History And Objectives Of Olympics

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Olympic game is one of the biggest sporting events in the world. This event takes part in a hosting country and the athletes from the entire world. The hosting country may need to come out a huge amount of money to develop this event such as upgrading the facilities in the country. This event will be watched from people around the world either it is from near or far. The logo on Olympic flag represent as the international nature of games. This event is held every four years called Summer Games and every two years called Olympic Winter Games. Sport games that will be carrying out will be swimming, cycling, gymnastics, wrestling, tennis, shooting and so on. Winter games may be included games such as skating, skiing, ice hockey and so on.

According to the historical records, ancient Olympics games were founded by the son of Zeus named Heracles. The first ancient Olympic Games were held in 776 BC. This event was carried out at the ancient plains of Olympia and continued about 1200 years. The ancient games included running, jumping, javelin, boxing, discus throw and so on. However, during 393 CE, Emperor Theodosius abolished this event due to their pagan influences.

After 1500 years, a guy came from France named Pierre de Coubertin trying to recover the Olympic Games. In year 1890, Coubertin organized and founded a sports organization called Union des Sociétés Francaises de Sports Athlétiques (USFSA). After two years, he came out an idea to revive the Olympic Games. He then went for a meeting at USFSA in Paris on November 25 year 1892. He stated out his idea and his speech did not inspire any action.

During the 19th century, there were many people trying to revive this event. In year 1894, Pierre de Coubertin form International Olympic Committee (IOC) purpose is to revive the Olympic Games and he set up an objective that is to organize the first Olympic Games in modern times. The first modern Olympic Games was held in year 1896 April and take place at Athens, Greece. Following the Olympic Games was held in different country and until the current latest year 2012 which the event held at London.

The objective of having this mega event is to link sport with culture and education. Therefore, athletes from different countries can learn different culture from their opponent and also the languages. Secondly, the objective is to help to build a better world through sport practiced in a spirit of peace, excellence, friendship and respect. This is not only for them to complete with each other during the competition, it is encourages them to be respect to each other and also building friendship with each other although they are from different countries. Besides, the purpose of this event is to promote the practice of sport and the joy found in effort.

Positive impacts of Olympics

Besides being as sports, Olympics may also affect the businesses and the hosting countries. There are a lot of business may gain advantages from Olympics such as increasing the sales of the company. For example, when they are a lot of tourists visit the hosting country, business such as restaurants and hotels may earn huge amount of profit from the tourists. At the same time, if the services or goods are satisfy them, the tourists may also help to promote to others. This may helps the company to do a free advertisement through their customers. Besides that, sponsorship such as Coca-cola, Panasonic, Samsung, McDonald’s and so on may also spread their brand image around the world.

Moreover, hosting country may also gain benefits from Olympic. For example, in London 2012, by hosting Olympic such a big event, it helps London to create more job opportunity and economic activity to its citizen. For example, by constructing new stadiums and hotels may need a lot of workers. For those who are unemployment, they might have an opportunity to get this job which given by the government. When they had the job, they might have their income. At the same time, since they had income, they might spend on it. This will lead the country Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to growth, hence since the country growth, it might attract many foreign investors to invest in London.

Hosting Olympics also help to increase the prestige of a country. Since the event is a "once in a lifetime" opportunity to provide a showcase to the world, the country will do their best to maintain a good image of the country for their future. If the country can shows the tourists or people around the world a good image of the country, it may create an opportunity for them to visit the country again in future. Therefore, it may benefit the tourism industry and also the growth rate of the country.

In addition, hosting Olympic may also helps a country to attract tourist to come over their country. When tourists come to their country, tourists will spend their money in foods or shelter. Therefore, the small business such as restaurants or café and big business such as hotels might earn profit from the tourists. Besides that, those businesses may also create job opportunities which they need to hire part time worker to help them to serve customers. By building new hotels, it is not necessary only for tourists to stay, the government in London will use this to solve the city housing shortage after the Olympics games.

Besides that, by hosting Olympic such a big event, it is necessary for a country to upgrade it transport facilities. For example, during London Olympics in 2012, it can be seen that new rail links has been constructed in east London and also the new improvement on existing overground and underground train services. The purpose of doing this is to provide the tourists convenience services and maintain a good image of the country. Besides that, after the Olympics event the citizen in London can also use the new rail link to travel.

Furthermore, certain business can also try to make a profit from this Olympics event. Although it is a short term benefit, there are still many businesses trying to make huge amount of profit from this mega event. For example, boutique industry will design new clothing related to Olympics to attract the tourists to purchase. There are also tourists who are willing to buy souvenirs from the hosting country for their friends or family, thus it may help certain business to earn profit.

Olympics events can also help United Kingdom to promote or encourages it citizen in doing sport activities. When looking at the athletes performing different sports activities, it might attract others to learn and play the sport. This is to help them to have a better fitness standard and less overweight issue. At the same time, it also helps to reduce the demand in health care such as purchasing health supplement.

When a country is hosting Olympics event, it is require for them to construct new sporting facilities. In London 2012, due to the Olympic event, they had constructed new sporting facilities such as swimming pools, tennis courts, cycling park, hockey complex and so on. After the Olympics event, those sporting facilities were open for the entire citizen to enjoy. Besides, it can also help the athletes to foster the Olympic champion in the coming Olympic event.

Negative impacts of Olympics

Although Olympic is a big event that may brings benefit to businesses and host country, it will also bring negative impacts to the host country and businesses. The main negative impact will be the cost used for hosting this big event. The hosting country has to come out with huge amount of cost for constructing new stadium and new facilities. It is very risky for the country to use such a big amount of money for planning this event because the country might not know how many tourists will be coming to their country and how many hotels it has to prepare. The host country cannot predict how much profit they can earn from this event but they have to come out a huge amount of cost to generate this event. For example, the estimated cost for London in hosting Olympic in year 2012 is about £2.375 billion. However, they suffer a loss of £500 million in operating cost.

In addition, cost of security is also needed for the hosting country during the Olympic event. This is to prevent the terrorism and hooligans disrupting the games and also the citizen in the country. Besides that, the country transport facilities must also be excellent to fulfill all the visitor. It is very costly for a country to create new transport facilities and at the same time they might causes major problems such as traffic jam during the construction period.

Besides that, there will be an increase in unemployment rate after the Olympic event. Although the benefit of Olympic is to create job opportunity for the citizen, but it is a short term activity which construction of new stadium only held before the Olympic launch. Those jobs are to provide people who are under unemployment a short term job to earn a small amount of income. Once the event is completed, there will be a high unemployment rate in the country. At the same time, business such as hotels and souvenir shops also emphasis in short term profit which they only earn huge amount of profit during the big event.

Moreover, the host country may try to tax higher during the sporting event. When government increases in taxation, it may influences the businesses in the country which their customers have to pay higher price for the products and services they demanded. The purpose for them to do so is to reduce the loss and at the same time they might cause dissatisfaction of the citizen and tourists. This may actually influence the image of the country and also businesses such as food industry to loss customer.

Furthermore, there are certain disadvantages of hosting Olympic event. Especially for the poor countries in Africa and Asia, they might not have enough capital for hosting Olympic. Besides that, hosting Olympic is actually wasting the resources in the country. Every country might have its own limited resources that used for the welfare of citizen. For a poor development country, it might have less resource. If this poor country such as India is going to host the Olympic such a big event, it might occur problem such as lack of resources and also waste of the resources. This is because planning Olympic event need a very high budget therefore only can fulfill all the tourists come from around the world.

Besides that, Olympic event only benefit the people in power and businesses. People who are doing business may gain benefit such as increasing the sales of the company, while for the poor people, they might not gain any benefit from it and they will only suffer. For example, during Olympic event the government of the hosting country might increase in taxation. This is for them to reduce loss during this event yet it might influences the poor people which they need to pay more during purchasing goods and services. People who are unaffordable in those high priced products such as food might face problem such as hunger. At the viewpoint of poor countries such as India, the citizen in India might not gain any benefit during the Olympic event. Besides, it is also difficult for the citizen to travel to the hosting country since it is unaffordable.

Lastly, Olympic event might also cause economic corruption. This is because this mega event needs a very high set up cost and the hosting country may not know how much profit they might earn. If the hosting country makes loss in this Olympic event, it might causes economic corruption in the country. At the same time, unemployment rate will tend to occur and also many investors will face bankruptcy. For example, in year 2004 the hosting country of Olympic event which is Athens had make a loss about 14 to 15 billion. At the viewpoint of poor countries such as India, if India hosted the Olympic events, it will cause the county economic to collapse.

Conclusion

As conclusion, Olympics actually bring benefits and also drawbacks to the hosting country and business. Olympic is very important events that must be develop because it improve interaction between different countries. Beyond the Olympic Games, the athletes and also the others can learn how to respect various cultures and also gain joy during the event.