The 1972 German massacre during the Olympic Games in Munich was shocking for the entire world. Although terrorism was already a renowned international threat in the 1970s, security during this event was not strong enough to prevent the invasion of the Olympic village by the Palestinian extremists (Hirsch, 2020). According to Spindlove and Simonsen (2018), on September 5, 1972, eight members of the Palestinian Black September terrorist group entered the village and managed to secure & nine Israeli hostages (p. 160). They demanded to release more than 200 Palestinian inmates from Israels prisons in exchange for the athletes, who would be killed if their request was not fulfilled (Spindlove & Simonsen, 2018). The leaders of the two affected countries decided not to accept extremists terms. Thus, the German military group opened fire on terrorists and their hostages, which resulted in the death of all of them (Spindlove & Simonsen, 2018). This accident strengthened Germanys anti-terrorist agencies, while Israel responded with the Operation Wrath of God.
Germany had to implement additional regulations that could control immigrating Arabs and their organizations within the country to prevent similar tragic accidents in the future. The main reason why terrorists were able to invade the village was that the Games had weak security that was unarmed (History, 2021). Moreover, theories suggest that Palestinian extremists received assistance from the administration of the Olympic Games, but this information was never confirmed (Reeve, 2018). Germany established a GSG-9 agency, which became an elite anti-terror unit (Spindlove & Simonsen, 2018). Its principal function is to defeat terrorism and rescue hostages in case of an extremists attack (Reeve, 2018). Furthermore, the government was involved in a series of official meetings with the Palestinian Liberation Organization and the leaders of the Arab world to prevent similar attacks through cooperation (Hirsch, 2020). This situation was humiliating not only for the German government but also for the entire civilized community; hence, this issue and the importance of counterterrorism were taken to the international arena.
Israels response can be considered brutal because it involved chasing and killing the responsible parties, naming the operation with the emotive but relatively pretentious title Wrath of God. Israels Prime Minister claimed they refused to negotiate with the terrorists because no Israeli anywhere in the world can feel that his life is safe (History, 2021). In fact, their primary aim was not only vengeance for the murdered athletes; they also wanted to spread fear among all Palestinians. Thus, Israel created a special committee that had to identify and kill everyone who was involved in the Munich massacre (Reeve, 2018). This operation continued for more than twenty years, with multiple wins and minor losses for Mossad (Reeve, 2018). Undoubtedly, this event was a horrendous incident for the Israeli people and the global community.
In summary, the tragic accident that happened at the 1972 Olympic Games in Germany showed the existing security problems in the country. Since Palestinian terrorists targeted Israeli athletes, who died during the rescue operation, the government of Israel responded with their readiness to destroy the involved individuals and groups. Germany also strengthened its counterterrorist actions by creating a special agency to fight extremism in the country. Overall, it appears that the Munich tragedy became the premise for the increased awareness about extremists internationally and coordinated counterterrorism work in the affected countries.
Reeve, S. (2018). One day in September: The full story of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre and the Israeli revenge operation Wrath of God. Arcade Publishing.
Spindlove, J. R., & Simonsen, C. E. (2018). Terrorism today: The past, the players, the future (6th ed.). Pearson.
The fact that Olympic Games are to be held next year, it is important to analyze some of the issues relating to the supply of products. This also includes factors of importance to the companies as they prepare to have the service delivery of their best suit, as well as, the most vital considerations in the pursuit of such goals (McCarthy, 2011, p.1).
Here, let me say that London being the host of the great event, it is important for suppliers and companies at large to have the best preparation before the event. This will save them a lot of agony, which could arise from the failure to plan, in addition to constant reaction disparities.
Therefore, it is important to focus on some of the factors that the companies might be undergoing in the pre-preparation of the event with regard to the issues that are arising to them now, those that will be portrayed in the actual event also the resultant effects of the whole event thereafter.
Possessing the knowledge of the markets as it relates to issues of delivery of products precisely supply as well as the factors that affect the channels and modes of supply, the issue of Olympics games in London is of major concern. This is because it raises various sensitive considerations as it pertains to the companies and their readiness for the event.
This paper will therefore, seek to answer the question, why do companies seem unprepared for the Olympic Games in London? This will be based on the article provided for review as well as the actual analysis of management issues relating to supply in the usual market and the issue of disaster management.
Introduction
To begin with, the article analyzes the previous market behaviors as they relate to issues of supply and the essence of future strategic planning. The Olympic season here is compared to Christmas season in terms of companies operations requirements (Albert 1). This is because of the peak, with reference to operative considerations of organizations.
It is presumed that even though buyers may not feel directly impacted by such occurrences, their respective supply chains are significantly affected.
A managerial perspective of the situation is given by the UK countrys manager Humphries, where he denoted that a greater risk is even projected in a situation where the customer is not preferred by the supplier. This is because in terms of supply, prioritizing the customer will get a very low position and might end up running short of supply or getting none (Blackstone, 1989).
The most advised aspect of the companies getting supplies from similar suppliers to those of the Olympics are in the actual sense in a very dangerous position. This is because when it comes to supplying for them as well as the Olympics they may get the second position in priorities.
This is a major threat to the supply requirements of the companies, as it would render them unreliable to their customers and eventually losing the customers. The mentioned risk however, can be mitigated through the establishment of better control of inventories, which will help in the elimination of the error of underestimation or overestimation of demand (Sollish & Semanik, 2007).
The impact of Olympic Games on the supply of products
Actually, some companies will choose to take advantage and use the Olympic branded products seeking to obtain maximum demand of the products. However, such companies ought to be extremely careful when it comes to purchasing because of the risk of being new in the Olympics trade.
Another risk relating to the use of the branded products is, though at first they may be well selling, and giving appealing returns, they might turn to be a very big disappointment after certain occasions.
This is with reference to the case of the 2010 rebranded products whose demand significantly fell after England had dropped out of the tournament. However, this should not hinder the suppliers from accessing the benefits of the branded products, but it is only aimed at cautioning them to be flexible and take advantage of supplies when necessary.
The issue of disruption however, is not the only concern for the buyers hindering them from preparation of their contingent plans. Other issues have also been playing a role in the interference with such planning. These include the unrest that has been noticed in the United Kingdom, as well as, the issue of weather disparities.
It has been realized that in most cases, organizations are not prepared in advance for the day-to-day unforeseen risks. The organizations in the recent past have not been considerate of the disruption impact brought about by the Games.
It is further noted in the article that some suppliers who do their businesses in a small scale have not considered the factor of business continuity sufficiency, which is the main threat on the companies not anticipating for wellbeing of the Olympic Games. Effective supply chain aims at eventually getting the operations back up and ensure the sufficient consistency of the operations.
The second thing to consider in the discussion on the readiness for the Olympic Games is that of the supply chains. These chains are facing increased pressures and the purchasers should be ready for it. However, as the Olympic Games get closer, it has been noticed that most of the purchasers have realized the potential too late about the essence of disruption of the supply chains.
The exception of the percentage of companies that are anticipating and preparing for a disruption as it pertains to the games is 40%, and this is a considerably small figure as compared to the initial performances portrayed.
A research to identify the notions and perceptions of the purchasers on issues relating to the supply chain showed that more than four fifths did not think there were any problems associated with the supply chain, which in this situation is a very vital issue of consideration as it relates to the companies preparedness for the Olympic Games.
Further survey showed that 58 percent did not hold any plans that would be of use in the event that such problems came up.
Quoting the statement made by John Mile who is a procurement consultant, it is evident that the effects on the supply chains on an issue relating to the supply chains are inevitable.
This time round therefore, during the Olympics it should be among the suppliers considerations to meet these inevitable business surcharges and therefore planning for them should be amongst their most recent and considered a list of priorities (Sollish & Semanik, 2007).
These inevitable surcharges therefore, require the suppliers to plan and ensure that their councils are strategically protected from any risks they might face. The Olympics therefore, might have a big impact on business continuity.
It is presumed that due to the issue that will be accruing to the London Olympics, anyone who at that time will be operating business in and around London must have an issue however, adequately they prepare.
In the recent past however, some of the internal risks analysis on the forecasting of the Olympic Games have been underway and the main intend of the analysis is looking at the discovery of alternate working ways which may include stock piling the necessary resources before the start of the Games (Sollish & Semanik,2007).
Let me now focus on some of the major companies in the London markets also those that are intending to be involved in trading during the Olympic Games. Here, a critical look on the Dixons retail, the company feels that it is ready to handle any issues, which might arise relating to matters of operational considerations, as well as, marketing opportunities.
They are different in that in their business consideration unlike other companies who give the first priority to the trading aspect and profit maximization, their major focus is on the expectations for a disruption. In preparation for these, they have already built into their initial plans extra capacity for the accommodation of such disruptions as projected concerning the activities of Olympic Games.
Supply chains play a major role in the determination of how reactions in the workplace as issues of riots are treated also their effects to a companys profitability. What remains to be seen is that contingency planning is a major attribute towards the effective decision making also the eventual solution analysis in the companies activities.
James Jaggard the best way to avoid disruptions is only through building of reliable and considerably good relationships with vendors. The companies that have used this approach in the preparation of the Olympic Games activities feel that their supply chains will not be negatively impacted and business will go on as usual (Sollish & Semanik, 2007).
An applicable methodology is the utilization of the existing long-term contracts also the existent partnership agreements as possible. This as per the article is aimed at ensuring that the supplier chain changes are greatly limited as they could lead to project delays as well as, an act as a major financial risk.
Where there are no flexible vendors, deals like the one mentioned above due to the lack of good relationships with them, Jaggard believes that the place where action should begin is at the identification of the strategic also the technical suppliers who are critical to the business.
In the advice of Jaggard, it is important to realize that some of the technicalities that can be handled include the measure of capacity and capability, an understanding of the customers of your supply, the understanding of an own spending profile as well and the suppliers capability of your own (Cavinato, Flynn & Kauffman, 2004).
The beliefs of purchasers differ significantly in that other purchasers believe that their focus in terms of risks accruing to them is the future prices.
However, this can be treated in due consideration of the activities of making strategies that counter the rise in prices in that a reconsideration of the initial specifications of the products and work on re-designing the whole product for the purpose of changing how well it suits the particular market.
Considerations
The article ends by giving a review of certain considerations, which are the main attributes of impact assessment. These considerations are the activities of the organization to extend lead times with suppliers in advance aiming at factoring in the possible issues. A good example of how this could be done is through the updating of the Information technology system.
Secondly, the organizations should seek to find out possible alternatives for transport and the distribution where goods could be delivered effectively whenever the necessity arises as this could curb disruption issues.
There is also need to assess the possibilities of business continuity plans of the partners in the supply chain as well as the ones of your own organization. Back-up servers for the protection of the IT department should be harnessed. A given possession of the article portrays that shortage as the case of fuel should be prioritized and curtailed.
Too much reliance on a particular vendor should be avoided since this leads to disparity in the sense that it is acknowledged for dependence by different suppliers to obtain vendors at will (Trent, 2007). Alternative sources of business critical supplies and enhances ease of access. Payment ought to be backed- up also systems to ensure that vendors continue to be paid no matter the payment circumstances.
All the above information as it pertains to the article shows the varied impacts of Olympic Games also the levels of preparedness portrayed by companies as pertains the games. However, the analysis does not clarify the essence of management in the case of London companies also the issues of effects has not been clearly brought out as per the different aspects the Games might impact the companies (Sollish & Semanik,2007).
Therefore, it is important to note that the most suitable steps should be analyzed considering the various contributions of management. In addition to this, it is important to focus on how these vary to suppliers in the case of a great event like the Olympics in London also in ensuring that the main aspects of preparedness in supplies and factors of forecasting as well as, good strategic planning are in their rightful positions.
Supply management concisely describes the process of corporate or institutional buying. This is mainly in terms of buying for internal as well as, external uses of goods and services. In most of the organizational set ups, buying is mainly contractual between the buying and selling parties for the considerable amounts referred to as price (Trent, 2007).
This price is in most cases monetary in nature. In the case of Olympic preparation by the London markets, it is important to realize that in the first place, these companies ought to strategize effectively if they are to win the disruption effects, which might arise in the course of service delivery to customers.
Before the actual Games, which are due by several months, companies are facing major challenges in terms of forecasting. Here, companies should be in the frontline to work out strategies, which will ensure that the problems, which might arise in the due course of operations during the Olympics also the events thereafter, are favorable to their operations.
Let me say that strategizing gets a bit tricky when location cannot be predetermined (Hayes, Gary, and Upton, 1996).
For instance, it is a matter of fact that the companies ought to forecast the places of residence for many fans, which cannot be predetermined as the interest of people, are very dynamic also, every service provider is in the pursuit of giving the best offers to attract the majority of the customers (Cavinato, Flynn & Kauffman, 2004).
Therefore, it gets very hard for companies to project specific places to work on in terms of analyzing how supplies will be enhanced in the respective places. This therefore, brings a tragedy in that it is also not possible to invest equally in all areas and ensure an analysis of supplies in all areas is intensified.
The companies therefore, in preparation for the Olympic Games are facing major challenges in terms of the ease of analysis of the supply needs as well as lack of adequate resources to help in financing the required activities due to fear of taking the great risk of investment in the activity (Tersine, 1982).
The only solution that can be reached in this case is only to ensure that operations at the companys level are intensified as well as the motivation for companies to take great risks and make major investments.
The second perspective to work from is the issue of the problems that the companies might face during the actual games. Here, it is important to realize that since most of the companies will not have effectively strategized, the risk of shortage of supplies is likely to result.
There are possibilities that due to congestion in the towns which in fact will result from the population seeking to be part of the competition the issue of poor system of supply may arise. Here, the main considerations are the accessibility of the areas of delivery, which most probably will be less accessible since most of the people will be heading to the outlets to get their shares of products (Simchi-levi & Kaminsky, 2004).
On the issue of the major outlets, it will be noted that because of congestion, which might reduce the accessibility of the retail areas, people may opt for the major supply areas where congestion will result and the results of congestion are usually reduced levels of efficiency in operations as well as reduced accountability of transactions.
Therefore, for those who might not have planned, their purchasers will be prone to failures in accessibility as well as shortages of goods.
For those who might have reliable strategies to work with during the period, there is a risk that they might have invested so much in their operational plans that they might not get returns enough to compensate them as well as gaining those profits. In addition, some of the planners might be disadvantaged in that their strategies might work against the actual happenings of the Olympic Games.
When such happens, it is a main disadvantage in that the eventual process and costs of the strategy is useless and the financial result could ruin the business due to the failure of returns from an investment (Simchi-levi & Kaminsky, 2004).
Aftermath of the Olympic Games
The third perspective of the Olympic Games is the factors that may affect the companies after the actual Games. Here, the discussion will take three courses. The first one involves the companies that will have participated in the supply during the actual games, secondly will be the companies that had intended to take part but their strategies did not work for the Games and the third group encompasses those that never participated at all.
The companies that will be favored by the activates of the Olympic Games are bound to get considerably very high profit returns from it and eventually increase their scope of operations as well as booster their cooperate image which might lead to them extending their functionality globally (Rose and Spiegel, 2011, p.1).
Therefore, it is important to note that however, a shortcoming of such participating organization would be a lack of efficient resources to use later, the returns obtained from the venture would be adequate to acquire the organization resources from any location (Cavinato, Flynn & Kauffman, 2004).
For companies that will have been interested in the venture but their strategies failed them, the makeup activity for them will be a hard one since such risks might end up in giving the company a financial crisis which might end up to the closure of companies that lack a wide market share.
However, the companies may recuperate through action of aggressive advertisement to ensure that they re-attain a major market share also to give them the capacity to work for the organizations wellbeing.
The third category of the companies in due consideration of the effects of the Olympic Games as forecasted is the group that will not take part at all in the affairs of the Olympic Games (Preuss, 2000).
Here, let me say that these companies will be improved in terms of the economies of scale of the other companies but dealing with similar products. Therefore, they will directly benefit from the policies that may be made pertaining to their line of service delivery by the legislation.
Conclusion
In summation, it is worth to note that supply chains are very sensitive chains in the delivery of service to customers. Therefore, London ought to take advantage of the activity in their country and maximize from the opportunity in that they should allow for more flexible rates and terms of operations during the Games to accommodate a wider audience for business.
Reference List
Albert, A. 2011. Ready for anything. Supply Chain Management. Web.
Blackstone, H. 1989. Capacity Management. Cincinnati: South-Western Publishing.
Cavinato, J. L., Flynn, A. E., & Kauffman, R. G. 2006. The supply management handbook. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Hayes, R., Gary, P., and Upton, M. 1996. Strategic Operations: Competing through Capabilities. New York: Free Press.
McCarthy, S. 2011. Sustaining Olympic Sustainability. Supply Chain Management. Web.
Pooler, V. H., Pooler, D. J., & Farney, S. D. 2004. Global purchasing and supply management. Boston, Mass: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Preuss, H. 2000. Economics of the Olympic Games: Hosting the Games 1972-2000, Petersham, Walla Walla Press.
Rose, A., and Spiegel, M. 2009. The Olympic Effect. Centre for Economic Policy Research. Web.
Simchi-levi, D., Kaminsky, P., & Simchi-levi, E., 2004. Managing the supply chain: the definitive guide for the business professional. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Sollish., F., & Semanik., J. (2007). The procurement and supply managers desk reference. Hoboken: NJ, J. Wiley.
Tersine, R. 1982. Principles of Inventory and Materials Management. New York: Elsevier Science Publishing.
Trent, R. J., 2007. Strategic supply management: creating the next source of competitive advantage. Ft. Lauderdale: Ross Publishers.
When a country decides to bid to host an Olympic Games, there are many factors the organizing committee must keep in mind. Such as: economic conditions, political climate, financial power, the potential return on investment once the games finish and many more. As the days come closer, we are about 9 months away from the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, one of the world’s biggest sporting events. With the organizing committee investing nearly US$ 6 billion in operating expenses (Wharton, 2019) in order to create new facilities and re-furbish existing facilities in and around the city of Tokyo. However, the organizing committee does not account for the expenditure that the national and local government is spending, which is reportedly to be around US$ 20 billion (Wharton 2019) in order to improve the infrastructure of Japan for the Games.
As one of the most important goals of the Japanese government for the past few years has been to increase the tourism footfall, the games can be used as a catalyst for the same. “The city and its region have to cover all investment in the required sports infrastructure. The ongoing gigantism of the games raises the question as to whether the anticipated benefits from the Olympic Games justify the after hidden and unforeseen expenses” (Holger Preuss, 2004).
When there is a bid, there is data that shows during 1896-1996 that almost 80% of the countries that bid and end up hosting the Olympics are all developed countries, while from 2000-2020, that percentage had dropped to 49% and the percentage of developing countries bidding for the Olympics has gone up to 44% from 10% (Baade, R. A. and Matheson, V. A. 2016). Is it actually viable for a developing country to host an Olympic Games as it entails billions in investment, which comes with high opportunity costs.
ATHENS 2004: “Welcome Home”
It could not have been more too the point. It sought to sell the uniqueness of the Athens Games as the only and ever authentic and perhaps capable of transforming the symbolic landscape of the over-commercialized and commodified Olympic Games. (Artemisia Apostolopoulou et al, 2010) There was a positive impact on the Greek Stock Exchange when Athens won the bid (Matheson, Engelhardt, Yen, Chisolm – 2018), which was beneficial for the country’s economy.
The redesign of national identity was a conscious goal of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games organizers, who saw the Olympics as an opportunity to brand the look of a “New Greece.” The aim of the organizers was to overhaul the country’s outdated image as a nation caught between a glorious antiquity and technological backwardness, as well as convince the international community of Greece’s modernity and Europeanization in both cultural and economic terms (Jilly Traganou 2009). The Greek government invested an estimated $13.8 billion (Robert A. Baade and Victor A. Matheson 2016) to turn this vision into a reality.
One of the problems that ATHOC faced was a hike in security measures. There was a 5 time increase in the security budget in comparison to the Sydney Olympics as it was the first Games to take place post 9/11 (Artemisia Apostolopoulou et al, 2010).
A few years after the games, Greece started to face an economic slowdown. For instance, elite sport development had evolved into a crucial element of a country’s sport system, and national federations and governing bodies are exploring opportunities for continuous investment of resources in order to develop effective sport structures and talent. The public funding mechanism of sport is facing formidable challenges, a fact that often leads to wide-scale closure of sport services, transferral of physical resources to private and voluntary sectors, and reorganisation of local authority sport development units. (Giannoulakis, C. et al. 2017). As Giannoulakis states, this kind of atmospheric change can change a lot of aspects of the government. They had to cut back on funding different sporting services as this would not take priority for the Greek government during a time of turmoil. There was a cutback in public funding for sports during the time period of 2007-2014. The total public funding of reduced from 43,572,000 Euros to 16,226,200 Euros (Giannoulakis, C. et al. 2017)
BEIJING 2008
Just like the Athens Olympics wanting to change the world’s perception about Greece, this was also the case for the Beijing Olympics. China was also trying to do the same. Beijing was keen to demonstrate the growing importance of China to the world economy by delivering ‘‘High-Tech Games’’as well as to demonstrate its great cultural past, which is interesting for tourism (Preuss, H. and Alfs, C. 2011).
The government invested $2.3 billion in sporting infrastructure but the total cost was $45 billion (Baade, R. A. and Matheson, V. A. 2016). Most of the costs go into creating new and revamping the current infrastructure in and around Beijing. New facilities would be built, dilapidated houses and neighbourhoods smartened up, subway lines constructed, a major investment in urban regeneration would begin. (Liu, D., Broom, D. and Wilson, R. 2014). The hosting of the 2008 Olympic Summer Games in Beijing would result in enormous pride among the Chinese, symbolizing China’s re-engagement with the world (Heere, B. and Xing, X. 2012)
During the games Beijing suffered from a “crowding out effect” as many non-sporting tourists resisted from coming to China during the period of the games. Beijing reports a 30% drop in international visitors and a 39% drop in hotel occupancy during the month of the games in comparison to the previous year (Baade, R. A. and Matheson, V. A. 2016).
After the games, there was a ‘cyclical unemployment’ as BOCOG had many employees who were contracted based or borrowed employees. Out of the approximately 9000 employees only 1947 were formal employees of the BOCOG (Xing, X. and Chalip, L. 2012). This could mean that there would have been a substantial amount of people losing their jobs once the Games were over.
In the long-run, Beijing was able by remodelling the sports infrastructure for other purposes so the ‘white elephant’ problems would not be as bad as Athens. Beijing’s iconic “Bird’s Nest” Stadium has rarely been used since 2008 and has been partially converted into apartments, while the swimming facility next door dubbed the “Water Cube” was repurposed as an indoor water park at a cost exceeding $50 million (Baade, R. A. and Matheson, V. A. 2016)
LONDON 2012
This was the third time that London was going to play host to the Olympics. This benefited them greatly has they already the infrastructure in place and quite a bit of the sports infrastructure as well. The total budget of the games was $8.77 billion. Although this bid was won on a budget of $2.4 billion, data shows that on an average the Games goes 150% over budget (Baade, R. A. and Matheson, V. A. 2016).
Following the success of the bid, the Labour government wanted to use the Games to make the UK a world-leading sporting nation. London 2012 legacy planning was affected by political shifts in the pre-event period, most notably the transition at national level from the Labour government (1997–2010) to one led by the Conservative party. In a detailed critique of policy initiatives prior to the Games, traces a philosophical change from Labour’s to the Conservative– Liberal coalition when it gained power in 2010. (Brown, G. et al. 2017)
Another problem that London ran into was the ‘crowding out effect’ same as the Beijing Olympics. There was a shortage of tourist in London during the Olympics. The number of international visitors in 2011 was 6,568,000 during July and August. While in 2012 the number fell to 6,174,000 (Baade, R. A. and Matheson, V. A. 2016). This means that the number of non-sports tourists fell by a considerable rate.
After the games, London was able to prevent the ‘white elephant’ problem by have The Stadium at Queen Elizabeth Park converted to a football stadium for West Ham United, even though they had to incur extra costs to remove the track and put football facilities around the stadium. (Baade, R. A. and Matheson, V. A. 2016). The stadium continues to be used for sporting activities.
RIO 2016
This was the first time that South America was going to host the Games so the pressure to stand-out was a given. An Olympic Games on an average goes 156% overbudget (Matheson, Engelhardt, Yen, Chisolm, 2018), this was the case with Rio de Janeiro as well. Rio was only the second host city to be from a developing country the first being Beijing in 2008. Even it being one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world still had a shortage of infrastructure. They had to build 15,000 new hotel rooms for tourists during the games. While investing in the hospitality industry can pay off in the long term, Rio was still going to face a problem of overcapacity. (Baade, R. A. and Matheson, V. A. 2016)
REFERENCES
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David Wharton (2019) ‘Tokyo’s rough road to 2020 Summer Olympics’, Los Angeles Times. July 23
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Xing, X. and Chalip, L. (2012) ‘Challenges, obligations, and pending career interruptions: securing meanings at the exit stage of sport mega-event work’, European Sport Management Quarterly, 12(4), pp. 375–396.
During the recent decades, it became usual to see how countries and/or cities battle internationally for the right to host a major sport event – FIFA Soccer Games, The Olympic Games, Rugby Cup and so on. It is noticed that the hosting country is seeking to showcase itself to the world and, at the same time, to benefit from economic and social aspects. The financial figures involved in such events are huge. According to KPMG Report (2016), ‘The Business of Sport’, USD 80 billion were invested in sports events in 2014 globally.
The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games that took place in Vancouver, Canada in February and March of 2010, relating its ability to increase the country or city’s Economy, Infrastructure, Tourism and Social impact on community.
Vancouver Games were very controversial since the beginning of its planning, 10 years before the start date. The government had to support the expenditure of USD 1,9 billion, mainly using the games ability to leave a legacy to the province of British Columbia. In 2002, a Plebiscite took place in order to understand the taxpayer’s will and 64% of them gave the go ahead for the events execution (Hiller and Wanner, 2011).
In order to make clear that the investment would bring long life benefits, the Organizing Committee stated it on the Event’s Mission: “To touch the soul of the nation and inspire the world by creating and delivering an extraordinary Olympic and Paralympic experience with lasting legacies”.
Another legacy expected by the hosting country was the union of the people. The design of the Game’s Branding used one of the most iconic symbols of the first nations: a man stone figure, made up with 5 pieces of different colors.
After the games were finished, the current Prime Minister Stephen Harper stated that the games were a turning point for Canada: “Mark my words, some day historians will look back at Canada’s growth strengths in the 21st century and they will say that all began, on the West coast, with the best Winter Olympic Games the world has ever seen” (Official Report, 2010).
Long term effects on Vancouver economy
Economic effect
GDP and the Public Economy
Measuring the economic growth of a country is done by examining its Gross Domestic Product and comparing that to the previous years.
To analyze the degree of the impact the winter Olympics had on the GDP of 2010 is something complicated because it is hard to narrow the factors that affect GDP to only those related to the Olympic Games. It would also be unprecise to narrow the economic impact of the games to only the economic growth during the year the event occurred. Given that the preparations for the games started several years beforehand and they had a big impact on investment in the country. It should also be noted that economic growth derived from the games can also impact the economy years after the event because of the infrastructure and tourism derived from it which keep creating revenue.
Aside from the previously noted difficulties to measure the economic impact of the games, the global economic context that engulfed the games must be kept in mind. The world suffered an economic recession two years prior to the games in 2008, which affected the housing market in the United States and this, affected the confidence of investors in Canada as well as all over the wold. This considerably impacted the economy of the country. All these factors have to be accounted for when examining numbers of GDP in order to determine whether the overall impact of the games was positive or negative.
The data utilized in this paper comes from the Olympic Games Impact (OGI) Study for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Post-Games Report provided by the UBC (OGI-UBC Research Team, 2013) to help draw conclusions on the economic impact of the games.
Reflected in the graphs 3 things were observed:
The impact of the recession is notable in the year 2009, where, there is a notable drop in the nation’s and the province’s Real GDP.
There is a considerable growth of Real GDP from the year 2009 to the year 2010.
The Canadian economy had a rising economy from the year 2007 to the year 2011 when we exclude the impact of the economic recession.
From this information it is concluded that the economy of Canada was in a healthy situation before and after the Winter Olympic games (excluding the economic recession impact).
The Games injected 600 million CAD to the Vancouver economy and according to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers the games generated as much as 1.05 billion CAD in real GDP (International Olympic Committee, 2011).
This information confirms that the 2010 Winter Olympic games were an economic success for the Nation’s economy.
Training & Job Creation
According to our research, the Olympic 2010 affected the employment rate in British Columbia in a significant positive way, which is the creation of new jobs and opportunities that help to diminish some of the global economic meltdown in 2009 (International Olympic Committee, 2013). Between 2003 and 2010, this sport event generated about 50,000 jobs across Canada including 21,690 jobs in the year of the event (OGI-UBC Research Team, 2013). In addition, nearly 1,500 businesses were established as a significant economic growth which was stimulated by the Games (OGI-UBC Research Team, 2013). This is also potential resources of job opportunities in not only British Columbia but also other provinces in Canada.
Furthermore, job opportunities were also generated for disadvantaged citizens and Aboriginal people. Canada government and British Columbia authority have offered a wide range of training programs for local people and the majority of these are targeted to disadvantaged groups such as disable citizens, Aboriginal people, and women (International Olympic Committee, 2013). To be more detailed, we will explain some typical examples of training programs as below:
The initiative is the Vancouver 2010 Fabrication (FAB) Shop. This workshop aimed to provide carpentry skills and work experiences for disadvantaged youngers, single parents or new immigrants (A Sustainability Journey, 2010).
Secondly, on the Vancouver Olympic Village area, there was an agreement of 100 construction job opportunities with training which would be given to citizens within the local community (A Sustainability Journey, 2010).
With the above information, the dramatic increase in the number of job opportunities resulting from the Olympic 2010 has contributed to lessen the unemployment rate during the global recession in 2009 and even until now.
Infrastructure Development
Transport Infrastructure
In order to support meet the requirements of the Olympic 2010, British Columbia authority and Canadian government needed to make a lot of improvement and addition to the infrastructure system including transportation and sport facilities in British Columbia.
As part of the preparation for this sport event, Translink is Metro Vancouver’s Transit agency, which launched several types of transport including a 400 – passenger Seabus ferry, fuel – efficient Skytrain Cars and diesel – electric hybrid buses due to the increasing demand of the Games (Benefits of Olympic Winter Games Vancouver 2010 Still Felt in Local Communities Today, 2018). According to our research, there were two important upgrades which were the Canada Line and the Sea to Sky Highway (International Olympic Committee, 2013). To be more detailed, while the Canada Line launched to make the commuting between the Vancouver ‘s airport and downtown areas easier, the Sea to Sky Highway was built to help people who travel from Vancouver to Whistler faster and safer (International Olympic Committee, 2013).
These projects are still being used until today and they created long – term positive impacts on life and businesses in British Canada. The Canada Line helps local citizens and visitors to travel from airport to downtown Vancouver. In addition, these new transport modes also contributed to the increase of local mass transit use by more than 50% during and after the Games (Benefits of Olympic Winter Games Vancouver 2010 Still Felt in Local Communities Today, 2018).
Sport Venues & Facilities
There are a variety of sport venues and facilities which were built and expanded to support for the Game and these are still in use until now with several different purposes including organization of many special events, public use, training center for young generation of athletes.
The largest construction which we need to mention is the expansion of the Vancouver Convention Centre which hosted the Main Media Centre of the Olympic (OGI-UBC Research Team, 2013). The expanding of the centre is also due to the growing popularity for tourism and conferences of more than 10,000 broadcasters and journalists from around the world for the Games in 2010. This expansion project was costed more than CAD 800 million with the funding partnership including the Province of British Columbia, the Government of Canada, Tourism Vancouver and revenues of business activities in the new centre (Opens New Vancouver Convention Centre, 2009). Today, the Vancouver Convention is used as a facility of more than 500 events each year and it also generated more businesses, opportunities for tourism industry and economic growth. In addition to the Vancouver Convention Centre, there are a wide range of sport venues which are still being used for events, public purposes until today, which includes:
Vancouver Olympic Centre: It is now called Hillcrest Centre which uses for a variety of sports events including an ice rink, a curling club, indoor and outdoor swimming pools. It is also utilized for a public gathering space today (Benefits of Olympic Winter Games Vancouver 2010 Still Felt in Local Communities Today, 2018).
Whistler Sliding Centre: In 2010, It was used as the main venue for luge, skeleton and bobsleigh events. Nowadays, it becomes the training centre for a variety of sports and also opens for public to encourage people to try these sports in the controlled and safe environment (Benefits of Olympic Winter Games Vancouver 2010 Still Felt in Local Communities Today, 2018).
These sport venues above are typical examples of the long – term impacts of infrastructure of the Olympic 2010 until now. After the Games, these facilities are still being in uses and they offer a wide range of benefits for both local people and government. To be more detailed, they support to connect local community through sports and generate more revenues, profits and new businesses opportunities, especially in hospitality field.
Cultural & Social effect
The Olympic Games had hugely influenced on local community’s daily life and culture, which encouraged a spirit of inclusion in the society. The event improved accessibility around the entire Great Vancouver such as wider sidewalks and pedestrian ramps (International Olympic Committee, 2011). It had a great impact on volunteerism which more than 75,000 people were volunteer during the Games. Databases of information from volunteers continued to link to other organizations through British Columbia to promote volunteer opportunities (International Olympic Committee, 2011). Also, Games helped around 400 youth to be educated and participate on activities that explained about the Olympics Games, sports in general, culture and education, and the importance of the practice of sports to pursue the spirit of peace, friendship, and respect to each other (International Olympic Committee, 2011).
The Organizing Committee for the Olympic 2010 ran several programs to promote arts and bring a positive legacy to the community after the Olympic Games (International Olympic Committee, 2011). These educational programs bring incentives to young people to be inspired in life. Such as Innovations programs that created culture projects in 60 communities; Catalyst program, which helped more than 220 arts which supports organizational and business activities; Explorations programs that help more than 16,000 students from different communities to participate in summer activities focusing on arts, sport, and recreation. This program was available for students with no access to normal summer activities in their communities (International Olympic Committee, 2011).
Moreover, Vancouver was the first city to create an innovative not-for-profit organization responsible for creating tangible community legacies throughout British Columbia, called 2010 Legacies Now. The organization leveraged the Games to invest in programs and communities by creating and maintaining social activities for the further years after the Olympics (2010 Legacies Now, n.d.). This non-for-profit organization launched the LIFT Philanthropy approach in 2011 that helps other organizations to become more sustainable, measurable and lasting social impact. Nowadays, LIFT is sharing expertise and knowledge in delivering social, economic and community legacies that acquired on the Olympic Games in 2010. It is said that LIFT is the evolution of the 2010 legacy impact and it is estimated that this venture model will continue to benefit sectors of sports, arts, literacy, and volunteerism in communities across Canada (LIFT Philanthropy Partners, n.d.).
Tourism & Hospitality effect
The Vancouver 2010 Games were used to increase the awareness about Canada to other countries. It was generated about CAD 1 billion in value of Advertising equivalency in 2010 by the Canadian Tourism Commission’s media and public relations activities (International Olympic Committee, 2011).
The Games had a good performance indicator but only have contributed with a slight increase in rates for Tourism and Hospitality in Vancouver during the event year, even if it was the promise of a large boost in Tourism for the city (Giovannetti, 2014). The Games cost around USD 6 billion to the province of British Columbia; the tourism did not have a positive impact to contribute to all expectations from the government. During the Games, around 547,357 visitors stayed in the Vancouver area but by the end of March, the number of visitors had decreased back to normal (Giovannetti, 2014).
Also, it is important to notice that, British and Australian visitors during the year game were double those of 2009, and German, British and Australian visitors generated an extra CAD 314 million in tourism revenue (International Olympic Committee, 2011).
According to OGI-UBC Research Team (2013), the hospitality sector did not have a great impact after the Olympic Games. Accommodations occupancy rate increase in the region of the event at the time the Games were running in 2010 if compared to other major cities in Canada such as Toronto and Calgary, because of the number of tourists that were in the city to watch the Games. Although it was observed an increase in the hospitality rate on the Great Vancouver and Toronto for 2010, a decrease rate in the following year happened. On the other hand, in Calgary, it was the opposite, a dip in 2010 followed by an increase in 2011 (OGI-UBC Research Team, 2013). This analysis suggests that the Games did not have a great impact on Vancouver hospitality after the event had finished and the accommodation rate did not change significantly (OGI-UBC Research Team, 2013).
References
2010 Legacies Now (n.d.). Home. Retrieved from http://www.2010andbeyond.ca/
A Sustainability Journey (2010, February 11). Retrieved from https://www.olympic.org/news/a-sustainability-journey
Benefits of Olympic Winter Games Vancouver 2010 Still Felt in Local Communities Today. (2018, March 02). Retrieved from https://www.olympic.org/news/benefits-of-olympic-winter-games-vancouver-2010-still-felt-in-local-communities-today
Giovannetti J. (2014, Feb 09). BC’s Tourism boost from 2010 Games was negligible, study shows. Retrieved from https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/bcs-tourism-boost-from-2010-games-was-negligible-study-shows/article16772542/
International Olympic Committee. (2011, May). Final Report of the IOC Coordination Commission. Retrieved from https://stillmed.olympic.org/Documents/Games_Vancouver_2010/Vancouver-EN.pdf
International Olympic Committee (2013). Final Report of The IOC Coordination Commission (XXI Winter Games, Vancouver 2010). Retrieved from International Olympic Committee website: https://www.olympic.org/documents/games/2012%20-%20london%202012%20olympic%20games/games%20documents/final%20report%20of%20the%20ioc%20coordination%20commission/final%20report%20of%20the%20ioc%20coordination%20commission
International Olympic Committee. (2011). FACTSHEET Vancouver Facts and figures. Retrieved from https://www.olympic.org/documents/games-vancouver-2010-winter-olympic-games
Opens New Vancouver Convention Centre (2009, April 03). Retrieved from https://www.vancouverconventioncentre.com/news/premier-opens-new-vancouver-convention-centre
LIFT Philanthropy Partners (n.d.). 2010 Winter games legacies continue to produce lasting benefits for Canada. Retrieved from http://www.liftpartners.ca/news/ioc-legacy-study-of-2010-legacies-now/
The OGI-UBC Research Team. (2013, Oct 23). Olympic Games Impact (OGI) Study for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. Retrieved from https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/facultyresearchandpublications/52383/items/1.0132645
Sport has been formally organized and segregated mainly into two different binary sex categories that are acknowledged by sport governing bodies. The structure and culture of sporting institutions often reproduce hegemonic masculinity, racism, and gender inequalities (Cooky & Dworkin, 2013). Sex becomes a binary meaning; there are only two sexes, male and female (Cooky & Dworkin, 2013). With that being said, there has been no recognized place within competitive sports for athletes who exist outside of the dichotomous sex categories and who subsequently “fail” sex testing (Cooky & Dworkin, 2013). This perpetuates the notion of gendered discourses regarding the eligibility of nonnormative bodies to partake in international sporting events (Cooky & Dworkin, 2013). Sports organizers have worked tirelessly to maintain the prestige of fair play by policing the boundaries around gendered bodies, which, consequently, results in the prohibiting of athletes who are different (Buzuvis, 2016). Athletes such as Caster Semenya are not only eliminated from sport but continue to be securitized and humiliated based on the uncertainty of their gender (Buzuvis, 2016). Accordingly, those who are by virtue of their intersex or transgender position are believed to compete with athletic advantages (Buzuvis, 2016). We begin to see how Caster Semenya is a product of Olympic policies in which the assumption of unfair advantages become highly contested through the basis of gender verification.
Caster Semenya is a South African female middle-distance runner who won gold in the 800-meter event at the World Championships in Berlin on August 19, 2009. She beat her competitors by a full 2.45 seconds, finishing at 1:55:45, 7.5 seconds faster than her previous times in that event (Cooky & Dworkin, 2013). The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) subjected her to undergo gender verification on the same day that she won gold. The reasoning being was based on the criticism surrounding Semenya’s gender “ambiguity” due to her deep “masculine” voice, improvements in her running time, and her muscular build (Cooky & Dworkin, 2013). The sex test results, which were not formally introduced to the public, concluded that Semenya had an androgen insensitivity syndrome that coincides with her being born with an intersex condition based on her testosterone levels being three times the “normal” female level (Buzuvis, 2016). An intersex condition occurs when there is any inconsistency between the external and internal genitals. Therefore, confusion arises when an individual has the chromosomal makeup of a female and contains female ovaries, but externally expresses more masculine features (Cooky & Dworkin, 2013). This results in the abnormal release of sex hormones. Semenya identifies as a woman and should be able to compete in female sporting events. The IAAF ended up banning her from running in future events. This action was in correspondence to, not only the conviction that Semenya was being portrayed as a “cheater,” but that her success was blamed on her having unfair genetic advantages, which establishes a threat to having a level playing field. Yet, there has been no scientific evidence that states there is a direct link to having increased levels of testosterone that equate to higher athletic performance (Cooky & Dworkin, 2013). In 2010, a panel of medical experts allowed Semenya to start competing in international sporting events again. Her story brought renewed pressures on sports governing bodies to develop new rules for ways to handle athletes with sex development disorders (Sullivan, 2011). With that being said, if Semenya wanted to compete in sporting events again, she would need to endure hormone treatments to decrease her testosterone levels in order for there to be “fair” competition amongst all female athletes (Sullivan, 2011). Semenya then went on to compete in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games and won gold in the 800-meter running event, but once again, her body was a target for injustice. Still, in 2019, her gender vagueness is an ongoing process within the problematic protocols of the binary divisions that are put in place surrounding intersex athletes.
Historically, sex verification began at the 1936 Berlin Games, which was proposed by Avery Brundage to root out gender fraud (Buzuvis, 2016). Gender testing was implemented because of German high jumper “Dora” Ratjen, who participated in women’s sporting events but was actually a man named Herman that disguised himself as a female to compete and win under the Nazi regime (Buzuvis, 2016). This sustained the assumption that males are superior and are the dominant gendered body. From this, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) mandated gender verification for female athletes beginning in 1968. The rationale was on the basis to prevent men masquerading as women to gain an unfair advantage in sport (Cooky & Dworkin, 2013). In 1900, mandatory sex testing was only employed against female athletes (Buzuvis, 2016). Some of these compulsory examinations were very invasive processes such as nude parades and Barr body tests. Naked parades arose in the Cold War era, which entailed female athletes to stand in front of a panel of Olympic officials while they examine the athlete’s naked body looking for specific genital (Buzuvis, 2016). Following that, in 1992, the Barr body chromosomal test focused on female athlete’s genetic makeup. It used scientific technology to visually verify sex yet showed that it had many limitations within determining accurate results (Buzuvis, 2016). In 2000, involuntary sex-testing was abolished and replaced with suspicion-based testing (Cooky & Dworkin, 2013). From this, the IOC gained the power to sex test any female athlete if they were deemed “hyper-masculine” or did not fit the standard womanly figure (Cooky & Dworkin, 2013). Each of these examinations drew a line in defining who is “naturally” female, but the lines differ on the inclusion of certain athletes (Semach, 2019). This calls into question why sex testing is mandatory when the results fluctuate and are inaccurate depending on what sex testing policy is currently implemented. A critique arose around the IOC and IAAF in how they are so quick to define individuals into man and woman categories, rather than thinking about how these bodies came to be and exist socially (Semach, 2019). This becomes a current problem within the binary sporting division.
Women are sex tested when they carry out explosive athletic performances, although sport, by, definition requires robust physical competency (Cooky & Dworkin, 2013). Female athletes only get summoned to perform sex evaluations if they are winning competitions, as they are presented to be a risk within the realm of sports. Many female athletes have “failed” sex testing due to having a condition called hyperandrogenism, high levels of male sex hormones and androgens in women (Cooky & Dworkin, 2013). Santhi Soundaranjan is a female middle-distance Indian runner who got forced by the IAAF to undergo suspicion-based gender verification at the 2006 Doha Asian Games (Sullivan, 2011). It was concluded that she had “abnormal chromosomes,” which led to the speculation that she was born with androgen insensitivity. The IAAF then disqualified her and stripped her of her silver medal because of her “unfair” advantage (Buzuvis, 2016). Duttee Chand is an Indian Sprinter who, in 2014, the IAAF, also requested her to go through gender verification. The evidence revealed that her testosterone levels exceed the standard amount (10nmol/L), which granted her immediate exclusion for participating in women’s sport (Buzuvis, 2016). Great emotional harm and burden are placed on those who were singled out and declared not a true woman (Sullivan, 2011). Governing bodies give female athletes two options regarding their gender. First, they need to comply with a gender verification test, if not, then their second option is to fake an injury and no longer compete in sporting events (Buzuvis, 2016). Therefore, sport becomes an unfriendly and contested site for athletes who go beyond the coercion of what an average body is, such as Caster Semenya.
The decisions over who is included and excluded from sex-segregated sporting competitions are embedded in the social structure of our society by controlling the gender binary (Sullivan, 2011). There have been multiple, and ever-changing gender examinations brought upon Olympic ruling to acknowledge and include intersex and transgender athletes in sports. This consists of the Stockholm consensus, uniform hormone rule, uniform gender identity rule, and the hybrid approach (Buzuvis, 2016). Looking back on Semenya’s gender examinations, it was revealed that the IAAF policies on how to safely and adequately verify a female athlete’s sex was never articulated to the committee (Buzuvis, 2016). This further restates how feminity testing is not only cruel to athletes but also undermines the confidence within the fairness of women’s sporting events (Buzuvis, 2016). In an attempt to make sporting events fair, the IOC and IAAF set up appropriate rules pertaining to female athletes with hyperandrogenism and androgen insensitivity (Sullivan, 2011). In 2011, the IOC Medical Commission implemented a new testosterone limit that recognizes the eligibility in women competitions as long as their androgen levels are below the “normal range” (Sullivan, 2011). If a female athlete’s sex examination results discovered that her testosterone levels were above 10nmol/L, she would be informed of the conditions and steps to take to compete again. Some of these steps include taking androgen resistances or hormone therapy to suppress their body’s natural testosterone levels. If the athlete complies with these regulations, she will be deemed eligible to partake in sporting events (Sullivan, 2011). Fairness in sport is understood as an adherence to the same rules (Cooky & Dworkin, 2013). So, given the definition of fairness in sport, and the natural variations of Caster Semenya’s body due to her sex developmental disorder, she should be deemed fair and be able to compete in sport freely (Cooky & Dworkin, 2013).
A level playing field connects to total equality and fairness amongst all athletes, but for this to be obtainable, all unfair advantages must be monitored to ensure that sport is fair (Cooky & Dworkin, 2013). This becomes unrealistic based on the historical, economic, and social provisions of sport (Cooky & Dworkin, 2013). Given that governing bodies already tolerate a tremendous amount of genetic benefits that are not attainable by all athletes, it reiterates how sport cannot be a level playing field (Cooky & Dworkin, 2013). Some of these physical advantages include height and abnormally high lung capacity (Buzuvis, 2016). Additionally, varying financial resources and training conditions contribute hugely to an individual’s athletic ability. Still, again, these are not considered factors that hinder the fair play discourse as they do for those who do not fit into the sex binary present in sport (Buzuvis, 2016). Michael Phelps is an American Olympic swimmer who genetically has unusually large hands and feet that become a natural physical advantage against his competitors. Still, the IOC and IAAF have not made any policies regarding Phelps in the way he begins to dismantle a level playing field. Where in if an athlete such as Caster Semenya, whose testosterone levels are higher than 10nmol/L, she automatically gets linked to having the edge over other athletes, which produces an unlevel playing field (Cooky & Dworkin, 2013). There is an overarching belief in male physical supremacy, which legitimates the gender divide within sports by having no sex-testing policies directed at males. Sporting events will always have athletes with genetic advantages, this is what makes sports so diverse, but if the need for sex testing resides in guaranteeing a level playing field, then why is there no test to determine whether male or other female athletes have testosterone levels that exceed the “normal male range” instead of making assumptions specifically around contested bodies (Cooky & Dworkin, 2013).
The body becomes a contested site in which it reinforces the body hierarchy for athletes with disabilities and intersex conditions as they begin to threaten the institution of sport itself (Corrigan, Paton, Holt, & Hardin, 2010). Additionally, a contested body is a body that is fixed beyond the “normal” body, which creates a tension between dominant normative bodies verse nonnormative bodies (Semach, 2019). In this case, the authoritative body would be seen as a hyper-feminine female athlete, while the nonnormative body would be athletes such as Caster Semenya, who do not possess overtly feminine attributes. Some of these attributes include being slim, toned, having long hair and wearing makeup. According to Foucault, the body in modern-day society represents the contested terrain over which policies and surveillance have been implemented on individual athletes to conform to the bodies that are seen as usual (Corrigan, Paton, Holt, & Hardin, 2010). With that being said, the Olympics can be considered a site of discursive silences upon female athletes through the policing of their bodies within the socially constructed categories of sex and gender (Semach, 2019). The “male gaze” subjects women’s bodies in a sexualized manner within the perception that there are objects merely for the viewing of male desires (Semach, 2019). Within the “male gaze,” there are classifications and hierarchy privileges based on the “ideal body” that represents the physically powerful able-bodied males while ostracising those who are not. Through this belief, the prevalence of dominant discourses, specifically the white male discourse beings to show elitism in deciding what bodies are see seen as attractive and fit the mould of what a female body should resemble (Semach, 2019). This hierarchy becomes complicated through the notion that men and women categories are seen as dominant when compared to intersex and transgender groups, but there also is a hierarchy within hierarchies, which states that male athletes are superior over female athletes, along with transgender athletes are dominant over non-binary athletes (Semach, 2019). Thus, power is grounded in discourse (Corrigan, Paton, Holt, & Hardin, 2010). Caster Semenya and her natural body become patrolled under regulatory practices that define, classify, and marginalize those with intersex conditions as a way to control “unnaturally” looking athletes by conforming them into normative bodies (Corrigan, Paton, Holt, & Hardin, 2010).
Governing bodies have struggled to impose binary sporting divisions on athletes who cannot be sorted that easily, such as Caster Semenya (Buzuvis, 2016). This has a direct correlation to gender categories granting power to the sport’s organizers rather than the athletes themselves. The IOC and IAAF have implemented multiple different examinations to promote inclusivity and instill integrity within female sport. Even though the IOC is moving forward within their policies, they are still enhancing the intersections between sex and gender by disregarding the fact the males are not being subjected to gender verification if they do not fit the hegemonic masculine male body or have an upsurge or reduction in testosterone levels. While women who look visibly masculine rather than feminine, automatically get questioned regarding their gender identity. This symbolizes the white male discourse upon female bodies. The fact is the playing field has never been level, nor will it never be based on the discrimination seen against athletes with intersex conditions. The IOC believes that male athletes who biologically have physical advantages, such as Michael Phelps should not be policed because he is not disrupting the honesty of sport, while Caster Semenya who organically produces higher than average testosterone levels needs to be regulated and under surveillance because she produces a threat to sporting events by “cheating.” Furthermore, the myth of fair play plays a predominant role in the reproduction of masculinity hierarchies. In conclusion, Caster Semyan is a product of Olympic policies in which the assumption of unfair advantages become highly contested through the basis of gender verification.
References
Buzuvis, E. (2016). Hormone Check: Critique of Olympic Rules on Sex and Gender. Wisconsin. Journal of Law, Gender, & Society, 31 (1), 29.
Cooky, C., & Dworkin, S. L. (2013). Policing the Boundaries of Sex: A Critical Examination of Gender Verification and The Caster Semenya Controversy. Journal of Sex Research, 50(2), 103-111.
Corrigan, T. F., Paton, J., Holt, E., & Hardin, M. (2010). Discourses of the “Too Abled”: Contested Body Hierarchies and The Oscar Pistorius Case. International Journal of Sport Communication, 3(3), 288-307.
Semach, T. (2019). Week 5: Gender Constraints [lecture notes]. Retrieved from University of Lethbridge KNES 3120 Moodle site.
Sullivan, C. F. (2011). Gender Verification and Gender Policies in Elite Sport: Eligibility and “Fair Play.” Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 35(4), 400-419.
We will consider the development of the concept of Olympic volunteer from the first Games of the modern era up to the present day. It will show that, although the concept of the volunteer began to be more clearly defined in the eighties and nineties, in practice it can be traced back to the very first Olympic Games of the Modern Era founded by Pierre de Coubertin.
Our work comprised systematic analysis of the Official Reports of each Olympic Games, both winter and summer, up to the present day, and also a survey of the Olympic bibliography. An effort has been made to attain direct evidence from the participating volunteers themselves, although this of course was only possible in the case of Olympic Games after and including Berlin 1936.
The basic questions we posed ourselves at the outset were the familiar ones, what, who, how, when and why. What was the concept of volunteer in existence in the context of each Games? Who were the Olympic volunteers over the years? When did volunteer work exist in the Games and what did it consist of? How did they become volunteers? How were they recruited and trained and what planning took place? and why did the individuals involved decide to become Olympic volunteers?
These questions have to be addressed from a historical perspective, that is, through study of the intrinsic evolution of the Olympic Games and the increase in their popularity and in the level of popular expectation surrounding them, especially over the last twenty years. They must also be viewed in the context of the external social and political changes which have taken place in the eventful history of our 20th century.
The concept of the Olympic volunteer
In previous work, other specialists have defined and contextualised the concept of social volunteer. It has also become clear that the concept of volunteer differs widely in accordance with social and cultural differences and the nature of the volunteers themselves (religious and political convictions, sports and health factors, etc.), however, it is still possible to establish a number of basic points in common:
Voluntary commitment: that is individual, non-obliged commitment.
Altruism: a lack of monetary reward, non-profit motivation.
Social contribution: the task contributes in some way to society, it is socially useful.
That is, being a volunteer involves a commitment to act based on a free personal decision which is motivated by principles of solidarity and altruism. (2)
However, although the volunteer begins with a personal decision, volunteer work is a manifestation of solidarity which tends to be channelled through organisations, the latter being non-profit-making bodies. These organisations create settings which harness the individual’s motivation and desire to participate in society and strengthen the sense of responsibility and cooperation involved in this joint effort. This leads to the formation of social structures which have the effect of reinforcing civil society.(3)
The Olympic volunteer
The concept of the Olympic volunteer was first defined explicitly in an Olympic glossary produced as part of the Official Report of the Barcelona Olympic Games 1992: “the volunteer is a person who makes an individual, altruistic commitment to collaborate, to the best of his/her abilities in the organisation of the Olympic Games, carrying out the tasks assigned to him/her without receiving payment or rewards of any other nature.’ (4)
In the Barcelona Olympic Games then it was made clear that it was the Organising Committee which was to assign tasks to the volunteers and harness their contribution. This role of the Organising Committee had first appeared at the Lake Placid Winter Games in 1980, with the creation of a volunteer programme involving some 6,000 volunteers.
At later Games such as those of Los Angeles, Calgary and Seoul, the voluntary element was to become a basic link in the organisation of the Games. At present, this voluntary element is seen as vitally bound up with the sustainability of the Games.
However, prior to reaching this explicit definition of modern times, the concept of the Olympic volunteer went through a process of evolution parallel to that of the development of the social volunteer and the growing importance of sport. In fact, in modern listings of types of volunteers, the sports volunteers is an indispensable category.
Like the social volunteer, the sports volunteer sets out to act for the benefit of society, of his or her own free will, without the aim of economic or other benefits. The aim of this effort may be improved wellbeing for the community in general, a better quality of life for others, etc. (5) Organisations capable of harnessing these personal initiatives and undertakings are also needed.
There are sports organisations which include a stable or permanent volunteer element and others which create groups of volunteers to carry out certain, concrete projects and achieve given objectives. In both types, the stable volunteer organisation and the occasional one (which would be the case of the Olympic Games), we must also draw a distinction between activity carried out within a federation and activity which is outside this sphere.
For example, in a number of national federations, especially those with fewer members, professional roles are carried out by volunteers. In the early days of the Olympic Movement, this professional work was also performed on a voluntary basis. Pierre de Coubertin himself, with the support of friends and the heads of the contemporary sports associations, worked on a voluntary basis to create the International Olympic Committee and launch the Modern Olympic Games. (6)
The latest theories on sports volunteers tend to report a slump in voluntary action of the ongoing, permanent variety, whereas that associated with large-scale events is holding ground or growing in strength. Other viewpoints, more concerned with voluntary social work, are striving to define a new concept of volunteer which would be applicable to the present-day situation and to the foreseeable future over the next 10-15 years.
In any case, the concept of Olympic volunteer has lived through its most glorious epoch in the decade of the 1990s and Sydney 2000 will undoubtedly be a key Olympics for redefinition of the concept of Olympic volunteer and for new applications for the future.
Evolution of the concept of Olympic volunteer
The evolution of the Olympic volunteer can be analysed from the perspective of what we have referred to as the intrinsic structure of the Games themselves and that of external social changes. We could define four basic stages:
From the Olympic Games of Athens 1896 to Berlin 1936. This first phase was characterised by the anonymous volunteer work carried out in federations and clubs and in the organisation of the Olympic Games themselves, all in keeping with the social and educational nature of sport in those years. The main volunteer efforts came from groups such as the boy scouts and the army.
From the London Games of 1948 to Montreal 1976. This phase was marked by the social and political situation of the times. Most of the Olympic Games held took place in the industrialised countries which acted as guarantors of the new political, social and economic dynamic which was being forged in the aftermath of the Second World War. There were numerous distinctive and particular features in the Games depending on the organising country (7) and its particular tradition of volunteer and social work. The overall importance of volunteer work continued to increase, groups such as the boy scouts and the army were still important, though the increasing efforts of individuals began to gain momentum.
From the Lake Placid Games in 1980 until those of Seoul 1988. This was undoubtedly the phase in which the present-day model of Olympic volunteer began to emerge. In the Lake Placid Games, volunteers were incorporated into the Organising Committee’s programme and by the time of Los Angeles their role had become fundamental. The Games at Sarajevo, Calgary and Seoul were all to embrace the volunteer element, though from different organisational perspectives.
From the Albertville 1992/Barcelona 1992 Games to those of Sydney 2000. Consolidation of the present-day model of volunteer included in the Organising Committee and in human resources planning. The ever-growing scale and dimensions of the Olympic Games – they are now considered to be ‘mega events’ – undoubtedly leads to an increasingly important role for volunteers in the mega structure which is necessary, not only for the holding of the Games, but also for their television coverage or for the parallel cultural programme.
The first Olympic volunteers: anonymity
In the early years the Olympic Movement grew thanks to the work of many people who worked on a voluntary basis to build up a minimum organisational structure. This process took place parallel to the development of federations in many sports, which also came about due to the voluntary efforts of the amateurs who formed the first sports clubs.
In Athens 1896, Paris 1900, St. Louis 1904 and London 1908 the word ‘volunteer’ did not explicitly appear in the Official Reports. Nevertheless, there is no doubting the altruistic motivation of those who participated in the organisation of the Olympic Games which were still small in scale and in which family ties and friendships were essential for successful organisation.
Volunteer groups: boy scouts and the army
In the early Games, apart from the presence of the army in performing functions given over to volunteers nowadays, the boy scout movement, officially founded in England by Baden-Powell in 1907 (8) , also played an important role.
The boy scouts’ contribution began at Stockholm 1912 and basically consisted of delivering messages, maintaining order and safety, helping the public and carrying our various physical functions, such as carrying flags and replacing obstacles: “there was a number of boy scouts and Varingian guards under the command of Messrs, B.E. Lithorin and E. Wernström, for the purpose of giving necessary aid to the public.”(9) This is the first written record of the great work to be carried out by the scouts in many Olympic Games and also of the Scandinavian voluntary spirit.
Pierre de Coubertin (10) himself referred to the work done by these boy scouts with this rather curious observation: “A record: a Swedish woman, Mrs. Versall, had six children who participated in the Games, the youngest as boy scouts enrolled to maintain order and deliver messages. This seems rather trivial. However, the IOC gave her a special Olympic medal.
The links of the boy scouts with the Games went further than purely organisational tasks. For example, an international meeting or jamboree of boy scouts began and was held every four years, following the Olympic pattern. Until the 1920s, sports competitions and parades of all those participating were also held at these jamborees. (11)
According to Nikolay Gueorguiev, the contribution of the scouts continued to grow in various Olympic Games before the Second World War, such as those of Antwerp 1920, Paris 1924, and, especially, Amsterdam 1928.
The scouts were organised into camps and helped out in providing service to the public and in ensuring safety. Once again we can refer to Coubertin’s ‘Memories’ in which he praised the spirit shown by the young at the Antwerp Games. (12) Similarly, we also find a reference to the boy scouts’ salute during an official ceremony at the Paris Games of 1924. (13) By the Chamonix Games, the boy scouts were participating in the opening and closing parades as flag bearers.
At the Berlin Games the boy scouts were replaced by members of the Nazi youth movement, ideological groupings diametrically opposed to the pacifist, naturalist and fraternal ideals of Baden-Powell. In fact, in the years previous to 1939, in both Italy and in Germany efforts were made to disband the scout movement, (14) which was later to play a role in a number of countries (France, for example) during the war in the resistance movement against totalitarianism and Nazi occupation.
After World War II, the boy scouts continued to participate in the Olympic Games. In Helsinki 1952, the scouts and other youth organisations played an important role, their main task being the delivery of messages, though they also did other work: “While the Games were in progress, 2,191 members of the department (1,617 boys and 574 girls) were engaged in unpaid work. Of this number, 59 squad leaders and 434 ordinary members sold programmes, 130 worked as ushers and 1,568 were employed as messengers”.(15)
These statistics from Helsinki 1952 were the first explicit mention of female volunteers, even though the first girl guides had been formed in France in 1912, also along the lines of the boy scout movement. Without any doubt, female protagonism among the volunteers was to increase significantly in later Olympics in parallel to their increased presence in civil society and politics.
All in all, the Games in which the scouts played the biggest role were those of Melbourne 1956. The Youth Organisations were composed of three blocks: the boy scouts, the girl guides and the members of the Air Training Corps. All of them worked on a voluntary basis and performed a variety of different roles. In the case of the scouts, more than 3,500 members participated from November 1955, in return for which they only received meals. (18) The scouts were present at 90% of the venues and, in all cases, the Arena Managers expressed their complete satisfaction with their efforts. As mentioned already, at Melbourne the scouts carried out numerous tasks, such as for example, helping the public and children, helping the police, reception and attention to distinguished guests and acting as guides for the delegates from the different sports federations who had congregated in the University of Melbourne.
At the Tokyo Olympic Games of 1964, the spontaneous and indirect help provided by the boy scouts and other organisations was notable, where they were entrusted with raising the flags for brief periods of time, both day and night.(17) Once again in Japan, this time in Nagano 1998, the boy scouts played a clearly visible role in a given task the raising of flags at the Olympic Villages.
The Olympics, also called Olympic Games are international events that happen every four years in which hundreds of countries are involved in the different sporting competitions. According to Kubo (2014 V.75) the Olympic Games are governed by the International Organizing Committee (IOC) which is the authoritative, non-governmental organization that oversees the Olympic Games, Olympism and the Olympic Movement.
The Olympic Games include; Winter Olympic Games that cover snow and ice sports, games for disabled athletes known as Paralympic Games, Youth Olympic Games for athletes between the ages of 14 an 18, the Five Continental games and the World Games for the sports excluded in the Olympic Games. The main target market for the Rio 2016 Olympics was the US Olympic sports fans. A research done on the brand destination showed positive interactions between branding of the Olympic Games and Brazil showed positive attitudes towards future tourism (Rocha& Fink 2017)
The FIFA World Cup was initially a part of the summer Olympic games but due to clamour to professionalize the sport, the body opted to organize the world cup during which only football would be played. The first world cup took place in 1930 hosted by Uruguay and the only participating nations were Yugoslavia, United States, Spain and the host. Since then the number of countries has grown considerably with the last world cup hosting 32 nations who had won in their specific divisions.
FIFA remains as the sole organizer of the event and also tasked with making sure that games are played fairly, the host country has adequate resources to host the event and also that the players are taken care off accordingly.
The focus of this paper will be Games of the XXXI Olympiad also known as The 2016 Summer Olympics and the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
The 2016 Summer Olympics
The 2016 Summer Olympics commonly known as Rio 2016 were held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In these Olympics, 28 sports were featured with more than 11,000 athletes from more than 200 countries participating.
The 2018 FIFA World Cup
The world cup takes place after every 4 years with the last one being held in 2018 hosted by Russia. FIFA World cup 2018 featured 32 teams from that qualified from the specific divisions and was hosted across Russia as per the distribution of the arenas. The hosting cities were St Petersburg, Moscow, Kaliningard, Niz Novgorod, Samara, Saransk among others. (FIFA, 2018)
Economic Impacts
Getting a chance to host the Mega Sports Events is a coveted position for any nation due to the huge economic benefits that the host country is perceived to enjoy from the event.
To prepare for the world cup, it is estimated that the Russian government spent over $14.2 Billion of which 40% was from foreign investors. This went to the construction of stadia and improvement of others, infrastructure development like new terminals in airports, road expansion and medical infrastructure all because of the event. All this means that government expenditure into the projects provided their citizens with jobs which would boost the economy (Huijgens, 2018, July) The hosting cities usually sign agreements with FIFA and IOC committing to meet certain standards in areas like accommodation and airport capacities. This infrastructure, once put up is obviously permanent and it is usually too large to make any economic sense once the events are over (Alm, Solberg, Storm, & Jakobsen, 2014).
The costs of hosting The Summer Olympics range from $1.5billion to $2.5billion and revenues ranging from $3billion to $5billion. The Olympics leave the host country with multiple sports venues that have limited use and costly to maintain, low priority city developments and huge financial debts.(Zimbalist, 2017) Rio de Janeiro was adversely affected by the Olympics with its economy continuing to sink due to huge debts. Many workers that were involved in the games are yet to be paid (Amora, 2015). There was increased real estate speculation that resulted in rent spikes and new constructions like the Olympic Village in the areas where most of the venues and stadiums were located.
“Brazil has lost a great opportunity with the World Cup,” Rio’s mayor Eduardo Paes said, “FIFA asked for stadiums and Brazil has only delivered stadiums” (quoted in BBC, 2013). Brazilian authorities did not deliver close to 80% of the planned public transport projects (Amora, 2015).
Social Impacts
International events come with social impacts and in Brazil one of the main impacts was displacement of residents to make room for Olympic stadiums and transport structures. Over 77,000 residents were displaced in different areas. There was also rise in violence and insecurity during Rio 2016 though athletic venues and stadiums were well secured.
It is estimated that more than 3 million people watched the match live during the world cup with the majority of them being foreigners; depending on how the visitor had perceived Russia and its citizens, its likely that perceptions were changed. The sun reported that Abramovich a Russian, the entrepreneur behind Chelsea football club sponsored 30 seriously kids and their caregivers from his native country of Israel to attend 3 games during the tournament, this means that there was an impact on philanthropy.
Internationally, the 2018 world cup saw women in Iran being allowed into the stadium for the very first time in history as their national took on Spain, this was a major development as it’s a right step towards gender equality in Iran.
Political Impacts
Politically, the hosting countries get international recognition and they increase their public-private partnerships. This however, comes with increased corruption scandals, administrative costs and most times, unrealistic goals and expectations. Brazil The negative effects of hosting international sporting events are hard to escape but State-led economies experience more adverse impacts than those with market-led economies (Martin & Christopher 2018). There was impeachment in Brazil and this landed the country in a complex situation
The private players were investing in the major infrastructural projects were not necessarily doing so for a financial return but for political reasons. This gave a chance for the loyalists to show their position with the administration.
Environmental Impacts
The positive environmental impacts of hosting these sporting events are the recovery of degraded areas and construction of new facilities. On the flipside, the environments end up with increased pollution, overcrowding and unutilized facilities (Scandizzo & Pierleoni,2017) 2018 world cup was the first event held since FIFA laid out the green requirements for stadia certification. This meant that Russia had no choice but to meet these requirements for the event to take place. For there to be positive environmental impact, the following was done:
Capitalizing on natural lighting as per the design which made sure that depending on the design of the building, natural light was sufficient which reduced reliance on electricity for lighting. Energy efficient building designs were also employed to reduce the amount of energy lost due to the design.
Cultural Impacts
Watching football was almost a taboo in Russia and fans were perceived as drunks or thugs at worst but by the time the world-cup was coming to and end most Russians were turning up to cheer the national team making it a big cultural impact. Prior to FIFA World-Cup 2018, it had been thought that organization would suffer and that the necessary infrastructure would not be ready or up to standard. On the contrary, the event was quite successful which changed the perceptions of many around the world about Russia.
Rio 2016 gave Brazil an opportunity to showcase its rich cultural legacy to the world and to Brazilians themselves. This changed the perceptions of many around the world about Brazil and created awareness of what the country has to offer in the different aspects of tourism and more specifically through its rich culture.
Marketing Strategies Implemented to Promote Branding
Marketing for the FIFA World Cup and the Olympics begin as soon as the bids are won. The Rio Olympics used smart media strategies both on the internet through YouTube influencers and on television on major networks like NBC with the goal of attracting younger viewers. (RIO, 2015) The use of corporate sponsorships and advertising is also a strategy that was used by both FIFA 2018 and The 2016 Olympics. The sponsors are usually in different categories like Worldwide Olympic partners, official sponsors, official supports and official suppliers.
Both FIFA World cup and the Olympics use events branding for uniqueness and distinction which contributes to the fan experience all through the events.
FIFA has retail outlets that are licensed where official products are sold and a numismatic programme that has attracted many national mints. Coins and other products are used to mark these major events (FIFA, 2018) Virtual reality was also used for RIO 2016 where technology was used to recreate different sports for audiences in New York and a few athletes were present to interact one on one with the audience.
Scarcity Marketing strategy is used in both events as the organizers have over the years mastered the art of this strategy since the competition takes place after a few years and failing to attend one means waiting for more years for the next one “Scarcity of a quality product increases fans’ preferences for the product” (Kirk L. Wakefield, 2007).
Recommendations for Improvement
The first strategy that I would incorporate is opening ticket sales for the next event before the current event is over, this will take advantage of the emotions at the time of purchase. These can be offered at good discounts to attract as many people as possible
Sampling of attendees’ opinions during the event to get their suggestions of what should be maintained, changed completely or improved. These suggestions can be implemented in future events which would make the fans feel more involved in the organization. I would also maximize on E-Marketing which would include, websites, e-mails, search engines, online videos, tagging, Facebook, twitter, Instagram, podcasts, blogs and online technology. It is a fact that most of these have been used in the past but I would aim on optimizing their use to maximize benefits. This strategy would be beneficial for both the attendance but also for future tourism to the hosting countries.
Football has for a long time been marred by racism and violence, running a campaign that promotes oneness regardless of ethnicity would be a good social appeal which would also assist in brand promotion. This can be done by showcasing past events with different ethnicities visibly having a time of their life while watching one of the games.
The ‘Instant replay’ technology introduced during the 2018 world cup was meant to settle disputes on the field whenever they occur but this has led to more contentious issues arising whenever the technology is used. I would therefore advocate for a friendlier, and seamless solution counter the effects of ‘Instant replay’
Conclusion
The 2016 Olympic Games and the 2018 FIFA World Cup had diverse impacts on the host countries. This paper has looked at the background of the two events, their impacts in specific areas.
Economically we saw how the perception of positive impact can be deceiving. Politically and socially we saw benefits like putting the hosting country on the map hence more international recognition. Lastly, we looked how the environment is impacted through infrastructural improvements but at the same time affected by the large crowds and pollution.
We have also seen that different marketing strategies were used to promote branding that included media strategies, corporate sponsorships, events branding and retail outlets, virtual reality and scarcity marketing. I have given specific recommendations on the areas of improvement that would ensure maximum of repeat and new attendees. These strategies include; selling tickets for the next event and sampling attendees opinions and getting suggestions on areas of improvement. I would also show case the synergy of the different cultures represented in the attendees to show unity.
References
Alm, J., Solberg, H. A., Storm, R. K., Jakobsen, T. G. (2014). Hosting major sports events: The challenge of taming white elephants. Leisure Studies, 35, 564-582. doi:10.1080/02614367.2014.994550
Amora, D. (2015, June 7). Um ano após a Copa do Mundo, 35 obras não estão prontas. [One year after the World Cup, 35 public projects are not completed]. Folha de S.Paulo. Retrieved from (http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/mercado/2015/06/1638634-1-ano-apos-copa-35-obras-nao-estao-prontas.shtml)
FIFA (2018, April) FIFA Marketing Highlights Retrieved from https://www.fifa.com/about-fifa/marketing/index.html
Huijgens, J. (2018, July) ‘ The World-Cup Effect’ Financial Insights Retrieved from https://riskmagazine.nl/article/2018-05-03-the-world-cup-effect
Kubo, H. (2014) The social and economic impact of hosting the Olympic Games: A guide to online resources V.75 (1)
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Rio (2015) Olympic Partner Programme Retried from https://www.olympic.org/partners
Rocha, C. M. & Fink, J. S. (2017). Attitudes toward attending the 2016 Olympic Games and visiting Brazil after the games. Tourism Management Perspectives, 22, 17-26.
Roche, M. (2017). Mega-events and social change: Spectacle, legacy and public culture. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press.
Scandizzo, P & Pierleoni, M. R. (2017) Assessing the Olympic Games: the economic impact and beyond. Journal of Economic Surveys 32(1) DOI: 10.1111/joes.12213
Shank, D. M & Lyberger, M.R (2014) Sports Marketing; A Strategic Perspective. Routledge- New York, USA
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Zimbalist, A. (2017) Rio 2016:Olympic Myths, Hard Realities. Brookings Institution Press, Washinghton D.C
The Ancient Olympics were a series of events which included sports such as footraces, a javelin contest, and wrestling matches. The competitors represented city-states in ancient Greece. After Rome took control of Greece in 85 BCE, the games were stopped due to their pagan origins. They were later restarted in Greece in 1894 CE. These modern Olympics involved more modern sports like track & field, swimming, and gymnastics. The competitors represented different countries and have occurred almost every four years since then. The reinstitution of the Olympics led to Montreal, Canada hosting the 1976 Summer Olympic Games. This essay will focus on the effect on the economy that the 1976 Summer Olympics had on Montreal, Canada. In order to understand what factors positively and negatively impacted its economy I will look at the increased tourism, corruption in the government, the cost of building materials, construction worker strikes, the cost of security, boycotts, and the infrastructure. By the end of this essay the question, “what impact did the 1976 Summer Olympic Games have on Montreal, Canada’s economy?” will be answered. This question is relevant because it has a contemporary application, as the factors apply to most other countries who host the Olympics. This information can be applied to more recent Olympics in order to determine if overall the Olympics are too economically draining to their host countries to continue. This particular Olympic year was chosen to investigate because it brought to light the problems with the Olympics as well as opened the discussion as to whether or not they should continue to occur.
Increased Tourism
The first factor that will be looked at is the increase in tourism in the area. The increase of people during the Olympics helped stimulate the economy because the people stayed in hotels, went to the Olympics and other events in the area, as well as ate at local restaurants, and bought souvenirs from Montreal’s shops. The tourism that occurred due to the increased traffic of people because of the Olympics positively impacted the economy. Although the act of tourism helped to stimulate the economy, the tourists also negatively impacted the economy long before they arrived in Montreal. This is because in order to build hotels to accommodate this large influx of tourists, many locals were kicked out of their homes. They removed many houses and the people within so that they could be torn down in favor of new hotels that would be able to accommodate the amount of people that were visiting for the Olympics. This created a large mass of homeless people in Montreal that were displaced due to the Olympics. This means that the Olympics caused a negative impact on the economy long before it caused a positive impact.
Corruption In The Government
Another factor that impacted the Montreal Olympics was the corruption in the government during this time period. This is most blatantly seen by the fact
Cost of Building Materials
A factor that affected the economy in Montreal, Canada is the cost of building materials. This factor was planned for in the proposal, because in order to host the Olympics, the people knew that they would need buildings that could host all the events and large influx of tourists. What was not calculated in the original proposal was the artificially inflated cost of building materials. An issue with the infrastructure (for the Montreal populace) was that the price of the building materials such as wood and metal were artificially inflated by the companies so they could make a profit. Although this helped the individual business in Montreal, it added a lot to the cost of the Olympics which had to be paid through taxes by the province of Montreal.
Construction Worker Strikes
Since a lot of buildings needed to be built in order to accommodate the large influx of tourists and athletes, there was a need for lots of construction workers to build the infrastructure required. This was a foreseen need and accounted for in the original proposed budget. As the Olympics approached, this quickly changed from an accounted for factor to a negative factor because the construction workers went on strike. When building the stadiums, there was a rush to make them in the last six months before the Olympics were set to take place which required the workers to work long hours. They were paid poorly for the work they were doing in 24 hour shifts. This caused the workers to go on strike for 155 days during the six month period which halted all work during this time period. They were protesting the double shifts and the overcrowded work area which further slowed down the rate of construction. The strike occurred for 155 days. In particular the buildings most affected by the strikes were the Olympic Stadium, the Olympic pool, and the Velodrome. Because of this, the 1974 Olympics almost didn’t have diving, swimming, and water polo events happen. As a result of the strikes, the Olympic Stadium did not have the manpower to make the tower and retractable-roof which the Olympic Stadium has now in the present day. It was incomplete during the 1976 Olympics. The construction workers did not work at a time that was most integral to making the buildings come together. Because of this, the workers, and to a further extent, Montreal, were never able to make up the time or resources to complete the buildings efficiently and on time.
Cost of Security
After the Israeli Hostage Situation, later dubbed the Munich Massacre at the 1972 Munich Games in Germany, Canada increased their already high budget for security. This unexpected catastrophe occurred at the games four years prior to Montreal so it was important for Montreal to create a response that would lessen the fear of the general public and show that they were going to keep everyone safe. Although this would be seen by the public as necessary, it increased the end cost of the Olympic Games, which resulted in a larger debt for the citizens of Montreal. When Canada first proposed hosting the Olympics in ….., their top budget was… After Munich that increased to… This increase was not felt by the citizens of Montreal until after the Games when they began to pay off the cost. The increased security lessened the fear of another incident happening as well as heightened patrol for suspicious activity. After this there was a visible increase in security made at the Olympic Games in order to protect the people who participated in them, as well as the people who attended them. This created more jobs at the Olympics but also greatly increased the amount of money spent on the games. Montreal spent over $100 million on security in order to protect and fortify their facilities. Each host country since has spent at least this much on security as well in order to keep everyone safe. The Munich Massacre inspired everyone to allocate more money towards security which, although it is extremely important, caused Montreal to go even greater into debt after the closing ceremony in 1976. This was an expense that was not seen before the 1976 games, but has affected every game since that period of time. As you can see, objectively, the cost of increased security negatively impacted the economy no matter what the positive impacts were socially.
Boycott
A social factor that was not directly linked to Montreal, Canada was the International Olympic Committees ruling on New Zealand’s participation in these games. This was linked to the apartheid movement in Africa, specifically prominent in South Africa. The New Zealand rugby team was known as the All Blacks. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) ruled that New Zealand would be allowed to participate which caused backlash socially around the world. This was expressed as a boycott by 29 African countries. There was also a significantly smaller, separate boycott concurrently by China in response to Montreal recognizing the “People’s Republic of China” rather than the “Republic of China”. The repercussions of these actions directly affected Montreal as they lost money from tourists that were from these countries and from the athletes who were meant to compete as they dropped out after the Olympic Village had already been built with them in mind and even after some of the events had started. Due to this, they were not able to regain the money lost on the athletes. This Factor negatively impacted the economy because they went further into debt due to the boycotts.
Although rugby has not been an Olympic sport since 1924 (except for in the most recent 2016 Rio games), the black-ruled African countries saw the 1976 Olympics as an opportunity to protest apartheid through boycotting the games if New Zealand was allowed to compete (as South Africa had already been barred since 1964). The International Olympic Committee (IOC) argued that since rugby was not an Olympic sport they had no right to bar New Zealand from competing. Based on this decision, 29 African countries refused to participate in, or continue participating in the games as an act of protest. This greatly altered the outcome of Olympic games such as track and field. Since so many athletes did not show up this also caused the economy to be negatively affected.
Infrastructure
A factor that affected the economy of Montreal for the longest time after the Olympics was the infrastructure that was required in order to host the games. This included the creation of many buildings like the Olympic Village, Olympic Velodrome, Olympic Stadium, the Olympic Pool, Montreal Botanical Garden, Maurice Richard Arena Center, and Pierre Charbonnet. These buildings required a large portion of the budget. The Olympic Stadium itself cost almost 1 billion dollars to build and was still in the process of being built after the Olympics. It required an even larger amount of the budget when, as previously mentioned, the price of building materials was inflated. This, combined with the fact that these buildings were specialized for the sports they would be used for, meant that they could not be used later for other events. They did not already have a sports complex for this purpose, or the large capacity required to host the tourists and athletes. Due to the fact that these arenas were so specialized, after the completion of the Olympics there was hardly any use of the buildings, but some still had to be completed and all of them needed to be maintained. This is seen best by the Olympic Stadium which cost $770 million to build and $32 million to maintain each year after the Olympic Games. It was later nicknamed the “Big O” due to how much it cost the citizens in Montreal. In fact the “Big O” facilities retractable roof never properly worked, instead it fell to shambles and had to be replaced in order to maintain it. Buildings like this added greatly to the cost of the Olympics overall. Due to the fact that the Olympic buildings were so specialized, they were unable to turn a profit as they were largely unusable. The government of Montreal still had to pay for them as they deteriorated and broke down, unused. As seen by the information previously stated, this factor negatively impacted the economy of Montreal.
Economy Before & After the Olympics
Montreal quickly became the center of commerce in Canada as well as the most populated city in the 20th century. This was seen as it was cited in Canada’s census as the most populated city for at least the first 61 years of the 1900’s. The city’s population grew exponentially reaching 1,080,546 in 1976. Montreal saw a rise in industry in the 1940’s with inventions such as home appliances and aircrafts. Hydroelectric power, both world wars, and nuclear power helped to increase the industry going into the 1970’s. Montreal’s economy prior to the Olympics was very good as can be seen in the fact that they applied for and were chosen to host the Olympics. During the Olympics, their economy did not change too much as they had either already spent the money in the few years prior, or it was spent after in order to continue paying for items like infrastructure. In order to help understand the idea that Montreal was impacted by the Olympics I included a table from the article “The Legacy of the Olympic Games”.
This table is relevant to my research because it shows how much each part of the economy made in the year of 1976. It shows every program about the Olympics that had a positive impact on Montreal’s economy. Based on these calculations, it is estimated that there is 223,000,000 Canadian dollars of surplus due to the Olympics. Even though these items left Canada with a surplus of money, many other factors as stated in other sections of this paper caused economic issues after the Olympics concluded. In total, this game caused Canada to go into $1.5 billion Canadian dollars of debt. This means that they had a cost overrun of 720%. This debt was paid out over the course of thirty years and completely paid off in November 2006. This is extremely significant because the original projected cost of the games was meant to be $310 million dollars. This is a difference of eighty-seven million dollars ($87,000,000) between the projected and final cost.
Should the Olympics Continue, and if so, how?
The Olympics are now widely known to cause economic deficits in the country that hosts them which is why it’s more likely for a first world country to be their host. They have the ability to take a larger loss in money than poorer nations. Although there are many cases where less money is lost it is much more likely to find that the Olympics will negatively impact the economy greatly. The economic deficit in the 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics was caused by many factors such as unions, bad infrastrucure, corruption, neglected infrastrucure, fear of terrorism, and a boycott. Because of this, the economic deficit was so large it took Canada 30 years to pay off the debt from this game. Due to these facts it has become necessary for economists to find a way to continue the Olympics in a sustainable fashion. A common theory that has come out of this is if the games were to regularly take place in one central location. They have come to this conclusion because the problems that riddled the Canadian games would have no environment to thrive in. In fact, the idea of moving the Olympics is one that came with the modern return of the Olympics. I
Comparison to the Only Economically Beneficial Olympic Games
There is only one case in modern Olympics history where the economy benefited from hosting the Olympics; Los Angeles. This is due to the fact that the United States was able to negotiate terms greatly after the Montreal games. (Check the following information: They were the only country to put in a bid to host the 1984 Olympics. Since Los Angeles was already established as a sports hub in America it already had many large sports complexes that could host a large number of people. When bargaining with the IOC, they used this as one of their negotiating terms which lowered the cost of their game immensely, as they didn’t have to build so much new infrastructure like most other host countries. )
Conclusion
The mayor, Jean Drapeau, was probably most famously known for his statement in regards to Montreal’s decision to host the 1976 Olympics. Jean Drapeau said, ‘The Olympics can no more lose money than a man can have a baby.’ Ironically, a few months later Montreal’s economy was left ravaged by the games. From the evidence presented, the answer to the question “What impact did the 1976 Summer Olympics have on Montreal, Canada’s economy?” is that the Olympics caused negative effects on their host country. This is widely agreed upon between both historians and economists since after tracking the modern Olympic Games, this trend arises.
Even though the era of athletics has been left in the past, events such as the Olympic games and sports championships tend to bring up the spirit and become world’s main spotlights. These mega projects are short-term events with fixed-term duration, that usually lead to a long-term social, economic and urban change in the countries which are hosting them . Nowadays, the hosting country seems to become a marketing product, trying to attract but at the same time maintain countries – “clients” that come to form an image, that then will become a world-reference for the country itself. As a result of the continuous megastructure constructions, the mega projects seem to appear with an increasing frequency. Many of these projects are characterized by cost overruns, long delays and conflicts, especially because they affect populations, national economies and the natural environment. Formerly, the cities that hosted such events, used and constructed smaller scale infrastructures that were focused on the necessary supply of the event, and did not become instruments of power or investment towards the cities. Unfortunately, this scenario is not the same for Rio de Janeiro’s “mega” plan as the today’s capitalist exploitation and gentrification not only dominate the natural resources and the city itself but get to extend to the human nature and most importantly the human rights.
Main Body
The implementation of the Olympic games mega event in Rio de Janeiro guided urban interventions for the upcoming years and promoted many kinds of transformations. Most of the urban redevelopment that took place was on low income neighborhoods, slums, areas near swamps and historical monuments that have been unexploited, though one of the biggest issues in the city is mobility. The major territorial strategy that followed for improvement was the creation of four “Olympic clusters” across the city, dividing the impact of the interventions in the areas of: Barra, Deodoro, Copacabana and Maracanã. In these areas, are hosted new and renovated spaces, villages for athletes and a series of some other new services related to the Olympic games, as well as a new high-speed line for buses referred as the BRT system (Bus Rapid Transit), the metro extension, and a large project based on the redevelopment of the old harbor in the city center.
Thus, in more detail, the first of the developing projects was the extension of the metro line to the area of Barra da Tijuca and its connection to the southern part of the city. The metro network is undeniably the most important adjustment in a city of millions of people. Subsequently, the “Duplicacao elevado Joa” which stands for the “duplication” of the road that links the southern zone (Copacabana, Ipanema) with Barra da Tijuca, improving significantly the traffic problem by and to the Barra area, increasing by 30% the transit of the cars. Third, the BRT system, the idea of this new network was based on the previous experience of Bogotá, but still has not reached the point of minimizing the number of cars on the road until today. BRT was created due to the impossibility of extending the metro to the western zone as the particular geomorphology of soil (lakes, granites) could not make it feasible. Alongside, the “Acro Metropolitano” project which does not concern the metropolitan center, but the peripheral areas around Rio. The extent of the new motorway is now 72km and links the area (favela) Duque de Caxias, next to Rio International airport (northern tip) to the harbor of Itaguaí (southern tip). Finally, the demolition of the “perimetral” network and the opening of two underground roads, changed completely the port area and extended the city towards the sea. This project was technically related to the restoration of the entire harbor zone that took place in the area of “Porto Maravilha”, resulting the redevelopment of its 5 million square meters of public land including historical buildings of the industrial age.
Although “Porto Maravilha” is a central area bordering with a middle-class region, it has been remaining degraded for decades. One way of making the new services and the region more attractive to investors, was through the construction of two new museums, one of them the “Museo de amanha” (museum of tomorrow), work of the famous architect Santiago Calatrava, that became the new landmark of the city. The other way was through eliminating the less desirable uses and users. On the perimeter of Porto Maravilha, they voted and forced the removal of 8 favelas, some of which were there for almost 20 years. Also, 535-low income families were displaced from the region. The current inhabitants have lost resources associated with the area, as well as the possibility of occupation of the many abandoned and unused buildings and the low rents that used to exist until then.
Furthermore, in the region of Barra, where the Olympic park is situated, as mentioned in the book “SMH 2016: Removals in the Olympic city” the journalist Lena Azevedo and the architect Lucas Faulhaber, estimate that between 2009 and 2013, 70,000 residents were forced to leave their homes, in most of the cases without any compensations. Primarily, they were people living in favelas that got demolished even though they had historical value. More specifically, in the area hosting now the Olympic Park, more than 275 families, out of the 800 that lived in the favela, were given a discharge order. Through constant claims and demonstrations some of them, no more than 20,000, got relocated in makeshift shelters that the municipality of Rio reluctantly rebuilt. Inside the Olympic park, from the total of 300 families that lived, only six managed to stay. For “image” reasons and “nice scenes” during the events, the state demolished their homes and built new ones.
The Favelas in Rio de Janeiro have experienced a complete disruption of population and culture, in order to “make space” for the new “richer” inhabitants. The expansion of the city is no longer feasible, and the favelas not only occupy a large part in central areas, but also really often are located right next to the more expensive ones. Even if the rich try to detach from the poor, the formation of a favela next to them is inevitable, as the new, huge, walled rich complexes offer a range of maintenance and cleaning services that are again served by the financially lower strata, and so gradually there is the necessity of relocation close to their workplace. It is an interdependence that cannot change. What is changing, is the ingression of foreigners and the middle class in the housing market of Rio’s “nonviolent” favelas. Therefore, the “privileges” that the residents used to have due to their non-inclusion in the state (exemption from taxes, electricity, water and land titles) are now gone.
As the value and popularity of the city grows with new construction and business opportunities, the real estate prices have risen dramatically. As a result, entire socio-economic groups, lost their ability to live in favelas they once called home, and are now struggling with rent increases, displacements and enforcements to move to more dangerous favelas. American researcher and former resident of Santa Marta, Charles Heck, finds that the gentrification in Rio de Janeiro, forms a strategic plan that will allow a reduction of 5% in favelas in the period 2013-2016. “The urbanization has focused primarily on land titles and new businesses rather than health, sanitation, education and other infrastructure”, said Heck.
Returning to the Marxist approach, it should be noted, that the right of land ownership is not a concept with a given and unchanging content, instead it is determined by a set of institutions and policies that are developed for it by the public sector in every particular society and historical conjuncture. Through these institutions and polices, the level of “the price paid for the use of land” (rent) is also formed. The Marxist rent theory, in Rio’s case of favela gentrification aims directly to exploitation and profit-making at the expense of the poor. The amounting difference of rent, according to Smith is the key of understanding gentrification, since in order to generate profit, the poverty must be sufficiently high so that real estate principal can buy the land cheaply, pay for construction costs, repay bank loans and sell the outcome at a price that ensures good profits. In fact, Smith’s approach is epitomized on the geography of principal’s movement in the urban space, through which the causes of gentrification are highlighted, with an emphasis on the production processes of the urban space. The critique of the rent gap theory as the only explanation of gentrification begun in the late 1980s and was based on the argument that in this process, apart from the principal, people are involved as “social aggregates” who “consume” the produced space, and eventually materialize gentrification into the field of the city and everyday life. Such an approach recognizes consumerism as the predominant feature of modern urban culture and focuses on how consumption affects the organization of space. Capitalism, Marx said, turns anything into a commodity. And so it happens. As soon as everything is commodified: Education, Health, Welfare, Culture, Ideology, the man himself and even his impoverishment.
Conclusion
To conclude, the Brazilian state has shown the toughest face of capitalization through its neoliberal policy. The Brazilian government, which exacerbates the social inequalities, diminishes the world, marginalizes the masses living in the favelas, suppresses all forms of resistance, imposes the immense austerity. All in the name of attraction and money. The Olympic games do not promote any “abstract” culture. They promote modern “values” and the “morality” of capitalism, they are part of the dominant ideology and on top of the modern imperialist world. The slogan “citus, altius, fortius” are values of commerce, ostensibly “moral” competition and extreme individualism. And while in socialism people progress, and the human spirit becomes the main “attraction”, in capitalism (and “olympism” as a consequence) the person becomes the main sight. Individuality, singular profitableness and human idealization of the people as an individuals are some of the most characteristic elements in the urban superstructure. The Hollywood superstar actress, the music idol, the extreme performer, the super athlete with the unrealistic performance. This is not about a “new type of man”, but an overcrowded personality that produces great added value, wearing the best brand of clothes and shoes. They are the culmination of globalization’s ideology and at the same time the instrument for the deification of the capitalist class, showing the capitalist relationship with the future. A relationship that is then confirmed again by the consolidation of repeatability of the event every four years. In conclusion, the 2016 Olympics could be defined as a great celebration in the name of the capital and the elite, as the main “event” has been put at the expense of the low-income strata…And if sport in the antiquity, shapes body and spirit, passing the message of truce, today with its commercialization teaches us how the profit of the five Olympic circles will be distributed.
‘The Swimmer’, a short story written by American author John Cheever in 1964, is centered on the journey of a middle-aged man, Neddy Merrill, as he attempts to swim across country in various swimming pools he finds along the way. It emerges from a world in which Merill is an affluent member of society, simply reveling in life’s greatest pleasures with friends. However, as the story progresses, it evokes a landscape of instability and denial in which Merrill knows no reality. He is kicked out of a public pool; a bartender refuses to serve him at a neighbor’s home and towards the end; he even struggles to swim. Eventually, he manages to reach his goal of swimming across country and returns to his home wherein he expects to find his wife and children – unfortunately, all he is welcomed by is a vacant, locked home and no trace of anybody living there.
First, the detailed encounters with various neighbors seem unimportant and fruitless – but, as the story changes form, we see Merrill’s various interactions become progressively gloomy. Further encounters with neighbors highlight that Merrill is struggling to remember key aspects of his life: his loss of income, his house, his wife and his children. He describes himself not only as a ‘legendary figure’, but as a ‘pilgrim’, too. It is clear he has a warped sense of self and that allows the reader to question the short story’s narrative. In my essay, I will be arguing how Merrill’s possible dissociative identity disorder and addiction, results in the, perceived, distorted passing of time and how this affects his relationships with not only other characters but also, himself.
Neddy Merrill is depicted as a happy-go-lucky man at the beginning of ‘The Swimmer’ with no qualms in the world – however, upon further analysis, it could be said that he has a dissociative identity disorder. At first, an innocent challenge of swimming across country in various swimming pools, in a single afternoon, seems like an adventure to the reader as well as Merrill. Leaving his wife and friends poolside, he promises to return by nightfall. However, as his journey advances his interactions cause the reader to question his mental stability. When in conversation with a neighbor, Merrill fails to remember he sold his home and his fervent denial, responded to with sympathy, further indicates a troubling dissociation with reality. Dissociative identity disorder is a complex psychological disorder that could be caused by some sort of trauma. A person with this disorder will show signs of extreme memory loss with regards to personal information so much so that it cannot be explained away by common forgetfulness. It is thought to be a coping mechanism in which the traumatized person can place themselves in denial in order avoid dealing with their problems. Upon seeing that a neighbor had put their home up for sale and not remembering the illness of his friend, he continuously questions his ability to recall key information by posing the question, “Was his memory failing or had he so disciplined it in the repression of unpleasant facts that he had damaged his sense of truth?” (Cheever; 1964:607). Merrill has essentially created another personality in which he is a strong, confident and content man – but this could be met with a degree of scrutiny. “The only maps or charts he had to go by were remembered or imaginary but these were clear enough” (Cheever; 1964:609). Emphasis should be placed on Cheever’s use of the word ‘imaginary’ which highlights his disconnection with reality – if he can conjure up a map in his mind and believe it true, to what degree should the reader trust his sanity?
Merrill often abuses alcohol as a way to repress unpleasant memories which further emphasizes his dissociation with reality. “It was one of those midsummer Sundays when everyone sits around saying, ‘I drank too much last night’” (Cheever; 1964:1). This is a sign of foreshadowing – an indication of a future event – as it could be interpreted that Neddy has an alcohol abuse problem. “Neddy Merrill sat by the green water, one hand in it, one hand around a glass of gin” (Cheever; 1964:1). This sentence perfectly describes Merrill’s relationship with water and alcohol – he cannot live without either of the two. Both are of great importance; he loves to swim, yet every place he stops he has a couple drinks. His neighbors call him a drunk and his ex-lover questions if he has come to visit her for money. It is clear to the reader that Cheever is hinting at an underlying explanation for Merrill’s behavior, which is that of alcoholism. “To be rebuffed by a part-time barkeep meant that he had suffered some loss of social esteem” (Cheever; 1964:611). In the affluent neighborhood to which Merrill associates, it is important to keep with social standing by having a good income, home and family. However, due to his detachment from reality, he is unable to recognize how his alcohol addiction has caused him to lose everything. Understanding that water and alcohol go hand-in-hand, water can be considered a key theme in this short story. Water can be associated with rebirth and life – however, flowing water could constitute change and the passage of time. When divulging further into the symbolism of water, one can see it is of great support to the theory that Neddy’s journey happened over a long period of time rather than a day.
Throughout ‘The Swimmer’, the reader is told that Merrill perceives his journey to take an afternoon, but from an objective viewpoint – we can see that this is just another disconnected belief. “They were loose and he wondered if, in the space of an afternoon he could have lost some weight” (Cheever; 1964:609). This statement is made ironically as the reader, by this point, has become familiar with Merrill’s instability and realizes that his journey seems to have taken much longer than previously understood. Therefore, this is further indication that time has passed and Merrill is growing older as his body is slowly deteriorating. The Lucinda River, the string of swimming pools he names after his wife, could also show the inevitability of the passage of time. The river could represent his relationship with his wife and how, much like his swimming feat, it starts to become rocky and unstable.
Therefore, the various interpretations of ‘The Swimmer’ show the importance of in-depth text analysis in order to understand a writer’s intention. Cheever uses many key symbols and metaphors throughout the short story, such as the swimming pools; water; the passage of time and Merrill’s distorted reality to portray the unstable life of a man who has lost everything to addiction. Supported by relative quotes, I have argued the validity of Merrill’s dissociative behaviors and the consequences that result to his detriment.