Paris is hosting the Olympic Games for the third time in its history. The last time, in 1924, the city was an Olympic venue and we had the opportunity to learn about it thanks to the extraordinary film Chariots of Fire. At that time, the Olympic programme was much smaller than the one we have on the table today: 32 sports and 45 different competitions. There is something for everyone, from those who prefer historical specialities to those who advocate a modernisation of the Games, including sports that young people enjoy and practice.
The International Olympic Committee, aware that the business it has with the sale of television rights cannot decline and must be attractive to the world’s television networks, began a few years ago to modernize its offering. In addition to sponsors, the IOC’s main source of income is television rights, which it takes care of and protects to unimaginable limits. With the sale of the competition, the IOC survives on its own, helps the Organizing Committee of each edition, distributes to the International Federations to help athletes prepare for the Games and keeps 10% of this fabulous amount for its own administrative survival.
In recent years, the IOC has noticed a lack of interest among young people in Olympic competition. There were sports that were barely followed and, wisely, they decided to introduce specialties that young people from around the world practice. They didn’t have to think too much or go too far. In any city in the world there is a staircase or a flat section where boys and girls meet daily to do their tricks on their skateboards. Or they schedule their own breaking competitions to twist to the rhythm of the music. Or they look for a basket, just one, and play a little game between three people. A large court is not necessary. Skateboarding, breaking and 3×3 have been regulated and included in this way. The same goes for the winter games: snowboarding, moguls, freestyle skiing and even other youth specialties such as aerials.
Meanwhile, the Organising Committees are racking their brains to fit all the disciplines and all the planned schedules into the theoretical “sixteen days of competition”. It has already been shown in recent times that this is not possible and that is why there are specialities that start up to two days before the opening ceremony: in Paris there have been two team sports: football (Spain has already made its debut in both teams), rugby 7 and also archery.
When Juan Antonio Samaranch took over as president of the IOC in 1980, he found the organization practically bankrupt. His financial management not only revived its accounts, but also cleaned it up and turned it into one of the most solvent economic companies in the world. All thanks to selling the only thing they had: the television rights to the Olympic competition. Since then, the IOC has looked after and protected its goose that lays the golden eggs. The figures they manage are fabulous, sometimes absurd, but they have a product that is consumed by billions of viewers every four years.
Given this success, it is understandable that no one wants to stop being an Olympic discipline. The problem is the over-dimension. Not everything fits if we do not want to organize oversized Games that are impossible to manage. And even the IOC realizes that it does not want to die of success or turn the Olympic Games into an uncontrollable competition. The key is who decides which sports remain and which go so that urban sports can enter.
I wouldn’t want to be in those meetings to make such a big decision.
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