The History of Winter Olympic Games Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The History of Winter Olympic Games - Term Paper Example The Winter Olympic Games were disrupted by both World War 1 and World War 2. Other than the games being completely canceled because of the war and the plans being suspended, there were strained relations after the war between the nations that had been at war and their allies (Wickenheiser, 2009). The Olympic Games were feared to be held in some nations such as the Soviet Union after the war for fear of reaction of the enemies of the Soviet Union. The Worlds Wars also led to world depression and hence after the wars, few nations were able to participate in the next winter Olympic Games as the rest lacked expense money. The participants even from the nations that attended were few. Doping has been a headache to the organizers of this particular sport as with many other sports. The measures taken since 1967 have been to perform random drug tests on the participants and banning those found with positive results. The most common doping drugs are the performance enhancers. The other controversy that has rocked these games is the bribing of the planning committee officials with expensive gifts in order for their countries to be selected to host the games. The most controversial and which saw 10 officials sent packing is the 2002 Salt Lake City, USA Olympics (Gerlach, 2004). Politics have always been a silent but present issue in these winter Olympic Games. Most nations still have cold war amongst themselves and they push them in the games. Some nations use the winter Olympic Games as an opportunity to show off to the nations and those which have been successful in the number of medals use this as a way to express their powers such as the US. The nations that have always had a grudge against each other go to the extent of skipping the winter games when they take place in the enemy country. Even though the politics are silent and not expressed openly, it still affects the sole purpose of the games