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

Julie Chu: Queen of the Ice

Julie Chu courtesy of Union College Athletics

Hockey is one of the lesser known sports in the world; however, during the Winter Olympics, hockey emerges. When anybody thinks of hockey they think of rough, angry men, but Julie Chu has changed that stereotype. 

Julie Chu, professional women's hockey player, was born on March 13, 1982 in Bridgeport, Connecticut. She grew up playing soccer and figure skating, before playing hockey. Chu asked her father if she could trade in her toe picks for hockey pads. After playing in various boy’s teams, she switched to girls after seeing her potential to get hurt.

Chu graduated from Choate Rosemary Hall high school in 2001, after playing for their team. During that same year, she played in the Women’s World Ice Hockey Championship and helped the USA win silver. She was accepted into Harvard, but deferred her acceptance, due to her playing in the 2002 Winter Olympics. 

At 19, Chu played forward for the U.S Olympic ice hockey team  and was the first Asian-American to play for the team. She was able to help the USA get to second place, losing to Canada 5-2. 

While in Harvard, she played for their women’s ice hockey team. During her four years, she was a four-time All American. During her college career, she led the NCAA in scoring with 284 points and assists with 197. In 2007, she graduated from Harvard with a concentration in psychology. Chu earned the Patty Kazmaier Award in 2007, which is given to the best NCAA women’s ice hockey player. 

Chu is also very famous for her success in the 2008 Women’s World Ice Hockey Championship as a defender. She was acknowledged as an All-Star defender in the "mock" All-Star team. During this time, Chu played with the Minnesota Whitecaps in the WWHL. In 2010, she won the Clarkson Cup and MVP with the Whitecaps. In 2010-11, she joined the Montreal Stars in the CWHL and claimed her second consecutive Clarkson Cup title, becoming the first player to win the Clarkson Cup with two different teams.

Chu should be celebrated for breaking barriers, one being a gender barrier the other being a racial barrier. She is special in the fact that she is able to play a very physical sport on such a high level.  She is also special for being the first Asian-American on the USA National Women’s Ice Hockey Team. Chu also has the ability to play more than one position which gives her coach the chance to strengthen both defense and offense. She has been praised for her remarkable teamwork on and off the ice. 

"She's just one of the most positive persons I've ever met in life," said fellow forward, Gigi Marvin. "It's just such a joy to have that kind of person just constantly pushing you and encouraging you. ... There's no way you're going to not keep moving your feet with that encouragement in your ear." This year, Chu has been chosen to join many other hockey players in Connecticut’s Ice Hockey Hall of Fame.