The growing Olympics

All the host cities of the Winter Olympics / Wikimedia Commons

The modern Olympic games have grown in scale exponentially since its beginning in 1896. More countries participate now and there is a greater sense of equality in both gender and race. The games are a much more accurate measure for who is the best of the world due to these changes.

The very first winter Olympics only permitted the participation of Scandinavian countries, such as Norway and Sweden. The 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games allowed 84 different countries from six continents. A growth in the number of teams in the Olympics also increases the challenge to win as there are more athletes to compete against each other.

On top of a more varied pool of countries, the athletes of each country became more and more diverse. Since the first Olympics, all races could compete, but each country was responsible for deciding on athletes represent them. Countries with a history of racism hosted or entered the Olympics since it began. The racism in competing nations brought controversy to the games. There were even talks of boycotting the 1968 Olympics in Mexico from Martin Luther King Jr.

"We're not saying ‘burn it down,'" King Jr. said in The John Carlos Story. "We're just merely saying we don't care to participate and see how you feel without us as a part of the show."

Women also became a bigger part of the games. The first time that women were allowed to compete was the 1900 Olympic Games in Paris. Only 22 out of 997 athletes were females and they participated in five different sports including tennis and golf. In contrast, 44 percent of the athletes were women in the more recent 2012 Olympics in London.

“More and more women are chairing IOC commissions, such as the Coordination Commissions for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games and the 2nd Winter Youth Olympic Games in 2016 in Lillehammer, as well as the Women and Sport Commission and Athletes’ Commission,” International Olympic Committee reported in an October 2013 fact sheet.

The growth of the Olympics also appears in the increased money surrounding the games. In 1976, the Olympics cost about $1.6 billion. Host countries now more than ever view the Olympics as an opportunity to demonstrate their wealth and success. Almost four decades later, the 2014 games cost a whopping $51 billion.

“For President Putin [staging the Games] is a chance to show off Russia as a resurgent superpower,” Rick Broadbent and Ben Hoyle wrote in a Times of London article in 2014.

Contributed by: Sean Santiago, Velid Mulic

Jackie Robinson, role model of the century

Jackie Robinson is one of the most influential people in American history. Everybody knows Robinson as an amazing baseball player that fought through the harsh conditions of competing in the “white” major leagues. Not only was Robinson a phenomenal player, but he was a humble human being as well. He paved the way for not only colored ball players, but also for civil rights activists as well.

Robinson had to play with the terrors of racism. He had to sleep away from his teammates and even had to scour for food alone. He was not allowed in most facilities with his teammates, so he was on his own most of the time. Not only did Robinson overcome these harsh conditions, but he performed terrifically in them. He led the Brooklyn Dodgers to the World Series in his first year on the team.

Robinson fought off racism by showing how wonderful he played on the field, performing proficiently on both offense and defense. With his extraordinary charisma and athletics, Robinson was able to win over the hearts of thousands of whites that loved to watch him play, something no other African American player could say they’ve done. With thousands of fans behind him, Robinson was able to prove that blacks could sell out stadiums just as well as whites could, which led to other teams singing African American players.

Robinson was the greatest role model in the middle of the 20th century, but why is he still praised today? If you look at baseball today, there is a diverse range of nationalities. Robinson was the perfect person to not only win over fans with his skills, but to shrug off any harsh actions thrown his way. Robinson is inspirational in the way he handled adversity and flourished both on and off the field.