Olympics Document Based Question
DBQ Essay (Modern Day Olympics 1896 – 2002) War, Nationalism, and money paid by various corporations/countries all shaped the modern day Olympics. War played a major role in shaping the modern day Olympic Games. In document one, Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic movement, states that the Olympics would serve as a reduction of war because of the worldwide competition between various countries. Coubertin wrote this document to attempt to convince the Athletic Society of France to revive the Olympic Games. In document 3, the autobiography of Arnold Lunn talks about how the Nazis used certain competition to prove to the world that a dictatorship (or Nazism) is better than democracy. The only thing that mattered to the Nazi’s was to win. The Nazi’s had pictured the Olympics as a war where it was the Nazi’s against the world. Document 5 reveals that if Japan wouldn’t have hosted the Olympic Games after the Second World War, they would’ve never gotten what they needed to rise as a world trade power. Ryotaro Azuma wrote this document to recognize the fact that the Olympics had evolved into an event that would ultimately save a country. Nationalism also played a major role in shaping the modern day Olympic Games. Document 2 recognizes the fact that men were too proud to let women represent their country in the Olympics. Document 4 represents nationalism because it shows how proud America would be if they beat the Soviets in any sort of competition during the Olympics. Bob Matthias wrote this document to show us the determination and pride the U.S had to defeat the soviets, and how the Olympics evolved into a competition between just the U.S and the Soviets.