2008 DBQ

The Modern Olympics were shaped in different ways that include many social, economic, and political factors. These factors over time changed the games from what they were in 1892 to what they were in 2002. Based on the documents the games have been changing not only the games themselves but also the countries that participate and human rights however these can be positive changes or negative changes. The Social factors changing the games include those of Sybil Newall and Hassiba Boulemerka who are both promoting women’s equal rights by participating in the games, a primarily male event. Boulemerka talks of wanting to inspire other women to participate, believing that some were scared but were physically capable (Documents 2 and 8). However other social impacts were less positive such as when countries would participate in the games with some of their political enemies. Arnold Lunn and Bob Mathias show this. Arnold Lunn (English) was irritated by Nazi Germany’s poor sportsmanship during the games while as Bob Mathias (American) participated in the games he really felt as though he need to show the Soviets who was really superior (Document 3 and 4). Ali Kabir a Pakistani sports writer was extremely irritated with his own country’s recent change in heart towards the games as less and less care (Document 10). The Economic factors include how Japan began to recover after the games happened in Tokyo after their economy was extremely stagnated after WW2. The games were the opportunity to show the world that Japan was back (Document 5). However Korea did not rise to the opportunity as Japan did and the money made from the Olympic games went to outside corporations making Korea at a serious loss (document 7). However as time went on so did the want for rights to air the games on tv/radio and companies began spending extremely large amounts of money to do so. In the 20 years between 1980 and 2000 the cost went up by around a billion USD (document 9). The