DBWI: What If the Olympic Games Still Existed?

Pierre De Coubertin revived the modern Olympic Games in 1896 as a display of amateur athletics and sporting skill. The games seemed popular at first and new installments took place in 1900 and 1904. The event was planned to take place in 1908 again but never came to fruition nor any other subsequent games. A lot of people blame the sudden change of the host cities from Chicago to St. Louis in 1904. The switch was made as the people organizing the World's Fair also in St. Louis at the same time didn't want any competition from another international event and threatened to host there own games. Pierre De Coubertin Chairman of the Olympics reluctantly changed the cities but refused to attend. Feeling a mediocre city would host a mediocre games. In 1900 the Paris Games were also overshadowed by a World's Fair.

The AAU was the organizing body behind the sporting events and right from the start they botched it. Scheduling a game or tournament for everyday of the 7 month long fair. This confused people as to what was an official Olympic Event or just a demonstration of a particular sport causing light attendance. Some of these events were pretty sketchy as they were called Anthropology Days and seemed to exploit ethnic and national minorities by having them compete in games like spear hurling, primitive archery, mud throwing, pole climbing. As if they were a side tent in a freak show.

Then there were the scandals. The water polo event took place at the same time as an agricultural demonstration at different sides of the lake. Livestock was allowed to enter the water and due to this the water became toxic and four athletes died of typhus inside the year as a result. The marathon course was so brutal that only 14 of the 32 participants completed it with only one water break at the 11th mile an act of deliberate dehydration. Controversially the winning runner Thomas Hicks was basically carried over the finish line his legs still moving as he did so. South African runner Len Tau was chased by a pack of feral dogs at one point. Athletes cited all these things and refused to compete in 1908 choosing to compete in their national contests instead. We didn't get an international sporting convention again until United Nations sponsored International Games in 1950.

Do you think the Olympics could have been saved in some way? Would sticking with the Chicago as the host city have made things better? 1904 was dominated by American and Canadian athletes as St. Louis was considered a far flung wilderness at the time. Did the Olympics add to many events to quickly? How would you save the Olympics? Would the World Wars have doomed the games anyways? Sports used for political gains perhaps?
 
The scheduling over months was a bad idea. Also the combination with the world fair didn't work out well.

There was a suggestion of organization of recurring intermediate games in Athens. This suggestion was made in 1901, and they were supposed to be held in 1902. The games would have been held over period of two weeks. There were plans for an opening ceremony in which the national teams presented themselves by entering the stadium.

But it turned out to be too short a time to organize them, so the Greek backed out of it. When the games were held over such a short period, they might attract more attention, instead of being just a sideshow to the world fair.

After WW1 there was an attempt to revive the Olympics, but they were a debacle. They were held in Antwerp, like the earlier games they spanned several months. There were many controversies. There were just 12 countries attending and the only non-European country was the US.

There were literally spectators at the athletics events (OK, not literally no-one, but very few tickets were sold). Half of the sailing events were cancelled due to lack of contestants. In two of the classes there were no contestants at all, and in 6 there was only one, so they were cancelled. Most of the others only had two contestants.

What also didn't help was that the organization did there utmost best to get Belgium on the top spot of the medal count. In which they nearly succeeded by adding 20 (!) archery events. In which only three countries took part (Belgium and France), and since Belgium had twice as many entrants, they were allowed two teams for the team events, which led them to win two medals in those (mostly gold and silver).

In the footbalfinale (Belgium-Czechoslovakia) the Czech team left the stadium after a controversial decision of the referee, and they were disqualified, which meant that the silver medal went to the winner of the match that was originally held for the bronze medal.

Rowing was held in bad weather in the open water of the Scheld, and one of the boats sunk.

In Eventing the cross-country test was too hard, with just two finishers, but worse was that 2 horses had to be killed from their injuries, and two jockeys suffered broken limbs.

The organization went bankrupt, and after this Paris withdraw for the organization of the 1924 Olympics. No-one was interested to organize it, and that was the end of the modern Olympics.

Pierre de Coubertin believed in amateur sport, but he really should have organized it more professionally, because with the amateuristic organization, all three Olympic events were ridden with scandals. As I started with, the idea of how the intermediate games were to be held seems more solid, and actually reflects how the International Games in 1950 were organized. They were held to commerate the 5 year existence of the UN. It's a shame they were just a one-off event. They could have been held every 5 years. But since the Korean war was still going on, the games that were originally to be held in 1955 were called off, and after that the idea was abandoned.
 
Pierre de Coubertin believed in amateur sport, but he really should have organized it more professianally, because with the amateuristic organization, all three Olympic events were ridden with scandals. As I started with, the idea of how the intermediate games were to be held seems more solid, and actually reflects how the International Games in 1950 were organized. They were held to commerate the 5 year existence of the UN. It's a shame they were just a one-off event. They could have been held every 5 years. But since the Korean war was still going on, the games that were originally to be held in 1955 were called off, and after that the idea was abandoned.
until 1992, that is. with the end of cold war. the first world games were held in Geneva. it is now held every 4 years, with locations changing.
 
I suppose the biggest change to the sports landscape would be no more Spartakiad. Sure it was limited to Warsaw Pact and Communist countries in general and was as much an act of Political Propaganda as a Sports Festival but the West and the rest of the globe didn't really have an equivalent other than a few multi-sport events that ultimately failed. Post World War 2 the games were really sporadic and hosted at the whim of the ComIntern's Sports Committee at one point there was a games within 9 months of each other and another with 7 years between them. Eventually they'd be hosted every 2 years in a variety of cities including Havana, Moscow, Berlin, Bucharest, Budapest, Shanghai, and Ulaanbaatar among others. They were massively popular among the citizenry more surprisingly was just how popular the games were in the West. The Soviet Government deliberately made the syndication rights dirt cheap and Television Networks often broadcast the events late at night. In the cable era a fledgling ESPN managed to snag a deal to broadcast the games live desperate for any original content. I almost feel bad for those Eastern Bloc gymnasts who were bombarded by telegrams and fan letters from love struck and horny Western men who hadn't seen anything like them before. Some of the Communist governments turned that to their advantage and sponsored fan clubs for their athletes selling memberships and sports souvenirs it became a source of hard currency. That all changed after the fall of Communism and the rise of the World Games every 4 years.

I've heard rumors that some cable television mogul is trying to create his own multi-sport international sports tournament with an emphasis on Goodwill although focusing on winter sports and would take place in the four year gaps between the Summer oriented World Games.
 
The problem with the Olympics was the cult of amateurism only the wealthy could attend and the fact that the USA because of its amateur College track and field system won virtually every medal.

The proffesional Highland Games that started in Scotland in the 19th Century were very well organised and athletes were by the standards of the time well paid. When Highland Games took off in Europe in the 1870s then America soon after meant the shambolic Olympics were doomed before they really got off the ground. Without the best proffesional athletes the Olympics were known as the 2nd class games or the students games.

Nowadays the four yearly International Highland Games is the pinnacle of sport though purists say that only highland Games held in Scotland really count. I was lucky enough to get tickets for the 2012 Highlands in London but I admit I do prefer the smaller annual Balmoral games.
 
Maybe Title IX wouldn't have damaged college athletics so much. Most universities solved the requirement by dropping unprofitable sports left and right, so the only men's programs left were football, basketball, baseball, and in a few places hockey. Women had a few more options, but some weird things like soccer rosters being huge and the weird NCAA rules with unlimited substitutions make it a completely different game than men's professional soccer.

It's weird that most of the opportunities for women in sport now are in professional combat sport- I don't know if women's MMA takes off like it does if olympic sports are still an option. Maybe Serena Williams ends up a soccer goalie instead of heavyweight champ? 32-1-2 is a legendary record.
 
OOC: didn't kill it, but diminished it. More popular internationally, US open is a lot less prestigious.

Combat sports and team sports replaced a lot of the olympic sports- with team sports playing on sexual marketing a lot.

Men's soccer also survived in the US , though it's only the 4th biggest sport in US.
 
Last edited:
Top