The "Olympic Idea" is really just that: an idea.

She has nothing to do with reality, which is why we might as well stop talking nostalgically about her.

It may have gotten its first scratch as early as 1896 during the First Summer Olympics in Athens.

Back then, the British forced the only athlete in the British colony of Australia, a three-time medalist, to compete as a Briton.

Since then, not only patriotism and nationalism have played a role in this event, but also economic selfishness, propaganda and manipulation.

Paul Ingenday

Europe correspondent for the feuilleton in Berlin.

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And yet we watch these games on TV, change our routines when the crazy broadcast times demand it, get carried away and sometimes even brought to tears.

Because the athletes themselves rarely make propaganda, but get involved in their own way.

Few things connect as intensely today as the great emotional theater of top-class sport.

Because of this, these athletes have a unique ability to make us, for moments, well, happy.

By the way, you only started late to earn money with the medals you won.

And for many it may still be difficult today, given the media mechanisms of stardom, to always see themselves as a self-determined actor in a fate that is broadcast and admired collectively around the world.

Reason enough,

The IOC and authoritarian regimes

Perhaps we can start by understanding “Olympics” as a highly complex business field with many interests.

As for the profit motive of large corporations in connection with top-class sport, it would be pointless to demonize it.

We live in a world of marketing.

Stranger is that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has the power to award the Games according to its own criteria, some of which are highly contestable, and to whistle on any transparency.

IOC President Thomas Bach, German Olympic gold medalist in foil fencing in 1976, has not the slightest hesitation in showing himself to be in close proximity to those in power in authoritarian regimes.

Since corruption was first found among senior officials of the IOC in the late 1990s, the organization's reputation has deteriorated.

It's not about sports anymore

Parallel to this loss of image, which has also affected the International Football Association (FIFA) and chief threaders like Michel Platini, the realization is gaining ground that it is not the host cities that earn money from the Olympic Games, but only everyone else, above all the IOC itself In 2017, classic European winter sports regions such as Munich and Oslo (for 2022) and Graubünden (for 2026) failed due to the veto of the population.

Innsbruck soon followed, then Calgary in Canada.

Not only nature conservation, but also the distrust of an opaque sports policy, the criteria of which are not understood by the population, plays a role here.

In the meantime, one can firmly assume that the reaction to every German Olympic bid would bear traits from the conflict over "Stuttgart 21".