Time - Man of the Year/Time_Man_of_the_Year_Compact_Publishing_3YX-Disc-1_Compact_Publishing_1993.iso/moy/081792/0817640.000

Text File | 1993-04-08 | 6KB | 123 lines

                                                                                ESSAY, Page 72

Less Wretched Excess, Please


Paul A. Witteman


    Let's face it. The Olympics have finally spun out of
control. Think not? Then take the following quiz: Who was the
gold-medal winner in Rhythmic Gymnastics? What is Rhythmic
Gymnastics? Name the horse Australian Matthew Ryan rode to
victory in the Three-Day Equestrian Event. Who was the Single
Worldwide Food Sponsor of the Games?

    Answering four out of four correctly indicates that you
have a serious psychological disorder that will require
extensive hospitalization. Getting three out of four places you
at the exalted "Hodori Level of Olympic Achievement." This
allows you to pose for a picture (taken by the official camera
loaded with the official film) next to Hodori, who, you will
recall, is the former official Olympic mascot from Seoul. Two
out of four means you are either a rhythmic gymnast or the
parent of one. My condolences. Just so everyone can get an
answer right, the name of the gold-medal-winning horse from Down
Under is Kibah Tic Toc. Really.

    The Olympics have got into a mess, in part, because they
are so successful. More athletes competed in Barcelona and more
medals were won than in any previous Olympics. More spectators
watched it all happen, live and on television. All of which is
bound to please the companies that clothe, feed and otherwise
remunerate the athletes. The goals of the sponsors (among them
the company that publishes this magazine) are straightforward.
They hope that you and those with access to your credit cards
will watch an event, feel good about the fingernail polish
displayed by the winner, then dash out to the Official
Convenience Store of the Games and buy a case.

    In the marketing dodge, that is known as rub-off. Don't
roll your eyes. There are companies that can prove Olympic
rub-off is more powerful than fried garlic. Consider: the
athletic-shoe business alone generates $13 billion annually in
retail worldwide sales. Shorts, socks, sweatbands and such are
worth a couple of billion dollars more. So the prospect of
Michael Jordan mounting the victory stand to accept his gold
medal in basketball wearing togs provided by his very own
sponsor, Nike, naturally had the folks at Reebok stamping their
feet. Reebok purchased the exclusive modeling rights, they
thought, to the victory stand.

    Olympic business has been very good to the International
Olympic Committee as well. Its full-time paid staff has
ballooned from 30 to 100 since Juan Antonio Samaranch was
elected president in 1980. Revenues from the sale of TV rights
and sponsorships have exploded during the same time. NBC, for
example, paid $401 million for the rights to televise these
Games, and the dozen companies chosen as TOP sponsors shelled
out an additional $170 million. But in significant ways, the
International Olympic Committee resembles the College of
Cardinals. The IOC does not communicate via smoke signals but
probably has a committee headed by a prince or earl studying its
feasibility. The 96 IOC members answer to no one but themselves.
The IOC budget is a secret. "We have no shareholders," says IOC
spokeswoman Michele Verdier, by way of explanation.

    She is dead wrong. There are 5.4 billion shareholders in
the Olympics. The Olympic Charter has it right when it states
that the goal of the Games is to have sport serve "the
harmonious development of man, with a view to encouraging the
establishment of a peaceful society concerned with the
preservation of human dignity." Where the Olympic Charter goes
astray is on the very next page, on which the IOC arrogates for
itself Supreme Authority. When you're eight years old and have
broken the antique crystal decanter, your mother is the supreme
authority. So too are the deities in various, but not all,
religions. Men in blazers, who have become powerful and
imperious as a result of the Olympics, don't qualify.

    To improve the Games then, one must start with the IOC
itself. A self-perpetuating oligarchy is not in the Olympic
movement's interest. Membership should be limited to a single
eight-year term. Hold an election. Every living medal winner
gets one vote. Active athletes should make up 60% of the
membership since they, not officials, are the principals of the
Games. Roughly half of the Olympic events are for women,
therefore half of the seats on the IOC should go to women as
well. To eliminate the temptation of bribery, the allegations
of which have tainted dealings between cities eager to host the
Games and IOC members of questionable rectitude, choose a
permanent Olympic site. Hold the Winter Games in Chamonix or
elsewhere in the Alps where venues have already been built. The
Barcelona Games have been boffo. Let Atlanta have its shot, then
return the Games to Catalonia. Granted, the Games' roots are in
Athens. But the abysmal air quality there would stifle athletes
and spectators alike. On that subject, future games in Barcelona
should be held in the cool of autumn.

    Get the drugs out of the Games. Require blood tests of all
athletes, not just selected ones. Schedule the tests randomly
so participants cannot predict when they might be called.
Athletes might choose not to be tested. That is their right. By
so doing, however, they would also choose to become Olympic
spectators.

    One is tempted to suggest pruning the athletic program,
especially in the summer. But Rhythmic Gymnastics should have
its nanosecond in the stadium. Better yet, ban all national
flags. People who stick up their fingers in the "We're No. 1"
gesture will be given one-way tickets to Sarajevo, where they
can observe firsthand the lengths some people go to prove that
senseless point. Finally, take the brand names off the uniforms,
shoes, sunglasses and socks. Let the athletes merely advertise
themselves, glorious performers stretching human endeavor to its
limits.