Games of the New Emerging Forces
Back to 1963, the year before the Olympic Games in Tokyo. Indonesia hosts an international multi-sport event which shook the world. A forgotten event where the decolonized countries tried to make a stand against the international world of sports: the Games Games of the New Emerging Forces in Jakarta. Some considered it to be an attack on the Olympic Games.
Goodwill Games
In the eighties both the USA and the Soviet Union boycotted an Olympic Games. In 1980 (Moscow) and 1984 (Ls Angeles). A third boycott in a row would have been devastated to the Olympic movement, some say. It didn’t get that far. Partly because of a multi-sport event in 1986: the Goodwill Games. A story about spots, politics and goodwill.
European Youth Olympic Days (precursor of EYOF)
Based on an idea of IOC-president Jacques Rogge, the first European Youth Olympic Days werd held in 1991 in Brussels, Belgium. A multi-sport event for talented youth in the age of 12 to 18 years. DtG spoke to three athletes who participated in that first edition, three medal winners. It’s a story about how different a career can turn out to be, and how different an dream or ambition can be. The Romanian athlete Gabriela Szabo later became Olympic champion and is one of the sporting legends in her country. The Dutch swimmers Mariska van Essen (then: Van Harn) and Chong-Woo Chiang didn’t have a career at the highest level in sport.