Olympic Politics

This comprehensively rewritten and updated edition investigates the politics behind a hundred years of Olympic history, from Baron de Coubertin's revival of the games to Atlanta in 1996. Christopher R. Hill begins by explaining why politics have always been central to the Olympic movement, and by investigating who holds power within it, how it is financed and how the costly process of bidding for the games works. He then covers the Olympics' recent history: the Cold War games of Moscow 1980 and Los Angles 1984; Seoul 1988, a highly successful PR exercise by the Korean government: and Barcelona 1992, arguably the most commercial and televisual games in history. A major new section covers the story of the South Africa's exclusion from the Olympics which ended in 1992, and there is also coverage of the background to Atlanta's successful bid and preparations. The book finishes by asking where the Olympic movement is heading, and whether 'gigantism', both in terms of the scale of the games and the movement's sense of its own importance, threaten its future.