Olympics 2000: tips for the Sydney Olympics from Indiana University
NOTE: If you would like further information on any of these story ideas or news tips from IU Media Relations, call or e-mail the person listed at the end of the item. Unless otherwise noted, the tips are from IU's Bloomington campus.
The new full-body swimsuits had little impact at the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials, according to an IU exercise physiologist who has studied them. Joel Stager, director of the IU Human Performance Laboratory, analyzed the times of the swimming finalists at all U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials since 1968 to predict the times for the recent trials in Indianapolis. "Our assumption was that if no cataclysmic change occurs, we could predict the winning times with considerable accuracy," Stager said. In 13 events for both men and women, his predictions were off by less than 1 percent. "Our studies showed an error of 0.23 percent for women and 0.37 percent for men, which is extremely accurate and validates our procedures," he said. Stager, who is internationally known for his swimming research, said his findings show that using the new highly publicized body suits had virtually no effect on performance for elite American swimmers. "We thought these new suits might improve performance times considerably, and if that had been the case, our predictions would have failed. This did not occur, which means these suits had little impact. We are now anxious to continue our studies at the Olympics in Australia," he said. A national champion in masters swimming, he is editor of The Journal of Swimming Research. Stager can be reached at 812-855-1637 or stagerj@indiana.edu
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Fan expectations at the Olympics take on added significance for Americans, according to IU social psychologist Edward Hirt.
"Expectations are so high in this country in some Olympic sports that anything less than a gold medal is perceived as failure," Hirt said. "Can you imagine the reaction if the first Dream Team in basketball had not won? What will happen if the women's soccer team doesn't bring home a gold medal or at least play very well in Sydney?"
Hirt has done research on how fans' self-esteem rises and falls with a favorite team's winning or losing. He said a major difference in this area at the Olympics involves nationality.
"For many smaller nations and Third World countries, Olympic success becomes much more of a national issue than in this country. It shows their athletes can compete with the big boys. There also are factors like occasional defections and longstanding rivalries that increase feelings of national pride. The United States used to have that when competing with the Soviet Union. Look what happened when we won the gold in ice hockey at Lake Placid. More recently, the United States has not had this same kind of rivalry with other countries, which may affect the level of enthusiasm for the Olympics," he said.
Hirt can be reached at 812-855-4815 or ehirt@indiana.edu
Computer graphics help Olympic high jumpers through research done by IU Kinesiology Professor Jesus Dapena. Dapena's work includes measuring three-dimensional locations of anatomical body points, calculating mechanical data such as position and velocity of a jumper's center of gravity, and then generating computer graphics from the data. He has worked with Olympic athletes on their biomechanics since 1982 by analyzing videotapes of their jumping form to improve performance. In 1992, he compiled a report for the International Olympic Committee that was a biomechanical analysis of techniques used by all the Olympic high jump finalists. He has worked with U.S. Olympic high jumpers Hollis Conway, Charles Austin, Amy Acuff and Tisha Waller. Dapena can be reached at 812-855-8407 or dapena@indiana.edu
A terrorist attack at the Olympics in Sydney is possible, according to William Head, IU assistant professor of criminal justice and a consultant on anti-terrorist security. "In 1972 at Munich, security awareness and measures were far less sophisticated than they are now, so the terrorists at Munich were able to penetrate security and walk right into the Olympic Village," Head said. Today, events like the Olympics typically employ a multi-tiered approach to security by having a lot of people on watch and using high-tech devices that were not available 30 years ago. However, while security has advanced, so have the methods of extremist groups. "There is no doubt that terrorists see the Olympics as a prize to be obtained in terms of international attention, so it's likely that different types of terrorist activities, such as bombings or anthrax scares, will be attempted," Head said. There is a security issue at every Olympics, he added, but in varying degrees, and people's attitudes toward the host country tend to affect security. "Anytime someone feels slighted, there is a chance they will take the world stage created by a high-profile event to vent their anger," he said. "Governments are always making someone mad, and the Olympic host country has to be prepared for that." Head can be reached at 812-855-6434 or bhead@indiana.edu
In terms of gender fairness, Olympic television coverage leaves a lot to be desired, according to an IU professor who has published several books on television programming and marketing. "In the last two Olympics, the hosts made every effort to balance their comments by referring equally to women's and men's events, but when the microphones and cameras switched to venue reporters, embedded biases in favor of male athletes and men's sports became quite evident," said Susan Tyler Eastman, professor of telecommunications. Eastman has studied gender and racial issues in television coverage of the Olympics for 12 years as part of her research and teaching interest in television programming. She regularly teaches a course about the impact of sports on television (and television on sports) that includes discussions about the behavior of Olympic announcers. She also has published many studies about the impact of on-air promotion for other programs that is inserted into Olympic coverage, in which she analyzes the factors in on-air promotion that affect program ratings. Eastman can be reached at 812-855-1700 or eastman@indiana.edu
Olympic history has been a significant research area for IU professor John Findling for several years. Findling, professor of history at the IU Southeast campus in New Albany, is co-editor of the Historical Dictionary of the Modern Olympic Movement and has written several articles over the years on individual Olympians. He wrote a column for USA Today titled "Findling's Findings" in conjunction with the 1998 Winter Olympics in Japan. He teaches a course on sport history that includes the history of the Olympics. He is a member of the North American Society for Sport History, the International Society of Olympic Historians, and the International Society for the History of Physical Education and Sport. Findling can reached at 812-941-2371 or jfindin@ius.edu
The premier event for some sports is not the Olympics, according to a professor in the IU Department of Kinesiology with firsthand knowledge of this event. Phillip Henson was the track and field director for the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, and he will be a technical official at the upcoming Games in Australia. "The organizers of the Olympics seem to feel that any sport that is popular on ESPN ought to be in the Olympics. They don't understand that for some sports the Olympics is not the pinnacle event. Examples of this are the World Cup for soccer, the NBA championship for basketball, Wimbledon for tennis and the World Series for baseball," said Henson, who has 20 years of experience with the Olympic movement. He recommends several actions to keep the Games to a manageable size. These include eliminating sports that don't belong in the Olympics, eliminating sports where other competitions are more important, and spreading out the locations and times of events so the Olympics would be in multiple cities over three months instead of one city over three weeks. He fears that if something isn't done soon to control the size of the Games, the future of the Olympics will be jeopardized. "The Olympics are getting so large that they may soon collapse upon themselves, which is exactly what happened to the ancient Olympic Games in Greece," he said. Henson can be reached at 812-855-6926 or phenson@indiana.edu before he departs for Sydney on Sept. 18.
An Australian sport management specialist at IU believes her home country will succeed in hosting the Summer Games in Sydney. "Sydney organizers felt that part of their success (in securing the Olympics) was dependent upon extensive study of what worked and what didn't work at previous Olympics," said Pamm Kellett, assistant professor of sport management in the IU School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation. "Although Sydney had been granted the right to host the 2000 Games in 1993, the organizers monitored the 1996 Games in Atlanta closely. They also had submitted bids to host the three previous Games." Kellett recently taught a class at IU on sport management that focused on the Olympics from a business management perspective. Her doctoral advisor in Australia was Laurence Chalip, the International Chair of Olympism with more than 20 years of experience in the business side of the Olympics. She will attend the Games to participate in a research project on the contribution of volunteers. Kellett can be reached at 812-855-4066 or pakellet@indiana.edu until she leaves for the Olympics on Sept. 12. She can be contacted in Sydney at her e-mail address.
Ambush marketing at the Olympics is a significant problem for the organizers of the games, said Thomas Bowers, co-director of the Sports and Entertainment Academy in IU's Kelley School of Business. "Ambush marketing is when non-sponsors try to profit from the Olympics by indirectly suggesting a connection with the Olympics or conducting sports-related activities close to Olympic venues," Bowers explained. Though the practice may not be illegal, he said it causes headaches for the organizing committee at every Olympics. "The sponsors at the Olympics pay huge sums of money for the privilege of marketing their products and services in connection with the Olympics. These sponsors want their contract rights protected," said Bowers, who teaches and researches the law and business of sports and entertainment. Bowers can be reached at 812-855-9308 or bowers@indiana.edu
The economic impact of the Olympic Games can transcend the event itself, according to Lawrence Davidson of the Kelley School of Business at IU. Davidson, professor of business economics and public policy, has done economic impact studies involving the Atlanta Falcons, Pan American Games, Brickyard 400, Indianapolis 500 and Final Four NCAA Basketball Tournament. He said most people are aware of the huge economic impact of the Olympics because of the global audience, but there also are significant long-term impacts that are frequently overlooked until the Games conclude. "The Olympics make people aware of your country and what's there. It's a way to make a statement to the world that you are a destination," he said. Davidson can be reached at 812-855-2773 or davidso@indiana.edu
IU's Olympic heritage is continuing in terms of competing and coaching. At Sydney, five individuals with ties to IU will represent the United States. Alumna DeDee Nathan will be in the heptathlon, junior Sara Reiling will compete in platform diving, former sofball star Michelle Venturella is on the women's softball team, assistant wrestling coach Charles Burton is on the wrestling team, and diving coach Jeff Huber is an assistant coach for diving. Few universities, or even nations, can match IU's overall Olympic record. A total of 105 IU athletes have competed in the Olympics, and these individuals have represented 14 nations. On 10 occasions Olympic coaches have come from IU. Two IU coaches were honored by coaching twice in the Olympics: James "Doc" Counsilman for swimming in 1964 and 1976 and Hobie Billingsley for diving in 1968 and 1972. Counsilman had a streak of nine straight Olympics -- from 1956 through 1988 -- with at least one medalist, a record believed to be unmatched in any sport in Olympic history. Two coaches with ties to IU have won gold medals in team competition: former coach Bob Knight for basketball in 1984 and Tara Van DeVeer for basketball in 1996. For athletes, the IU medal count is 80, including 45 gold, 16 silver and 19 bronze. At least one IU athlete has medaled at every Summer Olympics since 1932. The most productive year was 1968 in Mexico City, with 17 medals for IU competitors. At the 1972 Games in Munich, swimmer Mark Spitz collected seven gold medals, a record that has never been matched. IU athletes received a total of 15 medals that year, including 11 gold. Four years later in Montreal, IU also left its mark with a Hoosier in the headlines almost every day. IU swimming great Gary Hall carried the U.S. flag at the opening ceremonies. Scott May was a scoring standout and Quinn Buckner the captain for the gold medal-winning basketball team. The swimming star was IU's Jim Montgomery, with three gold medals. Hall and diver Cynthia Potter also won medals. IU's James "Doc" Counsilman was the head coach of the most successful U.S. swimming team ever, with 12 golds and 10 silvers in 13 events. Hoosier track coach Sam Bell coached the American distance runners. For more information, contact the IU Department of Athletics at 812-855-2421.
