Kin 2501 Final Olympics

1932

Amsterdam 1200-1300 athletes attended - showed Europe was the center of international sports, they would not travel in large numbers to compete in the US. Automatic timing device added to track events - was critical towards moving forward to making/breaking world records and timing accuracy.

1940, 1944

Games cancelled due to WWII. 1940 - Los Angles lit olympic torch as an gesture

1952

Helsinki Woman began to participate more - 519 women competed. Distance runners made their mark Emil Zatopek won many events - 10,000m, 5,000m, marathon

1924

Paris, France Pierre de Coubertin was getting ready to retire, requested the games to be in Paris - the first time a city was repeated for the games. Attracted a large crowd - 3,000 people- doubled in size. Introduced the winter olympics this year No german athletes participated - germans were allowed to but the french strongly hinted they would not be able to guarantee the safety of the german athletes. Tennis was removed from the games because the players did not want to abide by the amateurism rule.

1960

Rome Black female stars made greater strides during these games than any other group. Internal racial contradiction - conflict within country over desegregation Wilma Roudolph Muhammad Ali won gold in heavyweight boxing - was a huge deal at the time - was considered to be one of the best athletes. Rayford Johnson - carried the Olympic flag in the opening ceremony. Was a decathlete who won silver at 1956, set record and won gold at 1960. Was with Robert Kennedy when he was shot in LA - grabbed the pistol form the shooter. Lit the olympic torch at 1984 olympucs

1990s

Fall of berlin wall, fall of soviet union, iron curtain fell, much more commercialization, much more use of drugs by athletes

1972

Munich changed the way they secured the safety of the athletes Remembered for the massacre of 11 Israeli Athletes by Palestinians - they jumped the olympic village fence, took Israeli athletes hostage and killed 11 of them in a shootout on a runway Student activism had declined while political athleticism declined. Avery Brundage resigned during these games. Mark Spitz - like michael phelps, won 7 gold medals in swimming. US mens basketball team lost to Russia.

1964

Tokyo Joe Frazier - won gold in heavy weight boxing. Billy Miles - native american marine, won 10,000 meter race - top 3 finishers all finished within 1 second of each other - was a huge upset. Bob Hayes - Track and field athlete, played for the dallas cowboys, fastest human being alive - won 100m race by 7 feet

1928

Amsterdam Participation of female athletes in track and field events - women already competed in swimming - it signified women beginning to participate in more physical sports. Women participated in the international federation of women's sports - organized their own world games for women to participate in, stopped doing these games in 1928 when women participated in the oylmpics in a greater capacity.

1920

Antwerp, Belgium Olympic flag flown for first time - entertwined rings signify coming together - looked at the flags of each country and at least one flag had each color of one of the rings. Germany and all of their allies denied participation in the game due to WWI. The games were rather primitive, without all the glamour - due to WWI bombing. Went back to oath from ancient games with promise to not cheat and train for a certain length of time - a representative of each country took the oath, was brought back because of Jim Thorpe in 1912 olympics - he was a professional athlete- and is called the olympic oath which is still said today.

Olympic Rings

Approved for flag in 1914 Flag not flow until 1920 no 1916 olympics

1996

Atlanta Centennial olympiad - 100 year anneversy of the games, olympic torch was lit by Muhammad Ali - was a big surprise, he had Parkinsons at the time. Womens basketball had a dream team Kerry Strug - gymnast who needed a good score on her last jump for gold and did it

1992

Barcelona Europeans smoke a lot, so there was a no smoking campaign at the olympics - a large social stance. Games were peaceful and free of most social issues Dream team of 1992 - all professional basketball players on the US team. South African and Ethopian racers ran together for most of the race and kept running together through most of the race and crossed the finish line at the same time

1936

Berlin Jesse Owens - "Buckeye Bullet" - Ohio State track star, his family moved from Alabama to Cleveland. He was an athlete at a very bad time for black athletes - he couldn't eat dinner with his team, couldn't find a job after he came back from the olympics, wasn't allowed to go back to college athletics - he spent the rest of his life as a public service worker. He got mobbed for autographs at the olympics and won 4 gold medals. He was snubbed by Hitler at one of his medal ceremonies, where Hitler refused to shake his hand, and then the IOC made him not shake hands with anyone.

1948

London Was still devastated from bombing of WWII German and Japanese Athletes excluded because of actions in WWII Bob Mathias - Won decathlon for US, recognized as greatest athlete at the games. Alice Coachman - won the high jump, first black woman to win a gold medal. Grew up in Georgia in 1923 - she did not have many opportunities to participate in any sport because of her race and gender. She started making her own training routine at 15 in barefoot in grass and dirt, got help from a mens track coach, got recognized for her talent and went to Tuskegee institute - a large step academically and atheltically- her degree was dress making. Broke AAU high school/college records barefoot Jumped 5'6" in the olympics to win gold. She Jumped feet first, and her rival from Great Britain copied her movements, so Alice changed her steps to win and her opponent couldn't compensate. She was the first black athlete to sign an endorsement - was with Coca Cola. She began teaching/coaching and set up the Coachmen Track and Field foundation to assist young athletes. Honored at 1966 olympics as one of the 100 greatest olympic athletes ever. The citizens of London did not really embrace the games, they wanted the money to be spent on repairs, not on the games.

1984

Los Angeles 1st corporate olympiad - "spartan olympics" - very successful monetarily, the games showed a profit, had permanent scholarships, televison made 300 million, teams got scholarships. Soviets and their allies boycotted the games - was because they would defect and stay in the US after the games. Carl Lewis - Star of the games, was very quiet but very confident, coming off as arrogant. Won 4 track and field gold medals - first since Jesse Owens.

1956

Melborne Roger Bannister broke the 4 minute mile barrier - a massive accomplishment at the time. Noteworthy for african americans because of 3 political events from 1952-1956 - 1) President Truman desegregated the armed forces, 2) Supreme Court abolished the separate but equal policy in Brown v Board, 3) Soviet Union invaded Hungary, Great Britain and France - several countries withdrew because of this. Willye White - from Mississippi, won silver in long jump, competed in 5 consecutive olympics, she said her experience as an athlete let her look past racism. Beginning of seeing social movements - civil rights movement in the 1960s Wilma Roudolph - First African American woman to win 3 gold medals - earned a spot at the olympics on the relay team. She was the 20th of 22 children, was diagnosed with polio at a young age and told she would never walk but her and her mother went to therapy every weekend until she could walk again, around age 12. She went to a segregated school at age 7, played basketball in high school, and was noticed by Ed Temple the track coach of Tennesse State. Her fame came from 1960 olympics where she won 3 gold medals - it broke down racial and gender barriers. She forced her home town to have a singular parade when she came home rather than a separate one for each race. She retired in 1962, and later taught, got married, had 4 children, became a sports commentator and co-hosted a radio show, and died fairly young. she had an alcohol problem

1968

Mexico City Bob Beamon - record breaking long jump - broke the world record by over 2 feet, they had to bring out measuring sticks to measure his jump because he went so much further than anyone thought possible. Arthur Ash - African american tennis player for US, died of HIV infected blood transfusion, give out a courage award every year because of him, in 2008, he gave to Tommy Smith and John Carlos who were black track athletes that made a huge political statement at the games. They bowed their head and raised a closed fist during the national anthem at their medal ceremony as a sign of uniting the country, smith wore knotted scarf to represent black pride, walked to stand with no shoes to symbolize poverty - they got stripped of their medals and the team had to send them home or the US would be removed from all track and field events said the IOC. There is a statue erected for them at San Jose State.

1976

Montreal Boxing was large event - Sugar Ray Leonard Americans returned to dominance in basketball, Bruce Jenner won decathlon, gymnastics was large event, Montreal spent a ton of money - over 1 billion on the games - mostly on buildings that were left abandoned after the games

1980

Moscow Jimmy Carter was president Made the decision that the US olympics team would not go to the games to protest Soviet invasion of Afghanistan - used US athletes as a political pawn

1988

Seoul, South Korea Security concerns from North Korea threatening terrorism, controversy with NBC between south korean boxer and fans. First drug testing for performance enhancing drugs - Jamaican Ben Johnson was disqualified from a gold medal after failing a drug test, the medal went to Carl Lewis. tennis returned to the games, amateurism was no longer an issue. Table tennis was introduced, a lot of American success during these games

Jessie Owens long jump

Shows he was liked. An opponent told him to back up his jump start point a little bit back from the board after Jessie disqualified on his first 2 jumps so there was no chance he would scratch on his third jump. He listened and won.