April 18, 2008

Historian: Politics and sports compete in every Olympic Games

Randy Roberts
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"Even the 1896 revival of the modern-day Olympics, thanks to Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin, had a political agenda," says Randy Roberts, Distinguished Professor of History. "De Coubertin was trying raise the profile for France after its loss in the Franco-Prussian War more than two decades earlier. His interest in sports and the Olympics was to encourage the development of French masculinity and international collaboration."

Since then, the Olympics have been the site for demonstrations and the occasional boycott.

For example, in 1972 South Africa and Rhodesia were banned from the games because many African countries spoke out against the apartheid in those nations.

The Summer Olympics are Aug. 8-24 in Beijing, China. The controversy surrounding these games has focused on China's human rights record. Recently, there have been protests as the Olympic torch travels through countries to China. 

"When the International Olympic Committee gave the games to China, its members were not ignorant about China's record on human rights or what was going on in Tibet," Roberts says. "The committee knew it could be problematic. But once those games are given to a city, there is a historical obligation to the games, and most countries support the committee's decisions."

However, the intensified attention brought on by being host site for the games can take its toll.

"When the United States decided not to participate in the 1980 Olympics it was a huge embarrassment to the Soviet Union," Roberts says. "Four years later, the Soviet Union and its Communist allies boycotted the U.S. Games in Los Angeles. The Olympics are prestigious events, and support for the games means a lot for countries that are striving for legitimacy."

Roberts has made more than 50 appearances on television documentaries and films in the past 20 years for the History Channel, ESPN Classic, HBO, BBC, PBS, E!TV and on the ABC, CBS and NBC networks. As a pop culture historian, Roberts often is quoted in national media and appears on nationally syndicated radio shows. He is a regular guest on History Channel's "Reel To Real," and he also served as a consultant and on-camera expert for the Emmy-Award winning series "10 Days that Unexpectedly Changed America" and the award-winning Ken Burns documentary "Unforgivable Blackness."

Writer: Amy Patterson Neubert, (765) 494-9723, apatterson@purdue.edu

Source: Randy Roberts, (765) 494-0040, rroberts@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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