INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC ACADEMY 7th JOINT - IOA

it holds out hope for a happier, healthier and more peaceful
world. It is the task of the International Olympic Committee to
protect this idealistic enterprise and it relies on the support of
those who believe in the principles of fair play and good
sportsmanship embodied in the amateur code, in its efforts to
oppose political or commercial interference, and to prevent the
Games from being used by individuals, organisations or nations
for ulterior purposes.” 35
However, for L’Equipe:
L’Equipe: “It goes without saying that a fortunate athlete can
devote all his time to preparation [...] This disposition is thus
discriminatory with regard to those who are not millionaires.” 36
“That [the fact of earning money] is normal because his [of the
athlete] social origin is generally modest [...] and because his
passage in the sporting life will give him the opportunity [...] to
create a situation with a future.” 37
By using the terminology of Howard Becker 38 , it can be said that
the same act, the fact of earning money by a sporting practice, is
regarded either as a deviating act, or like a normal act according to the
group which judges it. In the Olympic Movement, the dominant norm
is that imposed by the regulations of the I.O.C. Consequently, in
accordance with the results of Howard Becker, the daily newspaper
L’Equipe developed a whole ideology in order to show the accuracy
of its analyses and to show how the I.O.C. was mistaken. It refused
any legitimacy to the I.O.C. and its members on the topic. What is
particularly important here is that this debate was developed and
exposed by the media whose interests were affected if the best athletes
were not allowed to compete because of their professional status.
Consequently, if the I.O.C. imposed its standard within the
Movement, it was the opposite of the public place where the mass
media imposed theirs. The I.O.C. thus developed an ideology in order
to justify its position. The qualitative analyses of the speeches 39 reveal
identical processes on both sides.
As Pierre Bourdieu held, the power of words is more in the power
of who says them and in the institution which authorizes him to say
them than in the words themselves 40 . The two sides indeed tried to
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