Despite people’s expectation of the Olympics to be inspirational and positively influential, the Olympics does not promote core values because of unethical activities both inside and outside games and economical conspiracy of related parties. First, main causes that damage the Olympics’ core purpose of giving people hope and inspiration are unethical activities. Increasing numbers and strictness of drug testing simply explain how there are many athletes who are attempting to win by cheating and trying to escape from the testing.
In 1988, on the night of 24 September, one of the world’s best sprinter, Ben Johnson, achieved in recording 9. 79 seconds in the men’s 100m final race winning the gold. It was three days later when He lost everything with his urine being tested positive for an illegal steroid (Adams, 2012). Ukrainian cross-country skier Marina Lisogor was kicked out of the Olympics after tested positive for trimetazidine (Miller, 2012). Latvian ice hockey player Vitalijs Pavlovs was tested positive for methylhexaneamine, which had been banned in 2010 (Miller, 2012). These evidences clearly indicate how serious athletes’ cheating by drugs is.
Olympic heroes who were drown into the bottom by abusing banned drugs made sports suspicious. Needless to say, they deeply hurt those who were meant to be standing on golden podium and cast skepticism over performance of clean athletes from the moment forward. Moreover, They, the most importantly, disappoint those who were supporting the Olympics and believing them. In addition, bribery outside games is getting serious too. According to Howman (n. d), director general of the World Anti-Doping Agency, “there have been doping control officers bribed, there have been people working in labs bribed.
It’s happening and we need to stop it“. Winning games by keeping cheating secret by bribery has nothing to do with IOC’s hope to promote “a way of life based on the joy of effort, the educational value of good example, social responsibility and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles” at all. Once there is a testification of a fact like this, no matter how inspirational games are, in minds of people including kids, there is suspicion of possible bribery behind games. Furthermore, conclusive sources make it clear that Salt Lake City spent almost 400,000 to win the 2002 Winter Games (Daley, 2011).
This indicate that a stage itself of the Olympics by which IOC initially intended to expect athletes to promote core values was a mass of tainted money. The Olympics as a whole should inspire people by promoting core values. Although there is no doubt that frequency and quality of testing has been accelerated to run the Olympics with fairness, as long as every single athlete does not hope to compete without any cheating, the Olympics will never achieve in promoting core values. Furthermore, even a single bribery issue has tremendous negative impact on those who watch the Olympics.
It is easily assumed that regaining people’s trust in games with no bribery takes immeasurable time. Another reason why the Olympics does not promote core values is economical conspiracy generated by many parties who exploit the Olympics only for their advantage. Behind the Olympics, host countries are secretly utilizing their opportunity to only expand their profits. The Olympics are not only hosted to clean up the city, but also to reconstitute by eliminating the poor and the undesirable; to create a city by and for the rich (Kumar, 2012).
According to Kumar, PhD candidate of Economic Geography at Oxford University, “the 2008 Beijing Olympics saw the forced displacement of 1. 5 million residents. The 2010 Vancouver Games targeted the homeless, indigenous, and women with eviction notices, criminalizing begging and sleeping outdoors, and introducing a law banning placards, banners or posters that do not ‘celebrate’ the Olympics. ” This indicates that the current situation of the Olympics, rather than promoting core values, only broaden inequality between the rich and the poor.
Even accumulated hatreds against the Olympics are hidden behind hearts of those who are badly affected by the Olympics. Hosting the Olympics initially appears to be an ideological opportunity to bring in more tourists into a city and promotes sports as well to energize the city. At this time, it is safe enough to say the Olympics clearly make a shadow. A further reason why The Olympics does not promote core values is sponsor companies involved in organizing the Olympics.
There are many sponsors such as Coca-Cola, McDonalds and Cadbury, which have been heavily criticized for their high-sugar, high-caloric products that do not represent healthy and smart world of professional athletics (Smedley, 2012). The cost needed for holding such a big scaled event like the Olympics can never be overestimated. Even so, is it what the Olympics want that kids in front of live broadcasting of the games go get some Coke to drink during the games? Is it how the Olympics promote core values by telling these children to eat the cheapest unhealthy fast food at McDonalds after they finish playing sports?
Despite efforts of IOC to prevent negative impacts of the Olympics, the society including countries, sponsors, the Olympic stuffs, and athletes themselves seem to have no choice but to reconsider ideal situation of the Olympics. Some might argue that moving stories in which the Olympic athletes show their sportsmanship still give its viewers hope, thus, promoting core values at the same time. For instance, according to The Canadian Olympic Committee (2012), “what an awesome moment in Olympic history, as the IOC went ‘beyond the podium’ to award true sportsmanship.
The Committee also awards Letters of Congratulations and Diplomas of Honor for acts of fair play”. In addition, Brazil’s Vanderlei de Lima was given the Pierre de Coubertin medal after his sportsmanship of bringing his bronze medal back to his country with the warrant of a good conscience even though he had been pushed to the side of the course during a marathon game by a protestor to be passed by two other runners (The Canadian Olympic Committee, 2013). It might be true that stories as Vandelei surely indicate that countless sportsmanships shown in real games imbue people with educational value of good example.
It can be true to say that athletes’ dedications towards fairness surely represent and promote core values. Sadly, on the contrary, unfairness is hidden behind the inspirational movies in wide-screen TV. Aschwanden call Tyler Hamilton a one-time friend, who was taken away his gold medal after he had confessed to use doping. Aschwaden tells that she used to admire him as truly honest and hardworking true athlete (Aschwaden, 2012). Not only that, but also in 1904, a marathon runner came into the stadium where he was welcomed by big applauses of the crowd who thought that he was the winner.
Later, it turned out that he was picked up by his trainer to be driven for 11 miles during the game (Adams, 2012). All these stories once seemed as truly dramatical performance for viewers, promoting core values until the truth was exposed. In the current Olympics where prevention of cheating and bribery issues seem almost impossible, it is hard for anybody to say with no doubt at all that every single winner crosses the line without any unfair action. In the sense of the world, it might be rather safe to say that not all motivational stories are real as they have not been in the past.
