Moragas i Spà, Miquel de

Revistes Catalanes amb Accés Obert

THE CENTRE F O R  OLYMPIC 
AND S P O R T I N G  STUDIES 
n 1988, the Autonomous Uni- 
rersity of Barcelona, in reply to 
the challenge of Barcelona's no- 
mination to host the XXVth Olympiad, 
initiated the creation of the "Centre 
d'Estudis Olimpics i de l'Esport", de- 
voted to research, documentation, for- 
mation and dissemination on the sub- 
ject of the Olympics and sport. 
With this academic activity, the Auto- 
nomous University of Barcelona wan- 
ted to contribute to the promotion of 
the values and ideals of peace of the 
Olympics and sport. 
Olympic research is of interest in the 
local and national sphere of the organ- 
ising countries, but also in the interna- 
tional sphere. 
The organisational, financial, commu- 
nicational, urbanistic and cultural di- 
mensions of the celebration of the 
Olympic Games constitute historic mo- 
ments with multiple repercussions in 
the development of the organising 
cities. 
THE AUTONOMOUS UNIVERSITY OF BARCELONA INITIATED 
THE CREATION OF THIS CENTRE FOR OLYMPIC STUDIES AS 
A CONTRIBUTION TO THE PROMOTION OF THE VALUES 
AND IDEALS OF PEACE OF THE OLYMPIC GAMES AND SPORT. 
MlQUEL D E  M O R A G A S  S P A  D I R E C T O R .  C E N T R E  D ' E S T U D I S  O L I M P I C S  
Social research into the Olympics 
proves of maximum interest for the or- 
ganising country, both during the 
Games' preparatory phase, because of 
the help it has to offer in planning and 
organisation, and in the subsequent 
phase, in which a historical summary 
and analysis of the event becomes 
necessary. The "memory", in this case, 
proves to be as important as the "cel- 
ebration" of the Games. 
Their international dimensions, the 
number of countries involved and the 
capacity they offer for cultural exchange 
processes make the Olympic Games one 
of the most influential peacetime events 
of our age. 
Social research into these processes is of 
interest to the international Olympic 
movement and the sports associations, 
but also to governments and non-gov- 
ernmental organisations, and is an ins- 
trument for the promotion of peace and 
solidarity through the sporting and 
Olympic movement. 
Academic activity, however, especially 
in the sphere of the social sciences, has 
not developed at the same rate as the 
modern Olympic Games and the in- 
fluence they have. 
This may be to the detriment of the 
Social Sciences themselves, but also of 
the Olympic movement, which could be 
deprived of the academic reflection 
which would allow it to adapt to the 
rapid social transformations affecting 
politics, culture, technology and the 
comrnercialization of cultural and 
symbolic processes in our world as we 
approach the end of the century. 
The experience of the Centre for 
Olympic Studies (CEO) in Barcelona 
With this in mind, the Centre for Olym- 
pic Studies was set up in Barcelona by 
Juan Antonio Samaranch, president of 
the IOC, on 8 March 1991. 
That same day, the CEO was constitu- 
ted as the Consortium of The Centre for 
Olympic and Sporting Studies, in which 
Barcelona City Council, the Spanish 
Olympic Committee, Barcelona County 
Corporation and rhe Autonomous Uni- 
versity af Barcelona al1 participate. 
The CEO has established other agree- 
ments for collabaration with a variety 
of iñstitutions, améingst them the Inter- 
national Olympic Committee, the Ge- 
neralitat de Catalunya, the Comitk 
Olimpic Organitzador Bareelona'92 
(COOB'92) and the Hiaher Council for 
sport. 
- 
The CEO'S main areas of research are: 
Relating to the Olynipics 
- Cultural exchanges and Olympie 
Games 
- Financial aspects of the organisation 
- The influence of the mass media 
- International relations and contribu- 
tions to peace 
- Political aspects 
- Olympic dacumentation 
- Origins of the olassical Olympics 
- ~ i s t o r ~  of the modern Olympic 
movement 
- Strueture and content of the Olympic 
ceremonies 
Relating to sport 
- Didactics 
- Psychology 
- Sociology 
- Law 
- Organisation and planning 
- Medicine 
- Physical Anthropology 
- Documentation 
The centre's main objectives are as 
follows: 
- Ta collaborate with the International 
Olympic Committee (IOC), with the 
Games Organising Committees and 
with the various national and interna- 
tional sparting organisms in the acade- 
mic, scientific and cultural diffusion as- 
pects, 
-To traimi Olympic and Sports specia- 
lists. 
- To compile and make available spe- 
cialized documentation. 
-To carry out research on the subject 
of the Olympics and sport, especially in 
the field of the human and social sci- 
enoes. 
- To promote the creation of an inter- 
national network of university and aca- 
demic centres specidizing in the Olym- 
pics. 
- To facilitate the social diffusion of the 
studies undertaken. 
- Postgraduate course on Communica- 
tion and Olympic Games. 
-A range of research into television 
and Olympic Games, symbols and mas- 
cots, sponsorship, paralympics, interna- 
tional relations, planning and physical 
education. 
- Advice and information: special pro- 
gramme aimed at providing informa- 
tion about Barcelona for the internatio- 
nal media. 
- After 1992, the centre will apply to 
the relevant institutions for considera- 
tion as the Barcelona'92 Olympic Docu- 
mentation Centre, for the deposit and 
study of the documentation relating to 
the XXVth Olympiad. 
Principal activities undertaken (1 990- 
1991): 
Between 1988 and 1989 various 
teaching, research, documentation and 
dissemination activities were carried out. 
Amongst the most outstanding are the 
following: 
- 1st University Course on Olympics 
(February 1990), aimed especially at al1 
those involved in the organisation and 
running of the Olympics, at specialized 
journalists and students of the sciences 
applied to sport and the Olympics. 
- International Symposium on Olympic 
Games, Communication and Cultural 
Exchange (April 1 99 1 ), whose principal 
objectives were to analyse the cultural 
proposals inherent in the organisation 
of the Olympic Games over the last 
twenty years and to study the role of the 
media in the production of the symbolic 
values of the Olympics and in the trans- 
mission of each Olympiad. 
- Preparation of information on the 
Olympics for schools in the host city 
and subsites. 
- Postgraduate course on the urban im- 
pact of the organisation of the Games 
(1991-1992). 
- Special programme aimed at provid- 
ina information about the Olvm~ics for 
sc~ools and educational estabiishments. 
Information and documentation service: 
One of the CEO'S priorities was the 
creation of an Information and Docu- 
mentation Service. A great deal of work 
has gone into developing this service, in 
the belief that it constitutes a basic sup- 
port instrument for the objectives of the 
centre and for the promotion of re- 
search. 
The technical management of this ser- 
vice corresponds to the Autonomous 
University's Documentation Depart- 
ment, run by Dr Eulilia Fuentes. 
The service offers referential informa- 
tion, but also primary information. The 
primary information centres mainly on 
the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona. 
The documentary collection is divided 
into three broad information sectors: 
A. Olympics in general and history of 
the Olympics. 
Collected monographs, conference mi- 
nutes, leaflets, reports, press-cuttings on 
the Olympic Movement and the history 
of the Olympiads, official reports of the 
Olympic Games since Rome (1 960), ap- 
plicants for future Olympic Games. 
B. Barcelona'92. 
Collection of documents provided by 
the COOB'92, such as monographs, re- 
ports, leaflets, guides, videos, transpa- 
rencies, and al1 the official publications 
of the COOB'92, documents provided 
by Olimpiada Cultural, posters and 
other graphic material, specialized reg- 
ular publications, the Alcatel-COOB'92 
on-line data base, along with books, re- 
ports, articles, dossiers from different 
sources on the impact of the Games on 
Barcelona and varied audiovisual mat- 
erial on Olympic Games. 
C. Sport and society 
Although the Centre's main speciality is 
the Olympics, it also contains informa- 
tion about various aspects related to 
sport (medicine, psychology, physical 
education, pedagogy, management, 
""T. i*p 
:"S 
THE OLYMPIC JIMDIUM UT aARCUONn 
sponsorship, finance, legislation, politi- 
cal sciences, society, violence, mass me- 
dia, etc.), a CD-ROM "Sport Discus" 
data base. 
Press dossiers 
The centre receives 3 press dossiers sup- 
plied by the following institutions: the 
International Olympic Committee 
(IOC), the Secretariat for Sport of the 
Generalitat de Catalunya and the 
COOB'92. 
Al1 this material is arranged according 
to a classification which includes the 
following sections: 
1. Architecture and Town-planning 
2. Finance 
3. Services 
4. Olympic Games Ceremonial. Barce- 
lona 1992 
5. Mass media 
6. Organisms 
7. COOB'92 
8. Other organisms and BarcelonaY92 
9. Paralympiads 
10. Olimpiada Cultural (OCSA) 
1 l .  Design, image and communication 
12. Telecommunications and techno- 
1 % ~  
13. Sport 
14. Politics 
15. Security 
16. Olympic sites 
17. Olympic applicants 
18. Barcelona, the city and 92 
19. Visits to Barcelona by celebrities 
The public 
The CEO offers its services to the whole 
of the national and international uni- 
versity community and to anyone pro- 
viding evidence of their research into 
Olympics and Sport. 
Since the inauguration of the new pre- 
mises (March 1991) until the date of 
writing (November 1991), the centre 
has been visited by almost 400 re- 
searchers, 190 Catalan students, 25 stu- 
dents from outside Catalonia and 108 
researchers at different universities in 
Spain. 
International network of Olympic 
documentation and research centres 
With these same objectives, and bearing 
in mind the international dimension of 
the Olympics, the Centre d'Estudis 
Olimpics de Barcelona has promoted 
the creation of an international co- 
operation programme and the constitu- 
tion of an academic network for docu- 
mentary exchange and co-operation. 
The first meeting of this network took 
place in Seoul in November 199 1, un- 
der the auspices of Park Seh-Jic, former 
president of the Organising Committee 
of the Seoul'88 Games. 
Among the network's main objectives 
and tasks are the following: 
Basic objectives 
1. To promote social research on the 
Olympics in host cities' national 
spheres and in the international sphere 
of the Olympic movement. 
2. To encourage the promotion of tradi- 
tional Olympic values and their cons- 
tant adaptation to the contemporary 
world, with special emphasis on the 
promotion of the ideals of peace, solida- 
rity and co-operation between coun- 
tries. 
t i ;  3 
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PAlAU SANT JORDl OF BARCELONA BY ARATA 
3. To explicitly defend the identities 
of peoples and cultural dialogue be; 
tween them, through the exchange pro- 
cesses provided by sport and the Olym- 
pies. 
4. Ta co-operate with national and in- 
ternational organisms, and especially 
with the International Olympic Com- 
mittee, in the development and diffu- 
sion of the social research necessary to 
fulfd their pedagogic objectives. 
Basic tasks 
l. Systeqatic compilation of docu- 
nients on the winter and summer Olym- 
pie Games. 
2. Systematic compilation of research 
on sport and the Olympics. 
3. Orgaoisation of scientific encounters 
and exchanges, through conferences, 
workshops and symposia, and provision 
of advice for Organising Committees on 
the subject of Olympic cultural pro- 
grammes. 
4. Exchange of information and docu- 
mentation between specialized centres. 
5. Establishment of d e s  and tech- 
niques for documentation, in common 
and co-ordinated with the various inter- 
natioaal centres. 
6. Co-operation with the International 
Olympic Committee, with its new 
Olympic Museum and Study Centre, in 
the development of an international ex- 
change of documentation. 
The Olympic Games as a cultural phe- 
nomenon 
Academic activity's principal contribu- 
tion to the Olympics is that of showimg 
that the Olympic Games themselves are 
a cultural phenomenon. 
Their capacity for establishing values 
and countervalues is expressed through 
a complex network of cultural and com- 
municative structures: information, 
symbols, ceremonies, rituals, images, 
etc. 
In the last few years, the economic di- 
mensions of the Games have them- 
selves been more and more closely rela- 
ted to communicational phenomena, 
especially television, sponsorship, pub- 
licity and the commercial exploitation 
of the Olympic symbols. 
In addition, the Olympic ceremonies 
and the journalists' interpretations of 
sports results constitute a complex net- 
work of popular forms of identifcation. 
Research in Social Sciences applied to 
these important phenomena constitute 
an indispensible instrument for under- 
taking a lucid criticism of al1 the possi- 
ble deviations of the Olympics, but at 
the same time they also constitute a 
valuable and irreplaceable instrument 
for making possible a positive utiliza- 
tion of these processes in favour of soli- 
darity, co-operation and the defence of 
cultural identity. 
In this sense, greater attention to this 
academic contribution can be deman- 
ded of the International Olympic Move- 
ment and the organisers of the Games, 
which must, at the same time, imply 
greater attention to the traditional va- 
lues of the Olympics which we can not 
and must not renounce in this complex, 
end-of-century world of international 
and social relations. m 


The Centre for Olympic and Sporting Studies

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