Recommendation of a New Olympic Model

Ho-Mun Jun & Woo-Jeong Cho
(Mokpo National University)

I. Introduction

The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part in. The Olympic Movement furnishes a conspicuous example that when fair play and good sportsmanship prevail, men can agree regardless of race, religion, or political convictions (Laptchick, 1985). The Olympic idea is to contribute and create a conductive atmosphere for improving friendship, and peace among countries and the Olympic movement develops understanding between the different peoples. The Olympic Games are intended as an international forum where different cultures, ethnic groups, and people of all political persuasions meet and compete in an atmosphere of goodwill and peace (Cheffers, 1988).
However, the ideal of Olympic value has been misinterpreted in the present system. The Olympic movement has been used as political, economic vehicle rather than an ideal vehicle to revive and instill the Olympic spirits and values (Kim, 1997).
As politics and sport have become intertwined in recent times, and the Olympic Games have been used as political propaganda, all nations view success in sports as a measure of national vitality and as a reflection of the success of the political system. Additionally, as a result of the misunderstanding of sporting values, together with an overemphasis on winning at the expense of the virtues of participation, many of the negative aspects of sports such as drug abuse and violence have emerged to the fore.
The economic vehicle of the Olympic has been greatly threatened to change the structure of the Games and the Olympic movement (Kim et al, 1997); that is, commercial interests have been an inevitable factor to hold the Olympic Games successfully for both host city and the IOC (Zeigler, 1981). The commercialization of the Olympic Games has tarnished the Olympic values and spirits and produced such problems as over- competition.
Clearly it is time that scholars interested in sport and those who administer international sports programs examine carefully what the Olympic mean and assess what is should be, identify the distorted values that derive sport, and consider appropriate alternatives. The tarnished image of international sports need much more than cosmetic surgery. It may well be time for the back-to-basic Olympic movement (Crawford, 1986).
Therefore, it has been shown that we need fundamental and systematic change for our present international sport competition system, the Olympics.

II. Methods

1. Selection of the Sample
The researchers attempted to employ subjects for this study from the members of sports organizations related to the Olympic in order to obtain more practical opinions and from the professionals, teachers and professors in the field of sports to secure objective viewpoints about the Olympics. The total population for this study was 44 subjects, which consisted of 10 members who were working at KOC & 9 Korean Amateur Athletics Federations, 29 P.E. teachers, and 5 scholars.

2. Procedure
The procedure for this study consisted of three steps
1) First Step: Drafting Researchable Main Area and Sub-Dimension for Olympic
The researchers drafted researchable main areas and sub-dimensions targeted toward Olympic area through literature review and then discussed those areas with scholars in the field of sports. After scholar verified the several main areas and sub-dimensions for Olympic, drafted main areas of Olympic were decided as Organization Structure of IOC, Managing of the Olympic Games, and Regulation of the Olympic Games.
2) Second Step: Developing Questionnaire
The questionnaire including 13 questions related to the Olympic based on those sub-dimensions of main areas were developed by the researchers. Also, open-ended questionnaire included 9 questions asking the opinion of professional personnel for those areas and dimensions. Developed questionnaire was consisted of 3 sections: the first section included 3 questions asking for organizational change for IOC while there were 8 questions in the second section of the question which investigated the managing system for the Olympic Games and third section of the questionnaire include 2 questions inquiring regulation change for the Olympic Games.
3) Third Step : Conducting Survey
The actual data collection was achieved by personally distributing questionnaire, mail-out questionnaire, and personnel interview to a selected main subjects group. The purpose of the mail-out and distributed questionnaire was to collect information from the relevant professionals in the field of sports and also interview was conducted to gain deeper knowledge and personal opinion for the research.
The mail-out survey was went to the respective directors and executive constituted of subjects for 10 amateur sports associations out of the 47 sports association and KOC while researcher distributed questionnaires to the physical education teachers directly to obtain more correct and honest answers by explaining the purpose of the study face to face. In addition, the researcher had interview with scholars who had been identified as professional scholars for Olympic by their research working and popularity.

III. Results.

Among those, who received questionnaire, 10 members (50%) out of 20, worked for KAAF and KOC and 29 distributed questionnaire (100%) from teacher had returned. The analysis result of this study is as following. Only frequency and % results are presented in this section.
Table 1. Level of Acceptance of the Current Olympic System

Items	Division	Total Freq. (%)	KOC & KAAF		P.E. Teachers
			Freq.	%	Freq.	%
Organization	Maintained	55 (46)	11	37	41	47
	Modified	65 (54)	19	63	46	53
Operation	Maintained	190 (70)	49	70	141	77
	Modified	83 (30)	21	30	62	23
Regulation	Maintained	55 (70)	13	65	42	72
	Modified	23 (30)	7	35	16	28

Table 1 presents the summary of the level of acceptance of the current Olympic system. Researchers attempted to describe the percentage information contained in the data rather than comparing the significant difference between the groups. Data generated by the study in Table 1 indicated that a high percentage (54%) of the subjects possess negative attitudes toward the current IOC organization's structure suitability while a high percentage (70%) of the subjects showed positive attitudes toward the current managing the Olympic games and regulation of the Olympic Games.
In detail, of those who responded to organization, 46% were in favor of maintaining the current organization. However, of the subjects who responded to this study, only 30% of professional agree to modify the current Olympic operation and larger number of professionals 70% considered for the research did not agree upon the fact that the current managing the Olympic Games and regulation of the Olympic Games should modify respectively.
In the conclusion, based on the analysis of the data, it is evident that a majority of the professionals viewed the current organization structure for IOC as inadequate. However, comparatively majority professionals expressed their disagreement over the changing of the current managing Olympic Game and Regulation.

IV. Recommending a New Model

Following recommending model was developed based on the information gathered from the open-ended questionnaire and interview and researchers' opinion.

1. Organization Structure
1) Alternating the IOC System
We should develop a new international organization based on the principles of equal rights to all member countries with the ultimate goal of promoting peace and unity among nations. In the new international Olympic Committee Organization, the present system's 118 representatives from 90 countries would be discarded. Alternatively, every participating country member of the new IOC would have the equal right to vote in decision making, and equal power (Open ended question and interview).
The IOC at the international level could consist of two groups. The first would include 12 members, 2 from each 6 continents, (this number is subject to be changed according to later research) to decide minor matter which does not require international voting(Interview). These members would also have the power to visit any country as representatives of the IOC. They would be selected by the 179 member countries and would serve for a period of 4 years (detail will be verify with later research). The second group would consist of 179 representatives, each from a member country. The members of this second group could not visit other countries as IOC representatives. They would only have the right to discuss and vote on important decisions.

2) Leadership
The new organization could be led by a team from the IOC, rather than by a president or several important members. The new organization would have a general secretary instead of a president. Professionals insisted that IOC should employ team administration system as each representative of 6 continents rather than president administration system (Open ended question). For this question, 62% of respondents did not agree the current IOC administration system is adequate.

3) Equal Opportunities
Since the Olympic Games represent an international enterprise, women in the Olympic must be examined from world perspective. From the evidence since the beginning of sports and Olympic history, women have received unequal opportunity in participating sports programs and competition. To solve the problem of women in the sport, women should hold responsible position in the sports governing bodies. In the present IOC organization, there are only 8(7%) women committees out of 118 committee.
In the new model, it is suggested that the IOC increase its size to accommodate a representative number of women on the committee, for most women in the Olympics reside in developed countries in which a critical issue for them is participate in decision making which affects their activities and lives. Several professionals who responded this study recommended that the proportion of men and women be equal in the Olympic Games and Committee (Open ended question).

2. Managing of the Olympic Games
1) Should Athletes Represent a Nation?
The IOC seeks to achieve the ideal of eliminating nationalism from the games. However, as long as the International Olympic Committee insists on emphasizing national divisions through the wearing of national uniforms, the playing of national anthems, and housing of athletes by national instead of by sport, it will continue to face an extra layer of problem beyond the natural ones faced in running any large-scale enterprise (Wallenchinsky, 1984). Ultimately we need a system that can satisfy both concepts of increasing support from the people while limiting over-competition between nations. To achieve this goal, athletes who participate in Olympic competition could be allowed to wear their own national colors while engage in competition, however, when on the medal podium, the Olympic song and Olympic flag could be used instead of the winner's national anthem and flag (Interview). Consequently spectators can still identify the host nation of the victor, without having to view the national flags hoisted up into the sky for nationalistic purposes. Hence, people are still able to support the participants and enjoy their performance under Olympic idea of establishing friendship and understanding international culture. However, the highest responses (92%) agreed to keep athletes representing for a nation.

2) Distributing Financial Benefit
Since 1984 the Olympics have become inextricably intertwined with business. Consequently they have very much become dominated by economic concerns with the potential to create huge profits for the host country as well as IOC. The profits should be more evenly distributed among the member countries than they are at present.
The IOC should distribute some percentage of the money generated through the Olympic respective sports programs and countries most in need regarding the establishment and development of sports programs (Interview). The IOC could also assist in the financing of the ISRC, although for the system to work satisfactorily the latter would have to remain an independent body within the Olympic movement.

3) Choosing Host Place
The IOC votes on the place for the Olympics. It is questionable, should we build on Olympic city? Because the present system is not fair for those small countries which never have the chance to hold the Olympic, and in some cases compete against larger countries. If we build an Olympic city, the money will go to Olympic city and the player will practice over there when the Olympic is not in session. The benefits the Olympic city receive for holding Olympics would be easily distributed. Of we do not have a special place, a country has to spend too much money for hosting the Olympics. However we have questions for this approach. Is deciding which is the best city for the Olympic city? Another problem present system seems unfair. The country which has strong relationship with IOC has advantage to hold the Olympics. For example how can one country, America, host the Olympics two times within 12 years when there are a lot of countries who want hold Olympic in their countries but lost the vote.
Therefore, we need a system to decide on the place to host Olympics fairly and also help the host country receive positive benefits. In the new model, the Olympics is held in each continent on a rotating basis (Open ended question and interview). In this model, more countries have the chance to hold the Olympics.

4) Standard of the Track Athletes to International Level
In the present international sports competition, Olympic shows unfairness among countries to compete against each other. Therefore, the new model for Olympic competition make standard rules that every athlete has to follow to make fairness for international competition (Interview). In this model, rules, regulations, and standard of the sports are set. IT is impossible for IOC to make a standard very detail policy to track athletes to control all of countries instead of making general standard. In order to be in the Olympic team, every student age athletes need to spend five hours changeable by research per day for training. No athlete is allowed to practice without attending classes. Athletes should be trained according to their desire which means no government interference of force them to train for international competition. To supervise whether countries break the standard regulation, every country needs to hand in the list of international level athletes in their country to IOC. The IOC also gets the list of international level athletes through national and international competitions. The IOC with this list can screen them through national level Olympic committee meeting, convention, forum, and visiting their countries.

5) Judge
The overall order of competition in which teams and individuals appear has an impact on the judge. It has been claimed that teams competing early are at a disadvantage in spite of random placement within the order. In the new model, judge of each game will be decided by a computer that decrease every possible bias for judgment for the game. Before the Olympic event starts, Judge department in IOC receive every information about all international judge and put in the computer programs. During the game in progress, the judge department will put the possible matching countries. So, computer decide judge based on this information (need further detail research to find computer program and information).
Also, the judge need to explain the reason for judging when required, judge can be changed even during games if he is recognized to be unfair by the supervisor group. The judge who was changed two times during game can not be a judge in any international competition for that Olympic period. Some professionals recommended to accept judge evaluation system by players and head coaches after games (Open ended question).

6) Ranking of Nation
We should search for a new compromise that into account both the quality and quantity of medals won to an even greater extent. One way to achieve this compromise could be to assign a different "weigh" to gold, silver, and bronze medals, respectively (Open ended question and interview). Another idea would be to assign a "weight" to the performance of the athletics (this section needs more research if we are to come up with some good solution).

3. Regulation
The rules that apply are in the interest of all players and it is a part of the expected practice of the sport. Both logically and morally there is only way to compete in sport and that is by the rules.

1) Award
It is obviously important to receive gold medal from Olympic; however, receiving something from Olympic is better than if one did not receive anything. Therefore, author recommend that IOC should give rewards for more number of winners. The reason for this recommendation is that Olympic is held once every four years. As many athletes work for a long time Olympic, it is too cruel to select only three winners. This policy should apply seriously for individual competitor because the purpose of Olympic is not just to look for winners. Also, the model creates the standard for the awards which are broken down into general and participation requirements. The award system will be kept within reasonable limits so, the award must never become more important than the activity itself.

2) Drug
The IOC will establish strong cooperation with each sport event international organization to punish for drug test. The new Model will have very strong penalty for the drug abuse. Any athletes who has positive drug test result lose their medal and qualification for period of time, and also coaches of those athletes could not participate in the Olympics; therefore, coaches should pay attention to check athletes' drug problem and educated them not to use any drug. Several professionals believed that any athlete taking drug could not participate in the Olympic forever (Open ended question).

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