Article

Abstract

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) was present at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and soon thereafter began drafting an official environmental policy. Yet, given that other international organizations (e.g., the United Nations, UNESCO) had adopted policies two decades earlier, what took the IOC so long? This article employs IOC archival materials to elucidate the rise from the early 1970s through the early 1990s of different actors and parties calling on the IOC to address environmental issues in the context of holding the Olympics. It broadly outlines and synthesizes the IOC’s response (or lack thereof) to these actors. The IOC’s approach to these actors was primarily reactive rather than proactive until the late 1980s when, following an increase in well-supported movements against hosting the Olympics, and with the crucial help of a group in Lillehammer, it finally decided to act.