The Olympic movement has always considered itself a force for sportsmanship, peace and international unity. Its history relates, however, that these ideals have often been punctured by cheating, terrorism and power politics.

The tension between sporting idealism and politics can be glimpsed even in the ancient Greek origins of the Games. The first Games were held at Olympia in 776BC. A truce between warring parts of the Greek dominion was subsequently introduced during the event and weapons were barred from Olympia, though neither of these injunctions was consistently observed.