Ethical Issues in Rio 2016 Olympics - Essay Example

Ethical issues in Rio 2016 Olympics Name: Course: Course code: Tutor: Date: Introduction This year’s Olympics sports were held in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil and brought together over 11 thousand athletes who took part in over 25 sporting games. The games were held in five cities including Manaus, Belo Horizonte, São Paulo, Brasília, and Salvador. This was one of the first sporting activities to be held in Latin America. Despite its success, the Rio 2016 Olympics were marred with various controversies such as the instability of the country’s federal government, safety and health issues in relation to Zika virus not mentioning the pollution around the Guanabara Bay. Other controversies included doping that affected countries such as Russia which really affected the participation of top athletes in some famous games (Daily, 2016) News value Controversies surrounding Rio 2016 Olympics Now the 2016 Olympics are over. From the look of things, controversies surrounding the Rio Olympics can take up two semesters of moral issues in a university. The ethical issues were reported way back before even the Olympics begun. News reporters have been focusing on the controversies of holding such an event in an underdeveloped country especially during the time the federal government was undergoing some political instability. With approaching games, issues of lack of proper infrastructure to host the multinational games were raised not to mention the security and safety of the entire Olympics. There were laps of security as several people were robbed at a gun point including the Italian silver medalist while going for his breakfast at Rio. Later during the Paralympics, a sailing team was also robbed at the gun point. During the same weekend, a group of some armed men stormed into a hospital robbing people their belongings The media reports circulating before the start of the Olympics was that the Rio de Janeiro’s governor declared a financial emergency two months prior to the Olympics. It was anticipated that there were chances of a collapse of public security, transportation and environment management and this made the government borrow money without being approved by the legislators. Corruption was one of the ethical issues facing the state and was the rout cause of all the problems Reporters of the Rio Olympics progress also captured the dangers posed by the Zika Virus. During the preparation of the Rio Olympics, some health experts wanted the Olympics to be postponed due to the emergence of the Zika virus. Some of the Olympic officials advised that the virus won’t have any effect on the athletes who were expected to attend the Olympics. Nonetheless, the reporting of the story made other athletes from countries such as the US and other countries to skip the games altogether. Other famous golf stars such as Rory McIlroy and Jason Day were anticipating skipping the Olympics concerning the deadly virus (Etheridge, 2016). Other than the Zika virus, some media houses focused on other infections that were most likely to cause some infections to the visitors at the beach. It was reported that the Brazilian beach had some hookworm parasites spread by cats and dogs roaming within the region. It always causes some plagues to visitors causing some plagues to the visitors and itchy rashes that become entry points for some bacteria. All these infections are some of the ethical issues exposed by reporters and caused some vulnerabilities to those who attended the Rio Olympics Doping was one of the major ethical issues faced before even the Olympics began. One of the case studies is the Russia’s track and field event team which was banned entirely from participating in the Olympics over the concern of using performance enhancing drugs. According to the independent report by Richard Mclaren the Canadian law professor, some of the urine samples of some Russian athletes were manipulated entirely during the winter Olympics sports between 2011 and 2015. The report concluded that there has been a massive corruption within the Russian sports and the government. It was therefore recommended that there has to be a huge investment in anti-doping during the major championships so as to make sure that such cases will never occur again (Kisses, 2016). The way in which the media covered the entire Rio events raised some ethical concerns as well. There was lots of criticism on the way social media platforms seemingly depicted sexism in how most of the reporters covered some events. There existed an extensive criticism on social media platforms apparently widespread sexism on how some of the reporters covered the event. For instance, in one of the cases when Corey Cogdell, an American sharpshooter won her bronze medal in trapshooting, one of the Chicago Tribune referred not by her name, but simply as “wife to a Chicago Bears’ lineman” In another sexism reported case, one of the American swimmers by the name Simone Manuel tied in the same position with Penny Oleksiak of Canada for a historic gold medal in the 100m freestyle. The problem was that NBC did not provide live coverage on Manuel’s medal ceremony- though she was one of the first African-American women to have won the gold. Instead, the NBC aired a delayed broadcast of a gymnast from Russia. However, BBC aired the event live right as it was happening (Presse-Agentur, 2016). From the cases mentioned racism and sexism and not only limited to broadcast coverage. In another case, the San Jose Mercury News never bothered to include the name of Manuel in a headline that goes like this: “Olympics: Michael Phelps shared historic Night with African-American”. During the first opening matches at the Rio Olympics, sexism was greatly shown time and again during the coverage of the athletic ability of various unbelievable women athletes. In some other instances, some women were not recognized for their superb efforts towards the athletics but were rather compared with men, their hard earned efforts credited to men, with their names being omitted from successful stories, and being merely regarded as wives and mother. Above all, they are paid less as compared to men Corruption has been one of the ethical issues facing the Rio 2016 Olympics. There is more than it captures the eye in regards to some the activities that took place. It was assumed that hosting of Olympics could be a turning point to Brazil in the country’s history. Nonetheless, corruption has raised some eyebrows with some IOC officials under investigation. Ticketing was one of the major areas of corruption where there has not been any accountability in regards to how much was raised by selling the tickets. Rio IOC officials including Patrick Hickey and other officials have been under investigations in relation to ticket reselling scandal. Hickey and his team were responsible for tickets which were sold at high prices and were allotted for Olympic council of Ireland (Horne, 2012). There was also a building scam where some members were paid so as to be awarded building contracts to host the Olympics. In some instances, some other IOC officials have been under investigations for strategically delaying the announcements of Russian dopers. These officials were paid some money so as to alter some test results of those athletes who were found to have used performance enhancement drugs. Other corrupt deals and financial malpractices being reported during the Rio Olympics is in the boxing tournament. It was reported that some of the officials manipulated the draw and the judging system so as to come up with someone to win. In some other instances, some of the referees were meeting in some secret places before major championships so as to make a decision on how to score some bouts. Conclusion The Olympic Games held at Rio could have been one of the best ways of exposing the potentials of Brazil as one of the growing economies in the Latin America. But instead, the spreading news of corruption and scandals surrounding the Olympics may bring some negative impacts on the country. From the look of things, controversies surrounding the Rio Olympics can take up two semesters of moral issues in a university. The ethical issues were reported way back before even the Olympics begun. News reporters have been focusing on the controversies of holding such an event in an underdeveloped country especially during the time the federal government was undergoing some political instability. With approaching games, issues of lack of proper infrastructure to host the multinational games were raised not to mention the security and safety of the entire Olympics. There were laps of security as several people were robbed at a gun point including the Italian silver medalist while going for his breakfast at Rio. Doping was one of the major ethical issues faced before even the Olympics began. One of the case studies is the Russia’s track and field event team which was banned entirely from participating in the Olympics over the concern of using performance enhancing drugs. According to the independent report by Richard Mclaren the Canadian law professor, some of the urine samples of some Russian athletes were manipulated entirely during the winter Olympics sports between 2011 and 2015. There was lots of criticism on the way social media platforms seemingly depicted sexism in how most of the reporters covered some events After the mention of the ethical issues encountered during the Rio Olympics, what about the good stuff? What about the friendly competition and the medals won? There you have it. Congratulations to all athletes who fought hard and won the medals, congrats to officials and organizers and sponsors who managed to maintain ethics during the Olympics (Glenny, 2016). References Barbassa, J., 2015. Dancing with the Devil in the City of God: Rio de Janeiro on the Brink. Touchstone. Daily, J., 2016. Rio 2016 Brazil. Journal Daily, 2(1), p.12. David Wallechinsky, J.L., 2012. The Complete Book of the Olympics 2012. Aurum. Etheridge, M., 2016. Road to Rio 2016: Play it Again Sam! : President's Vote of Confidence. Highbury Safika Media. Garland, J.D., 2016. Jaden, Ashton, Bj & James at the Rio De Janeiro 2016 Summer Olympic Games. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. Glenny, M., 2016. Nemesis: One Man and the Battle for Rio. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. H. Lenskyj, S.W., 2012. The Palgrave Handbook of Olympic Studies. Springer. Horne, J., 2012. Understanding the Olympics. Routledge. Kisses, S., 2016. Rio Olympics 2016. Jotter to Write Or Draw In, Men, Women, Boys and Girls, 2(1), pp.23-27. Presse-Agentur, D., 2016. Olympische Spiele Rio 2016. Stiebner Verlag GmbH. Read More

It always causes some plagues to visitors causing some plagues to the visitors and itchy rashes that become entry points for some bacteria. All these infections are some of the ethical issues exposed by reporters and caused some vulnerabilities to those who attended the Rio Olympics Doping was one of the major ethical issues faced before even the Olympics began. One of the case studies is the Russia’s track and field event team which was banned entirely from participating in the Olympics over the concern of using performance enhancing drugs.

According to the independent report by Richard Mclaren the Canadian law professor, some of the urine samples of some Russian athletes were manipulated entirely during the winter Olympics sports between 2011 and 2015. The report concluded that there has been a massive corruption within the Russian sports and the government. It was therefore recommended that there has to be a huge investment in anti-doping during the major championships so as to make sure that such cases will never occur again (Kisses, 2016).

The way in which the media covered the entire Rio events raised some ethical concerns as well. There was lots of criticism on the way social media platforms seemingly depicted sexism in how most of the reporters covered some events. There existed an extensive criticism on social media platforms apparently widespread sexism on how some of the reporters covered the event. For instance, in one of the cases when Corey Cogdell, an American sharpshooter won her bronze medal in trapshooting, one of the Chicago Tribune referred not by her name, but simply as “wife to a Chicago Bears’ lineman” In another sexism reported case, one of the American swimmers by the name Simone Manuel tied in the same position with Penny Oleksiak of Canada for a historic gold medal in the 100m freestyle.

The problem was that NBC did not provide live coverage on Manuel’s medal ceremony- though she was one of the first African-American women to have won the gold. Instead, the NBC aired a delayed broadcast of a gymnast from Russia. However, BBC aired the event live right as it was happening (Presse-Agentur, 2016). From the cases mentioned racism and sexism and not only limited to broadcast coverage. In another case, the San Jose Mercury News never bothered to include the name of Manuel in a headline that goes like this: “Olympics: Michael Phelps shared historic Night with African-American”.

During the first opening matches at the Rio Olympics, sexism was greatly shown time and again during the coverage of the athletic ability of various unbelievable women athletes. In some other instances, some women were not recognized for their superb efforts towards the athletics but were rather compared with men, their hard earned efforts credited to men, with their names being omitted from successful stories, and being merely regarded as wives and mother. Above all, they are paid less as compared to men Corruption has been one of the ethical issues facing the Rio 2016 Olympics.

There is more than it captures the eye in regards to some the activities that took place. It was assumed that hosting of Olympics could be a turning point to Brazil in the country’s history. Nonetheless, corruption has raised some eyebrows with some IOC officials under investigation. Ticketing was one of the major areas of corruption where there has not been any accountability in regards to how much was raised by selling the tickets. Rio IOC officials including Patrick Hickey and other officials have been under investigations in relation to ticket reselling scandal.

Hickey and his team were responsible for tickets which were sold at high prices and were allotted for Olympic council of Ireland (Horne, 2012). There was also a building scam where some members were paid so as to be awarded building contracts to host the Olympics. In some instances, some other IOC officials have been under investigations for strategically delaying the announcements of Russian dopers.

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