Despite criticism aimed at the International Olympic Committee over the years, it's pretty remarkable what the organization has accomplished, according to a Princeton political scientist. Danielson says the committee had to overcome many barriers to achieve the success of the past 30 years. Organizationally, the Olympics had to create a way to bring together all these individual sports. There isn't a lot of similarity between basketball and synchronized swimming, other than that they're both in the Olympics and we call them both sports.
Sports also are more likely organized along national rather than international lines.
The framework, whether individual or team, is national for most sports. So the challenge for the IOC when it was formed in 1894 was to weld together a multi-sport championship from the insular world of individual sports as well as to construct a framework that encompassed the diverse world of national entities, according to Danielson. Add to that formidable task achieving cohesion in a world torn by conflicts, and it's a wonder the Games are as successful as they are. Danielson attibutes that success to many factors. First is the fact that the IOC is a private, non-governmental organization.