It cannot be denied that the Olympic Games have contributed tremendously to physical fitness and sportsmanship of young people throughout the world. To be chosen to represent his nation, an athlete or player hast to compete at many levels-towns, district, state, and national. In every one of these meet hundreds and thousands of athletes and players take part.
The athletes and players taking part in the Olympic Games are not housed in hotels or private homes. They stay together at an e3pecially-erected 'Olympic Village'. Here they mix freely for as long as sixteen days. The number of contestants has risen steadily since the first games held in 1896. Then 285 contestants, none of them women, represented 13 countries in Athens. At the 1960 Rome Olympic there were 5,902 contestants, including 651 women, from 83 countries. Thus the Olympic Games are capable of creating international good will and understanding even better than the United Nations organization.
Sadly enough, it is true that international rivalries do exist at Olympic Villages. The contacts between the athletes from nations normally opposed to each other are artificial, if not absent altogether. The organizations don't recognize international competition or award any points to any nation.
Athletes and teams win or lose individually and not as representatives of their nation. Yet some contestants feel so strongly about their national prestige that they adopt all unfair means to win their events. One has only to watch a hockey match between India and Pakistan to be convinced that international jealousy is very much there at the Olympic Games. The Olympic Games have in recent years become the venues of defection of athletes from certain other countries.
Though the games are considered to be independent of all governmental control, in effect they are not so. The national Olympic organization of every country depends on its governments have very effectively interfered with the conduct of the games.
Another point against the Olympic Games is that they expose the poverty of certain nations. If, they cannot afford to take part in the Games, cannot afford to send in a large contingent, or cannot host the Games if invited to do so, the radio and the press all over the world harp on their poverty. Often, these nations, merely for the sake of prestige, have to spend money, on financing the trips of their sportsmen, though it is needed much more urgently at home.
Thus, it will be seen, the Olympic Games are good if they are conducted in the proper spirit of sports. But as mere means of political display they will not only lead to waste of funds, but will harm the understanding and goodwill already existing between nations.
The athletes and players taking part in the Olympic Games are not housed in hotels or private homes. They stay together at an e3pecially-erected 'Olympic Village'. Here they mix freely for as long as sixteen days. The number of contestants has risen steadily since the first games held in 1896. Then 285 contestants, none of them women, represented 13 countries in Athens. At the 1960 Rome Olympic there were 5,902 contestants, including 651 women, from 83 countries. Thus the Olympic Games are capable of creating international good will and understanding even better than the United Nations organization.
Sadly enough, it is true that international rivalries do exist at Olympic Villages. The contacts between the athletes from nations normally opposed to each other are artificial, if not absent altogether. The organizations don't recognize international competition or award any points to any nation.
Athletes and teams win or lose individually and not as representatives of their nation. Yet some contestants feel so strongly about their national prestige that they adopt all unfair means to win their events. One has only to watch a hockey match between India and Pakistan to be convinced that international jealousy is very much there at the Olympic Games. The Olympic Games have in recent years become the venues of defection of athletes from certain other countries.
Though the games are considered to be independent of all governmental control, in effect they are not so. The national Olympic organization of every country depends on its governments have very effectively interfered with the conduct of the games.
Another point against the Olympic Games is that they expose the poverty of certain nations. If, they cannot afford to take part in the Games, cannot afford to send in a large contingent, or cannot host the Games if invited to do so, the radio and the press all over the world harp on their poverty. Often, these nations, merely for the sake of prestige, have to spend money, on financing the trips of their sportsmen, though it is needed much more urgently at home.
Thus, it will be seen, the Olympic Games are good if they are conducted in the proper spirit of sports. But as mere means of political display they will not only lead to waste of funds, but will harm the understanding and goodwill already existing between nations.
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