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Questions sent by visitors with Answers
by
Harvey Abrams, Olympic Historian
Questions which can be educational to all students will be answered here.
Please submit your name, grade or age, and place of residence (city, state or country).
I regret that individual and personal responses are not possible.
10/01/2000: Hello, I found your site very informative. I was wondering if you knew anything about how a city is chosen to host the olympics? Or anysites that have info on that? I am doing a school report and I can't find out anything!! thanx so much
sarah! (9th grade, New York, USA).
Cities (not countries) are chosen by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to host the Olympic Games. There is a formal procedure that must be followed by all the cities desiring to host the Games. This process is called the "Bid." Cities bid to host the Games. Usually a city will form a committee or a commission to prepare the bid. The bid is like a book that gives details such as sports facilities, hotels and restaurants available, transportation network, and many other spects of holding such a large function as the Olympic Games. The bid must answer questions like "where would the ten thousand athletes stay". "What sports facilities exist now, and what would have to be built?" "What public transportation exists and could it handle huge crowds for all the sports?" "Who would finance the cost of the Games?" Hundreds of other questions need to be answered. The "bid book" is then submitted to the International Olympic Committee for review. It used to be that the entire IOC would then visit all the cities that submitted bids. Six years prior to the Olympic Games that are being bid for, the IOC schedules a meeting and votes for a host city. These votes are always followed with great excitement. For example, in bidding for the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games several cities submitted bids and after preliminary rounds of voting the choice came down to Atlanta (USA) or Athens (Greece). In the final vote Atlanta won and then spent six years preparing to host the 1996 Olympic Games. Athens submitted a bid again and won the Games for the year 2004. The Games for 2008 have been awarded to Beijing (China). Several cities that lost in their bid for the 2008 Games included Havana (Cuba), Istanbul (Turkey), Paris (France) and others.
However a problem has come up in this bid procedure - corruption. In the past two years it has been revealed that some members of the IOC were actually bribed in order to get their votes for bidding cities. Salt Lake City, the host of the next Winter Olympic Games (2002) apparently earned some votes through bribery. The IOC has always had a very good reputation for honesty and character, but this reputation has been tarnished through the bribery scandal. The IOC investigated its members and kicked some of them out. Others were warned. Then they changed their procedure. In the future only a small group of the IOC (there are over 100 members) will visit each city and report back to the rest of the membership. Nobody knows if this will be successful.
For more information try some search engines and look up "BID CITY" or "OLYMPIC BID".
Go back to Olympic History Page 1
02/07/2002: What do the Olympic rings mean and where did they come from? (From several students, different schools, USA).
The Olympic rings were designed by Pierre de Coubertin around 1913. Contrary to popular belief, the Olympic rings never existed in ancient Greece. This myth was created by an error published in a popular book about the ancient Olympic Games in the 1960's. The authors did not know what they were looking at and concluded (wrongly) that the Olympic Rings were 3000 years old. In Greece, inside the ancient stadium at Delphi, there was a stone engraved (actually not engraved, but in "relief") with the five Olympic rings. This stone was actually created by German stonemasons in 1936 for Leni Riefenstahl's film OLYMPIA. Many authors have perpetuated this myth by including this information in their ancient Olympic chapters. But it's wrong! Just goes to show that not all historians know what they are talking about.
The Olympic rings designed by Pierre de Coubertin actually represented the first 5 Olympic Games (1896, 1900, 1904, 1908, 1912) when they were first used in 1913. Later they came to represent five continents. The three rings on the top row are blue, black and red with the two rings in the lower row yellow and green. When all are connected, the order of colors is: blue, yellow, black, green and red. Here is an image:
Go back to Olympic History Page 1
02/07/2002: What is the origin of the Olympic torch run?
(From several students, different schools, USA).
The Olympic torch run is another myth that has grown during this past half century. There was no torch run in ancient Greece. The Olympic torch run, the lighting ceremony and all the excitement surrounding the route of the torch run was created by Carl Diem for the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games. This was the first torch run. Diem was a sport historian and leader of the German Olympic Committee. He tried to combine the ancient Greek Olympic Games with the Modern Games by creating the torch run with an elaborate ceremony in Olympia, Greece followed by a run through Europe to Berlin. It generated intense excitement throughout Europe. There were also outstanding art exhibits featuring ancient Greek artwork in museums in Berlin. Souvenirs, artwork, posters and films were all used for public relations in promoting the link between the ancient and modern Games. The fantasy worked beyond imagination. In truth there are very few similarities between the ancient Olympic Games and the Modern Olympic Games.
For a good research project prepare two lists, one about the ancient Games and one about the Modern Games, and compare them to see how they are similar and how they are differrent
Latest updated pages on February 7, 2002
Copyright © 2000, 2002 Harvey Abrams. All rights reserved. No part of this text may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the expressed written permission of the author. Or the wrath of Zeus will be upon you.
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State College, PA, USA 16804
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