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Published on 25 Jun. 2024

Cold War and decolonisation (1944-1968)

The decades after the war were marked by the Cold War and characterised by expansion of the Olympic movement towards Oceania, then Asia and Latin America. Despite the IOC’s stated desire for neutrality, the Olympic Games formed a space for geopolitical confrontations, as well as political and social demands from oppressed minorities. Versions of the Olympic model multiplied, in particular promoting better recognition for athletes with disabilities. In 1948, the London Games celebrated the British and American democracies. Four years later in Helsinki, the USSR took part in the Games for the first time, transforming the event into a new Cold War front. In 1956, the USSR’s repression of the revolt in Budapest was an unexpected guest at the Melbourne Games when a fight broke out between Russian and Hungarian athletes. In the 1960s, the Olympic Games held in Rome (1960) and Tokyo (1964) were a sign of renewal inside the host countries. For Italy, it was about forgetting fascism, and for Japan, haunted by the atomic bombings, defeat. These two events reflected the movement towards decolonisation, and hosted the first delegations from newly independent African countries. The 1968 Games in Mexico were an echo chamber for the struggles of youth around the world. One image dominated: on the 200 metres podium, Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their black-gloved fists to support the civil rights movement in the United States.

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Published on 25 Jun. 2024

Towards a multi-polar Olympic world (1968-1988)

In the 1970s and 1980s, image strategies and the events surrounding the Olympic Games bore witness to the political and economic emancipation of new nations, as well as the multiplication of international tensions.   In 1972, the Munich Games, supposed to represent a new Germany on the path to reconciliation between East and West, were marred by a terrorist attack carried out as part of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Games had never taken such a tragic turn. Four years later, in Montreal, the Olympic Games were the subject of the first massive boycott in Olympic history. To oppose the presence of New Zealand, which had hosted the South Africa apartheid rugby team, almost all of the African countries refused to attend. The powerful media echo chamber of the Games was able to draw the attention of an international audience to the struggle against the racist South African system.   The Moscow Olympic Games in 1980 went on to be boycotted by the United States and their allies in protest against the invasion of Afghanistan by the USSR in 1979. Four years later, the USSR and their allies refused to travel to Los Angeles. Against a backdrop of North-South tensions in Korea, the Seoul Games in 1988 paradoxically presaged the end of the Cold War, and heralded an era of global commercialisation of the Olympic Games.

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Published on 25 Jun. 2024

Times of nationalism (1920-1944)

Between the two wars, the Olympic Games contributed to the popularity of show sports promoted by the media. They attracted more delegations and an increasingly large public, and gradually took their place as a global event with a strengthened geo-political dimension.   The tragic toll of the Great War encouraged the IOC to pursue its pacifist work. In 1920 in Antwerp, the introduction of the Olympic flag and oath symbolised the unity of nations. Nevertheless, all those who lost the First World War were excluded. The following games in Paris (1924), from which Germany was also absent, then in Amsterdam (1928), were the setting for sporting exploits achieved by athletes from every horizon, in particular those from “minorities” or colonial empires. The arrival of the first media stars shook the principle of amateurism which was still strongly defended by the IOC. In 1932, in the middle of an economic crisis, the Los Angeles Games were noteworthy for the victories by Italian athletes held up as the ambassadors of a fascist regime. Four years later, the politicisation of the event went a step further during the Berlin Games serving Nazi propaganda. Despite the exclusion of Jewish German athletes, showing disdain for the fundamental values of Olympism, the organisation and the apparent modernity of the Berlin Games appeared to be a success for Adolf Hitler. The Second World War prevented the 1940 and 1944 Games from being held.

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Published on 23 May 2024

Introductory: Olympism, a story of the world

The ambition of this exhibition is to tell an alternative history of the world, viewed through the saga of the Summer Olympic Games, from the ones held in Athens in 1896 to the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2024. For 130 years, the Olympic Games have acted like an echo chamber for all the combats, dreams and political conflicts on which relationships between nations are founded. Major antagonisms and geopolitical upheavals find a particular echo here, such as issues related to movements and migrations and links between individual people and their countries. Social, feminist, anti-racist and anti-colonial movements regularly made an appearance. The emergence of forms of nationalism at the start of the 20 th century, then the Cold War, as well as the struggle against apartheid, or more recently health or climate crises are part of the story of the Olympic Games.

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Published on 23 May 2024

The (re)birth of Olympism (1896-1919)

Pierre de Coubertin was behind the renaissance of the ancient Olympic Games and the creation of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), founded on 23 June 1894. The goal of the IOC is to promote young people’s physical education and sporting universalism to serve peace. The original choice of amateur athletes reflects the aristocratic elitism behind the project, restricting the participation of athletes from the working classes. The first Olympic Games held in Athens in 1896 were popular with a wide public. This success was promoted by the involvement of the Greek royal family who wanted to assert Greece’s position on the European stage. The next three Games in Paris (1900), then on the other side of the Atlantic in St. Louis (1904) and finally in London (1908) were diluted within the programme of major universal or international exhibitions. Despite this confusion, the successive organising committees gradually laid the foundations of a universal Olympic project that initially excluded women, and then restricted their participation to a limited number of events. In 1912, the first truly independent Games were held in Stockholm, in Sweden. Delegations arrived from the five continents to take part. The start of the First World War led to the cancellation of the 1916 Games planned for Berlin. The dream of a competition capable of rising above conflicts appeared to collapse.

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