Over the past 100 years sport has changed from a mere pastime to a multibillion-rand industry, writes Julia Beffon
Before 1900 the word “sport” hardly existed in the context we now know it: amateurs played games, or excelled in one or other semi-military discipline, but few made physical exercise a career.
Today sport is a multibillion-rand industry, with the prize money available on the United States Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) tour alone equal to the gross domestic product of some small countries. In Britain, the sports industry is bigger than the agricultural, chemical and motor industries.
The transformation of sport is best mirrored by the growth of the Olympic Games. The ancient Olympics were a test of physical perfection and military expertise – not just a sporting contest. A truce was declared during the games and no one was allowed to bear arms. The Greeks held the games regularly for 1168 years, but ended with the 293rd Olympiad, in 393AD.
The first Olympic Games of the modern era were again held in Greece, in 1896. The re- introduction of the games was the brainchild of Baron Pierre de Coubertin, a French aristocrat who blamed the physical and moral decline of his country for its defeat by the Germans in 1870. Only 12 countries competed in 1896.
The Paris Olympics of 1900 fared little better, but as the century progressed the games began to take on international significance and countries believed their prestige was raised if their athletes excelled at the games. Hitler intended the Berlin Olympics in 1936 to confirm the superiority of the Aryan people, and was furious that Jesse Owens, a black American, won the 100m sprint.
Politics have seldom been far from the games, from the slaughter of Israeli athletes at Munich in 1972 to the tit- for-tat boycotts of Moscow in 1980 (by the United States and other Western countries) and Los Angeles in 1984 (by the Soviet bloc).
No matter the prestige or politics, however, it was not until the Los Angeles games that the Olympics became a huge money-spinner. Despite Nadia Comaneci’s perfect 10s, Montreal took nearly 20 years to pay off the bills incurred by the 1976 extravaganza. These days, a successful bid is virtually a licence to print money for the host city. The price for US television rights alone rose from 140E000 for Rome in 1960 to 236-million for Barcelona in 1992. With that sort of money involved, the recent exposs of bribes accepted by International Olympic Committee members to give Salt Lake City the Winter Olympics are hardly surprising.
Sport’s global attraction is that poorer or less-developed countries can compete with the superpowers. Brazil has won the soccer World Cup more times than any other country, while the Kenyans have a stranglehold on middle-distance running.
The Olympics might be the greatest show on earth, but other sporting codes have also grown spectacularly, with money pouring in particularly from the sale of television rights. In the early parts of the century, sportsmen and women were seldom paid for their efforts. A strict line was drawn between amateurs and professionals, with the latter often regarded as mercenaries who did not adhere to the “spirit of the game”.
With the growth of television after World War II, more and more sports turned professional. Some sports retained an uneasy combination of both amateurs and professionals for a while. Cricket, for example, had separate facilities for “gentlemen” and “players”. Other codes, such as rugby, maintained the pretence of amateurism into the 1990s, with top players given jobs or gifts of houses but not cash.
Today sport is regarded as a legitimate career, and sporting ability is a passport out of the ghetto for many underprivileged youngsters. Sports stars are now able to sign contracts worth millions, and earn even more from endorsements.
The money available has had a twofold benefit. Firstly, it allows individuals to focus exclusively on their discipline. Secondly, it draws companies into developing and improving sporting equipment. The combination of more time for training and better tools has seen records tumble. For example, better training and poles have seen the men’s pole vault record raised from around 3m at the turn of the century to over 6m today, while swimming times continue to fall as competitors get bigger and stronger.
Technology has also introduced new sports not seen before the 20th century. Motor racing in all its guises, from Formula One to the Dakar Rally, is a showcase for manufacturers of that great symbol of our time, the car. And the invention of the aeroplane has allowed parachuted fools to live, for a few minutes, one of humankind’s greatest dreams – to fly. Despite the idealistic vision of sport as “war without weapons”, with all the money and glory on offer it is almost inevitable that most sports have succumbed to some form of cheating scandal.
As early as 1919 the Chicago White Sox baseball team were involved in a match- fixing scandal during their World Series game as they felt they were being paid a pittance whereas the team owners were raking in the greenbacks. In 1998 a Malaysian betting syndicate ensured the floodlights went out during an English Premier League match at West Ham’s Upton Park ground when the score suited them. This year, the Motsoeneng brothers were stripped of their medals after it was proved that they alternated running stretches during the Comrades Marathon.
However, the most common form of cheating in the latter part of the 20th Century is drugs. From the East German superwomen in the 1970s and 1980s, to Ben Johnson’s disgrace at the 1988 Seoul Olympics it appears many sporting highlights have been chemically produced. Sports federations are trying to crack down on drug use, but the athletes appear to be one step ahead. But despite the commercialisation, the shady money and the drug cloud, sport seldom fails to bring us sublime moments. Whether it be Olga Korbut on the beam, Donald Bradman on the drive, Joel Stransky’s drop- goal or Lance Armstrong’s triumph in Paris, we watch and wait for those moments of perfection. And that’s what will keep sport a booming industry in the next century.