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INTRODUCTION/HISTORY
“Citius, Altius, Fortius (Swifter, Higher, Stronger) is the best known motto of the International Olympic Committee (www. ... These initial three disciplines are, in a sense, the essence of the Olympic Games. The Olympics Games is an international sports competition, held every four years at a different site, in which athletes from around the world compete against each other in a wide variety of sports.
“The Olympic Games (Modern Olympic Games) derives from the ancient Olympian Games, the most famous of the four great national festivals of the ancient Greeks, the other three being the Isthian, Pythian and Nemean Games. The Olympian Games were celebrated in the summer every four years in the sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia. Olympia was not a town, but a sanctuary associated only with the Games and is situated in the valley in Elis, in Western Peloponnisos (Peloponnesus).
The ‘Modern Olympic Games’ began in Athens, Greece, in 1896, two years after the French Pierre de Coubertin proposed that the Olympian Games be revived. The program for the 1896 games involved only summer events (the Winter Olympics were not established until 1924), comprising of approximately 300 athletes from 15 countries competing in 43 events in 9 different sports. In contrast, the program, one century later for the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, included more than 10,000 athletes from 196 countries competing in 271 events in 29 different sports (Encarta, 1998)”.
Athletes who are successful during these games, do not only win a prestigious and unique medal (gold, silver or bronze) but an unprecedented amount of wealth, be it financial, heroic, or honour etc, and are ‘house hold names’ world wide.
Many famous athletes (in a broad sense) and ‘house hold names’ have been successful during these games and have aspired during their future as a result of this success. Names such as “Olga Korbut, Nadia Comaneci, Dawn Fraser, Jesse Owens, Daley Thompson, Colin Jackson and even the legendary Cassius Clay (who later changed his name to Mahammad Ali), (Matthews, 1995)”, reaped ‘fortunes’ mainly due to their success at the Olympic Games. ...
Topics within this paper will address the use of scientific aids, which in turn will lead to the question; has science undermined the ethos of the Olympic Games?
THE ETHOS
Before we address the above topics, the ethos of the Olympic Games and competition needs to be outlined in order to investigate if and if so, how, science has undermined the Olympic Games through the creation of performance-enhancing drugs.
“The Olympian Games dates back to the date 776 BC (Jennings, 1996)”. Two millennia, seven centuries and eight decades ago, the Greeks had their own traditions of performance-enhancers, as “Aztecs claims that eating the myocardium from human sacrifice improved performance (Wooley, 1991)”. ... The ethos (within competition) was to establish and worship the greatest athlete through sport and ‘fair competition’. ...
MODERN DAY OLYMPICS
Unfortunately, much of modern day sport has changed in a different direction, towards drug abuse and drug doping. In our modern era, science and technology has put man on the moon, developed the computer, the inter net, astounding medical research which in turn has saved many lives and much, much more. However, science has also changed the way that many people interpret and perceive today’s sporting progress. ... To initiate these findings, Franke and Berendonk (1997) explains that
“One of the largest pharmacological experiments in history has been running for more than three decades, namely, the administration of drugs to athletes to enhance performance in many different kinds of sports… Scientific and official court documents, including secret doctoral theses and scientific reports, demonstrates the positive effects of these and other hormonal drugs on muscle strength, aggressiveness, and performance in elite sports were common knowledge and has been in practice since the early 1960s for male athletes and since 1968 for female athletes.
Approximate Word count = 3093
Approximate Pages = 12.4
(250 words per page double spaced)
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