I need to write an essay about any topic related to the Olympics. I’m just brainstorming topics at this point, and I need some help.
When you answer, please state your topic in the form of a question. In other words, don’t just say “drugs in the Olympics”, but rather, ask a QUESTION about drugs in the Olympics (this is just an example. I don’t necessarily want to write about drugs).
Is drug regulation in the olympics fucked?
Use a thesaurus and clean up the wording of course but basically you can point out some of the ridiculousness related to drug regulations and the olympics. There’s some good stuff in “Bigger, Stronger, Faster” and you can just point out stupid shit like the stuff in viagra qualifying you for disqualification because it increases blood oxygen uptake, even though it was basically just arginine which is naturally occuring in foods like peanuts.
At what point is the line drawn? Will athletes at some point be required to avoid certain foods because they’re deemed performance enhancing?
Who really watches the Olympics? for $500 Alex.
Write an essay documenting the development and use of performance enhancers in the Olympics.
‘Performance enhancers’ have been there since the games began: for example, the ancient Greeks used to chow down on bull’s testicles to give them extra strength. They believed it would give them the edge against their opponents.‘Performance enhancers’ would include anything from herbal preparations to steroid use.
Thanks for the feedback, everyone.
What other issues could be explored besides drugs? If I can’t come up with anything else, I’ll go with the development of performance enhancers in the olympics.
I wanted to make my original topic “why was East Germany so dominant?” I know that the Soviet Union and USA had better results, but East Germany only had about 16 million people (in 1990), which makes it all the more impressive. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find much information on it in my school library.
So to stir some more good, intelligent questions, are there any particular olympic games where something interesting can be focused on (I guess the Berlin games are the obvious choice, but anything else?)? Any areas of physical training for a particular sport that would be interesting to explore? Any other possible topics are appreciated. And again, thank you for the feedback that you’ve give so far.
If you want a non-drug related topic, you could write something on the Munich massacre of 1972:
It is quite a well-known event (famous enough for Spielberg to make a movie about it, anyway) and there should be plenty of research material available.
The incident caused huge political shockwaves at the time. Maybe you could look at the effect the massacre had on future Olympics? If you want to widen the scope a bit, you could discuss it alongside other acts of violence committed during the games:
Centennial Olympic Park bombing (1996 Summer Olympics; Atlanta, Georgia) and the Beijing Drum Tower stabbings (2008 Beijing Olympics).
I think you can get plenty of material out of the Munich incident alone, though…
Discuss the long term economic costs and benefits to the host city, concentrating on differences between the immediate post war era and modern day with the influences of large corporate sponsors and image rights available to the highest bidder.