The Olympic Athlete As a Role Model: an Old and New Educational Idea

The Olympic Athlete as a Role Model: An Old and New Educational Idea

Stephan Wassong German Sport University Cologne, Germany

According to Pierre de Coubertin, the Olympic athlete has to take over the responsibility to act as role model to disseminate the educational value of sport. Firstly, it will be analysed that Coubertin had a clear vision of the athlete as a role model. This included that the Olympic athlete must be an amateur athlete who had finished their vocational training or university education. Secondly, this paper discussed how this concept was challenged since the inception of the Olympic Movement, and had almost been disintegrated in the last decades of the 20th Century. Issues such as the professionaliza- tion, commercialization and politicization of the Olympic Games are identified as reasons for this development. Thirdly, this paper explains how the IOC became aware of this problem and, therefore, commenced a new initiative at the Olympic Congress in Copenhagen in 2009. At this time, a modern version of Coubertin’s vision of the athlete as a role model was presented and discussed. This article aims to describe this new profile of the new role model and his/her responsibilities for the modern world of sport. By doing this it should become obvious that the new vision of the Olympic athlete as a role model is a vehicle for the IOC to safeguard the integrity of sport, stress the importance of a dual career in sport and educate ambassadors for what has become known as Olympic Agenda 2020, which was introduced at the 126th IOC Session in Sochi in 2014.

❖ At the 1896 Athens Olympic Games, 262 athletes competed representing 13 nations. These numbers increased constantly after this first modern Olympics. When the Olympic Games were celebrated in London in 1908, there were 2047 athletes from 22 participating countries.1 The second Olympic Games in London in 1948 were attended by 4109 athletes from 59 countries.2 When the Games returned to the same city for the third time in 2012, 10500 athletes from 204 countries competed at the Games of the XXX Olympiad.3 Without doubt, Pierre de Coubertin would have appreciated the increase in numbers. But he would probably have reminded us to keep in mind that he did not just invent the Olympic Games simply as an international gathering of athletes organized every four years. According to him, the Olympic Games are only the institutional framework for what he ini- tially called the “Olympic Idea” and to what he referred to as “Olympism” after 1910.4 Coubertin never tired of explaining this concept in numerous articles and speeches.5 As to the latter, the radio message The Philosophic Foundations of Modern Olympism, which Coubertin delivered for the Swiss radio station Swisse Romande on 4 August, 1935, is well known. Three days later, a printed version of this speech appeared in Le Sport Suisse.6 A careful reading of this article reveals that it is the athlete who is at the centre of Coubertin’s Olympic idea and who is the focus for most of his educational thinking. According to him, Olympic athletes should be young adults who had just

107 The Olympic Athlete as a Role Model: An Old and New Educational Idea 108 finished their vocational training or had almost graduated and were ready to join professional life. The Olympic Games were to offer representatives of this age group – which Coubertin referred to as “human springtime” – some kind of final education stressing the development of highly moral and social character traits and of an understanding of international respect.7 Participation in the Olympic Games was to be reserved only for the “aristocracy” of athletes. Their selection was to be predominantly based on individual achievement and not social origin. Cou- bertin was clear that not all sportsmen have the capability and muscular superiority to become an Olympic athlete. But in his Olympic pyramid, Coubertin states that an Olympic athlete has a moral and social responsibility to act as a role model, stimulating interest in sport for the masses: “For every hundred who engage in physical culture, fifty must engage in sports. For every fifty who engage in sports, twenty must specialize. For every twenty who specialize, five must be capable of astonishing feats.”8 Olympic athletes should give an example that competitive sport contributes to the education of a modern citizen who has the character traits to deal with the challenges of modern life, including democratic behaviour and transcultural tolerance. In this context, Coubertin never stopped stressing that Olympic role models are worthless when their athletic achievements are not based on the rules of fair-play and respect for the equality of opportunity. According to him, the exceptional character of the Olympic athlete and his worship of sport as an educational tool are under constant threat of destruction by professionalism. Following Coubertin, the value of Olympic sport as an ennobling, uplifting and educational activity could only be guaranteed by the strict application of amateurism, which was regarded as a central precondition for securing the rules of fair-play and regulated achievement orientation.9

Past and Contemporary Challenges

The adherence to the concept of amateurism until the 1980s became a problem for the integrity of the Olympic role model. This is particular true for the decades after the Second World War. Athletes put themselves under immense pressure for success, fuelled by the expansion of lucrative financial incentives given by federations, sponsors and the media. In return, these stakeholders of the modern Olympic Movement requested top level performances from the athletes.10 Other expectations were raised by politics, as with the emergence of the two new super powers in Olympic sport, namely the USA and former Soviet Union, Olympic medals were utilised as a means of demonstrating political strength and power.11 In the modern world of Olympic sport the old amateur rules were out of touch with reality. The logical consequence of this was the development of a disguised professionalism to secure eligibility for participation at the Olympic Games. The amateur athlete who was to have been a role model for honourable behaviour and fair play was “seduced” to become a “cheat” by outdated amateur rules.12 With the opening up of the Olympic Games to professionals under the presidency of Juan Antonio Samaranch, the IOC solved the problem. The first “open” Olympic Games were celebrated in 1988 in Seoul. Since then, the professional athlete has no longer been branded as someone guilty of undermining the integrity of an Olympic Role Model—at least on the level of eligibility.13 But the guiding principle of the Olympic athlete as a role model to strive for and to display an ethically responsible achievement orientation has been challenged by another issue, namely: doping. Doping did not suddenly appear as a problem for the Olympic Movement since the acceptance of professional athletes in the 1980s. As research shows, doping has been officially on the agenda of The Olympic Athlete as a Role Model: An Old and New Educational Idea 109 the IOC since its 37th Session in Warsaw in 1937.14 Without doubt, it was not a priority topic in these days. This changed with the growing commercialization, mediatisation and politization of Olympic sport after WWII. From the commencement of the presidency of Avery Brundage (1952) to Thomas Bach (present), doping has been and is regarded as a fundamental violation of fair play and hence an undermining of the integrity of the Olympic athlete as a role model. Probably the most important reasons for doping are the following: 1 Athletes use it as a strategy to increase their physical capabilities and compensate for their limita- tions. 2 Doping is clearly still the first choice for more and more athletes to cope psychologically with the challenges of elite sport. 3 Athletes dope when they want to avoid the risk of missing out on limited institutional financial support. 4 Doping takes place to create or keep alive a sporting identity based on performance individual- ism.15 These reasons are almost all athlete centered. Of course, the modern structure of top-level sport, with its growing commercialization, politization and mediatization, contributes significantly to the issue of doping. In the fight against this problem the IOC introduced interventions strategies at a scientific,16 legal17 and educational level. The latter is arguably the most important, as it firmly establishes atti- tudes against doping in the athletes’ character. The value of education in the anti-doping fight was mentioned by IOC member Sir Arthur Porrit who was the first chairman of the IOC’s Medical Com- mission, which was established in 1961. By 1964, Porrit was claiming that “only a long term education policy stressing the physical and moral aspects of the doping problem could be successful in preventing athletes from taking drugs.”18 But Porrit’s advice was not really followed through until the foundation of the Athlete’s Commission of the IOC in Baden-Baden in 1981.19 Its members, including Peter Tallberg (Finland), Thomas Bach (West Germany), Sebastian Coe (Great Britain), Ivar Formo (Norway), Kipchoge Keino (Kenya), Edwin Moses (United States), Svetla Otzetova (Bulgaria) and Vladislav Tretyak (USSR), stressed again the importance of an educational campaign in the fight against doping.20 A result of this demand was a slow onset information campaign. At conferences, workshops and in brochures, athletes were informed about the health risks of doping along with moral statements that doping violated the ideal of fair-play.21 Since 2000, these information cam- paigns have been increased with the foundation of the WADA as the new key player in the anti-doping fight.

The ‘Educated’ Olympic Athlete or the Profiling of a New Role Model

The ethical imbalance between a disguised professionalism and fair play was resolved by opening the Olympic Games for professionals. The violation of fair play and hence the undermining of the athlete’s responsibility as a role model by doping is a problem which was not and cannot be solved by the same strategy applied in the amateur issue: namely the liberalisation of rules which led to their disintegration.22 This is simply against the codex to safeguard the ethical responsibilities within sport. In all probability, the threat of doping will be ever present. At most, the danger of doping for the integrity of sport can be limited. This objective requires the constant new implementation or modifi- cation of initiatives at scientific, legal and educational levels. Again, attention will be given to the latter named level now. The Olympic Athlete as a Role Model: An Old and New Educational Idea 110

In 2002, the IOC Athletes’ Commission “identified that one of the key issues facing athletes is the successful transition to a career after sport.”23 In fact, the discussion on this topic took place at the first IOC International Athletes’ Forum. A programme was to be developed supporting athletes to fol- low an educational training process during their active career in order to assist in finding their role in professional world after the end of their athletic career. Actually, this educational initiative could not be regarded as new, as many National Governing Bodies of Sport, such as the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) and the German Olympic Sport Association (DOSB), had already implemented athletic career programmes.24 The IOC regards these programmes as important at the national level. However, as the world governing body of international sport, the IOC has also felt the responsibility to introduce an international educational programme, accessible to all Olympic athletes. In 2005, the first edition of the IOC’s Athlete Career Programme (ACP) was launched in coopera- tion with Adecco, a company regarded as “one of the world’s leading providers of human resources solutions.”25 The collaboration between the IOC and Adecco was renewed in 2007 for a further six years. The IOC website outlines the ACP mission: ...to assist athletes with their career development, career support and job placement. The role of the ACP is to look after the athletes at the conclusion, but also during their athletic careers through education, seminars and meetings with employers. The ACP has to be flexible to the career needs of athletes with a wide range of career require- ments and desires.26

Without doubt, the programme has not been implemented as an educational tool explicitly to tackle doping. But implicitly it can be seen as such. Nevertheless, we must consider why this is significant. Many athletes define themselves and are defined by external reference groups, including sponsors, journalists, coaches and officials. Against the background of this narrow focus, lack of success in athletic competitions becomes the main risk for the athlete in regards to both their self-worth and their relationship to the external reference groups. In order to avoid this dangerous situation, which can be caused by various reasons, including injuries, overloaded competition schedules and a (too) challenging field of competitors, the use of doping to emerge victorious from competitions is a likely strategy.27 The unilateral orientation on athletic success for the determination of the identity and for securing one’s living even after the athletic career can be attenuated by giving athletes a perspective for a career after top level sport. Providing athletes with such a perspective for a career after top level sport is an educational strategy which might reduce the temptation to use performance enhancing drugs. It is some kind of an educational optimism which had to take into account that reasons for doping are multi-layered and can not only be reduced to the obviously narrow focus of athletes to find self-determination by sporting success only. At least, it is an initiative, which has made its way to a prominent place in the agenda of the IOC. At the XIII Olympic Congress in Copenhagen in 2009, a whole session was devoted to the role and situation of the athlete. During this session, IOC member and former athlete Frank Fredericks highlighted the importance of this strategy. Basically, Fredericks stressed the importance for active athletes to build up a feasible perspective for entering professional life. Fredericks was probably cho- sen as the keynote speaker on this topic on purpose. According to Jacques Rogge, then president of the IOC, Fredericks was not only an outstanding athlete but had also been successful in his non- sporting career, built on his academic studies which included a Master of Business Administration Degree (MBA). Actually, Fredericks was the ideal advocate for demonstrating that following a dual career is feasible whilst being active as an athlete.28 But he is not an exception as one can find The Olympic Athlete as a Role Model: An Old and New Educational Idea 111 numerous other athletes who have followed a dual career programme successfully. Most of them have been supported by the ACP, which counts this as a success, of course.29 The educational process of following a dual career can be regarded as a new dimension in the profile of the athlete as an Olympic role model. Perhaps one has to be more specific in saying that it is a modern version of Coubertin’s idea of the Olympic role model who should be an athlete with educational or vocational training.30 The fact is that prior to the implementation of the ACP, the profile of the Olympic role model was defined by athletic success on the basis of respecting the rules of fair play. But safeguarding the principle of fair play has become difficult in the face of the ongoing threat of doping, yet so decisive for the character of a role model. A supporting strategy for respecting fair play has been implemented by launching an educational campaign aimed at assisting the athlete develop a career beyond sport. Without doubt, this requires self-discipline on the part of the athlete. It is this inner drive that is requested from the Olympic athlete as a role model, and which contributes much to secure the integrity of the Olympic champion. One must not end without mentioning that the new profile of the Olympic athlete as a role model is based on an educational optimism, the realization of which should not be left to the athlete alone. The IOC has been aware of this and implemented the Entourage Commission shortly after the Olym- pic Congress in Copenhagen. The participation of athletes in career programmes requires support from all stakeholders of the Olympic Movement. This includes a need to refrain from accepting the victory and defeat code as the only guiding principle of Olympic sport.

Endnots

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14 Jörg Krieger and Stephan Wassong, “Munich 1972 – Turning Point in the Olympic Doping Control System,” in Problems, Possibilities, Promising Practices: Critical Dialogues on the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Eleventh International Sym- posium for Olympic Research, eds. Janice Forsyth and Michael K. Heine (London: ICOS Western University Canada, 2012), 62 – 63. 15 Karl Heinrich Bette, “In the Claws of the System. Why Athletes dope?,” in The Olympic Values and the Future of Sport. 13th European Fair Play Congress, eds. Andreas Höfer and Manfred Lämmer (Frankfurt: Deutsche Olympische Akademie, 2009), 117 – 129. 16 Mario Thevis, Mass Spectrometry in Sports Drug Testing. Characterisation of Prohibited Substances and Doping Control Analytical Assays (Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2010); Krieger and Wassong, “Munich 1972,” 62 – 67. 17 Tanja Haug, Doping Dilemma des Leistungssports (Hamburg: Merus Verlag, 2006). 18 Porrit quoted in Jan Todd and Terry Todd, “Significant Events in the History of Drug Testing and the Olympic Movement: 1960 – 1999,” in Doping in Elite Sport. The Politics of Drugs in the Olympic Movement, eds. Wayne Wilson and Edward Derse (Champaign: Human Kinetics, 2001), 68. 19 Norbert Müller, One Hundred Years of Olympic Congresses 1894 – 1994. Special Edition for Participants in the Centen- nial Olympic Congress Paris 1994 (Lausanne: International Olympic Committee, 1994), 185. 20 Press Release, “IOC Athletes’ Commission,” October 7, 1985, in Archive Collection, Athletes’ Commission, Folder: Ath- letes’ Commission: Reports, Statements, Seminars, Press Releases, Press Cuttings and Leaflets of the Commission, IOC Archive Lausanne; Press Release, “Seoul Declaration,” 1988, in Archive Collection, Athletes’ Commission, Folder: Ath- letes’ Commission: Reports, Statements, Seminars, Press Releases, Press Cuttings and Leaflets of the Commission, IOC Archive Lausanne. 21 Minutes, “IOC Athletes’ Commission,” November 26, 1982, in Archive Collection, Athletes’ Commission, Folder: Ath- letes’ Commission, Meeting in Lausanne November 26, 1982, IOC Archive Lausanne. In a research project carried out by Jörg Krieger and Stephan Wassong from the Olympic Studies Center of the German Sport University Cologne the early educational initiatives of the IOC Medical Commission are analysed in detail. 22 Wassong, “Clean Sport,” 85 – 88. E. Meinberg, Dopingsport im Brennpunkt der Ethik (Hamburg: Merus Verlag, 2006). 23 IOC, Athletes’ Kit. The IOC Athletic Career Programme (Lausanne: IOC, 2014), 6. 24 Natalia B. Stambulova and Tatiana V. Ryba (eds.), Athletes’ Careers Across Cultures (Hove: Routledge, 2013). 25 “Press Release: IOC announces extension of IOC Athlete Career Programme agreement,” International Olympic Com- mittee (July 5, 2012), accessed June 16, 2014, http://www.olympic.org/news/press-release-ioc-announces-extension-of- ioc-athlete-career-programme-agreement/167869. 26 “IOC Latest News: Assisting athletes in their career development during and after competition,” International Olympic Committee (December 12, 2006), accessed June 16, 2014, http://www.olympic.org/content/news/media-resources/ manual-news/1999-2009/2006/12/12/assisting-athletes-in-their-career-development-during-and-after-competition/. “By the end of 2013, the programme had already supported more than 15,000 athletes in over 100 countries and five continents with training opportunities and job placements”, quoted in “IOC Athlete Career Programme,” International Olympic Committee,” accessed June 18, 2014, http://www.olympic.org/ioc-athlete-career-programme. 27 Bette, “In the Claws,” 117 – 129. 28 Stephan Wassong, “Challenges and opportunities for the Olympic Movement in future decades: an educational and his- torical-educational perspective,” RERO DOC (Lausanne: International Olympic Committee, 2009), accessed June 16, 2014, http://doc.rero.ch/record/17373. 29 “Further Athlete Career Success Stories,” IOC Athlete Career Programme, accessed September 22, 2014, http://athlete.adecco.com/athlete-stories/default.aspx. 30 Coubertin, “Philosophic”, 582.