Document 5This article is about the modern games in general.

For the ongoing

games in Paris, France, see 2024 Summer Olympics. For the ancient Greek games,
see Ancient Olympic Games. For other uses, see Olympic (disambiguation).

Olympic Games

Main topics

• Bids
• Boycotts
• Ceremonies
• Charter
• Host cities
• IFs
• IOC
• Medal
• Medal tables
• Medalists
• NOCs
• Olympism
• Pierre de Coubertin medal
• Scandals and controversies
• Sports
• Symbols
• Television
• Torch relays
• Venues
• Women participation

Games
• Summer
• Winter
• Youth
• Esports
 Regional games
• Asian
• African
• European
• Pacific
• Pan-American

Defunct games
• Ancient
• Intercalated

• v
• t
• e

The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (French: Jeux olympiques)[a][1] are the
leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter
sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate
in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games are considered the world's foremost
sports competition with more than 200 teams, representing sovereign states and
territories, participating. By default, the Games generally substitute for any world
championships during the year in which they take place (however, each class usually
maintains its own records).[2] The Olympic Games are held every four years.
Since 1994, they have alternated between the Summer and Winter Olympics every
two years during the four-year Olympiad.[3][4]

Their creation was inspired by the ancient Olympic Games, held in Olympia,
Greece from the 8th century BC to the 4th century AD. Baron Pierre de
Coubertin founded the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1894, leading to the
first modern Games in Athens in 1896. The IOC is the governing body of the Olympic
Movement, which encompasses all entities and individuals involved in the Olympic
Games. The Olympic Charter defines their structure and authority.

The evolution of the Olympic Movement during the 20th and 21st centuries has
resulted in numerous changes to the Olympic Games. Some of these adjustments
include the creation of the Winter Olympic Games for snow and ice sports,
the Paralympic Games for athletes with disabilities, the Youth Olympic Games for
athletes aged 14 to 18, the five Continental Games (Pan
American, African, Asian, European, and Pacific), and the World Games for sports
that are not contested in the Olympic Games. The IOC also endorses
the Deaflympics and the Special Olympics. The IOC has needed to adapt to a variety
of economic, political, and technological advancements. The abuse of amateur
rules by the Eastern Bloc nations prompted the IOC to shift away from
pure amateurism, as envisioned by Coubertin, to the acceptance of professional
athletes participating at the Games. The growing importance of mass media has
created the issue of corporate sponsorship and general commercialisation of the
Games. World Wars I and II led to the cancellation of the 1916, 1940,
and 1944 Olympics; large-scale boycotts during the Cold War limited participation in
the 1980 and 1984 Olympics;[5] and the 2020 Olympics were postponed until 2021 as
a result of the COVID-19 restrictions.

The Olympic Movement consists of international sports federations (IFs), National

Olympic Committees (NOCs), and organising committees for each specific Olympic
Games. As the decision-making body, the IOC is responsible for choosing the host
city for each Games, and organises and funds the Games according to the Olympic
Charter. The IOC also determines the Olympic programme, consisting of
the sports to be contested at the Games. There are several Olympic rituals and
symbols, such as the Olympic flag, torch, and opening and closing ceremonies. Over
14,000 athletes competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics and 2022 Winter
Olympics combined, in 40 different sports and 448 events. The first-, second-, and
third-place finishers in each event receive Olympic medals: gold, silver, and bronze,
respectively.

The Games have grown to the point that nearly every nation is now represented;
colonies and overseas territories are often allowed to field their own teams. This
growth has created numerous challenges and controversies,
including boycotts, doping, bribery, and terrorism. Every two years, the Olympics and
its media exposure provide athletes with the chance to attain national and
international fame. The Games also provide an opportunity for the host city and
country to showcase themselves to the world.

Ancient Olympics
Main article: Ancient Olympic Games

The Ancient Olympic Games stadium

in Olympia, Greece
The Ancient Olympic Games (Ancient Greek: τὰ Ὀλύμπια, ta Olympia[6]) were
religious and athletic festivals held every four years at the sanctuary
of Zeus in Olympia, Greece. The date of the festival was determined according to a
complicated formula whereby the midpoint of the festival would occur during the
second full moon after the summer solstice—usually late August or early
September.[7] Heralds were sent from Elis to announce the dates.[8] Competition at
first was among only "legitimate sons of free-born Greek parents."[9] However, after
Macedonia, and then Rome, conquered Greece, the ten Olympic judges loosened
the earlier standard and permitted anyone who spoke Greek to participate.[10] Tens of
thousands of Greeks would make the difficult journey to attend the festival.[11] These
Games featured mainly athletic but also combat sports such as wrestling and
the pankration, horse and chariot racing events. It has been widely written that
during the Games, all conflicts among the participating city-states were postponed
until the Games were finished. This cessation of hostilities was known as the
Olympic peace or truce.[12] This idea is a modern myth because the Greeks never
suspended their wars. The truce did allow those religious pilgrims who were traveling
to Olympia to pass through warring territories unmolested because they were
protected by Zeus.[13]

The origin of the Olympics is shrouded in mystery and legend;[14] one of the most
popular myths identifies Heracles and his father Zeus as the progenitors of the
Games.[15][16][17] According to legend, it was Heracles who first called the Games
"Olympic" and established the custom of holding them every four years.[18] The myth
continues that after Heracles completed his twelve labours, he built the Olympic
Stadium as an honour to Zeus. Following its completion, he walked in a straight line
for 200 steps and called this distance a "stadion" (Ancient
Greek: στάδιον, Latin: stadium, "stage"), which later became a unit of distance. The
most widely accepted inception date for the Ancient Olympics is 776 BC; this is
based on inscriptions, found at Olympia, listing the winners of a footrace held every
four years starting in 776 BC.[19] For the first thirteen Olympics, the stadion footrace
was the only event contested,[20] and victory in that sprint was so valued that the
next Olympiad was named after the winner, e.g. "the third year of the eighteenth
Olympiad when Ladas of Argos won the stadion."[21] The Ancient Games varied over
time, but they came to feature running events, a pentathlon (consisting of a jumping
event, discus and javelin throws, a foot race, and wrestling), boxing,
wrestling, pankration, and equestrian events.[22][23] Tradition has it that Coroebus, a
cook from the city of Elis, was the first Olympic champion,[24] which indicates that the
competition was not limited to the aristocracy.[25]

The Olympics were of fundamental religious importance, and the sporting events,
which were held alongside ritual sacrifices honouring both Zeus (whose famous
statue by Phidias stood in his temple at Olympia) and Pelops (divine hero and
mythical king of Olympia), did not start until the festival's second day. [26](Pelops was
famous for his chariot race with King Oenomaus of Pisatis.[27]) The winners of the
events were admired and immortalised in poems and statues.[28] Although a wreath
made from the sacred olive tree in the precinct of Zeus was the only official prize at
the Olympic Games, winners' fame brought them economic wealth, too, in the form
of subsidies from their hometowns and wealthy sponsors. [29] The Games were held
every four years, and this period, known as an Olympiad, was used by Greeks as
one of their units of time measurement. The Games were part of a cycle known as
the Panhellenic Games, which included the Pythian Games, the Nemean Games,
and the Isthmian Games.[30]

The Olympic Games reached the height of their success in the 6th and
5th centuries BC, but then gradually declined in importance as the Romans gained
power and influence in Greece. While there is no scholarly consensus as to when
the Games officially ended, the most commonly held date is 393 AD, when the
emperor Theodosius I decreed that all pagan cults and practices be
eliminated.[b] Another date commonly cited is 426 AD, when his
successor, Theodosius II, ordered the destruction of all Greek temples.[31]

Modern Games
See also: List of Olympic Games host cities
Forerunners
 Pierre de Coubertin, co-founder of
the International Olympic Committee and its second president
Various uses of the term "Olympic" to describe athletic events in the modern era
have been documented since the 17th century. The first such event was
the Cotswold Games or "Cotswold Olimpick Games", an annual meeting
near Chipping Campden, England, involving various sports. It was first organised by
the lawyer Robert Dover between 1612 and 1642, with several later celebrations
leading up to the present day. The British Olympic Association, in its bid for the 2012
Olympic Games in London, mentioned these games as "the first stirrings of Britain's
Olympic beginnings".[32]

L'Olympiade de la République, a national Olympic festival held annually from 1796 to

1798 in Revolutionary France also attempted to emulate the ancient Olympic
Games.[33] The competition included several disciplines from the ancient Greek
Olympics. The 1796 Games also marked the introduction of the metric system into
sport.[33]
 The 1834 handbill, written in phonetic
vernacular, advertising "Ho-limpyc Gaymes" in Oswestry, Shropshire, England
In 1834 and 1836, Olympic games were held in Ramlösa, Sweden, and
in Stockholm, in 1843, organised by Gustaf Johan Schartau and others. At most
25,000 spectators saw the games.[34]

In 1850, an Olympian Class was started by William Penny Brookes at Much

Wenlock, in Shropshire, England. In 1859, Brookes changed the name to
the Wenlock Olympian Games. This annual sports festival continues to this
day.[35] The Wenlock Olympian Society was founded by Brookes on 15 November
1860.[36]

Between 1862 and 1867, Liverpool held an annual Grand Olympic Festival. Devised
by John Hulley and Charles Pierre Melly, these games were the first to be wholly
amateur in nature and international in outlook, although only 'gentlemen amateurs'
could compete.[37][38] The programme of the first modern Olympiad in Athens in 1896
was almost identical to that of the Liverpool Olympics.[39] In 1865 Hulley, Brookes and
E.G. Ravenstein founded the National Olympian Association in Liverpool, a
forerunner of the British Olympic Association. Its articles of foundation provided the
framework for the International Olympic Charter.[40] In 1866, a national Olympic
Games in Great Britain was organised at London's Crystal Palace.[41]

Revival
 Evangelos Zappas, co-founder of
the International Olympic Committee
Greek interest in reviving the Olympic Games began with the Greek War of
Independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1821. It was first proposed by poet and
newspaper editor Panagiotis Soutsos in his poem "Dialogue of the Dead", published
in 1833.[42] Evangelos Zappas, a wealthy Greek-Romanian philanthropist, first wrote
to King Otto of Greece, in 1856, offering to fund a permanent revival of the Olympic
Games.[43] Zappas sponsored the first Olympic Games in 1859, which was held in
an Athens city square. Athletes participated from Greece and the Ottoman Empire.
Zappas funded the restoration of the ancient Panathenaic Stadium so that it could
host all future Olympic Games.[43]

The stadium hosted Olympics in 1870 and 1875.[44] Thirty thousand spectators
attended that Games in 1870, though no official attendance records are available for
the 1875 Games.[45] In 1890, after attending the Olympian Games of the Wenlock
Olympian Society, Baron Pierre de Coubertin was inspired to found the International
Olympic Committee (IOC).[46] Coubertin built on the ideas and work of Brookes and
Zappas with the aim of establishing internationally rotating Olympic Games that
would occur every four years.[46] He presented these ideas during the first Olympic
Congress of the newly created International Olympic Committee. This meeting was
held from 16 to 23 June 1894, at the University of Paris. On the last day of the
Congress, it was decided that the first Olympic Games to come under the auspices
of the IOC would take place in Athens in 1896.[47] The IOC elected the Greek
writer Demetrius Vikelas as its first president.[48]
1896 Games
Main article: 1896 Summer Olympics

The opening ceremony of the 1896 Summer

Olympics in Panathinaiko Stadium in Athens
The first Games held under the auspices of the IOC was hosted in the Panathenaic
Stadium in Athens in 1896. The Games brought together 14 nations and 241
athletes who competed in 43 events.[49] Zappas and his cousin Konstantinos
Zappas had left the Greek government a trust to fund future Olympic Games. This
trust was used to help finance the 1896 Games.[50][51][52] George Averoff contributed
generously for the refurbishment of the stadium in preparation for the Games.[53] The
Greek government also provided funding, which was expected to be recouped
through the sale of tickets and from the sale of the first Olympic commemorative
stamp set.[53]

Greek officials and the public were enthusiastic about the experience of hosting an
Olympic Games.[54] This feeling was shared by many of the athletes, who even
demanded that Athens be the permanent Olympic host city. The IOC intended for
subsequent Games to be rotated to various host cities around the world. The second
Olympics was held in Paris.[55]

Changes and adaptations

Main article: Summer Olympic Games

Francis Field at Washington University in St.

Louis during the 1904 Summer Olympics
After the success of the 1896 Games, the Olympics entered a period of stagnation
which threatened its survival. The Olympic Games held at the Paris Exposition in
1900 and the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis in 1904 failed to attract
much participation or notice. Of the 650 athletes in the 1904 Olympics, 580 were
American; the winner of the marathon was later disqualified upon discovery of a
photograph of him riding in a car during the race.[56] The Games rebounded with
the 1906 Intercalated Games (so-called because they were the second Olympics to
take place within the third Olympiad), which were held in Athens. These Games
attracted a broad international field of participants and generated a great deal of
public interest, marking the beginning of a rise in both the popularity and the size of
the Olympics. The 1906 Games were officially recognised by the IOC at the time
(although not any longer), and no Intercalated Games have been held since.[57]

Winter Games
Main article: Winter Olympic Games

An ice hockey game during the 1928 Winter

Olympics at St. Moritz
The Winter Olympics was created to feature snow and ice sports that were
logistically impossible to hold during the Summer Games. Figure skating (in 1908
and 1920) and ice hockey (in 1920) were featured as Olympic events at the Summer
Olympics.[58] The IOC desired to expand this list of sports to encompass other winter
activities. At the 1921 Olympic Congress in Lausanne, it was decided to hold a
winter version of the Olympic Games. A winter sports week (it was actually 11 days)
was held in 1924 in Chamonix, France, in connection with the Paris Games held
three months later; this event became the first Winter Olympic Games.[59] Although it
was intended that the same country host both the Winter and Summer Games in a
given year, this idea was quickly abandoned. The IOC mandated that the Winter
Games be celebrated every four years in the same year as their summer
counterpart.[60] This tradition was upheld through the 1992 Games in Albertville,
France; after that, beginning with the 1994 Games, the Winter Olympics were held
every four years, two years after each Summer Olympics.[61]

Paralympics
Main article: Paralympic Games

1964 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo

In 1948, Sir Ludwig Guttmann, determined to promote the rehabilitation of soldiers
after World War II, organised a multi-sport event between several hospitals to
coincide with the 1948 London Olympics. Originally known as the Stoke Mandeville
Games, Guttmann's event became an annual sports festival. Over the next 12 years,
Guttmann and others continued their efforts to use sports as an avenue to healing.

In 1960, Guttmann brought 400 athletes to Rome to compete in the "Parallel

Olympics", which ran in parallel with the Summer Olympics and came to be known
as the first Paralympics. Since then, the Paralympics have been held in every
Olympic year and, starting with the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul, the host city for
the Olympics has also played host to the Paralympics.[62][c] The International Olympic
Committee (IOC) and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) signed an
agreement in 2001 which guaranteed that host cities would be contracted to manage
both the Olympic and Paralympic Games.[64][65] The agreement came into effect at
the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing, and at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver.

Two years before the 2012 Games, the LOCOG chairman Lord Coe made the
following statement about the Paralympics and Olympics in London:[66]

We want to change public attitudes towards disability, celebrate the excellence of

Paralympic sport and to enshrine from the very outset that the two Games are an
integrated whole.
Youth Games
Main article: Youth Olympic Games
In 2010, the Olympic Games were complemented by the Youth Games, which give
athletes between the ages of 14 and 18 the chance to compete. The Youth Olympic
Games were conceived by IOC president Jacques Rogge in 2001 and approved
during the 119th Congress of the IOC.[67][68] The first Summer Youth Games were held
in Singapore from 14 to 26 August 2010, while the inaugural Winter Games were
hosted in Innsbruck, Austria, two years later.[69] These Games will be shorter than the
senior Games; the summer version will last twelve days, while the winter version will
last nine days.[70] The IOC allows 3,500 athletes and 875 officials to participate at the
Summer Youth Games, and 970 athletes and 580 officials at the Winter Youth
Games.[71][72] The sports to be contested will coincide with those scheduled for the
senior Games, however there will be variations on the sports including mixed NOC
and mixed gender teams as well as a reduced number of disciplines and events. [73]

21st-century Games
Over 14,000 athletes competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics and 2022 Winter
Olympics combined, in 40 different sports and 448 events.[74][75] The Summer
Olympics have grown from 241 participants representing 14 nations in 1896, to more
than 11,300 competitors representing 206 nations in 2020.[76] The scope and scale of
the Winter Olympics is smaller; for example, Beijing hosted 2,971 athletes from
91 nations in 2022. Most of the athletes and officials are housed in the Olympic
Village for the duration of the Games. This accommodation centre is designed to be
a self-contained home for all Olympic participants, and is furnished with cafeterias,
health clinics, and locations for religious expression.[77]

The IOC has allowed the formation of National Olympic Committees (NOCs) to
represent individual nations. These do not meet the strict requirements for political
sovereignty that other international organisations demand. As a
result, colonies and dependencies are permitted to compete at Olympic Games,
examples being territories such as Puerto Rico, Bermuda, and Hong Kong, all of
which compete as separate nations despite being legally a part of another
country.[78] The current version of the Olympic Charter allows for the establishment of
new NOCs to represent nations that qualify as "an independent State recognised by
the international community".[79] Consequently, the IOC did not allow the formation of
NOCs for Sint Maarten and Curaçao when they gained the same constitutional
status as Aruba in 2010, although the IOC had recognised the Aruban Olympic
Committee in 1986.[80][81] Since 2012, athletes from the former Netherlands
Antilles have had the option to represent either the Netherlands or Aruba.[82]

Cost of the Games

See also: Cost of the Olympic Games
The Oxford Olympics Study 2016 found that, since 1960, sports-related costs for the
Summer Games were on average US$5.2 billion and for the Winter Games
$3.1 billion. These figures do not include wider infrastructure costs like roads, urban
rail, and airports, which often cost as much or more than the sports-related costs.
The most expensive Summer Games were Beijing 2008 at US$40–44 billion,[83] and
the most expensive Winter Games were Sochi 2014 at US$51 billion.[84][85] As of 2016,
costs per athlete were, on average, US$599,000 for the Summer Games and
$1.3 million for the Winter Games; for London 2012, the cost per athlete was
$1.4 million, and the figure was $7.9 million for Sochi 2014.[85]

Where ambitious construction for the 1976 Summer Games in Montreal and the
1980 Summer Games in Moscow had burdened organisers with expenses greatly in
excess of revenues, Los Angeles strictly controlled expenses for the 1984 Summer
Games by using existing facilities and only two new that were paid for by corporate
sponsors. The Organizing Committee led by Peter Ueberroth used some of the
profits to endow the LA84 Foundation to promote youth sports in Southern California,
educate coaches and maintain a sports library. The 1984 Summer Olympics are
often considered until that date, the most financially successful modern Olympics
and a model for future Games.[86]

Budget overruns are common for the Games. Average overrun for Games since
1960 is 156% in real terms,[87] which means that actual costs turned out to be on
average 2.56 times the budget that was estimated at the time of winning the bid to
host the Games. Montreal 1976 had the highest cost overrun for Summer Games,
and for any Games, at 720%; Lake Placid 1980 had the highest cost overrun for
Winter Games, at 324%. London 2012 had a cost overrun of 76%, Sochi 2014 of
289%.[85]

It has been documented that cost and cost overrun for the Games follow a power-
law distribution, which means that, first, the Games are prone to large cost
overruns and, second, it is only a matter of time until an overrun occurs that is larger
than the largest to date. In short, hosting the Games is economically and financially
extremely risky.[88]

The final cost for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics was reported to be JPY 1,423.8 billion
(USD 13 billion). This was achieved by balancing revenues and expenditures
through various efforts to increase revenue and continuously review expenditures.
The primary sources of revenue included the International Olympic Committee (IOC)
contribution of JPY 86.8 billion (USD 0.8 billion), TOP sponsorship of JPY 56.9 billion
(USD 0.5 billion), local sponsorship of JPY 376.1 billion (USD 3.4 billion), an
insurance payout of JPY 50 billion (USD 0.5 billion) for the postponement of the
Games, and other sources including licensing. The expenditures included JPY 195.5
billion (USD 1.8 billion) for venue-related costs and JPY 444.9 billion (USD 4 billion)
for service expenditures. The total cost also accounted for COVID-19
countermeasures amounting to JPY 35.3 billion (USD 0.3 billion). Despite initial
estimates, the total costs were reduced by JPY 220.2 billion (USD 2 billion) from the
budget announced in December 2020, and JPY 29.2 billion (USD 0.3 billion) from
the estimated budget in December 2021. This successful financial management
resulted in a balanced budget for the Tokyo 2020 Games.[89][90]

Economic and social impact on host cities and countries

Seeking a scholarly institution to independently research the Games, Bob Barney led
efforts to establish the International Centre for Olympic Studies in 1989,
endeavouring to write about sociocultural impacts of the Olympic Games.[91][92] He felt
that the Olympics "is worthy of study because it is one of the biggest meetings in a
global context and has many political, economic, and other problems associated with
it".[91] He began Olympika in 1992, the first peer-reviewed academic journal focused
on the Olympic Games.[93][94] The International Society of Olympic Historians was
founded in 1991, which publishes the Journal of Olympic History.[95]

Some economists are sceptical about the economic benefits of hosting the Olympic
Games, emphasising that such "mega-events" often have large costs while yielding
relatively few tangible benefits in the long run.[96] Hosting (or even bidding for) the
Olympics appears to increase the host country's exports, as the host or candidate
country sends a signal about trade openness when bidding to host the
Games.[97] Research suggests that hosting the Summer Olympics has a positive
effect on the philanthropic contributions of corporations headquartered in the host
city, which seems to benefit the local nonprofit sector. This effect begins in the years
leading up to the Games and might persist for several years afterwards, though not
permanently.[98]

The Games have had significant negative effects on host communities; for example,
the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions reports that the Olympics displaced
more than two million people over two decades, often disproportionately affecting
disadvantaged groups.[99] The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi were the most
expensive Olympic Games in history, costing in excess of US$50 billion. According
to a report by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development released at
the time of the games, the cost would not boost Russia's national economy, but
could attract business to Sochi and the southern Krasnodar region of Russia as a
result of improved services. But by December 2014, eight months after the
games The Guardian stated that Sochi "now feels like a ghost town", citing the
spread-out nature of the stadiums and arenas and the still-unfinished
infrastructure.[100] At least four cities withdrew their bids for the 2022 Winter Olympics,
citing the high costs or lack of local support,[101] resulting in only a two-city
race between Almaty, Kazakhstan and Beijing, China who hosted the 2008 Summer
Olympics. The Guardian stated that the biggest threat to the future of the Olympics is
few cities or countries want to host them.[102] Bidding for the 2024 Summer
Olympics became a two-city race between Paris and Los Angeles, so the IOC took
the unusual step of simultaneously awarding both the 2024 Games to Paris and
the 2028 Games to Los Angeles. Both of the bids were praised for high technical
plans and innovative ways to use a record-breaking number of existing and
temporary facilities.[103]

International Olympic Committee

See also: International Olympic Committee
The Olympic Movement encompasses a large number of national and international
sporting organisations and federations, recognised media partners, as well as
athletes, officials, judges, and every other person and institution that agrees to abide
by the rules of the Olympic Charter.[104] As the umbrella organisation of the Olympic
Movement, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is responsible for selecting
the host city, overseeing the planning of the Olympic Games, updating and
approving the Olympic sports programme, and negotiating sponsorship and
broadcasting rights.[105]

The Olympic Movement is made of three major elements:

• International Federations (IFs) are the governing bodies that supervise a

sport at an international level. For example, the International Federation of
Association Football (FIFA) is the IF for association football, and
the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball is the international governing
body for volleyball. There are currently 35 IFs in the Olympic Movement,
representing each of the Olympic sports.[106]
• National Olympic Committees (NOCs) represent and regulate the Olympic
Movement within each country. For example, the Russian Olympic
Committee (ROC) is the NOC of the Russian Federation. There are
currently 206 NOCs recognised by the IOC.[107][108]
• Organising Committees for the Olympic Games (OCOGs) are temporary
committees responsible for the organisation of each Olympic Games.
OCOGs are dissolved after each Games once the final report is delivered
to the IOC.[109]
French and English are the official languages of the Olympic Movement. The other
language used at each Olympic Games is the language of the host country (or
languages, if a country has more than one official language apart from French or
English). Every proclamation (such as the announcement of each country during the
parade of nations in the opening ceremony) is spoken in these three (or more)
languages, or the main two depending on whether the host country is an English or
French speaking country: French is always spoken first, followed by an English
translation, and then the dominant language of the host nation (when this is not
English or French).[110]

Allegations of bribery and corruption

The IOC has often been accused of being an intractable organisation, with several
life members on the committee. The presidential terms of Avery Brundage and Juan
Antonio Samaranch were especially controversial. Brundage fought strongly for
amateurism and against the commercialisation of the Olympic Games, even as these
attitudes came to be seen as incongruous with the realities of modern sports. The
advent of state-sponsored athletes from the Eastern Bloc countries further eroded
the ideology of the pure amateur, as it placed self-financed amateurs of Western
countries at a disadvantage.[111] Brundage was accused of antisemitism and of racism
in resisting the exclusion of South Africa.[112] Under the Samaranch presidency, the
office was accused of both nepotism and corruption.[113] Samaranch's ties with
the Franco regime in Spain were also a source of criticism.[114]

In 1998, it was reported that several IOC members had taken gifts from members of
the Salt Lake City bid committee for the hosting of the 2002 Winter Olympics. There
were soon four independent investigations underway: by the IOC, the United States
Olympic Committee (USOC), the Salt Lake Organizing Committee (SLOC), and
the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). Although nothing strictly illegal had
occurred, it was felt that the acceptance of the gifts was morally dubious. As a result
of the investigation, ten members of the IOC were expelled and a further ten
sanctioned.[115] Stricter rules were adopted for future bids, and caps were introduced
to define how much IOC members could accept from bid cities. Additionally,
new term and age limits were put into place for IOC membership, and fifteen former
Olympic athletes were added to the committee. Nevertheless, from sporting and
business standpoints, the 2002 Olympics were one of the most successful Winter
Games in history; records were set in both the broadcasting and marketing
programs. Over 2 billion viewers watched more than 13 billion viewer-hours.[116] The
2002 Games were also a financial success, raising more money with fewer sponsors
than any prior Olympic Games, leaving SLOC with a surplus of $40 million. This
excess revenue was used to create the Utah Athletic Foundation (also known as the
Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation), which maintains and operates many of the
surviving Olympic venues.[116]

It was reported in 1999 that the Nagano Olympic bid committee had spent
approximately $14 million on entertaining the 62 IOC members and many of their
associates. The precise figures are unknown since Nagano destroyed the financial
records after the IOC requested that the entertainment expenditures should not be
made public.[117][118]

In July 2000, when the Los Angeles Times reported on the tangled nature of how the
IOC redistributes profits from sponsorships and broadcasting rights, Olympic
historian Bob Barney stated that he had "yet to see matters of corruption in the IOC",
but noted there were "matters of unaccountability".[119] He later noted that when the
spotlight is on the athletes, it has "the power to eclipse impressions of scandal or
corruption", with respect to the Olympic bid process.[120]

An August 2004, a BBC documentary, Panorama: Buying the Games, reported the
results of an investigation into bribes allegedly used in the bidding process for
the 2012 Summer Olympics.[121] The documentary claimed that it was possible to
bribe IOC members into voting for a particular candidate city. After being narrowly
defeated in their bid for the 2012 Games,[122] Parisian mayor Bertrand
Delanoë specifically accused the British prime minister Tony Blair and the London
bid committee, headed by former Olympic champion Sebastian Coe, of breaking the
bid rules. He cited French president Jacques Chirac as a witness; Chirac gave
guarded interviews concerning his involvement[123] but the allegation was never fully
explored. Turin's bid to host the 2006 Winter Olympics was also clouded by
controversy; a prominent IOC member, Marc Hodler, closely connected to the
rival bid of Sion, alleged bribery of IOC officials by members of the Turin Organising
Committee. These accusations led to a wide-ranging investigation, and also served
to sour many IOC members against Sion's bid which potentially helped Turin to
capture the host city nomination.[124]

Commercialisation
Under national organising committees
The Olympic Games have bee