How Have The Olympics Changed?: September 2008

Thursday, September 18, 2008

How Have The Olympics Changed? - Report

I think the Olympics have changed in tons of ways. The first way is that it is now a major world wide event that attracts thousands of people, opposed to back in 1936 when there were a small number of participants, events, sports and nations competing. Those numbers slowly grew and grew until in 2008 where we had 10,500 participants, competing in 302 events, in 28 sports and with 204 countries competing. Now that's a big improvement!

The second way is that there is now great cation about where the Olympics are to be sent next. In 1936 the IOC sent the Olympics to Berlin, Germany, half knowing what problems it would cause. Now there are huge conferences about if the next destination of they Olympics and they discuss if the country is fit to hold the next Olympic Games. 2008, Beijing is a prime example of this. Even though the Olympics was let go ahead there were still major decisions that had to be made.

The third way is the performance of the athletes. Athletes are always improving their records. The new technology the athletes have will let them continue improving. Back in they early Olympics they had no scientificly proven methods of training the had no coaches or personal trainers. They had to train by themselves and still earn a living for their family.

The fourth and final way i'm going to talk about is the new rules of fairness, drug testing and that they olympics are supposed to be held in peace. There are now rules in place about fair rights to all countries. The a big difference to the 1936 olympics where everything was in Germany's favour. The new drug test rules stop athletes from cheating and makes for a fair Olympics. The Olympics are now hoped to bring peace and let all the countries come together and compete in a fair way.

Survey

Questions: Number of people done survey:10
Do you think there are too many sports in the Olympic Games? 60%yes 40%no

Do you think too many people compete in the Olympic Games? 30%yes 70%no

Do you think of the Olympics as a major event of the year? 80%yes 20%no

Do you think there should be age restrictions? 20%yes 80%no

Do you think every country should have the right to compete? 100%yes 0%no

Dancing, cricket, rugby ect. Are all sports, should they be in the
Olympic Games? 50%yes 50%no

Is 4 years too long to wait for another Olympic games? 40%yes 60%no

On a scale of 1-10 how much do you think the Olympics has changed from 1936? 10 9 9 9 9 10 8 8 9 10 Average: 9 Most comman result: 9 Middle score: 9

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Journal

Click on to enlarge

Marathon - Women

Marathon - Men

Long Jump - Women

Javelin - Women

Javelin - Men

Andreas Thorkildsen from Norway holds the Olympic record of 90.57m.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Long Jump - Men

My prediction for the future:
The average improvement is 0.0483m each Olympic Games in long jump.

Therefore it will be reasonable to expect the next men's Olympic long jump score will be 8.383m.

2008 Beijing, China

There was alot of up-roar about the Olympics going to China mainly because of human rights issues, China has got a bad name for alot of the things they've been doing to the people in their country and how they've been treating them. Their were also problems of pollution because China have the highest pollution levels. There were many debates about if it was safe for the athletes to be in that environment. Athletes set 43 world records and 132 Olympic records in Beijing.
Plus Micheal Phelps U.S.A, set a world record by being the first to ever win 8 gold medals in one Olympic Games ( by swimming). He took out Mark Spits record of 7 gold medals that was set in the 1972 Munich, Germany Olympic Games ( also from swimming).
Usain Bolt also set history when he easily smashed the previous world record with a amazing 9.69 seconds and he slowed down to celebrate before the finish. He won another 2 golds in the 200m and the 400m relay ( beating the world records).

Monday, September 15, 2008

2000 Sydney, Australia

It was said that these Olympic games would be the best in history and they certainly were. They were awarded all 10s from the IOC. They broke the world record with a massive 10,651 participants. They also broke the record of sport/events (30 sports, 300 events) and the most countries competing (199).
More than 50,000 unpaid volunteers work on the Olympic Games to make it so successful.
One of the only bad things was that 30 athletes failed drug tests, but that also did prove that the drug testing method was effective.

1936 Berlin, Germany

The Berlin, Germany Olympic Games was actually scheduled for Barcelona, Spain. But this wasn't so because of the civil war that had just started in Spain.This Olympic games created alot of concern because of the Nazi's beliefs Even some countries went as far as boy coting ( not attending) the Olympics. This Olympics made great history when the black American: Jesse Owens won gold in the 100 and 200 meter dashes and the long jump, plus he led the American 400 meter relay team to a gold. As you could probably image Adolf Hitler wasn't very pleased to hear these results(and he wasn't going to present his gold medal). Again Adolf Hitler wasn't very happy when he found out that all the Germans had been eliminated from the high jump and stormed out of the stadium. Then one of the heads of the Olympic comity said you present all the athletes with their medals or none at all after he was mainly, only presenting the Germans the medals.......Hitler said: "Then I'll present none at all."No surprise to everybody else Germany led the countries at the end of the Olympics games with a total of 89 medals.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Technological Environment

Technical equipment such as tred mills and other training machines you would find in a gym, have a dramatic effect on the fitness and well-being of the athletes of today. Fitness macines are desinged to get the most out of your training in a short time. The modern work out machines push your muscles in every way and that is one of the main reasons humans keep improving the olympic and world records, all of this morden technology is definitly a main factor in the success of the olympic games.

Monday, September 8, 2008

Social Environment

Womens' Rights To Compete In The Olympic Games

The first Olympic Games that allowed women to enter was in 1900 Paris, France. Out of 1,225 athletes 19 of them were women. Slowly the number of women competing in the olympics has increased. In 2000 Sydney, Australia Olympic Games, out of 10,651 athletes, 4,069 were women.

Economy

Economy has been playing a huge part in sport/The Olympic Games. The sports industry makes loads of money for selling all their top quality gear to professional athletes. But most famous olympic athletes are paid huge sums of money to have some sport's, brand's logos on their sports outfit. For instance: There was a 1,000,000 dollar reward from Speedo's swim company if Micheal Phelps tied world record of 7 gold medals in a single Olympics(from swimming)set by Mark Spitz from the U.S.A in 1972 Munich, Germany Olympic Games, in a Speedo's outfit.

One of the main reasons America, China, Russia ect. have such great success in the olympics is because they can afford to send alot of highly trained athletes to compete in the olympic games, it would cost a fortune to train and send only 100 athletes to the olympic games and few countries have the money to do this. You'll find the olympic 'medal per head table' alot different to the over all medal winner.

War

War has effected many olympic games. One of the prime examples is the 1936 Berlin, Germany Olympic Games, which was actually scheduled for Spain but the didn't go ahead because of the civil war that was going on at the time. Some countries went as far as boy cotting the olympics because they were outraged that Germany/Hitler were going to host the olympic games. Hilter created more problems when he only presented German athletes with their medals. The olympic comity said that Hitler had to present all athletes medals or none at all. From then on he presented none at all. Now the olympic games are an excuse to stop war and are to be held in peace and fairness.

Environment

Environment-Physical

Climate

The climate changes have had a very big impact on olympic athletes, but mainly the runners. For instance lets look at Jamaica, they have dominated the track running for a very long time and most of the athletes don't even have trainers. Nor all the expensive technology that big countries can provied. Then what makes them so good on the track?

It's their climate. As alot of people would know Jamaica is a very trocpical/hot island, these extreme temperatures make their running abilities very strong because it's alot harder to run in hot temperatures than a normal climate and if you get use to the hot you can do alot more in a normal climate.

This is also one of the main reasons Africa and other hot countries such as Ethiopia are such good long distance runners.

Altitude

Alot of athletes are now using the altitude to their advantege because it is scientifically proven that it enhances their preformance. Alot of athletes will now go running where there is high altitude such as mountains. They do this because being at a high altitude it makes your heart beat faster due to the lack of oxygen. When the athletes are competing on normal ground level their heart automaticly beings to beat faster, bringing more oxygen to your muscles. With nurturance being pumped to your muscles more often they preform to a higher level.

Pollution

Pollution has only recently started effecting olympic athletes, especially at the 2008 Beijing, China Olympic Games where pollution was effecting the athletes preformance greatly. But it isn't effecting the athletes nearly so much as the countries, if the the pollution countiues to rise there might be big debates about which countries are clean enough to host the Olympic Games.