Editing Olympic Games (section)

==Sports==
{{main|Olympic sports}}
The [[Olympic sports|Olympic Games programme]] consists of 35 sports, 30 disciplines and 408 events. For example, [[Wrestling at the Summer Olympics|wrestling]] is a Summer Olympic sport, comprising two disciplines: [[Greco-Roman wrestling|Greco-Roman]] and [[Freestyle wrestling|Freestyle]]. It is further broken down into fourteen events for men and four events for women, each representing a different weight class.<ref>{{cite web|title=Wrestling|publisher=The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad|url=http://en.beijing2008.cn/sports/wrestling/|access-date=25 March 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090226194816/http://en.beijing2008.cn/sports/wrestling/|archive-date=26 February 2009 }}</ref> The Summer Olympics programme includes 26 sports, while the Winter Olympics programme features 15 sports.<ref name="Sports" /> [[Athletics at the Summer Olympics|Athletics]], [[Swimming at the Summer Olympics|swimming]], [[Fencing at the Summer Olympics|fencing]], and [[Gymnastics at the Summer Olympics|artistic gymnastics]] are the only summer sports that have never been absent from the Olympic programme. [[Cross-country skiing at the Winter Olympics|Cross-country skiing]], [[Figure skating at the Olympic Games|figure skating]], [[Ice hockey at the Olympic Games|ice hockey]], [[Nordic combined at the Winter Olympics|Nordic combined]], [[Ski jumping at the Winter Olympics|ski jumping]], and [[Speed skating at the Winter Olympics|speed skating]] have been featured at every Winter Olympics programme since its inception in [[1924 Winter Olympics|1924]]. Current Olympic sports, like [[Badminton at the Summer Olympics|badminton]], [[Basketball at the Summer Olympics|basketball]], and [[Volleyball at the Summer Olympics|volleyball]], first appeared on the programme as [[demonstration sport]]s, and were later promoted to full Olympic sports. Some sports that were featured in earlier Games were later dropped from the programme.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.olympic.org/uk/sports/past/index_uk.asp|title=Olympic Sports of the Past|website=olympic.org|access-date=10 February 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081218082711/http://www.olympic.org/uk/sports/past/index_uk.asp|archive-date=18 December 2008|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Olympic sports are governed by [[List of international sport federations|international sports federations]] (IFs) recognised by the IOC as the global supervisors of those sports. There are 35 federations represented at the IOC.{{sfn|Olympic Charter|2007|pp=88–90}} There are sports recognised by the IOC that are not included in the Olympic programme. These sports are not considered Olympic sports, but they can be promoted to this status during a programme revision that occurs in the first IOC session following a celebration of the Olympic Games.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.olympic.org/uk/organisation/if/index_uk.asp|title=International Sports Federations|publisher=International Olympic Committee|access-date=8 February 2009}}</ref>{{sfn|Olympic Charter|2007|p=87}} During such revisions, sports can be excluded or included in the programme on the basis of a two-thirds majority vote of the members of the IOC.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://multimedia.olympic.org/pdf/en_report_942.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110429094118/http://multimedia.olympic.org/pdf/en_report_942.pdf|archive-date=29 April 2011|title=Factsheet: The sessions|publisher=International Olympic Committee|page=1|access-date=8 February 2009}}</ref> There are recognised sports that have never been on an Olympic programme in any capacity, for example, orienteering.<ref name="recognizedsports" />

In October and November 2004, the IOC established an Olympic Programme Commission, which was tasked with reviewing the sports on the Olympic programme and all non-Olympic recognised sports. The goal was to apply a systematic approach to establishing the Olympic programme for each celebration of the Games.<ref name="factsheetsports" /> The commission formulated seven criteria to judge whether a sport should be included on the Olympic programme.<ref name="factsheetsports" /> These criteria are history and tradition of the sport, universality, popularity of the sport, image, athletes' health, development of the International Federation that governs the sport, and costs of holding the sport.<ref name="factsheetsports" /> From this study five recognised sports emerged as candidates for inclusion at the 2012 Summer Olympics: golf, karate, rugby sevens, roller sports and [[Squash (sport)|squash]].<ref name="factsheetsports" /> These sports were reviewed by the IOC Executive Board and then referred to the General Session in Singapore in July 2005. Of the five sports recommended for inclusion only two were selected as finalists: karate and squash.<ref name="factsheetsports" /> Neither sport attained the required two-thirds vote and consequently they were not promoted to the Olympic programme.<ref name="factsheetsports" /> In October 2009 the IOC voted to instate golf and rugby sevens as Olympic sports for the [[2016 Summer Olympics|2016]] and [[2020 Summer Olympic Games]].<ref name="newosports" />

The 114th [[List of IOC meetings|IOC Session]], in 2002, limited the Summer Games programme to a maximum of 28 sports, 301 events, and 10,500 athletes.<ref name="factsheetsports" /> Three years later, at the [[117th IOC Session]], the first major programme revision was performed, which resulted in the exclusion of [[Baseball at the Summer Olympics|baseball]] and [[Softball at the Summer Olympics|softball]] from the official programme of the [[2012 Summer Olympics|2012 London Games]]. Since there was no agreement in the promotion of two other sports, the 2012 programme featured just 26 sports.<ref name="factsheetsports" /> The 2016 and 2020 Games will return to the maximum of 28 sports given the addition of rugby and golf.<ref name="newosports" />

===Amateurism and professionalism===
{{further|Amateur sports}}
[[File:Nagano 1998-Russia vs Czech Republic.jpg|thumb|The Gold medal game between [[Russia men's national ice hockey team|Russia]] and [[Czech Republic men's national ice hockey team|Czech Republic]] at the [[1998 Winter Olympics]]; professional [[NHL]] players have been permitted to participate in [[Ice hockey at the Olympic Games|ice hockey]] since then.]]
The [[ethos]] of the aristocracy as exemplified in the [[Public school (United Kingdom)|English public school]] greatly influenced [[Pierre de Coubertin]].{{sfn|Eassom|1994|pp=120–123}} The public schools subscribed to the belief that sport formed an important part of education, an attitude summed up in the saying ''[[mens sana in corpore sano]]'', a sound mind in a sound body. In this ethos, a gentleman was one who became an all-rounder, not the best at one specific thing. There was also a prevailing concept of fairness, in which practising or training was considered tantamount to cheating.{{sfn|Eassom|1994|pp=120–123}} Those who practised a sport professionally were considered to have an unfair advantage over those who practised it merely as a hobby.{{sfn|Eassom|1994|pp=120–123}}

The exclusion of professionals caused several controversies throughout the history of the modern Olympics. The [[1912 Summer Olympics|1912 Olympic]] pentathlon and [[decathlon]] champion [[Jim Thorpe]] was stripped of his medals when it was discovered that he had played semi-professional baseball before the Olympics. His medals were posthumously restored by the IOC in 1983 after a ruling found that the decision to strip him of his medals fell [[Athletics at the 1912 Summer Olympics – Men's decathlon|outside of the 30-day period]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Jim Thorpe Biography|publisher=Biography.com|url=http://www.biography.com/search/article.do?id=9507017|access-date=9 February 2009}}</ref> Swiss and Austrian skiers boycotted the [[1936 Winter Olympics]] in support of their skiing teachers, who were not allowed to compete because they earned money with their sport and were thus considered professionals.<ref>{{cite web|title=Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1936|publisher=International Olympic Committee|url=http://www.olympic.org/garmisch-partenkirchen-1936-winter-olympics|access-date=25 July 2011}}</ref>

The advent of the state-sponsored "full-time amateur athlete" of the [[Eastern Bloc]] countries eroded the ideology of the pure [[Amateur sports#Olympics|amateur]], as it put the self-financed amateurs of the Western countries at a disadvantage. The [[Soviet Union at the Olympics|Soviet Union]] entered teams of athletes who were all nominally students, soldiers, or working in a profession, but all of whom were in reality paid by the state to train on a full-time basis.{{sfn|Eassom|1994|pp=120–123}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://blogs.bu.edu/guidedhistory/russia-and-its-empires/tyler-benson/|title=The Role of Sports in The Soviet Union – Guided History|website=blogs.bu.edu}}</ref><ref name="cia.gov"/> The situation greatly disadvantaged American and Western European athletes, and was a major factor in the decline of American medal hauls in the 1970s and 1980s.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Degrees of Difficulty: How Women's Gymnastics Rose to Prominence and Fell from Grace|first=Georgia|last=Cervin|isbn=978-0-25204377-2|year=2021|publisher=University of Illinois Press}}</ref> As a result, the Olympics shifted away from amateurism, as envisioned by Pierre de Coubertin, to allowing participation of [[professional athlete]]s,<ref name="Amateurism" /> but only in the 1990s, after the [[collapse of the Soviet Union]] and its influence within the [[IOC]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP80-00810A005900310006-0.pdf|title=Soviet Control of Sports Activities and Sports Propaganda|publisher=Central Intelligence Agency|date=7 February 1955|access-date=22 August 2021|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210712082846/https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP80-00810A005900310006-0.pdf|archive-date=12 July 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP80-00810A005800260002-1.pdf|title=Soviet Sports as an Instrument of Political Propaganda|publisher=Central Intelligence Agency|date=20 January 1955|access-date=22 August 2021|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210712113025/https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP80-00810A005800260002-1.pdf|archive-date=12 July 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Schantz|first=Otto|title=The Olympic Ideal and the Winter Games Attitudes Towards the Olympic Winter Games in Olympic Discourses – from Coubertin to Samaranch|publisher=Comité International Pierre De Coubertin|url=http://coubertin.org/docs/Winter%20Games%20Schantz.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160919124001/http://coubertin.org/docs/Winter%20Games%20Schantz.pdf|archive-date=19 September 2016|url-status=dead|access-date=19 September 2016 }}</ref>

====Team Canada ice hockey dispute====
Near the end of the 1960s, the [[Canadian Amateur Hockey Association]] (CAHA) felt their amateur players could no longer be competitive against the Soviet team's full-time athletes and the other constantly improving European teams. They pushed for the ability to use players from professional leagues but met opposition from the [[International Ice Hockey Federation]] (IIHF) and IOC. At the IIHF Congress in 1969, the IIHF decided to allow Canada to use nine non-NHL professional hockey players<ref name="Num17">{{cite web|url=http://www.iihf.com/iihf-home/the-iihf/100-year-anniversary/100-top-stories/story-17.html|title=Protesting Amateur Rules, Canada Leaves International Hockey|date=4 January 1970|website=iihf.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160220041527/http://www.iihf.com/iihf-home/the-iihf/100-year-anniversary/100-top-stories/story-17.html|archive-date=20 February 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> at the 1970 World Championships in [[Montreal]] and [[Winnipeg]], Canada.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iihf.com/iihf-home/the-iihf/100-year-anniversary/100-top-stories/story-40.html|title=Finally, Canada to Host the World Championship|date=7 May 2004|website=iihf.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303190615/http://www.iihf.com/iihf-home/the-iihf/100-year-anniversary/100-top-stories/story-40.html|archive-date=3 March 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> The decision was reversed in January 1970 after Brundage said that ice hockey's status as an Olympic sport would be in jeopardy if the change was made.<ref name="Num17" /> In response, Canada withdrew from international ice hockey competition and officials stated that they would not return until "[[Open (sport)|open competition]]" was instituted.<ref name="Num17" /><ref>{{cite news|title=Summit Series '72 Summary|publisher=[[Hockey Hall of Fame]]|url=http://www.hhof.com/html/GamesSummarySUM1972.shtml|access-date=2 March 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080807130920/http://www.hhof.com/html/GamesSummarySUM1972.shtml|archive-date=7 August 2008 }}</ref> [[Günther Sabetzki]] became president of the IIHF in 1975 and helped to resolve the dispute with the CAHA. In 1976, the IIHF agreed to allow "open competition" between all players in the World Championships. However, NHL players were still not allowed to play in the Olympics until 1988, because of the IOC's amateur-only policy.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iihf.com/iihf-home/the-iihf/100-year-anniversary/100-top-stories/story-6.html|title=First Canada Cup Opens Up the Hockey World|date=15 September 1976|website=iihf.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160314105846/http://www.iihf.com/iihf-home/the-iihf/100-year-anniversary/100-top-stories/story-6.html|archive-date=14 March 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>