‘Nothing but Trouble’: The Soviet Union's Push to ‘Democratise’ International Sports During the Cold War, 1959–1962

Analysing internal documents from recently accessible Soviet archives as well as International Olympic Committee (IOC) correspondence, this article explores how Soviet sports administrators sought to gain influence and authority in international sports in order to advance Soviet state goals during the Cold War. To counter the ‘reactionary’, ‘Anglo-American’ bloc they perceived in the IOC and International Federations (IFs), members of the Soviet All-Union Committee on Physical Culture and Sport sought to ‘democratise’ international sports organisations by transforming them into truly international bodies that included representatives from all regions of the world, especially those sympathetic to the Soviet Union. Because of the governing culture of the IOC and the personalities of many of its members, any stance taken on by Soviet members could not overtly challenge Olympic ideals. Couching their call to expand Olympism in the principles of international cooperation, democracy and the right for everyone to participate in sports, Soviet administrators could present themselves as dedicated promoters of sport and use their clout to further Soviet interests. Through their efforts to increase Soviet influence globally, Soviet administrators challenged the insularity of the IOC and IFs and helped to transform international sports and the Olympic Games into a truly global movement.     

Chinese Question in the Olympic Movement: From the Perspective of Taiwan

Title and flag are the baggage of Taiwan's complex past that was brought from China to Taiwan by the Kuomintang. It led to a series of conflicts between the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China. Taiwanese perspective has been used to discuss these sensitive issues. The impact of the international political situation on the China issue is discussed. The roles that IOC presidents – Avery Brundage, Lord Killanin and Antonio Samaranch – played in the development of the Chinese Question are analysed. In summary, due to exchange of international politics and the attitudes of the IOC presidents, the Taipei-based Committee had adopted the following names: the Chinese Olympic Committee (1949–1959), the Taiwan Olympic Committee (1959–1968) and the Republic of China Olympic Committee (1968–1979). Due to international reality, Taiwan finally had to use the name Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee (1981 to present) and pay dearly for its continued participation in the Olympic Movement by changing its national symbols. The other sports federations in Taiwan were furthermore asked to follow the example of the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee and change their names and flags. Otherwise, they would not be allowed to maintain their memberships.     

二战后奥林匹克组织体系变革特点分析

对二战后奥林匹克组织体系变革的特点进行了描述和分析。布伦戴奇时期,奥林匹克“三大支柱”组织体系出现了分裂,国际奥委会与国际单项体育联合会和国家奥委会之间出现了冲突与矛盾,打破了原有的关系机制。萨马兰奇时期,与布伦戴奇时期截然相反：首先,在奥林匹克组织体系内部,国际奥委会与国际单项体育联合会和国家奥委会形成了一个紧密、有效的合作体系,重新巩固了奥林匹克的三大支柱的组织体系。其次,在奥林匹克组织体系外的国际体育舞台上,国际奥委会还与其他一些与奥林匹克运动关系不十分密切的国际体育组织建立联系。最后,在国际社会的大舞台上,国际奥委会为了使奥林匹克运动能真正地融入国际社会,分别与政府间国际组织和非政府间国际组织、跨国公司都建立了联系。     

国内法院对奥运会组委会的管辖权边界──以15名女子跳台滑雪运动员诉温哥华冬奥会组委会为例

在15名女子跳台滑雪运动员诉温哥华冬奥会组委会一案中,加拿大国内法院对于奥运会组委会的管辖权问题成为了争议的焦点。奥组委在形式上虽然是一个国内组织,但由于其与国际奥委会、各国际单项体育联合会以及国内政府之间的特殊关系,使得国内法院在决定是否对涉及奥组委的争议案件行使管辖权时,不得不谨慎地判断争议行为作出的真正主体。通常情况下,对于奥组委执行国际体育组织的奥林匹克决议产生的纠纷,国内法院应当遵守《奥林匹克宪章》的规定,放弃对此类争议的管辖权,交由具有合法资格的国际体育仲裁院（CAS）进行裁决。     

Syria and the Olympics: National Identity on an International Stage

Since its independence in 1946, Syria has fielded a team for every summer Olympic competition except 1956, yet has won only three Olympic medals. In contrast with its smaller, higher-powered neighbour Lebanon, its participation at the Olympics has been consistent but limited, with the country making little impact internationally. Yet the history of Syria's involvement with the Olympics reflects key elements of its political and social history: its ambitious but short-lived partnership with Egypt, the Baathist-supported promotion of women as athletes and head of the National Olympic Committee and its commitment to participation in the vexed but ideologically important Pan-Arab Games. This article uses official International Olympic Committee publications and related press coverage to examine the history of Syria's involvement with the Olympic Games, the Mediterranean Games and the Pan-Arab Games. It argues that Syria's participation was initially important not for its medal count but for the ‘sign of statehood' that membership in the Olympic community conferred, and that its participation in regional games supported Syria's political positions as a Baathist, Arab republic. It concludes by contending that these political commitments have renewed salience as the conflict in Syria that began in March 2011 continues, and the country's participation in Olympic and regional games becomes increasingly politicised.     

中国与国际奥委会关系探析:历史、现状与展望

随着中国体育事业发展和多边外交推进,中国与国际奥委会的关系也备受瞩目。从国际组织研究视角切入,运用历史分析法和演绎推理分析法深入阐述了中国与国际奥委会关系。研究认为:中国与国际奥委会关系可以划分为初次接触、曲折前行和从关系破裂到全面合作3个主要阶段。双方在新时代的互动关系推动了中国特色大国外交、促进了中国体育事业和经济发展、扩大了奥林匹克运动在中国的普及和传播。建议中国积极参与全球体育治理,培养国际组织人才以及拓展合作领域、服务国家外交大局。     

国际奥林匹克委员会大众体育政策的历史演进、特征及局限

全球化进程使国际体育组织为全球体育治理提供的公共产品备受学界关注。基于历史学与公共政策学交叉理论视角,采用文献资料法和逻辑分析法等,对国际奥委会促进大众体育发展的相关报告、宣言和政策文本等进行定性分析,以期厘清其政策特征。研究认为:国际奥委会凭借奥林匹克体系的领导者形象,依托其在体育运动领域专业优势逐步构建其大众体育政策体系。依据国际奥委会大众体育政策体系历史演进过程,可以将其划分为以竞技体育为核心的无暇顾及期、大众体育与竞技体育的互促发展期以及全球一体化背景下的逐步成熟期3个阶段。国际奥委会在逐步完善大众体育政策体系过程中体现出以下特征:设立专门大众体育政策执行机构,充分利用奥林匹克运动遗产促进大众体育发展,逐步完善大众体育政策工具等。受国际组织特殊属性的制约,国际奥委会大众体育政策表现出缺乏核心大众体育政策、社会资源权威性分配受限和政策约束力不强等局限性。     

Sex Testing and the Maintenance of Western Femininity in International Sport

During the Cold War, women from Eastern Europe excelled in international sport. Rather than applauding the successes of these female athletes, many in the Cold-War-West responded with suspicion, contempt and derision. Armed with rumours and anecdotes, the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) implemented sex testing in 1966, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) followed suit two years later. Despite the introduction of a compulsory sex/gender control, many continued to lament the muscular physiques of the Cold-War-Eastern victors. The known and suspected sex test ‘failures’ from North Korea, the Philippines, Poland, the Soviet Union and Spain served to exacerbate the fears of gender fraudulence. As global dynamics shifted, however, so, too, did the anxieties in sport. When women from the People's Republic of China dominated the international sports scene in the 1990s, many in the geographic-West again doubted the authenticity of the achievements and called for a return to gender verification. A decade later, the international plights of Indian athlete Santhi Soundarajan and South African runner Caster Semenya convinced the IAAF and the IOC that such a reestablishment was necessary. Using the ‘colonial/modern gender system’ framework, this article explores the political and racialised sex/gender concerns medical professionals and sport authorities possessed, which led to the establishment, abandonment and reintroduction of sex testing/gender verification in elite sport. Through these three phases of sex testing/gender verification, the IAAF and the IOC reaffirmed a binary notion of sex and privileged white, Western gender norms.     

London 2012 – Site for Political Animosities: South Korea and Japan in Confrontational Rational ‘Irrationality’ (Part One: Long Memories)

Sport and politics have a close relationship. Political conflicts are re-enacted, reflected and reinforced on international sports stages. In East Asia, the past casts a long shadow! It darkened the London 2012 stage. Controversy followed a South Korean football player's celebration at the London Olympics semi-final match between South Korea and Japan. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) banned the player, Park, Jong-woo, from participating in the bronze medal ceremony. He was accused by the IOC of a political act that violated IOC and FIFA regulations. Park's celebration included holding up and carrying around a sign which was interpreted by the IOC as a political message about a South Korean territorial dispute with Japan. The incident became a lead story in the South Korean media. The IOC's decision caused intense nationwide indignation and an outpouring of anti-Japanese sentiment. It was not a unique incident. This essay examines media representations of the incident and how political controversies between South Korea and Japan are reproduced, intensified and exacerbated by media reporting of international sports events. In South Korea, insult was added to injury by the fact that IOC's disapproval of Park's behaviour was contrasted in the South Korean media and by the public with the IOC's silence regarding the Japanese gymnastics team's uniform emblazoned with the ‘Rising Sun’ flag. The evidence from the incident is clear. Mega-sports events can be inflammatory occasions for the expression of hostile and heated political expression. Nowhere is this more the case than in East Asia with its long history of fierce national animosities and memories of national hostilities and humiliations. Throughout East Asia, international sport has become a potent medium for perpetuating painful memories!     

‘In our case,it seems obvious the British Organising Committee piped the tune’: the campaign for recognition of ‘Ireland’ in the Olympic Movement, 1935–1956

In the 22 years between 1935 and 1956, the Irish Olympic Council and its later variant the Olympic Council of Ireland engaged in a struggle with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for the right to be recognized as Ireland in Olympic competition and to include Irish nationals regardless of their place of residence on the island on the team. After competing as Ireland in 1924, 1928 and 1932, the landscape changed significantly in 1935 when Ireland was rebranded as the Irish Free State and its selection was limited to the state's boundaries by the IOC. As a result, Ireland failed to compete in the 1936 Berlin Games and over the next two decades Irish Olympic officials engaged in a campaign for the right to select Irish nationals, regardless of where they resided in the island and to be recognized as Ireland for Olympic purposes. This had serious implications for Irish sport and had the potential to split the national federations on political boundary lines.     

Rhodesia's ‘rebel and racist’ Olympic team: Athletic glory,national legitimacy and the clash of politics and sport

This article traces the history of the Olympic participation of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, then the British colony of Southern Rhodesia, and then unilaterally independent settler-ruled Rhodesia after 1965, placing heavy emphasis on the racially integrated aspects of the sporting sphere. Rhodesia's status in the International Olympic Committee inevitably came under assault after 1965 owing to its white government and international sporting sanctions. The battles of the press, the high-level diplomatic manoeuvring, and finally the IOC debate first to exclude Rhodesia from Munich and then to permanently expel the Rhodesian NOC in 1975 are analysed in detail. As a charismatic organization, the IOC operated outside the world of rules and rational principles, devoted to certain values expressed in ‘Olympism’. Because of this commitment, and the resulting belief that politics had no place in sport, the IOC was insulated from the great changes taking place in the world at large. The newly independent world sought to make democratic equality a part of the Olympic vision, trumping the long-held charismatic principles of the IOC; the expulsion of Rhodesia was the culmination of this trend.     

London 2012 – Site for Political Animosities: South Korea and Japan in Confrontational Rational ‘Irrationality’ (Part Two: Long Gestations)

Sport and politics have a close relationship. Political conflicts are re-enacted, reflected and reinforced on international sports stages. In East Asia, the past casts a long shadow! It darkened the London 2012 stage. Controversy followed a South Korean football player's celebration at the London Olympics semi-final match between South Korea and Japan. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) banned the player Park Jong-woo from participating in the bronze medal ceremony. He was accused by the IOC of a political act that violated IOC and FIFA regulations. Park's celebration included holding up and carrying around a sign, which was interpreted by the IOC as a political message about a South Korean territorial dispute with Japan. The incident became a lead story in the South Korean media. The IOC's decision caused intense nationwide indignation and an outpouring of anti-Japanese sentiment. It was not a unique incident. This essay examines media representations of the incident and how political controversies between South Korea and Japan are reproduced, intensified and exacerbated by media reporting of international sports events. In South Korea, insult was added to injury by the fact that IOC's disapproval of Park's behaviour was contrasted in the South Korean media and by the public with the IOC's silence regarding the Japanese gymnastics team's uniform emblazoned with the ‘Rising Sun’ flag. The evidence from the incident is clear. Mega-sports events can be inflammatory occasions for the expression of hostile and heated political expression. Nowhere is this more the case than in East Asia with its long history of fierce national animosities and memories of national hostilities and humiliations. Throughout East Asia, international sport has become a potent medium for perpetuating painful memories!     

中国大学生体育协会发展研究

研究认为,中国大学生体育协会自成立至今35年大致可划分为5个时期。从成立初期,代表国家向世界声明一个中国的立场和担负着中国重返国际体坛、重返国际奥委会的作用,到推进高校试办高水平运动队的部署与实施,以及大学生体育赛事市场化确立与发展,该协会已经具有科学管理并独立组织国内外大学生体育活动的全面职能。     

The Legacy of the Games of the New Emerging Forces and Indonesia’s Relationship with the International Olympic Committee

Abstract

The Games of the New Emerging Forces (GANEFO) often serve as an example of the entanglement of sport, Cold War politics and the Non-Aligned Movement in the 1960s. Indonesia as the initiator plays a salient role in the research on this challenge for the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The legacy of GANEFO and Indonesia’s further relationship with the IOC, however, has not yet drawn proper academic attention. This paper analyzes Indonesia’s interactions with the IOC until the present time, with a focus on the country’s involvement in sporting events under the patronage of the IOC (such as the Asian and Southeast Asian Games). In addition, two case studies demonstrate the variable relationship between the two actors. First, Indonesia only narrowly escaped sanctions over a dispute on the use of the Olympic logo in 2015. Yet, the country is named as host of the 2018 Asian Games, hence showing high ambitions to re-enter the international sports arena. These incidents illustrate the significance of conformity of local agencies towards the IOC with regard to political positions and power structures. The study opens the field to local – Asian – perspectives on interactions with the IOC.     

国际奥委会创立的历史研究

采用文献资料法和历史研究法,对国际奥委会创立的条件进行了主客观两个方面的分析,在此基础上,以组织学为理论基础,对国际奥委会创立之时的概况及特点进行了描述和分析,旨在为进一步了解奥林匹克运动和宣传奥林匹克提供一定的参考。     

Circumventing Apartheid: Racial Politics and the Issue of South Africa's Olympic Participation at the 1984 Los Angeles Games

Behind the shadows of an Olympiad replete with tales of Cold War acrimony and lavish commercial excess, emerges South Africa's bureaucratic attempt to achieve readmission to the Olympic Movement prior to the 1984 Los Angeles Games. In the backdrop of the Reagan administration's conciliatory policy of ‘constructive engagement’ towards Pretoria, the all-white South African National Olympic Committee aspired to cease its two-decade-long sporting isolation in the southern California metropolis. Drawing upon archival materials from the International Olympic Studies Center and public debates in the leading national and sporting newspapers and periodicals of the time, this paper will detail and analyse how International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch was forced to navigate a tight political tightrope over the South African issue. Any concession towards Pretoria would have likely agitated the African-bloc nations – a powerful constituency on the IOC with a proclivity for boycotting Olympic Games – as well as the global-nexus of anti-apartheid groups that vehemently opposed South Africa's participation in Los Angeles.     

国际奥委会组织性质分析

从国际奥委会组织的性质入手探讨了国际奥委会组织性质,根据国际奥委会的组织界定,国际奥委会的基本性质表现为国际性、非政府性和非营利性;根据国际组织的不同分类,国际奥委会还具有其他的组织性质,即广泛性、执行性或专门性、职能性和跨国性。     

Independent Olympic Athletes and the Legitimacy of the International Olympic Committee in Resolving International Conflicts

Abstract

Over the last three centuries (nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first) humanity has been facing huge political and ideological conflicts, especially wars. For these reasons, it was seen how necessary it was to create global institutions that aimed to promote peace and reduce or stop conflicts of this magnitude. Therefore, an international institution had already brought on its premises the principles of international peace and reconciliation through sport: the International Olympic Committee (IOC). However, despite bringing together nations around peaceful ties in an international competition, the IOC and the Olympic Games event have always been affected by constant conflicts along their path in the twentieth century, emphasizing issues involving nationalities. Thereby, in a mediator posture of international conflicts and in an effort to reduce the subversions that surrounded it, the IOC, in the 1990s, created the delegation of Independent Olympic Athletes. Such a delegation consists of athletes who cannot represent their respective nationalities at the Olympics due to political factors and/or armament conflicts. This proposal of the IOC demonstrates its posture to avoid, minimize, and even cease ideological and political events that might interfere with the Olympics Games or the athletes participating in them.     

The puliti affair and the 1924 Paris Olympics: Geo-Political issues,National pride and fencing traditions

During the Paris Olympic Games of July 1924, there were a series of ‘incidents’ in the fencing competition that became known as the Puliti affair. At the centre of the troubles was the Italian Oreste Puliti. The ‘affair’ had to be discussed by the ‘jury d'honneur’ recently set up by the IOC. Both the IOC and the International Federation were concerned with this issue for four more years. This article uses the Puliti affair to discuss several aspects of nationalism in the mid-1920s: the growing tensions between Fascist Italy and democracies such as Hungary and France, the specific Olympic status of fencing challenged in Paris after three centuries of confrontation between the French and Italian schools of fencing, and ongoing tensions between the IOC and the international federations. Finally, the press perceptions of the incident in various countries are briefly discussed.     

‘The Sole Anti-Democratic Federation in the Entire Olympic Movement’: Early International Association of Athletics Federations Development Initiatives Between Commercialization and Democratization, 1974–1987

Abstract

Studies on the development of Olympic Solidarity as a tool of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to enable National Olympic Committees of developing countries access to resources and influence in the Olympic Movement exist. However, historical scholarship has relatively neglected the development of aid programs by International Federations to explain how they made use of resources to gain influence in international sport politics. Based on extensive multi-national and multi-lingual archival research in the archives of the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) and the German Sport University Cologne, this article explores the establishment and development of the IAAF‘s Technical Aid Program, which had been installed in 1974. Referencing a large amount of previously unknown protocols and written correspondence, the paper critically discusses the IAAF‘s development activities in light of two parallel occurring processes that shaped the federation’s character in the 1970s and 1980s decisively: its increasing commercialization and its path towards democratization in its voting system. It is argued that the IAAF development programs served as a tool to enforce commercial and sport political interests whilst the nature of support remained without clear guidance until the mid-1980s.