Week 4
When arguing if the The Olympics are either a globalizing force/global event or are not, it really comes down to your view on what global means. We all know that The Olympics is an event that culminates with an enormous number of countries (10,500 athletes participating from 204 countries), huge numbers of volunteers, massive investments from sponsors all over the globe and millions and millions of spectators watching, however how much of this globe are actually involved.
You just need to look at the host nations of the past 20 years; United Kingdom, China, Greece, Australia, North America, Spain, South Korea and North America. What is the common denominator here? They’re all relatively wealthy nations that have either hosted before or done well over the years in the Olympics. Look at Africa, not a single Olympic games has been hosted in an African nation.
Not just that, even the medals are dominated consistently by the same countries, with China, the US, the UK, Korea and Russia making up the top 5 for medals, hardly a globalizing force.
On a positive note, these Olympics have become known as the ‘social networking games,’ with the overall message being spread faster and further than ever before. A recent study of 1005 Americans found that 17% are watching the Olympics online or digitally and a further 12% have remained abreast of the games via social networking sites (Kurz 2012).
References
Kurz P, Aug 2012, Americans augment Olympics TV vewing with social networks, online video, finds Pew, NP
globlogisation 
Wow 10,500 athletes! That’s incredible I wouldn’t have guessed it was that large. That’s shocking to realise that only the affluent nations have ever hosted the Olympics. I’ve always thought that every nation had an equal chance so this was quite eye opening for me. Not having watched the Olympics much at all it’s interesting to hear that people are now starting to watch it online. I guess this would be because unless you have pay tv you don’t have much choice as to what events you get to see.
Hi,
I totally agree what your said, although olympic always announced eaqual and peaceful but it will never become a equal sport event as a competitive sports event. Rich couuntries have much more money to offer better equipments and facilities for althelets than poor countries. Olympic is a global event, but also represent the relationship between different countries.