Olympic History

Qatari Olympic women athletes spotlight Wahhabi schism

by James M. Dorsey

By James M. Dorsey

The question for Qatari sprinter Noor al-Malki is not whether she will be part of the... more By James M. Dorsey

The question for Qatari sprinter Noor al-Malki is not whether she will be part of the first group of Qatari women to ever compete in a global sports tournament at the 2012 London Olympics but how she will handle the fact that the competition will take place during Ramadan.

The question whether Ms. Al-Malki would be able to compete was resolved when Qatar, alongside Saudi Arabia and Brunei the only nation never to have been represented by women in a global sporting event, decided last year to allow women to compete in the London Olympics.

The decision was the result of Qatar’s concerted effort to become a sports power and mounting international pressure on the International Olympic Committee (IOC), not to allow countries to compete that discriminate against athletes on the basis of gender.

It saved Qatar, already threatened with a global trade union campaign against its hosting of the 2022 World Cup because of the conditions under which it employs foreign labour, from becoming the target of yet another attack on its reputation, already dented by controversy over its successful campaign to win the right to host the World Cup. The bruising debate over the soccer tournament bid contributed to the International Olympic Committee’s decision to eliminate Qatar as a candidate for the 2020 Olympics.

The debate also highlights the major divide among Wahhabis, followers of 18th century puritan warrior priest Mohammed Abdul Wahhab, with Saudi Arabia, the only other country besides Qatar with a majority Wahhabi population, and the IOC still struggling barely two months before the opening of the London Olympics to find a formula that would circumvent the kingdom’s conservative opposition to women’s participation.

A Human Rights Watch report released in February, called on Saudi Arabia to protect women's equal right to sports and urged the IOC to live up to its charter, which prohibits discrimination, or face a ban similar to that imposed on Afghanistan in 1999 partly for its exclusion of female athletes.

For Ms. Al-Malki, the Qatari decision means that she is grappling beyond wanting to perform at the London Olympics with the requirement to fast during the 30 days of Ramadan during which the tournament will be held. If the decision to allow women to compete may have been difficult because of mounting conservative opposition to Qatari Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani’s liberal policies designed to position his tiny gas-rich Gulf state on the world map, resolving the issue of Ramadan coinciding with the Olympics is easy.

While Islamic law does not grant athletes dispensation from fasting during Ramadan, it does allow travellers to break the fast during their journey provided they catch up once they return home. Ms. Al-Malki will be travelling during the Olympics.

That is a luxurious position to be in compared to her Saudi counterparts who still do not know whether they will be going to London. Initial Saudi suggestions that the kingdom would for the first time send female athletes to the Olympics were dashed when Saudi Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud declared in April that “female sports activity has not existed (in the kingdom) and there is no move thereto in this regard. At present, we are not embracing any female Saudi participation in the Olympics or other international championships.”

The IOC has rejected Saudi suggestions that Saudi women living abroad be allowed to compete under the Olympic flag rather than as part of the official Saudi delegation.

"It's not an easy situation. There is a commitment. We're working steadily with them to find a good solution,” conceded IOC President Jacques Rogge at a recent news conference. "We are continuing to discuss with them, and the athletes are trying (to qualify). We would hope they will qualify in due time for the games."

With few Saudi women athletes likely to qualify for the Olympics, the IOC has gone out of its way to encourage participation by suggesting that they would be exempted from qualifying standards and granted entry under special circumstances.

Saudi women participation appears however increasingly unlikely with conservative opposition making it difficult for the government to back down at a time that it is rallying the wagons to shield itself against the wave of anti-government protests in the Middle East and North Africa that has already sparked increased political activism and mobilisation in the kingdom. At his news conference, Mr. Rogge declined to discuss possible penalties if the kingdom refused to include women in its Olympic team.

The Saudi government has recently employed the clergy to condemn the protests that have already toppled the autocratic leaders of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen and brought Syria to the brink of civil war, which, according to some, are the result of the mingling of the sexes in sports.

Saudi Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al-Sheikh denounced the protests earlier this month as sinful. "The schism, instability, the malfunctioning of security and the breakdown of unity that Islamic countries are facing these days is a result of the sins of the public and their transgressions," Sheikh Abdulaziz said.

Such sins include, according to Imam Abu Abdellah of As-Sunnah mosque in Kissimee, Florida, speaking in a video posted on the Internet, the mixing of the sexes at sports events. “In the past it was only men, now it is almost half half (in stadiums). Allah knows what happens afterwards. Either way it is bad. Either people go out, they are sensing and partying and drinking and all that, so that’s negative. And if they don’t, they go out and they demonstrate and they’re angry and they destroy property and they destroy cars and they destroy people’s business. Either way its haram (forbidden), things have to be done in moderation,” Abu Abedallah said.

Sheikh Abdullah bin Suleiman Al Manei, a member of the Gulf Kingdom’s supreme scholars committee and an advisor to King Abdullah warned that “the spread of such (bad) acts on play fields is a clear indicator of a decline in moral values and the transformation of sport from fair competition into bigotry.”

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer, and a consultant to geopolitical consulting firm Wikistrat.

A hapless attempt at swimming': Representations of Eric Moussambani

by John Nauright

published in Critical Arts 17:1/2 (2003), 106-122, co-authored with Tara Magdalinski

One of the most powerful images to emerge from the pool at the Sydney 2000 Olympics was that of Eric Moussambani from... more One of the most powerful images to emerge from the pool at the Sydney 2000 Olympics was that of Eric Moussambani from Equatorial Guinea who swam his heat of the 100-meter freestyle alone after the other two swimmers in his heat were disqualified. Moussambani completed the distance over one minute slower than eventual gold medallist Pieter van den Hoogenband. The media coverage of Moussambani's performance illustrates that the discourses of colonialism, paternalism, and racial stereotyping remain central in the modern Olympic movement. This paper analyses media reports of Moussambani and identifies three main frames used to contextualize his performance at the Olympics. We situate Moussambani's swim within a broader framework that reveals the mechanisms used to display African bodies for the European gaze as well as the paternalist Olympic discourse that seeks to universalize Western sporting practices within a global culture that privileges Western cultural and economic practices.

Oxford DNB Article: 'Erhardt, Carl Alfred (1897-1988), British Olympic Ice Hockey Captain

by Jonathan Westaway

Author's Preprint
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, commissioned article
British Olympians release, 24 May 2012

Körperliche Stärke und Behendigkeit zu ehren" oder Olympia in Berlin: Der deutsche Idealismus, die Sportwettkämpfe im antiken Griechenland und das moderne Deutschland

by Felix Saure

In: German as a Foreign Language (GFL) 8 (2007). No. 2. p. 7-27.

Einer der prominentesten Vertreter der deutschen Griechenbegeisterung um 1800 ist Wilhelm von Humboldt. Sein Bild vom... more Einer der prominentesten Vertreter der deutschen Griechenbegeisterung um 1800 ist Wilhelm von Humboldt. Sein Bild vom antiken Hellas ist nicht das Ergebnis eines
empirisch-analytischen Umgangs mit der Geschichte und der Kunst des alten Griechenland, sondern ein idealistisches Konzept mit weitreichenden kulturkritischen, ästhetischen und auch politischen Ansprüchen. In diesem Aufsatz wird ein exemplarischer Aspekt seiner Antikerezeption analysiert, die Rolle der Körperkultur und der panhellenischen Spiele (Agones) in Griechenland. Im Vergleich mit einigen Ansätzen Schillers, Herders und Winckelmanns zeigt sich, dass Humboldts Denken über das klassische Altertum zeittypisch ist. Aus seiner idealistischen Perspektive manifestiert sich in der hohen Achtung, die die Griechen einer ganzheitlichen und damit auch körperlichen Bildung des Einzelnen erwiesen, ihre unbedingte Vorbildhaftigkeit. Außerdem werden die gesamtgriechischen Wettkämpfe als Ausdruck einer Nation gesehen, die sich als kulturelle Einheit und nicht als politisches System definiert. Dieser Aspekt des Griechenideals diente im 19. Jahrhundert der nationalkulturellen Identitätsformierung der Deutschen, die sich als Kulturnation dem alten Hellas verwandt fühlten. Für die Deutschen sollten deshalb moderne Agones eine staatenübergreifende gemeinschaftsstiftende Rolle spielen. Insgesamt bilden in der idealistischen Wahrnehmung um
1800 Körperkultur und Wettkämpfe der Griechen in konzentrierter Form das überzeitliche Ideal einer harmonischen Menschenexistenz ab; Sport und Körper werden in diesem Denken ästhetisch und politisch aufgeladen.

Arsinoe and Berenice at the Olympics

by Chris Bennett

Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, Bd. 154, (2005), pp. 91-96 (JSTOR)

The new Posidippus epigrams give considerable information on Olympic and Nemean victories of Arsinoe II and a... more The new Posidippus epigrams give considerable information on Olympic and Nemean victories of Arsinoe II and a Berenice, almost certainly the daughter of Ptolemy II. A chronology is proposed for both sets of victories, which can be related to the succession politics of Ptolemy the Son.

Conservative Saudi crown prince endorses female participation in Olympics

by James M. Dorsey

By James M. Dorsey

Saudi Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud has approved plans for the... more By James M. Dorsey

Saudi Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud has approved plans for the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom to send female athletes to the Olympics for the first time at the London Games in a move that counters fears that he would be a less progressive ruler than ailing King Abdullah, according to Saudi-owned Al Hayat newspaper.

In doing so, Prince Nayef, the kingdom’s long-serving interior minister who is widely viewed as a conservative even by Saudi standards and is closer than the king to the country’s powerful, austere Wahhabi clergy, is bowing to pressure from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that threatened to bar Saudi Arabia from the London games if it failed to field female athletes.

The decision is likely to be welcomed by liberal Saudis who worry that once he succeeds King Abdullah he will prove to be more susceptible to demands of the clergy who adhere to the teachings of the 18th century puritan warrior-priester, Mohammed Abdul Wahhab to reverse the process of gradual political, economic and social reforms initiated by King Abdullah. In an illustration’s of the clergy’s conservatism, Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti Abd al-Aziz bin Abdullah recently called for the destruction of all churches in the Arabian Peninsula.

The decision by Prince Nayef is likely part of a concerted government effort to fend off a possible popular uprising in the kingdom similar to those sweeping large parts of the Middle East and North Africa by catering to youth sentiments and growing female demand for sporting opportunities.

Prince Nayef earned a reputation as a hardliner most recently for his crackdown on Al Qaeda militants in the kingdom. By the same token, he oversaw a largely successful rehabilitation program that guided the return to society of former Al Qaeda operatives.

Al Hayat said that Prince Nayef’s approval was conditioned on women competing in sports that "meet the standards of women's decency and don't contradict Islamic laws." It was not immediately clear which sports the crown prince had in mind.

Al Hayat reported Prince Nayef’s decision a day after the IOC reported that progress had been made in negotiations with Saudi Olympic officials on sending female athletes and officials to the games.

Saudi Arabia alongside Qatar and Brunei has never included women in its Olympic teams. IOC officials believe that Qatar and Brunei will also be fielding women athletes in London for the first time.

“The IOC is confident that Saudi Arabia is working to include women athletes and officials at the Olympic Games in London in accordance with the international federations' rules," the IOC said.

Earlier, IOC President Jacques Rogge said in an interview with The Associated Press that he was "optimistic" that Saudi Arabia would send women to London. "It depends on the possibilities of qualifications, standards of different athletes. We're still discussing the various options," Mr. Rogge said.

He said a decision would be finalized within a month to six weeks, but "we are optimistic that this is going to happen."

The apparent IOC success in nudging Saudi Arabia into complying with the committee’s charter contrasts starkly with world soccer body FIFA’s failure to hold the kingdom to its obligation. Saudi Arabia fields a men’s soccer team but restricts if not bans women’s soccer.

FIFA’s failure to pressure Saudi Arabia also contrasts with its recent effort to ensure that observant Muslim women can play professional soccer by lifting its ban on women wearing the hijab in favour of a headdress that fulfils the cultural needs of Muslim players and meets safety and security standards.

International human rights group Human Rights Watch last month accused Saudi Arabia of kowtowing to assertions by the country's powerful conservative Muslim clerics that female sports constitute "steps of the devil" that will encourage immorality and reduce women's chances of meeting the requirements for marriage.

The Human Rights Watch charges contained in a report entitled “’Steps of the Devil’ came on the heels of the kingdom backtracking on a plan to build its first stadium especially designed to allow women who are currently barred from attending soccer matches because of the kingdom’s strict public gender segregation to watch games. The planned stadium was supposed to open in 2014.

The report urged the International Olympic Committee to require Saudi Arabia to legalize women's sports as a condition for its participation in Olympic games.

Saudi women despite official discouragement have in recent years increasingly been pushing the envelope at times with the support of more liberal members of the ruling Al Saud family. The kingdom's toothless Shura or Advisory Council has issued regulations for women's sports clubs, but conservative religious forces often have the final say in whether they are implemented or not.

In a sign that efforts to allow and encourage women's sports are at best haphazard and supported only by more liberal elements in the government, the kingdom last year hired a consultant to develop its first national sports plan - for men only. There is no legal ban in on women’s sports in Saudi Arabia where the barriers for women are rooted in tradition and the kingdom’s puritan interpretation of Islamic law.

The pushing of the envelope comes as women are increasingly challenging other aspects of the kingdom's gender apartheid against the backdrop of simmering discontent in Saudi society over a host of issues.

Manal al-Sharif was detained in May of last year for nine days after she videotaped herself flouting the ban on women driving by getting behind a steering wheel and driving. She was released only after signing a statement promising that she would stop agitating for women's rights.

A group of women launched earlier this year a legal challenge to the ban asserting that it had no base in Islamic law.
Opposition to women's sports is reinforced by the fact that physical education classes are banned in state-run Saudi girl’s schools. Public sports facilities are exclusively for men and sports associations offer competitions and support for athletes in international competitions only to men.

The issue of women's sport has at time sparked sharp debate with conservative clerics condemning it as corrupting and satanic and charging that it spreads decadence. Conservative clerics have warned that running and jumping can damage a woman's hymen and ruin her chances of getting married.

One group of religious scholars argued that swimming, soccer and basketball were too likely to reveal “private parts,” which includes large areas of the body. Another religious scholar said it could lead to “mingling with men.”

To be fair, less conservative clerics have come out in favour of women's sports as well as less restrictions on women. In addition, the newly appointed head of the kingdom's religious vigilantes is reported to favour relaxation of the ban on the mixing of the sexes.

In defiance of the obstacles to their right to engage in sports, women have in recent years quietly been establishing soccer and other sports teams using extensions of hospitals and health clubs as their base.

Prince Nayef’s decision has revived hope that 18-year old equestrienne Dalma Rushdi Malhas who won a bronze medal in the 2010 Singapore Youth Olympics in which she participated at her own accord would be among the first Saudi women athletes to compete at an Olympic games. Expectations that she would be competing in London were dashed recently when the Saudis qualified an all-men team qualified for London’s jumping competition.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.

The Politics of Disability and Access: the Sydney 2000 Games Experience

by Simon Darcy

Darcy, S. (2003). The politics of disability and access: the Sydney 2000 Games experience. Disability & Society, 18(6), 737-757.  http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a714038163

The paper will examine a range of issues surrounding the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games and the involvement... more The paper will examine a range of issues surrounding the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games and the involvement of the Australian community of people with disability.  Sydney is a sprawling urban metropolis with a range of well documented physical, social and attitudinal barriers for people with disabilities (Physical Disability Council of NSW 1999).  The Sydney Paralympics in particular, were seen as a possible watershed event for developing accessible infrastructure and raising awareness of disability and access issues (Sydney Paralympic Organising Committee 1998a).  This paper seeks to document a range of issues that became important for the community of people with disabilities in Sydney in the lead up to, during an after the Games.  This paper draws on the official documents of the Games, newspaper accounts, disability organization reports and other personally communicated sources. The paper will firstly examine the major bodies charged with organising the Games and the planning processes used to incorporate disability and access issues (Olympic Co-ordination Authority 1998a).  These include the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG), the Sydney Paralympic Organising Committee (SPOC), the Olympic Co-ordination Authority (OCA) and the Olympic Roads and Traffic Authority (ORTA).  The paper then examines a range of critical issues and the relationships with the disability community.  Lastly, the paper will provide an analysis of any likely legacies that the 2000 Games may have for Sydney's community of people with disabilities

Efficacy of the Ankyle in Increasing the Distance of the Ancient Greek Javelin Throw

by Steven Ross Murray

A version of this manuscript is to be published in Nikephoros.

The Origins of the Olympic Games’ Opening and Closing Ceremonies: Artistic Creativity and Communication

by Wichian Lattipongpun

The Journal of Intercultural Communication Studies, Volume 19, Issue 1, pp.103-120 (2010).

Nowadays, the Olympic Games’ Opening and Closing Ceremonies contribute greatly to, and draw from, the different... more Nowadays, the Olympic Games’ Opening and Closing Ceremonies contribute greatly to, and draw from, the different cultures in the various host cities. This paper will explore the origins of the Olympic Games’ Opening and Closing Ceremonies (OGO & CCs). The extent to which theories concerning artistic creativity and communication are utilized will specifically be examined. Historically speaking, the modern Olympic Games were adapted from the ideology of the ancient Olympic Games, which originally treated sporting competitions as a form of religious ritual. Greek people used the games as a means to communicate with their Gods; games included music, dance, and art. Interestingly, only the victory ceremonies are present in historical records; no evidence of the OGO and CCs can be found. The hypothesis that this paper will test is the notion that the OGO and CCs began with the modern Olympic Games. This study aims to answer this by conveying the initial ideas and purposes of the OGO and CC through discourse analysis. The primary data used includes the minutes of the 1906 International Olympic Committee Congress in Paris and Baron Pierre de Coubertin’s biography. The results significantly illustrate that the OGO and CC were initially associated and influenced by personal interests and cultural patterns.

'Royal Mint launches one-kilo Olympic coin' - January 2012

by Rosalind Ormiston

'Royal Mint launches one-kilo Olympic coin' - January 2012

Published online in CASSONE
www.cassone-art.com

Sport and Racial Discrimination in Colonial Zimbabwe: A Reanalysis

by Andrew Novak

Will be published in the International Journal of the History of Sport, 2012.  Proofs only.  Not for citation.

The British colony of Southern Rhodesia, later governed by a white settler minority as unilaterally-independent... more The British colony of Southern Rhodesia, later governed by a white settler minority as unilaterally-independent Rhodesia, practiced racial segregation in many spheres, including education, health care access, and political participation.  Though racial segregation tended to exist on a less formal level than in Rhodesia's neighbor, apartheid South Africa, segregationist policies were nonetheless invasive and virtually complete in some areas.  Sport was a heavily contested sphere, in which pockets of black African autonomy and advancement existed alongside near-complete white domination, largely, but not entirely, free of government intrusion.  This article is an attempt to develop a working hypothesis of racial discrimination in Rhodesian sport, discrimination that was never as formal or as complete as in South Africa, but which nonetheless provided a firm foundation for Rhodesia's exclusion from international sporting competition in the 1970s.

Islam and the Olympics: seeking a host city in the Muslim world

by Kasim Randeree

International Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Finance and Management

Purpose – Awarding the Olympic Games to a host city in the Muslim world would send a clear indication from member... more Purpose – Awarding the Olympic Games to a host city in the Muslim world would send a clear indication from member nations of the International Olympic Committee of a desire by the international community to engage with Muslim nations on a level that transcends sport. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to answer the question: will a city in the Muslim world ever become host to the greatest sporting spectacle on Earth, and, if so, which is most likely to receive it, when and why?

Design/methodology/approach – To gauge the potential of cities in the Muslim world hosting the Olympics Games, the approach of the paper is to examine the merits of former host cities and then qualitatively comparing these with member countries of the Organisation of Islamic Conference which have a majority Muslim population.

Findings – The research findings indicate that there are five cities in the Muslim world, at least one of which is likely to be awarded one of the coming six Summer Olympic Games between the years 2020 and 2040.

Research limitations/implications – The broader implications of the study are that, in examining Muslim nations of the world from the point of view of mega-event management on a global scale, their development and advancement capability in the modern world can be probed.

Originality/value – In the absence of any other published study on the subject, this paper would open a discourse that would be of value to scholars and interested parties in diverse fields such as major programme management, Islamic studies, international politics, economics and international development.

Financing the Games

by Paul Kitchin

A tale of two Games

In 1976 Montreal, host of the XVIII Summer Olympics, failed to generate enough... more A tale of two Games

In 1976 Montreal, host of the XVIII Summer Olympics, failed to generate enough Games-related income to cover the costs it had incurred in hosting the event, some CN$990 million (Berry, Wenn and Martyn, 2004). At a time of economic recession in North America the Games were seen as costly and of inconsequential benefit to host cities. The 1976 Games themselves were affected by a sub-Saharan boycott and were still mired by the terrorist atrocity of the previous Munich Games. The future of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the organisation responsible for the Olympic Movement was at stake.

In 1978 only Los Angeles and Tehran bid for the right to stage the 1984 Summer Olympics, subsequently Los Angeles won the right after Tehran withdrew from the running (Gruneau, 1984). The 1980 Summer Olympics were staged in Moscow and were marred by boycotts for political reasons. The costs of the Games are unknown but it is clear that the Olympic movement was hardly reinvigorated by the Soviet experience.

In 1984, just 8 years after the debt-laden Montreal Games, the Los Angles Organising Committee for the Olympic Games embraced and refined the commercial forces surrounding the Games. Labelled at the time the ‘Burger Games,’ due to the close involvement of corporate sponsors (including McDonalds) the event produced an operating profit of between US$215-225 million (Berry et al, 2004; Magdalinski and Nauright, 2004), and created a tangible legacy for the Amateur Athletic Federation of Los Angeles (AAFLA). The key to this success was the minimal outlay of expenditure through the use of existing venues and tying sponsors into providing in-kind services as well pure finance. A variant of the financing model used is now current IOC practice and a viable and successful Olympic Movement is the result.

Financing the Games: Revisited

by Paul Kitchin

Spirit 2000: An Olympic games for all Australians

by Tara Brabazon

Australian Screen Education, Issue 28, 2002, pp. 217-218

The Religion in Olympic Tourism

by Alex Norman

Co-authored with Carole M. Cusack. Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change (in press 2012)

Olympic tourism has been likened to pilgrimage (Weed, 2008), and Olympic sites called “shrines” for the “pious sport... more Olympic tourism has been likened to pilgrimage (Weed, 2008), and Olympic sites called “shrines” for the “pious sport tourist” (Gammon, 2004). Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympics, promoted the “cult of the human being” (Ruprecht, 2008), which had distinctly religious overtones.  Sport may be a functional equivalent of religion in the modern world (Cusack 2010), and as a global spectacle, the Olympics perform the ideal of de Coubertin’s “harmony of nationalisms” (Moltmann, 1989). This acting out and collective affirmation of humanist principles is civil religion; quasi-religious beliefs and practices connected with citizenship and political community, which here affirm the pre-eminence of the human individual. Olympic tourists celebrate human achievement, and participate in a mediatised mass spectacle of consumerism. Olympic tourism has similar religious significance to other mass-mobility events (the Hajj, the Kumbh Mela), which take on significance for visitors beyond the immediately theological. Yet, the religio-spiritual elements of Olympic tourism have received less attention than other secular pilgrimages (battlefields, the World Cup). We argue Olympic tourism is a quasi-religious pilgrimage that moves participants closer to, and through, a spectacle event upholding certain socio-cultural ideals of the wider project of affluent, Western culture and identity, embodied in the Olympics.

Corrupted Critters: A Historical Exploration of the Ideologies Surrounding the Olympic Mascots

by Victoria Felkar

4th year undergraduate group paper for a sport sociology course. Group research review, co-authored . DRAFT ONLY

Through using grounded theory methodology, we have examined the Olympic mascots from their conception in 1964 through... more Through using grounded theory methodology, we have examined the Olympic mascots from their conception in 1964 through to the upcoming 2014 games. After identifying all 49 past and future mascots, we applied the framework presented in Nigel Crowther’s (2004) review of the current state of the modern Olympic Games. A critical analysis has revealed several reoccurring problematic themes of the seemingly harmless Olympic mascots. To demonstrate our findings, we have case studied two salient themes representing by several Olympic mascots of 1) Nationalism and Ultra-nationalism, and 2) Women and Minorities, with specific attention to aboriginal and indigenous peoples.

Les jeux olymiques, cette chevalerie moderne / "The Olympic Games : this modern chivalry"

by sebastien Nadot

A link between medieval chivalry, fair play and modern sport...

“The Olympic games : this modern chivalry”

The medieval period is interesting for the history of the... more “The Olympic games : this modern chivalry”

The medieval period is interesting for the history of the Olympic Games. Indeed, the Middle Ages are punctuated by big sports events.
The Middle Ages has its famous champions : Bayard, Du Guesclin, Boucicaut or even Poton de Saintrailles (comrade-in-arms of Joan of d'Arc) are for instance the French representatives. The Middle Ages also brings a system of values for future sportsmen : regardless of the true merit of medieval champions, they represent prowess, a thirst for challenge, politeness, honour, fidelity and fair play. The Middle Age also gives an archetype of sports meetings. In the fifteenth century, everywhere in Europe, very elaborated confrontations are held (defined rules of battle, professional referees, standardized places of clashes). Staged scenes, music, dramatic effects make of these chivalrous sports a big show with numerous political, diplomatic, media and commercial undercurrents.
Pierre de Coubertin had sensed the wealth of the sports phenomenon in the Middle Ages. If it is appropriate to wonder about the mechanisms which could lead to push aside the medieval inheritance of modern physical practices, it is also interesting to explore the chivalrous ideal. One realizes that the Olympic Games are not only ancient or modern. Today, the success of the Games is accompanied by the deepest criticisms and by the biggest risks of drift. Perhaps, a glance at the past – focalized on the period which witnessed the birth of Humanism – is necessary to reassert the fundamental values of the Olympic spirit.

Beyond Tlatelolco: Design, Media and Politics at Mexico ‘68

by Luis M. Castañeda

Grey Room, vol. 40 (Summer 2010): 100-126.

Lifeguard Operations: Summary of Practices at the Athens 2004 Olympics

by Stathis Avramidis

Avramidis, S. (2008) Lifeguard Operations: Summary of Practices at the Athens 2004 Olympics. International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education¸ 2(1), pp. 47-56.

The article discusses the impact of an accident on each host country for the Olympic Games, in which an athlete cut... more The article discusses the impact of an accident on each host country for the Olympic Games, in which an athlete cut his head after diving from a 3-meter springboard in September 1988 in Seoul, Korea. The lessons learned from the incident were applied by each host country to organize better facilities and safer games. Sports facilities, particularly the aquatic facilities and the lifeguards who had to supervise the swimming pools, also must be ready.