Although the modern Olympic Games were founded on the notion of international cooperation, the games have sometimes fallen prey to forces and events that have undermined this original ideal. Protests, boycotts, and even terrorism have become a part of Olympic history.
In this new teaching activity from SIRS Decades (login, free trial), take a look back at some of the instances in which politics have made an indelible mark on the Olympic Games.
From the 1950s to the 1980s, rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union, which was rooted in the struggle of the Cold War, resulted in each country boycotting the games hosted by the other (Moscow in 1980, and Los Angeles in 1984).
Politics have also influenced the Olympics in other ways, such as the Nazi propaganda in the 1936 Berlin games and the pressures that led to the exclusion of athletes from white-ruled Rhodesia from the 1972 Munich Olympic Games. Munich was also the site of the most violent episode in Olympic history, in which nine Israeli athletes were kidnapped and murdered by Palestinian terrorists.
In these and other incidents, the Olympics became a platform for various individuals or groups to promote their particular political agendas.
Learning Activity
Have students, either individually or in groups, examine the following primary source documents, which describe specific events in Olympic history.
Where necessary, have students do additional research to understand the historical context of these events—what happened, what the motivations of the key players were, what the political effect of these actions was on the world at large, etc.
As a class, discuss whether you think individuals, groups, or nations are ever justified in using the Olympic Games as a political platform.
Should athletes and the nations they represent put aside promoting their various political ideologies during the Games in order to foster a spirit of world cooperation, or can the Olympics sometimes represent an opportunity to bring attention to some of the world's most pressing problems?
Black Power salute at the Summer Olympics in Mexico City (1968)
