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Participation in Olympics: a sluggish start

gymkhanas with in different , Over the last century, the Winter Olympic and take on teachers instead of tango have become the most important win- instructors". ter sports of all. Devoid of any The second source of opposition were the precedence, their components, originally Scandinavians, in particular the Swedish based on sports practices from , varied General V.G. Balck. They had been organising greatly at the mercy of the upper classes of the since 1901, and were very developed countries. Up until 1992, the attached to their monopoly on international Winter Olympics were held in the same year competitions. as the Olympics, but they have enjoyed increasing visibility ever since International Winter Sports Week (1994) by alternating a summer It required all the perseverance of a few men, and a winter every second in particular the Count of Clary, the Marquis of year. Nonetheless, the Winter Olympics have a Polignac and a certain F. Reichel, to overcome restricted representation of the world : con- the reluctance and convince the majority of trary to the Summer Olympics, where athlet- the members of the IOC of the merits of ics assures a universal level of participation, . In reality, it was only the practice of winter sports calls for climatic a partial victory - the first edition took place in conditions and expensive infrastructures that in 1924 under the name limit the possibilities for participation. In this "International Winter Sports Week". Although new century, it will no doubt be one of the this competition under the auspices of the IOC missions of the IOC to open the Winter was not an integral part of the Olympic Olympics up to more countries. Games, the organisers did everything in their power to have this event considered as the Difficult Beginnings first Winter Olympic Games. The success of this "International Winter Sports Week" meant The Winter Olympics occupy a very special that it was officially recognised at the 24th con- place in the Olympic movement. Their begin- gress of the IOC in Prague in 1925. nings were harder and later than the Summer Originally considered as the winter comple- Olympics, which benefited from a wide con- ment to the , the sensus around the revolutionary Pierre de Winter Olympics were generally granted auto- Coubertin. The Winter Olympics were pure matically to the host country of the summer innovation, created without any historical Olympics (right of priority), with the exception reference, and had a long and difficult start in of Saint-Moritz in 1928, since the life. would have had great difficulty organising such an event. It was not until the end of the Coubertin and the Scandinavians against the second that the Winter Olympics Winter Olympics began to gain their independence from their Neither welcomed nor well prepared, the summer counterpart, and started to become Winter Olympics were faced with opposition the event we know today. on two different fronts. Firstly, Coubertin him- self was against them for fear that the "white " would be exploited in a mercenary man- ner contrary to the spirit of the Olympic ideal. He wrote a few lines particularly critical of winter sports in the "Olympic Review" of : "There is no doubt that the number of people practising winter sports has greatly increased (...). However, there is also no doubt that many winter sports resorts, where a sporting spirit reigned heretofore, have rapidly declined in this regard. The sportsmen themselves are not at fault, at least not directly, but rather the high bid- ding hoteliers and the new market niche that they The opening ceremony at the first Olympic Games are creating (...). This is why clever hoteliers would in Chamonix (FRA) in 1924 do well to attract real sportsmen who are less (Crédits photo: IOC, Collcetions) demanding but safer, and replace the sentimental

1 Participation in Winter Olympics: a sluggish start

Participation in the Winter Olympic countries, which were independent between Games from 1924 to 1998: A long and 1918 and 1940. The other participating coun- unfinished conquest tries (such as , , Argentina, Mexico, and Turkey) were relatively The participation of the NOCs in the Winter well integrated or close enough to the western Olympics has been very progressive over the world, and had a certain level of seniority in course of the last century. The same the Olympic movement. dynamics can be found as in the Summer Olympics, but with a time lag: a competition that originally took place among a closed group of a few western nations, then a globalisation process that is still far from com- pleted for the Winter Olympics.

Games between "Europeans" up until the second World War Two main criteria determined the participation in the Games before the Second World War: firstly, seniority in the Olympic movement (founded in 1894 at the Sorbonne congress), The Turkish delegation at Garmisch PartenKirschen and secondly the practice of the in the in 1936 participating country. (Crédits photo: IOC, Olympic Museum Collcetions) At the first Winter Olympics in Chamonix in 1924, nearly all the participating countries were founding members in the Olympic move- The : the arrival of countries less dis- ment. The European countries, the United posed to the practice of winter sports States and were all present, except After the war, the majority of the participating for , which was partially isolated after countries still counted among the developed its defeat in 1918. nations of the world (, ...). The arrival of the in 1956 brought a new dimension to the compe- titions. However, it was not until 1968 that there was a real widening in the range of par- ticipants. The wave of new participants brought smaller European states (such as , Monaco, ) on the one hand, as well as developing countries emerg- ing from colonisation on the other hand (e.g. Senegal, Morocco...). The fact that some of

1924 these countries were located in intertropical between 1968 and 1988 between 1928 and 1936 between 1992 and 1998 zones made the practice of winter sports between 1948 and 1964 almost anecdotal ! presents a particular No participation IOC / noc dpt - cerso 2002

© case, their late arrival on the winter and sum- Date of the first NOC participation at Winter mer Olympic scene resulting rather from Olympic Games political circumstances. The presence of the European countries, in particular the Scandinavian and Alpine coun- Geopolitics and wider participation tries, and to a lesser degree Eastern Europe, The last three Winter Olympics, namely was all the more justified because they had a in 1992, Lillehammer in 1994 and history of winter sports and could therefore in 1998, have been characterised by put forward competitive in the com- the explosion of the former coun- petition. With a few exceptions (notable tries. Many new NOCs born out of the territo- Denmark, Iceland, Ireland, Portugal and rial upheaval in the former USSR, Yugoslavia Albania), nearly all the countries of Europe and are now arriving on the took part in the Winter Olympic Games before Olympic scene (return of the Baltic republics, the Second World War, including the Baltic appearance of the majority of the ex-Soviet

2 Participation in Winter Olympics: a sluggish start

the presence of the expensive infrastructures necessary for winter sports.

The evolution of the Olympic programme

Growth… The number of events increased continuously between 1924 and 2002, mirroring the growth of the summer Games. From only 16 events in Chamonix in 1924, this number increased to 68 in Nagano in 1998, and 78 in 2002. This A NOC coming from the disintegration of the former constant progression sawonly one exception, Yougoslavia: Bosnia-Herzegovina (Nagano delegation) in Saint-Moritz in 1928, where disciplines such (Crédits photo: Allsport) as , or the 4 distances in republics). This explosion almost automatical- were abandoned. ly led to a marked increase in the level of par- Over the whole history of the Games, one can ticipation. Athletes who were unable to identify three clear periods where the number qualify in the USSR can now represent their of events was on the rise. Firstly, from 1932 to Republic. On the other hand, the NOCs from 1948, the number of events increased from 14 Germany were united after the fall of the to 22 ; the increase remained rather small, Wall. Finally, the globalisation of the and was mainly due to the appearance of Winter Olympics continues with the arrival of alpine events in 1936. many developing countries, or small states Secondly, between 1956 and 1964, four new (such as the islands of the Pacific and events in women’s skating were introduced, Caribbean). as well as men’s , and three The gradual globalisation of the participation events, increasing the total number of events of NOCs in the Winter Olympics (from from 24 to 34. Chamonix to Nagano, the number of delega- Finally, the third period, between 1984 and tions increased from 16 to 72), although not 1998, saw a more rapid rise in the number of yet complete, nonetheless attenuates some- events, with an increasing of 39 to 68. There what diminishes the dominant role of Europe are several reasons behind this: new alpine and North America. However, this growth has and events (particularly team only been made possible by integrating states events), the arrival of and biathlon that were little disposed to winter sports disci- for women, the reintroduction of curling plines, either because of their poor economic (men’s and women’s), as well as the introduc- or geographic situation (i.e., in hot climate tion of new events such as short track, - zones), or because they were too small to pro- boarding or . There has a been duce a sporting elite. Nonetheless, the simple a sort of " explosion" in the Games over the fact of participating means a lot to these small last few years, confirmed by the continuing countries looking for international recognition; evolution at Nagano and Salt Lake - ten but producing competitive athletes requires new events are on the programme for this year’s Winter Olympics (women’s , men’s and women’s , men’s and women’s 1500m short track, men’s and women’s cross country skiing , men’s and women’s biathlon pursuit, and a sprint event in ). The race towards a spectacle of enormous proportions, some- times observed with great anxiety, is now as much an integral component of the Winter Olympics as of Summer Olympics.

… stabilisation … It is quite logical that the first Winter Olympic Two Senegalese skiers in 1992 at the start of the Games in Chamonix should have had only a downhill at Val d’Isère limited number of events. However, in the (Crédits photo: IOC, Olympic Museum Collcetions)

3 Participation in Winter Olympics: a sluggish start

The Nordic discplines, which reflect the impor- tant role of Scandinavia in the emergence of skiing as a sport, have been part of the Games since the very beginning (4 events, of which 2 combined). Over the years, their importance has remained constant, and has even grown slightly in the most recent Games (with a total of 18 events of 2002). The role of the military in perpetuating the practice of skiing was acknowledged at the 1924 Games with the presence of a "military patrol" event. It disappeared again in 1928 but then resurfaced in 1960 in the form of the The introduction of the Short track at the 1992 biathlon, a new winter sport that now has its (Crédits photo: Allsport, Olympic Museum) own international federation. The appearance, light of today’s Games, one might be surprised disappearance and reappearance of sports at the type of events that were held in those was not limited to this discipline ; two other days. In particular, wasn’t on the sports also experience the same up-and-down programme at all. It appeared for the first destiny, namely curling (present in 1924, and time in 1936 in the form of a unique combined reintroduced again in 1998) and skeleton event, before becoming more developed and (introduced in 1928, promptly abandoned, diversified after the second World War, up to and reintroduced again in 2002). the appearance in recent times of derived dis- Finally, the bobsleigh, the only sport requiring ciplines reflecting modern skiing practices: machinery at the 1924 Games, has now been freestyle skiing (introduced in Albertville in joined by the skeleton and more particularly, 1992 for the moguls and in Lillehammer in the luge. The profitable return on the very 1994 for ) and high investment required for such equipment (Nagano 1998). has justified the appearance of these sports in number of events 45

40

and curling 35 short track

speed skating 30

25 luge

bobsleigh 20 and skeleton

biathlon

15 nordic ski

freestyle 10 and

alpine ski

5 H men's F women's M mixed 0 MWMMWM MWMMWM MWM MWMMWM MWM MWMMWMMWM MWM MWMMWM MWM MWMMWMMWMMWM

1924 1928 1932 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1994 1998 2002

Source : IOC C / noc dpt - cerso 2002 O The evolution of the Olympic programme during the Games

4 Participation in Winter Olympics: a sluggish start

the Olympic arena. have the same number of events in the sports At the outset, the major part of the Winter mentioned above. So can equality really be Olympics took place on the : curling, attained? Will we see women’s Nordic com- hockey, figure skating and speed skating. bined or women’s ski jumping at the Winter These sports represented 10 of the 16 Olympics some day? Although the answer to recognised events. In 2002, this question is not known, one can nonethe- however, ice sports count for only a third of less ask whether any moves in this direction the events. have been undertaken by the relevant federa- In parallel to the increasing number of events, tions. But do women even partake in these it can also be noticed that the Olympic Games disciplines at all? And if so, how well devel- have brought about a structural transforma- oped is the women’s movement? tion in the disciplines represented: a reflection of the clear trend towards general develop- Strong increase of participation in the ment can be seen in the practice of winter last twenty years sports throughout the last century. Growth and diversification of the events, … increasing female participation... increasing participation of women, escalating With only a very small number in the early numbers of NOCs represented, increase in the days of the Games (in 1924, women appeared size of NOC delegations.... all these factors only in the figure skating competition), the have the clear effect of rapidly increasing the level of women’s participation become signifi- number of athletes participating in the Games. cant only from 1936 on. From approximately 300 in 1924 (for 16 This growing presence of women, increasing NOCs), the number of athletes increased to regularly until 1964, was mainly due to the 2,200 in Nagano (72 NOCs), that is to say a appearance of the alpine skiing events in sevenfold increase in the number of partici- 1936, cross country skiing in 1952 and speed pants, and 4.5 times the number of NOCs. skating in 1960 (4 women’s events intro- This huge difference is explained by the high- duced, while men had been participating since er number of athletes in each national team, the outset) ; luge in 1964. From 1964 to especially as regards the teams of NOCs who 1980, there was no change in the programme participated in the first Winter Olympics. of women’s events. Since the 1984 Games, Nonetheless, this increase has by no means however, the number of women’s events is on been a linear one over the course of the 18 the increase again, rising from 12 events in Winter Olympic Games. 1980 to 29 in 1998, thanks in particular to the athletes NOC appearance of new disciplines such as short 2,500 80 track, freestyle skiing, snowboarding or biathlon, but also due to the increase in the 70 number of events in cross country and alpine 2,000 skiing. 60 The difference between the number of men’s 1,500 and the number of women’s events has 50 decreased considerably over the whole history 40 of the Games. However, a few disciplines have 1,000 always developed in a similar manner for both women and men, such as figure skating, 30 alpine skiing, or even short track, snowboard- 500 ing and freestyle skiing. The difference 20 between the number of men’s and women’s 0 10 events observed at the 1998 Games was due 24 28 32 36 48 52 56 60 64 68 72 76 80 84 88 92 94 98

source : IOC © IOC / noc dpt - cerso 2002 to the absence of a women’s bobsleigh event Evolution of the participation in the Winter Games (introduced in 2002), ski jumping and Nordic from 1924 to 1998 combined, and the fact that men have an extra luge event (although in theory, the dou- Obstacles to participation : distance and bles event can be mixed, there are never crises actually any women participating). Apart from It is true that on several occasions over the these few exceptions, men and women both years, the number of athletes has declined in

5 Participation in Winter Olympics: a sluggish start

the Olympic Games, particularly when they Japan, aggressors during the war, were not were held in the . There are sev- even invited to participate, whereas they had eral reasons behind this decrease. sent many athletes to participate in previous The first reason is the distance, particularly for Olympics. Finally, the decrease in the number the first two Games held in the United States of participants at the Games in (Lake Placid in 1932 and Squaw Valley in 1976 seems to have been linked to the petrol 1960), and this accounted for a particularly crisis of 1973, which plunged many countries significant decline in the number of partici- into great financial difficulty. pants. The majority of the athletes at the first Olympic Games were from Europe, and given Inevitable growth ? the slowness and high costs of travel and Three distinct periods of growth can be identi- communications, especially in 1932, the dele- fied. The first, from 1924 to 1936 (with the gations were somewhat smaller. The Games exception of the too remote Lake Placid held in in 1972 also suffered from Games in 1932) follows on from the creation this same phenomenon, but the effects of the Winter Olympic Games and the first seemed to have diminished by the time the attempt in Chamonix. The second period, from Lake Placid Games were held in 1980. 1952 to 1968, saw a greater increase in the Another reason can be found in the political number of participants. This was partly the and economic aspects. The Saint-Moritz result of the arrival of the USSR on the Games in 1948, which registered a decrease Olympic scene, as well as that of a few in the number of competitors compared to developing countries, and partly the result of previous games, were held in the immediate increases in the number of athletes in each post-war period. Many countries were at that national team. This phenomenon demon- time facing considerable economic problems strates the increasing interest of some coun- linked to reconstruction after the war. tries in winter sports (during the period winter Moreover, countries such as Germany and sports resorts were becoming more popular,

Former NOCs Number of athletes members who 1 662 participated in previous Olympics

URS 949

EUN 315 RFA 1 RDA

men's participation TCH women's participation

participating NOCs No participation

source : IOC © IOC / noc dpt - cerso 2002 NOC Winter Games participants from 1924 to 1998

6 Participation in Winter Olympics: a sluggish start

tourist infrastructures and winter sports Asian NOCs sent particularly numerous dele- equipment were being developed....). gations, respectively 11 and 15.3%). Finally, from 1980 to 1998, the third period An overview of the whole history of the Winter saw the highest surge in participants and in Games shows that nearly three quarters of the the number of NOCs (despite a small decrease participants (73.4%) have been from Europe. in the number of competitors in 1994). This Going into slightly more detail, Western period is characterised by the appearance of Europe appears to provide the greatest num- many developing countries, the increasing ber of athletes (34.8%), followed by Eastern number of NOCs (and thus, of athletes) due to Europe (23.8%) and then Scandinavia the splitting of many Eastern countries, and (14.8%). Some countries from Eastern Europe more generally, the development of the participated in the 1924 Games, but the Olympic phenomenon, with ever greater chal- appearance of the USSR in 1956 really rein- lenges, in particular economic. forced the Eastern European presence. These Indeed, this recent growth spurt does not figures demonstrate the European "domina- seem to be letting up; rather, the contrary tion" of the Winter Olympics, a phenomenon seems to be true, particularly when one con- that already became clear from the assess- siders the record number of participants for ment of the candidate applying to host the upcoming Games in Salt Lake City 2002 the Games. (over 2,400 athletes, 77 NOCs, including 5 athletes new NOCs represented for the first time). 4,000 3,653 men's women's "Regional Globalisation" 2,000 At the first Winter Olympics, geographical proximity played an important role on the par- 1,500 ticipation, and may have given the impression that the Games were largely composed of con- tinental Europeans. The Games in Chamonix 1,000 (1924), Saint-Moritz (1928 and 1948), Garmisch-Partenkirchen (1936) and Cortina 500 d’Ampezzo (1956) were characterised by the © IOC / noc dpt - cerso 2002 particularly high participation of Eastern and 0 Western European countries (between 43.9% AS BS BT CC CU FR FS IH LG NC SB SJ SK SS ST and 52.5% of the total participants). At the source : IOC sports Lake Placid Games in 1932, nearly 41.9% of Distribution of the number of athletes per sports the participants were from North America, and Only the North American continent, with in in 1952, Scandinavia provided 27.2% 15.1% of the total number of participants, for of all the athletes. With advancements in tran- only two countries, has a special place in this port from 1960 onwards, this phenomenon essentially European competition. Their high was slightly diminished, but has never really rate of participation underlines their constant totally disappeared (for the 1972 Games in presence as well as their great interest in win- Sapporo, and the 1998 Games in Nagano, the ter sports. The reasons for this are of course economic (spectator sports such as ice % 100 hockey, figure skating or even curling), but also reflect their desire to develop . 80 and Oceania, with 9.6% (mainly Japan),

Asia with 1.7%, and Africa, with

60 South © IOC / noc dpt - cerso 2002 only 0.2%, are very poorly represented in America comparison to the size of their respective pop- North 40 America ulations. Eastern Overall, all the NOCs that have sent the most Europe 20 athletes to participate in the Winter Games Scandinavia are situated in the northern hemisphere, at Western 0 Europe high latitude (between parallels 40 and 70), 192419281932193619481952195619601964196819721976198019841988199219941998 with temperate climates, and developed eco- Source : IOC nomics (capitalist, or former socialist Pourcentages of delegations from the different regional associations in Winter Games regimes).

7 Participation in Winter Olympics: a sluggish start

The weight of the sports CNO 80 hommes femmes A comparison of the weight of each discipline 70 over the whole Olympics should be placed in context. Many events were introduced at dif- 60 ferent times, and not all attract the same level 50 of interest. Furthermore, team sports such as 40 ice hocke (20% of all participants) or bob- sleigh, count for a higher proportion of ath- 30 letes owing to the nature of the sport. 20 Nonetheless, even taking these factors into © CIO / dpt cno - cerso 2002 account, a few salient points can be noted: 10

- The level of participation is not decided 0 according to the number of medals awarded, AS BS BT CC CU FR FS IH LG NC SB SJ SK SS ST source : CIO sports but rather according to the type of sport and Number of NOCs presenting men or women its popularity. Thus, alpine skiing, whether in athletes per sports terms of number athletes or number of NOCs, order to allow other sports to be part of the appears to be largely dominant with, for Winter Olympics, such as instance, twice as many participants as speed (thereby coming closer to the English notion skating, when in fact, the number of medals of winter sports, in other words sports that are awarded is lower (102 in alpine skiing for 128 practised during the winter period, such as in speed skating). Alpine skiing is definitely rugby, and others). the king of the Winter . In the longer term, it could be imagined that - In fact, the relatively low level of participa- some sports could be transferred from the tion in speed skating in not only due to its Summer Olympics to the Winter Olympics, lesser popularity, but also because many ath- thereby limiting the huge proportions of the letes take part in several events, or even all Summer Olympics, and allowing certain coun- events. This phenomenon is much rarer in tries, particularly developing nations, to alpine skiing, because the level of specialisa- organise the Winter Games. tion in the alpine disciplines is much greater. Allowing such new sports might also have the For example, a downhill skier practically never advantage of making the Winter Olympics participates in a slalom event, with the excep- more universal, however with the major dis- tion of athletes from very small delegations, advantage of greatly increasing the level of who sometimes partake in several events participation, and the infrastructures neces- (importance of visibility for small countries). sary, thereby increasing the costs involved in - Finally, the participation of women is usually the organisation. Furthermore, what would be always lower of that of males, even when the the reaction of the winter sports federations, number of medals awarded is the same. Only such as the FIS, in the face of the loss of their the newer disciplines have a more or less monopoly, and what would be the position of equal level of participation from each sex. the financial background, such as sponsors Figure skating is the only sport where women and media, if they were faced with this loss? participants are the majority. The greatest dif- There exist many possibilities for further ference between the level of female and male development for the Winter Olympics, while participation can been seen in alpine skiing retaining the rationale of ice and snow sports, (where the ratio is practically 1 to 2, for the particularly when one considers the 120-130 same number of events). NOCs that are affiliated to one or more winter sports federations. The participation of new Apart from the simple increase in the number NOCs, as for the summer Olympics, may of events on the programme at the Winter result from increased financing from the IOC Olympics, comes the question of the composi- and more relaxed qualification conditions for tion of this programme, a major challenge for some sports..... the IOC. For the moment, the All of these questions will no doubt be stipulates that sports admitted to the Winter addressed in the near future, notably under Olympics absolutely must be practised either the new Presidency of the IOC. on ice or on snow. However, a number of federations propose to modify this rule, in

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