UC Honors Students Delve Into the Culture and Politics of the Olympics

Let the games begin – amid an agenda of politics, race, culture, gender, religion and economics. As the XXIX Olympiad takes place Aug. 8-24 in Beijing, class began on Aug. 11 for a group of 15 University of Cincinnati Honors students that are exploring the role of sport in world affairs.

The three-week University Honors Seminar is led by Kevin Grace, university archivist and head of the Archives and Rare Books Library. Students are exploring the role of the Olympics in global relations from the creation of the modern games in 1896 to the games now underway in Beijing.

Grace, an adjunct assistant professor for the College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services, has spent more than 25 years researching the sociological history of sports. “Athletics are just the framework on which the Olympics are built, so it’s naïve to think of the Olympics as just a sporting event,” says Grace. “For the host country, it’s natural to want to present that country at its very best, but you have to delve deeper to find the “why” when cities and countries compete to host the games. How do the Olympics better position a country in terms of world affairs – economically, politically and culturally? That question is more important than ever because we’ve become a global society.

“For China, the rest of the world sees a largely untapped market and an opportunity to reach millions and millions of people with their products,” Grace says. And, as the rest of the world watches from home, Grace says this could be the last Olympics that the majority of viewers watch on TV, as NBC pioneers coverage on evolving technology including streaming audio and streaming video and multiple portals for live action. How will the media cover non-athletic events such as political protests or urban life?

Students will explore the undercurrents running through the history of the Olympics as they divide into teams for discussion and argument on a specific course topic. The teams will research and write an annotated bibliography that will serve the UC community. The research bibliography, to be produced online, will include sources provided by University of Cincinnati Libraries, and will be divided into topics including architecture, urban planning, politics, economics, global marketing, media influence, popular culture, performance-enhancing drugs, race and ethnicity, and social class. Grace says already, nearly a dozen books have been published about the Beijing Olympics alone, including the text used in the class, "Owning the Olympics: Narratives of the New China" (University of Michigan Press, 2008).

Student presentations will include experiences and perspectives of UC students who had co-op experiences abroad. Additionally, Grace says several documentaries on various Olympiads will be discussed, and guest speakers, including those who are native to China, will share their various points of view.

With an emphasis on knowledge integration and experiential learning, the University Honors Program serves more than 1,800 UC students representing every undergraduate college on campus. Honors coursework and out-of-the-classroom experiences emphasize the University Honors themes of community engagement, global studies, leadership, research and creative arts.

As students trace the history of the Olympic movement from ancient times to Beijing, they’ll see coverage of the Olympics that took center stage in world affairs, such as

• The 1936 so-called “Nazi Olympics” in Berlin – with which Grace says the Beijing Olympics is being compared by protestors. The class will watch a documentary by Adolf Hitler’s filmmaker, Leni Riefenstahl.
• The 1960 Olympics in Rome, which had the first doping scandal, as well as witnessing the U.S. and the Soviet Union using sports to jockey for world influence.
• The 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City and the police massacre of more than 200 Mexico City student protestors, as well as the controversy over the Black Power Movement.
• The 1972 massacre of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics. Another documentary, One Day in September, will be viewed.
• The controversy over the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
• The corresponding Soviet boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, the first Olympic Games to be a money-maker for the host country.
• How the Olympics were used as a world stage for a political agenda at home, as two people died and more than 100 were injured during a bombing attack in Atlanta in 1996.

Students will also discuss the future of sport in Asia, as they watch world developments around the games in Beijing. The class meets daily and runs through Aug. 30.