The IOC has sought participation of all states, without applying any standards. Corporate interests penetrate the Olympics through sponsorship of the Games themselves and through sponsorship of athletes and use of athletes for commercial purposes. The media foster the Games as a giant spectacle, promoting professionalisation and commercialisation. Visible athletes can cash in on lucrative endorsements. Sporting success becomes a means of selling products.
Gold medals become a way for athletes and commercial sponsors to make money.
Commercialism and nationalism have gradually turned the Olympics into an enterprise only for full-time athletes, professionals in reality if not in name. The Olympics have become big business mainly through television. The mass media use sport to sell programmes to advertisers. The Games, with their image as the ultimate sporting event, are a marketer's dream for reaching a global audience. Through massive TV revenues, the IOC has become a major commercial enterprise itself, operating like a transnational corporation.