view . summer 2012
5
RESEARCH
Left: Dr. Scott Martyn at the site of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Corporate sponsorship will be
highly visible at this summer’s
London Olympics
– which will cost
more than $12 billion to stage. Keeping
overt signs of advertisements out of
the actual athletic venues is one way
the International Olympic Committee
(IOC) strives to maintain the purity of
the games, according to a UWindsor
Olympics researcher.
Scott Martyn, an associate professor
in Human Kinetics who has attended 14
Olympic Games, says the IOC allows
plenty of corporate sponsorship outside
the venues but does a good job of
making sure it’s far less visible inside.
“Thus far, the relationship seems to
be balanced,” says Dr. Martyn, who has
travelled to London three times to scope out the Olympic facilities
and plans to travel back when the games are finished.
“What I don’t want to see is the average athlete showing up with
sponsorship all over their apparel. I hope that doesn’t become the
norm. If one starts to allow ‘sponsor creep’ into the venues, once
that door is cracked open a bit, it’s going to swing open and you’re
not going to be able to put the cork back into the bottle.”
Students in Martyn’s graduate course on “Crises, Politics, and
Commercialism in the Modern Olympic Movement,” are also
involved with his Olympics research. They made a trip to Montreal
and Lake Placid this past March.
In Montreal, the students met with
Dick Pound, a former president of the
Canadian Olympic Committee and
the World Anti-doping Agency. They
toured the facilities that hosted the 1976
Montreal Olympics.
In Lake Placid, which hosted the
1980 Winter Games, the Windsor
delegation toured the ski jumping, speed
skating and sliding venues, as well as
the U.S. Olympic training facility where
they lunched with luge and bobsleigh
athletes and members of the women’s
national hockey team.
“Overall this was an unforgettable
experience that provided students
with an opportunity to supplement the
material learned in class with a unique
hands-on experience,” said master’s student Ryan McConnell.
Martyn investigates the historical evolution of the Olympic
Games and the history of Olympic commercialism. He has served
on the executive council of the International Centre for Olympic
Studies, is the managing editor of
Olympika: The International
Journal of Olympic Studies
, and is a distinguished visiting fellow at
the Beijing Sport University. He co-authored a book called
Selling
the Five Rings: The IOC and the Rise of Olympic Commercialism
and is editor of the recently published book
Tarnished Rings: The
International Olympic Committee and the Salt Lake City Bid Scandal
.
n
v
THE BUSINESS
of the
OLYMPICS
BY STEPHEN FIELDS
“IF ONE STARTS TO ALLOW
‘SPONSOR CREEP’ INTO THE
(OLYMPIC) VENUES, ONCE THAT
DOOR IS CRACKED OPEN A BIT,
IT’S GOING TO SWING OPEN AND
YOU’RE NOT GOING TO BE ABLE
TO PUT THE CORK BACK INTO THE
BOTTLE.”
SCOTT MARTYN,
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR IN
HUMAN KINETICS
