The purpose of this article is to consider the development of the Olympic Games throughout the 20th century in light of the evolving social and political realities that have shaped the Games and at the same time employ various currents of social theorizing to help us understand the unfolding of the Olympic story in instructive ways. First, the Games are characterized as they were conceived in the late 19th century as a classic expression of modernity. Second, I argue that the breakdown of the modernist project over the course of the 20th century has transformed the Games into a postmodern phenomenon, a development that has nurtured the Games but denigrated Olympism. Finally, I suggest that a more complete realization of the Olympic project may be imminent under the auspices of a newly emergent neomodernity. While the first two characterizations are more conventional, the third is more controversial, one that requires us to acknowledge the emergence of a new era precipitated by the profound occurrences of 1989, the revolutions in central and eastern Europe that have given a renewed vitality to the classic institutions of modernity and lent credibility to universalist projects like the Olympic Games.
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