Athens Olympic Research Articles

A ranking for the Olympic Games with unitary input DEA models

There is no official method to establish a final ranking for the Olympic Games. The usual ranking is based on the lexicographic multicriteria method, the main drawback of which is to overvalue gold medals. Furthermore, it does not take into account that the various sports may be of different importance. This work proposes a ranking model to eliminate those drawbacks. We use firstly a modified cross-evaluation data envelopment analysis model with weighted restrictions for each cluster. The outputs are the number of gold, silver and bronze medals and the input is a unitary constant for all countries. After obtaining a rank for each and every cluster, we build a general ranking by aggregation of the partial ones. Our model uses the results of the Athens Olympic Games.

Standardized inspections of food premises during the 2004 Athens Olympic Games: descriptive analysis and risk factors for unsatisfactory results.

Standardized inspections of food premises are part of environmental health systems implemented worldwide. The food safety strategy for the 2004 Olympic Games included standardized inspections to ensure uniformity and consistency of procedures and effective electronic management of data. Inspections were carried out by 196 inspectors in the five Olympic cities: Athens, Thessalonica, Volos, Iraklio, and Patra. From January 2003 to September 2004, a total of 1,249 food premises were inspected. An unsatisfactory inspection result (C grade) was received by 347 (27.8%) food premises, a relatively satisfactory result (B grade) was received by 332 (26.6%), and a satisfactory result (A grade) was received by 570 (45.6%). About 16% of inspected premises did not hold a valid permit. Unsatisfactory inspection results were more frequent for premises located in the two largest Greek cities in comparison with the other smaller cities (relative risk = 1.95, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.36 to 2.80). Based on logistic regression analysis, unsatisfactory inspection results were positively associated with food premises that were not located on a ground floor (odds ratio [OR] = 2.56, 95% CI = 1.39 to 4.73) and negatively associated with application of hazard analysis critical control point (HACCP) principles (OR = 0.27, 95% CI = 0.10 to 0.71). Food hygiene education through formal training programs should be encouraged to improve compliance of food premises. Food premises located on hotel floors and serving buffet meals are at higher risk for unsatisfactory conditions. Businesses that implemented a HACCP system within their operations to ensure food safety operated under more hygienic conditions. Future inspections by Public Health Authorities should involve elements of audit after the legislation for the application of HACCP principles.

Event sponsorship as a value creating strategy for brands

PurposeThe present research involves corporations that served as Grand National Sponsors of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games and aims to explore whether a strategic approach was employed in the acquisition and management of their Olympic sponsorship.Design/methodology/approachA multiple case study analysis was employed, for which data were collected through semi‐structured interviews. The study sample included seven of the ten Grand National Sponsors that signed agreements with ATHOC, the Organizing Committee of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. Data analysis was organized around five themes inspired by the existing literature.FindingsWith the exception of two firms, the majority of the Grand National Sponsors reported no clear or measurable objectives and limited consideration to strategic or brand‐related initiatives in their decisions to invest in the national Olympic sponsorship program. However, they did report plans to invest resources to leverage their rights, even though in most cases no specific evaluation processes had been designed.Research limitations/implicationsGiven that the Olympic Games are organized every four years in a new location, the findings of this research may not find direct application to other markets and organizing committees that implement their own sponsorship programs. Nevertheless, this research did show relatively poor recognition of the role of sponsorship in creating value and building the corporate brand. Corporations considering becoming involved in sport sponsorship and also event organizers are encouraged to adopt a more strategic approach in the sponsorship solicitation and management process.Originality/valueExisting literature has discussed the role of sport sponsorship in brand management and the communication mix, and has highlighted the benefits for firms that establish long‐term ties with the Olympic Games. The present research adds to that line of work by highlighting if and how a strategic and brand building approach was adopted in the context of national‐level Olympic partnerships.

Destination Image and Intent to Visit China and the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games

Although there is growing awareness of the relationship between hosting mega-sporting-events and destination image, there is little empirical evidence documenting what images people hold before an event. The purpose of this study was to investigate the images young Americans hold of China both as a tourist destination and as the host of the 2008 Olympic Games. Specifically, the relationships among destination image, travel intentions, and tourist characteristics were explored. A total of 350 college students were surveyed before the close of the Athens Olympic Games. Overall, the respondents perceived China and the Beijing Olympic Games positively. Destination image was significantly (p < .05) predictive of the intention to travel to China and the Olympic Games. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that destination image partially mediated the relationship between past international travel experience and intention to travel. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed with a view to promoting China as a tourist destination and the host of the Olympic Games.

Olympic sponsorship: evolution, challenges and impact on the Olympic Movement

Selecting the most effective leveraging methods is crucial for national Olympic sponsors, who have limited time to achieve their sponsorship objectives. This paper presents the Optimal Leveraging Activity (OLA) model, which suggests that leveraging activities for high involvement products/services should primarily focus on enhancing brand image, knowledge and involvement, while for low involvement products/services a more sales-oriented approach is favourable. The leveraging activities of four Grand National Sponsors of the Athens Olympic Games illustrate the differences.

Olympism and Consumption: An Analysis of Advertising in the British Media Coverage of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games

Drawing on work located within critical political economy and process sociology, this article uses content analysis to examine the types, frequency, and content of Olympic related advertising in the British press and television during the 2004 Athens Olympics. We assessed the degree to which The Olympic Partner (TOP) sponsors incorporated themes derived from Olympism and the Celebrate Humanity program, as well as from consumer culture more broadly. Our findings suggest that relatively few advertisers incorporated themes relating to Olympism, and that those that did focused on “excellence,” which is arguably more indicative of the achievement sports ethic and consumerism than of Olympic ideals.

‘GUERRA DOS SEXOS’ NA COBERTURA JORNALÍSTICA DOS JOGOS OLÍMPICOS: UMA TENSÃO INVENTADA

The aim of this work was to analyze the discursive manifestation of journalistic printed media in the cover of the Athens Olympic Games. Based on the perspective of Speech Analysis of the French school, the articles published by Folha de Sao Paulo Newspaper during the event were chosen to be researched. It was observed, in the analyzed material, categories and techniques of discursive management raised by the media agent that tends to promote bipolarizations. Through the enunciated arrangement it is created a men-women tension that exceeds the Olympic space. The analytic effort locates auto-affirmation strategies in the discursive production, resulting in malleable arrangements that act in a way of a ‘stabilized speech’.

Shades of Blue: Debating Greek Identity through Santiago Calatrava's Design for the Athens Olympic Stadium

In October 2001 Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava was commissioned to design the roof of the Athens Olympic Stadium that was meant to be the signature building of the 2004 Olympic Games. The "jewel in the crown," as the roof was characterized by the media, received mixed reviews. An examination of various interpretations of Calatrava's project (from its inception in 2001 to its completion in 2004) that appeared primarily in the popular media, rather than the formal literature on architecture, illuminates architecture's function as a means of debating national identity as well as its relationship with the broader public realm in contemporary Greece.

Physiological and pharmacological basis for the ergogenic effects of growth hormone in elite sports

Growth Hormone (GH) is an important and powerful metabolic hormone that is secreted in a pulsatile pattern from cells in the anterior pituitary, influenced by several normal and pathophysiological conditions. Human GH was first isolated in the 1950s and human derived cadaveric GH was initially used to treat patients with GH deficiency. However, synthetic recombinant GH has been widely available since the mid-1980s and the advent of this recombinant GH boosted the abuse of GH as a doping agent. Doping with GH is a well-known problem among elite athletes and among people training at gyms, but is forbidden for both medical and ethical reasons. It is mainly the anabolic and, to some extent, the lipolytic effects of GH that is valued by its users. Even though GH's rumour as an effective ergogenic drug among athletes, the effectiveness of GH as a single doping agent has been questioned during the last few years. There is a lack of scientific evidence that GH in supraphysiological doses has additional effects on muscle exercise performance other than those obtained from optimised training and diet itself. However, there might be synergistic effects if GH is combined with, for example, anabolic steroids, and GH seems to have positive effect on collagen synthesis. Regardless of whether or not GH doping is effective, there is a need for a reliable test method to detect GH doping. Several issues have made the development of a method for detecting GH doping complicated but a method has been presented and used in the Olympics in Athens and Turin. A problem with the method used, is the short time span (24-36 hours) from the last GH administration during which the test effectively can reveal doping. Therefore, out-of-competition testing will be crucial.However, work with different approaches to develop an alternative, reliable test is ongoing.

Missiles in Athens and tanks at Heathrow: urban security and the materialisation of “global” threat

This paper uses two internationally mediated events to begin an enquiry into the character of contemporary political discourse, particularly those utterances that might be regarded as “acts of governance”. The two events are the appearance of Scimitar armoured vehicles at Heathrow Airport in February 2003 (described by the BBC as “a public relations disaster”, 14 March 2003), and the installation of US Patriot missiles around Athens in July 2004. The perspective taken in this study is that such occurrences represent armed demonstrations, a type of dramatised response produced by states that, although presented as measures designed to counter a “global” terrorist threat, may actually represent a calculated reaction to internal political dissent or other forms of domestic disorder. So, for example, the mobilisation of the Household Cavalry's armoured units took place four days before the United Kingdom's largest peace demonstration (called on 15 February 2003 to protest against the threat of a US-led attack on Iraq), while a series of minor explosions in the Athenian suburb of Kallithea on 4 May 2004 (G. Alexander, Independent, 5 August 2004) provided an important point of reference for those who argued for increased security during the Athens Olympics. The contention of this paper is that displays of military power in the United Kingdom and Greece were made in the name of security and were thus presented within the wider discursive context of the “war on terror”, depending for their political impact upon the attempt to create symbolic resonance through media forms. Such displays represented not only the determination of two sovereign states, but also the intentions of powerful external actors, most particularly NATO and the US Government, which provided the missiles to Greece on the basis of “invitation” (Agence France-Presse, 10 May 2004). This study argues that these acts constituted an intervention in the globalised representation of terrorism, imposing temporarily “militarised” zones within the cities concerned. It also contends that they represent the creation of an uncomfortable tension between the pursuit of state and human security. Parallel examples of reference to “threats” are used to reinforce the paper's perspective, including the use of “globalisation” as an important device in the delivery of the economic strand of the “neo-liberal” agenda.

Media Coverage of 2004 Athens Olympics: Gender Differences

Media Coverage of 2004 Athens Olympics: Gender Differences

Italian Women's Television Coverage and Audience During the 2004 Athens Olympic Games

Italian Women's Television Coverage and Audience During the 2004 Athens Olympic Games

Italian Women's Television Coverage and Audience During the 2004 Athens Olympic Games

This study aimed at determining the amount of Italian television coverage dedicated to men's and women's sport and the number of male and female viewers during the 2004 Summer Olympic Games. AUDITEL-AGB Nielsen Media Research Italia provided the TV airtime data for the sport events broadcast, which were classified into three categories: men-only, women-only, and mixed-gender. The viewer sample was divided by age and gender and included three audience parameters: mean audience, share, and appreciation index. The last item is calculated from the program duration, audience permanence, and the share related to programs broadcast by other Italian channels. In particular, the appreciation index was used to investigate the relationship between (a) the viewer's and sport participants' gender and (b) the effect of Italian participation and expectations for sport achievement. The data showed that Italian male athletes outnumbered their female counterparts. Women's sport was allotted significantly less airtime than men's sport, but this imbalance was not proportional to the gender difference in the overall athletes' participation in the Games. Although the female audience represented 45% of the total, a significantly higher male mean audience and share were found. On the other hand, the appreciation of men's and women's sport events was balanced after equating for differences in media coverage. Moreover, sport achievement might have a positive effect on the trend toward equality of gender coverage, indicating that a global multisport event such as the Olympic Games is central to communicating a national image and identity independently of the athletes' gender.

Understanding strategic alignment for destination marketing and the 2004 Athens Olympic Games: Implications from extracted tacit knowledge

Major international hallmark events, especially the Olympic Games, represent a significant opportunity for marketing tourism to the host country. Due to the scale and importance of the event, the coordination between the Olympic organizing committee and the destination marketing organization of the host country becomes a knowledge-intensive and exceptionally complicated task. Analyzing on-site interview data collected from top executives of the two major organizations involved in the 2004 Summer Olympic Games (ATHOC and GNTO), this research achieved two objectives: (1) extracted and organized the tacit knowledge from both organizations to discover major issues concerning the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, and (2) identified the strategic alignment issues between the domains of Olympics planning and destination marketing and proposed a conceptual framework for the future Olympic host countries.

The technological and legal aspects of communications and information security: a case study of the Olympic Games

In this paper, we present the technological and legal aspects of Communications and Information Security as they apply to the design of secure large-scale telecommunications systems. The example that is used has been implemented successfully in the recent 2004 Athens Olympic Games. The seven-layer Open System Interconnect (OSI) model is used to indicate the main system vulnerabilities and the way that those can be faced layer by layer with reference to security. The relevant legal framework that applies in such cases is also presented. A specific application is proposed in a telemedicine environment and it is shown that it can have similar applications to general Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) incidents.

Counseling Brazilian athletes during the Olympic Games in Athens 2004: Important issues and intervention techniques

During the Athens Olympic Games in 2004, a sports psychologist was brought in by the Brazilian Olympic Committee (COB) to provide psychological counseling. The main purposes of this counseling were to develop mental and emotional control skills and to offer psychological support to both athletes and coaches. The Brazilian sport psychologists in the Olympic Village offered interventions to individuals and teams. The following issues were uncovered by psychological tests and structured interviews: competitive anxiety, symptoms of psychosomatic stress, psychological pressure for winning, concentration difficulties, emotional instability, and difficulties in controlling pain. In order to prepare themselves for competition, some athletes developed their own psychological routines, aiming to maintain emotional control and a certain concentration level during the execution of technical‐tactical gestures. A total of 50 sessions of psychological support and supervision took place throughout the entire event, among which relaxation, concentration techniques, anxiety and stress management, and psychological routines for competition were practiced. Future steps for the Olympic games in 2008 are a long‐term preparation program, an interdisciplinary cooperation involving mental preparation (mainly for young athletes), and the development of a coach's education program

Emotional engagement and experiential marketing: a case study of the Athens Olympic Games

Major sporting events are making increased use of Mascots in their marketing communications activities. The Olympic Games is one such event, with the 'Phevos' and 'Athena' Mascots being omnipresent throughout the 2004 Games in Athens. Using a case-study approach, this paper sets out to examine event Mascots as elements of an experiential marketing strategy. Drawing from a series of interviews with senior Games officials, the way in which Mascots are used to generate emotion, create brand association and stimulate sensory experiences is examined. This paper concludes by identifying how Mascots are used as differentiators, value providers and consumer motivators.

Provision of sport psychology services to Taiwan archery team for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games

Taiwan organized a sport science team that included a sport psychology team for its archery team in preparation for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. For approximately one and a half years prior to the 2004 Olympic Games, the sports psychology team cooperated with the coaches. Within this time period, the Taiwan archers achieved significant improvement in performance. This accomplishment was particularly impressive considering both the inexperience of the team and its modest level of performance in the past. This report intends to provide a personal account of how sport psychology was applied to enhance the archers’ performance. Specifically, given a background of general rejection to sport scientists’ involvement in the sport training by the coaches, this paper will report how these obstacles were overcome and what experiences were gained that may be useful for other countries organizing and trying to integrate a sport psychology team in cooperation with sport teams

‘Celebrate humanity’ or ‘consumers?’: A critical evaluation of a brand in motion

The Olympics is a global event that acts as a carrier of cultural meanings and identities that are available to international audiences and markets. Our wider project examining the Athens Olympic Games seeks to investigate how such meanings are re-represented, distributed, and marketed by the media-sport complex. Here, we investigate how the initial formulation, development and use of the ‘Celebrate Humanity’ programme was framed by the IOC marketing department as a way both to deflect criticism of the IOC and as one means by which to provide ‘added-value’ to TOP sponsors. Attention is given to two main sources: IOC documents and interviews with personnel from TOP sponsors and representatives from their advertising agencies. Our conclusion is that this programme, and the wider Olympic movement, is characterized by a basic contradiction between the ideals of ‘Olympism’ and the realities of the modern Olympics in practice. The ‘message’ becomes embedded in a broader process of commerce whereby the media/marketing/advertising/corporate nexus is concerned less with the values underpinning Olympism per se and more with how such values can help build markets, construct and enhance brand awareness and create ‘glocal’ consumers/identities. ‘Celebrate Humanity’ is no exception.

A study on TV sports program as motivation in 2004 Athens Olympic year

A study on TV sports program as motivation in 2004 Athens Olympic year