I just read what an article, more of an opinion piece really, that appeared in the September 2000 IEEE Computer Magazine entitled "Olympic Games Reform: A Study in System Engineering". In this article author Neville Holmes of the University of Tasmania has issues with the ideals of the Olympic Movement, "to contribute to building a peaceful and better world by educating youth through sport practised without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of fairness, solidarity and fair play" [from the Olympic Charter]. He states that the Olympic Games, which is the main instrument of promoting the Olympic Movement, "exhibit ruthless commercialism combined with a spirit of frenetic partisanship, unrelenting competitiveness, and a willingness to bend if not break the rules."

Holmes then goes on to apply computer engineering principles to the Olympic Games, in order to improve them. His first suggestion is to use Modular Programming and split up the games into four components (note that the Games are already split into two components). This would make it easier to run each component as they cycle through four years. They wouldn't be as big and daunting and smaller countries could therefore host one component. Less organizational need means that the IOC could have a permanent staff to help organize the Games and smaller games invite less corruption in the bidding process.

The second suggestion originates from the principle of abstraction and hiding unneeded information. Holmes suggests eliminating nationality in the overt presentation of the games. Instead of nations competing for medals (and the nightly medal tally), the athletes represent regions (such as North America, South America, and the Mediterranean) with each region sending the same number of athletes. He has eight regions, which makes it easy to have match play in sports that require them (and is a fine number for events that don't require them, such as races). You can't eliminate medal tallies, as people will do them and post them on the web, but the Olympic Games should deemphasize them. This would promote working in international teams and there would be less national partisanship.

The last suggestion is to use design patterns to reestablish the symbolic nature of 5 (as seen in the 5 Olympic Rings). Group events in sets of five, with teams of 5 competing in these pentathlons. Some clear groups are short races, endurance races, throwing events, jumping events, gymnastics. Holmes wants to emphasize team play rather than individual play, as well as all-around excellence rather than specialized excellence. Note that Holmes wrote this article well before the 2000 Summer Olympics started.

Hopefully I did justice to Holmes' ideas, because I hate them so. Basically it looks like in order to reduce or eliminate commercialism and the bad sort of competition he wants to make vanilla the only flavor available. First of all I don't think the commercialism detracts from the games. If nothing it makes the US athletes strive harder because a Gold Medal helps them get endorsement contracts. Another part of commercialism is the amateur/professional designation of many sports (which Holmes didn't bring up). It shouldn't matter whether athletes are paid or not for being athletes, they should all be allowed to compete (and the Olympic Games are getting more and more to that goal).

Personally I think the nationalism is great. You have a team to root for and each country can take pride in its athletes. For smaller countries perhaps the expectations are less, but seeing that lone skier from Luxembourg representing his whole country and getting a medal sure must be great for the Luxembourgians. And I don't think it's a bad sort of competition. Certainly there are some nasty flareups, but you'll see the same things whether or not athletes represent their country -- athletes are competitive and they don't like losing if they think some "unfair" quirk caused them to lose. When I saw the games on tv the athletes were all happy to be there and complimented their opponents and were having great fun, although less so if they did worse than expected.

The Olympic Games are a grand event where the world is enthralled and focuses on the athletes. I think the spirit of international competition, where athletes compete in a fair arena and they all have the same chance of winning, is a good image and one that promotes the Olympic Movement. I think the changes that Holmes suggests would make the Olympic Games less of an event and more like something that happens every year. People wouldn't watch, and that would definitely not promote the Olympic ideals.