INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC ACADEMY 7th JOINT - IOA

These changes are in order to make the less known sports more
“media friendly”;
“Today I think the Games are a huge commercialised show that is
too much influence by politics. Some of it is as bad as I could
throw up! You are lead to question who the target group is […]
and that is the sad side of the Games that it moves away from the
original idea.
(Mette Jacobsen, swimmer and participant in the Games in Athens 2004
for the fifth time)
As Mette Jacobsen indicates, giving oneself up to the media
industry has resulted in a tendency where the focus is moved away
from the sport and the sport participants, in an attempt to meet the
criteria of the entertainment field.
Discussion
The question is whether the organisational and visual media
developments lead the athletes to devalue the Olympics?
The critical athlete will answer yes, because they see the Games as
a sport event that has turned into showbiz. Moreover, he/she claims
that the rules of fair play have been replaced by dramatic settings in an
entertainment industry, in which democratic values are weighed in
gold bars so to speak.
The idealistic athlete will answer no, because they still see the
Games as a fabulous and tremendous theatre that is built of a unique
concept.
Final remarks
It is most likely that the Games once again in Athens will confirm
us why they have had the power of penetration and why they are
going to continue. However, there will be difficult things to deal with,
but predictably this will not change the fact that the “old master piece”
will remain a place where one (hopefully) can breathe freely from
terrorism and a place where a whole world can meet and compete in
peace without having to think about discrimination of races, political
regimes, social classes, religion, etc.
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