Photo by Mike Hewitt for olympicsusa.tumblr.com

AS THE 30th Olympic Games came to a close in London amid a global media spectacle, the flame of the modern Olympic Movement burned brighter than ever. Beyond the athletic facet of the games, however, the Olympics is also a significant commercial and political endeavor.

Celebrating humanity through sports

Since the launch of the modern Olympics in 1896, it has become an international event that brings the world together, making it a great political and diplomatic event—a statement of mankind’s unity.

“Participation means that you are part of the world, the human race,” says Communication Department former Chairperson and Assistant Professor Severino Sarmenta. Having been able to cover the Olympics himself—in Seoul 1988 and in Sydney 2000—he remarks that the games are the “greatest celebration of humanity [and its] successes.”

In ancient Greece, wars were halted each time the games were held. Today, the games are a major global sporting event, pitting athletes from different countries against each other, all under friendly banners.

For Sarmenta, while the games “magnify the gap between well-off countries and struggling ones,” it is still a setting “where [countries] come together and forget about wars, crises, problems and disagreements.”

He says that, similar to the ancient Greek games, “The problems will still be there, but the Olympics reminds us every four years that we can stop and celebrate shared joys like the thrill of triumph and even the agony of sport.”

An international political event

The Olympics, however, may also be seen as a political event. Political Science Department Chairperson Alma Salvador, PhD, says, “The Olympics is all about competitive sports and state support for citizens and nationals engaged in sports.”

Talking about international relations (IR), which is her expertise, she continues, “The Olympics is a non-traditional topic in IR. In the broadest sense, it shows interaction at the people to people level.”

For Salvador, “The Olympics may be viewed as a system of states interacting in a field of low politics… where exchanges in culture of non-state actors are dominant.” She explains further that the event exhibits a certain international regime in sports, which means that there are rules, institutions and organizations behind such a practice of international competition.

The international orientation of the games has also made it an avenue for political statements, the worst of which are terrible atrocities. The 1972 Munich Olympics, for example, saw the horrific massacre of Israeli athletes by Palestinian militants in the Olympic Village.

In addition, the games have reflected complex geopolitical situations in the international arena. From 1976 to 1984, a series of international boycotts marred the games.

In 1980, when the games were held in Moscow, the United States of America, together with its allies—including the Philippines—snubbed the games in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Four years later, when Los Angeles hosted, the Soviets responded in kind, with 14 allied countries skipping the games as well.

Salvador thinks that the games remain significant in the face of international issues by showing that “the field of global political and economic affairs has its own drivers.” The Olympics, she explains in particular, is an “autonomous field involving people interacting in sports” where athletes are not to be politicized or else they will have to face sanctions by the regulating body.

On a lighter note, the games also involve interactions of a different kind, marked by 150,000 condoms being distributed in the Olympic Village for the athletes this year—the highest in Olympic history.

The worth of the Olympics

From a financial perspective, hosting the Olympics doesn’t come cheap. When Athens hosted in 2004, the games reportedly cost €9 billion. The expense is now being pointed to as one of the triggers of Greece’s current financial crisis, as the Greek government had to borrow just to be able to host the games.

London 2012 was anticipated to be the most expensive Olympics to date. If current projections are correct, it met these expectations. Public and private money have made this undertaking possible, with up to €925 billion raised in order to construct, maintain and preserve Olympic infrastructure for its current and future purposes.

The Olympics, being the second most valuable brand in the world, according to London-based brand valuation consultancy Brand Finance—putting the games behind only Apple and ahead of Google—is also a commercial extravaganza which the world’s largest corporations make sure to participate in.

Many companies see the brand as a great marketing opportunity, giving the organizers a lot of money in sponsorship deals. Companies like Visa, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Cadbury, Procter & Gamble and 37 others reportedly shelled out up to $1 billion just to have exclusive Olympic marketing deals for the latest games.

Hefty fines awaited those who illegally used any Olympic and International Olympic Committee symbols and mottos. The enforcement of these rules was carried out by the Olympic “brand police,” who constantly went on the lookout for any non-sponsor using the brand—from bakers selling bread shaped like the Olympic rings to restaurants infringing on McDonald’s exclusive rights by promoting “London 2012” in their menu.

Athletes for the world

In the end, the Olympics is still an athletic event. Athletes from all over the world train and dream to be in the Olympics, with highly competitive qualifiers to be hurdled before they can represent their countries in the sporting spectacle.

It is a given that international sports gatherings such as the Olympics provide opportunities for athletes in their respective fields. However, there is more to the Olympic athletes than the roles they take on in the arena—they also stand for something greater.

“[The athletes] hope to be heroes that we can emulate,” says Association of Southeast Asian Nations Basketball League Coach Glenn Capacio, on the sportsmen and sportswomen who compete internationally.

He also says that Olympic athletes pave the way for certain causes to be heard, as “there are many advocacies that we can relate to the games, like giving equal rights to persons with disabilities, caring for the environment, youth and sports development.”

Given all these things that go hand in hand with sports, it is clear why the promotion of sports remains a central aim of the Olympic Movement. Sports nourish the spirit of teamwork, which encourages everyone to work with each other for the sake of their respective communities and countries.

Sarmenta puts the idea this way: “Kung kanya-kanya tayo, wala tayong mararating. (If we go separately by ourselves, we will not achieve anything.)”