-sled, horse-drawn carriage, kayak, snowmobile, tractor and more.
“The 106-day moving celebration will connect the country to the Games and give Canadians an unprecedented opportunity to celebrate and commemorate our great nation,” Gary Lunn, Minister of State for the Government of Canada, said in a press release.
An important part of the relay is deciding who will be the final torchbearer and have the honor of lighting the Olympic Cauldron. Most host cities choose a former or current star athlete to be the final torchbearer, according to Dafovska.
However, that hasn’t been the case for Canada. During the Games in Montreal in 1976, Sandra Henderson, then 15, from the English-speaking part of the country, and Stephane Prefontaine, then 16, from the French-speaking part of Canada, lit the Olympic Cauldron to symbolize Canadian unity. During the Games in Calgary in 1988, Robyn Perry, 12, a junior figure skater, was chosen to represent youth and future Olympians.
There are numerous speculations in the Canadian press about the identity of the final torchbearer. Some suggest the honored athlete will be Nancy Greene, who won ski gold and silver medals at the 1968 Games in Grenoble, France. Others suggest that Kerrin Lee-Gartner will be the final torchbearer. She was the first Canadian ski racer to win an Olympic gold medal in the downhill alpine ski event during the Games in Albertville, France in 1992. Joe Sakic, who was part of the hockey gold medal-winning team in Salt Lake City in 2002, and superstar Wayne Gretzky are also among the possible athletes.
Other athletes who deserve the honor, according to the media and the public, are Cindy Klassen, Canada’s most-decorated Olympian with six medals, Gaetan Boucher, who won four Olympic medals and Clara Hughes, who is among a very select group of athletes to win medals at the Winter and Summer Games. All these names are just speculations, and the identity of the final torchbearer will be revealed as the opening ceremony reaches its climax.
“I don’t anticipate the torchbearer being anyone famous, rather an ordinary person with a great story to tell,” Rutherford said. As a Canadian, he thinks that the Torch Relay creates excitement and unites the people of Canada.
Let the Games begin
The morning after the Olympic Cauldron is lit, approximately 2,000 athletes from about 80 countries will start competing in 15 disciplines distributed in 86 events.
Ghana, Bahamas, Gabon, Malta and the Cayman Islands will debut on Winter Olympic Games.
According to the official schedule, the disciplines are alpine skiing, biathlon, bobsleigh, cross-country, curling, figure skating, freestyle skiing, ice hockey, luge, Nordic combined, short track speed skating, skeleton, ski jumping, snowboarding and speed skating. The first official event is ski jumping individual trial for competition. The Games’ final event is the men’s hockey gold-medal game before the closing ceremony.
During the 16 days of the Games, athletes will compete for 615 one-of-a-kind medals. The Olympics are always unpredictable, but some athletes come with greater hopes than others.
According to the predictions of NBC, in the alpine skiing, female athletes to watch for are Anja Paerson from Sweden, who is the Olympic champion from Torino 2006, Maria Riech from Germany, who is a runner-up in the overall World Cup standings in 2008-’09, and American Lindsey Vonn, who is the most successful female skier in U.S. history.
Among the men, most likely the gold will go to Benjamin Raich from Austria, who is aiming for his third gold medal, Aksel Lund Svindel from Norway, the current overall World Cup champion, or returning American Bode Miller.
In the biathlon, German, Norwegian and Russian athletes will probably reign again. Among the women, Kati Wilhelm from Germany, a six-time Olympic champion, and Andrea Henkel from Germany, a two- time Olympic champion and Olga Zaitseva from Russia, with four medals from the last World Championship in South Korea, from Russia will compete for the gold.
Among the men, Norwegian legend Ole Einar Bjoerndalen will try to finish his active sports career by adding a few more medals to his collection of five Olympic gold medals, more than any other biathlete.
In figure skating, a few athletes are making comebacks. Yevgeny Plushenko is returning to defend his gold medal from Torino and once again dominate the men’s figure skating. American favorite Sasha Cohen, with a silver medal from Torino, is returning for her third Winter Olympics.
The host nation has its hopes for gold with Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir in the couples and Joannie Rochette and Patrick Chan in the individual female and male competitions respectively. Canada also has hopes for gold in the women’s and men’s ice hockey tournaments.
In the unpredictable short track, one name is in the minds of most of us — Apolo Anton Ohno, who will defend his two gold medals from Torino.
The Austrian hegemony in the ski jumping is nothing new in winter sports. Thomas Morgenstern, Gregor Schlierenzauer and Wolfgang Loitzl will most likely grab the medals.
American dominance in the snowboarding halfpipe is expected. Shaun White will defend his gold from Torino. Hannah Teter, gold medalist from Torino, Gretchen Bleiler, a runner-up in Torino, and Kelly Clark, gold medalist from Salt Lake City in 2002, are the favorites among women.
Students and the Games
Just like the rest of the world, Marquette students also plan to watch the Games in Vancouver.
Phuwadol Samphaongoen, a graduate student in the College of Engineering, plans to watch as many events as possible, especially the alpine skiing, which is his favorite winter sport. He watches the Games not only for the entertainment, but also because he finds inspiration in the stories of successful athletes who have overcome great difficulties.
Kathleen Meyer, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences, said she will watch the Games. She is a keen fan of figure skating and remembers watching Kristi Yamaguchi, Tonya Harding, Nancy Kerrigan, Oksana Baiul, Michelle Kwan, Tara Lipinski, Brian Botano, Timothy Goebel, Todd Eldredge, Jamie Sale and David Pelletier performing in previous Olympic Games.
“It’s artistic, it’s graceful, it’s romantic. It’s expressive, and it’s stunning to see the stunts the athletes can do,” Meyer said. “I love the build up before the jump, holding my breath as they jump, spin, and land — hopefully — in complete and faultless grace.”
For first time since the Games in Lillehammer in 1994, Dafovska will not participate in the Olympics. She will be in Vancouver with the Bulgarian delegation, supporting her former teammates and cheering for biathlon favorite, Norwegian Ole Einar Bjoerndalen.
“He is an inspiration for all of us. A great athlete. A great person,” she said. “I hope everyone finds inspiration in this international celebration.”
Tags: expected winners, Vancouver 2010, Winter Olympics, winter sports
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