Syrian Sport on an International Stage: Evaluating the Sports Movement between 1970 and 2013

Although Syria did not compete in Olympic Games between 1948 and 1970, its participation in most sport mega-events has been varied in terms of the level of participation, results, different championships and sports mega-events types since 1970. The nature of Syria's involvement in sport on the international stage reflects the nature of the institutional-culture context after the ‘Corrective Movement’ led by the late President Hafez al-Assad. This article relies on the official archive of the General Sport Federation in Syria, official International Olympic Committee publications and other material to examine the history of Syria's competitions and its results in different sports events. It is argued that Syrian competition in most regional/international games has not only been because of the social/political support represented by the Baath party but also it has been a means of reflecting the civilised and secular face of Syria and Syrians after a long period of coups in the 1950s and 1960s. This paper concludes by contending that political stability between 1970 and 2011 helped the sports movement to flourish. Even political conflicts after 2011 did not influence the desire for competition, but it was noted that the lack of security, and the increasing terrorism and political/economic sanctions, were the major barriers to Syrian sport on an international stage after the ‘Arab Spring’, which had a negative impact on the support of most sports teams and missions.     

Why 1984 Medalist Li Ning Lit the Flame at the Beijing 2008 Olympics: The Contribution of the Los Angeles Olympics to China's Market Reforms

After the Communist victory in 1949, the People's Republic of China was excluded from most world organisations. China withdrew from the International Olympic Committee in 1958 in protest over its continued recognition of Taiwan, and since it supported the US boycott of the Moscow 1980 Olympics, it did not return to the summer games until the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. While the diplomatic importance of those games is well known, their importance for China's economic reforms has not been discussed. The Los Angeles Games not only played an important role in the revitalisation of Chinese national identity, but also provided an eye-popping example of marketised sport and mega-events just as the economic reforms were launched. The Los Angeles Games were the first televised broadcast of the popular culture of the West to a wide Chinese audience. The deep impression they left on their Chinese viewers helped to launch China towards becoming the economic power that it became a quarter of a century later. This was symbolically represented at China's first Olympic Games in 2008, when the Olympic flame was lit by Li Ning, the gold medalist in Los Angeles who founded a sporting goods company that is considered as one of the hallmark cases of the reforms.     

The Far Eastern Championship Games and the Development of East Asian Society

In the history of the modern Olympics, East Asia is as active an area as Europe. Its involvement can be traced back to the beginning of the modern Olympic Games, as can the closely related Far Eastern Championship Games (FECG). Held in the Philippines in 1913, and following the model of the Olympic Games, the FECG was the first international sports competition to be held in East Asia and it is also the first regional international sports competition recognized by the International Olympic Committee. Due to its great significance in the development of modern sports in East Asia, it has been referred to as the ‘Oriental Olympics’ and the ‘Modern Asian Games’. This paper tries to understand the relationship between the FECG and the development of East Asian society. It points out that the FECG has played a critical role in the development of East Asian society and has exerted many positive influences that have been beneficial to social progress and development over time.     

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.     

2007上海世界特殊奥林匹克运动会的志愿者服务

通过对2007上海世界特殊奥林匹克运动会与志愿者服务的需求分析,对特奥运动与志愿者服务的关系和上海世界特奥会志愿者的招募、培训以及评价进行阐述,指出特奥会对志愿者有特殊的需求,志愿者的参与有力地推动了特奥运动的发展;志愿者在保证特奥会顺利进行的同时,也实现了自身价值和社会价值。     

规范、创新与体验:奥运会媒体运行溯源及2022冬奥媒体愿景研究

奥运会媒体运行是实现奥林匹克传播目标的重要支撑体系。《奥林匹克2020议程》及办奥“新规范”与中国“绿色办奥、共享办奥、开放办奥、廉洁办奥”的理念为2022年北京冬奥会媒体运行提出了新要求,其核心是节俭办奥与利益相关方体验同等重要,需要在两者之间寻找最佳平衡点。历届奥运会媒体运行经验、规范以及未来奥运会媒体体验愿景,可为深度理解媒体需求、实现精准而避免浪费的媒体运行提供参考。基于奥运会媒体运行历史溯源、2022年北京冬奥会媒体体验愿景问卷调查、北京冬奥组委媒体运行部深度访谈,以奥运媒体体验为研究重点,系统考察了奥运媒体运行体系中包含媒体后勤服务、奥林匹克信息服务、新闻中心与媒体村等媒体场馆建设及服务的多个子系统的规范与创新,发现专业、便捷、温暖、实用是受访中外记者对冬奥会媒体运行体系的核心体验目标。     

棒球退出奥运会比赛的现状分析

从伦敦奥运套开始,棒球不再是奥运会正式比赛项目。2005年10月7日,一际奥委会应国际棒联的要求,公布了新加坡全全项目设置投票结果,棒球项目因50票支持、54票反对,以4票之差被排除出2012年伦敦奥运会。同样,棒球无缘2016年奥运会,这些决定给世界棒球运动的发展带来了严峻的挑战。为什么国际奥委会做出这一决定,作者通过广泛地查阅资料,就棒球退出奥运会的原因进行探讨和分析,并进行归纳和总结。     

亚运会历史发展各阶段与政治的关系研究

亚运会作为仅次于奥运会的大型体育赛事,其60年的发展历程亦如奥运会“自国际奥林匹克委员会1894年成立至今,政治在整个奥林匹克运动过程中无处不在”一样,始终受到来自亚洲各务政治、经济发展和地区间错综复杂国际关系的影响和制约。对亚运会的发起、初始、发展和深入等阶段与政治的关系进行逐届研究发现,政治对体育的作用主要表现在：因政治经济原因,第1届推迟,第6、第8两届撤销承办权;亚洲第一大国中国因“两个中国”问题抵制亚运会23年等;体育对政治的作用主要表现在：各举办国通过亚运会展现了国力、民风,重塑了国际形象,提升了国际地位,加大了国际影响。中国通过亚运“会籍”问题的解决,更加确立了“一个中国”的地位;南、北朝鲜在亚运会上齐聚一堂,表现了体育在促进国家统一方面的作用等。     

2008年北京奥运会武术设项之刍议

竞技武术是武术与奥林匹克运动相融摄的产物，竞技武术在2008年北京奥运会之际进入奥林匹克大家庭，将有助于促进东西方文化的交融，促进世界文化的多元性发展，以及丰富奥林匹克运动，更好地弘扬奥林匹克精神，希望国际奥委会能吸纳竞技武术成为奥运会正式比赛项目。     

Olympic or Sacred? The Controversy over the Flame at the Inaugural 1951 Pan-American Games and Its Aftermath

In 1951, Buenos Aires hosted the inaugural Pan-American Games. On February 25 of that year, a Greek athlete carried a flame flown specially from his country onto the stadium where the event’s opening ceremonies took place and lit the cauldron. The uncertain character of the Greek flame transported to Buenos Aires alarmed many in Olympic circles. Confused and concerned, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) investigated the matter, which led to a rapid succession of policy changes seeking to regulate the use of flames in regional games. The flame flown from Greece to Buenos Aires for the 1951 Pan-American Games sparked an intense debate about the status of the Olympic flame. The IOC’s recognition of the power of the Olympic flame ritual and its preoccupation with protecting it along with other Olympic symbols and terminology reveal the contours of the organization’s ideology in this era and its relations with associated entities. The flame debate also illuminates the push by Pan-American Games’ officials for autonomy. Clearly, Olympic officials recognized early in the 1950s that the globalization of the Olympic flame ritual required regulation if the IOC was to ensure control of this and its other symbolic resources.     

为2008年奥运营造一流法律环境,实现“法治奥运”

通过文献资料法分析了“法治奥运”的现实意义和理论价值,阐述了“依法治奥”是历史进步,社会发展的必然趋势。“依法治奥”不仅是保护奥运知识产权的有效手段,更是“廉洁奥运”的根本保障。一流的法制环境促进奥运的成功与发展,成功的奥运呼唤一流法治制环境的保护和支持。为把2008年奥运会办成历史上最出色的一届奥运会,创造一流的法制环境是实现“法治奥运”的重要保证。     

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.     

奥运会与残奥会工作的转换

对同一个国家,尤其同一个城市举办奥运会和残疾人奥运会两大赛事期间的工作转换问题进行了研究。研究认为:1)奥运会组委会应高度重视奥运会向残疾人奥运会的转换工作;2)残疾人奥运会具有其特殊性;3)残疾人奥运会规模的不断发展扩大为奥运会与残疾人奥运会之间工作顺利转换带来了巨大挑战;4)奥运会与残疾人奥运会之间的工作转换应遵守相应的规则;5)奥运会与残疾人奥运会之间的工作转换应突出无障碍设施和人文关怀。     

The Development of the Olympic Narrative in Chinese Elite Sport Discourse from Its First Successful Olympic Bid to the Post-Beijing Games Era

Abstract

As a phenomenon exogenous to China, the Olympics have been proactively interpreted in the local context since China’s entry (and subsequent re-entry in 1984) into the Olympic movement. With China’s increasing involvement in promoting three bids to host the Olympic Games, two of which were successful, respectively, in 2001 and 2015, the nature of the discourse of key stakeholders in relation to Chinese elite sport has both reflected and reshaped the meaning of the Games to Chinese elite sport. This paper examines the discursive construction process of the Olympics in the Chinese elite sport system by key stakeholders through analyzing statements of political figures on sport and Olympic phenomena, Chinese elite sport policy documents, and the commentaries of leading Chinese sport academics. The analysis of discourse highlights two main features in the construction of the Games in official accounts during the period under investigation. The development of these two themes reflects the nature of the Chinese Olympic discourse, manifests the political power over the interpretation of the Olympics in Chinese context, and continues to characterize the on-going major themes in Chinese elite sport policy.     

北京奥运会的仪式学解读

北京奥运会是一种历史记忆,还是一种具有永恒现代性指意的仪式,其呈现出来的宏大的叙事性压倒了中国人对奥运会赛事内涵的记忆,从而形成了中国历史进程的文化纪念碑。北京奥运会是中国的国家秩序变更后催生出来的仪式化产物,它还是一种对中国固有仪式的升华形态。中国体育代表团在2008年的北京奥运会中取得了51枚金牌是由于举国体制的制度支撑,北京奥运会就此得以升华为一种中国内产式国家仪式。奥运会还是一种身体展示度极强的仪式活动,具有很强的表演性,北京奥运会也成为中国人寻找与西方社会和解的突围点。北京奥运会缔造出来的强大的超仪式的视听镜像提升了中国人的民族自信力,在更高的意义上重塑了国民形象。     

现代奥林匹克运动治理体系的演变

进入21世纪以来,随着奥运会利益相关者的不断介入,奥林匹克管理体系发生了天翻地覆的变化。现代奥林匹克运动已经完成了从奥林匹克管理到奥林匹克治理的转型,尤其是在《奥林匹克2020议程》颁布实施之后,逐渐形成了以奥林匹克核心利益相关者为主体的治理架构,奥林匹克运动的5个核心利益相关者包括国际奥委会、奥运会组委会、国家奥委会、国际单项体育联合会、国家体育联盟。奥林匹克治理体系不再是每位利益相关者管理自己事务的问题,而是对各方构成的网络化的全球性治理系统,同时要考虑到它们之间的相互关系。奥林匹克运动和治理体系之间的联系是以人为中心,诸如奥运会选手、运动员、球迷等群体,而奥林匹克治理体系围绕的是各级各类体育社会组织。在顾拜旦看来,奥林匹克主义不可能是个系统,而是一种精神境界。不论我们喜欢与否,奥林匹克的治理前景必须依赖复杂且系统化的网络治理实践。奥林匹克运动的主要目标必须建立在尊重人权之上,只有实现奥林匹克治理的可持续性发展才能实现这一目标。     

北京人文奥运的哲学思辨——东西方人文精神与人文危机

人文奥运是北京举办2008年奥运会的三大理念之一,是奥林匹克运动的核心和灵魂。然而,在对待这一问题上却存在着两种不同的呼声,笔者分析了中西方人文精神与人文危机的根源及其发展现状,从西方视角下对现代奥林匹克运动的人文危机进行全面审视,目的是为弘扬＂人文奥运＂,促进人与自然、人与社会、人的精神与体魄的和谐发展,展示中国文化厚重和魅力,为我国人文奥运目标的实现提供理论参考与依据。奥林匹克运动是当今全世界最有影响力的一个社会运动,在这三个理念中,惟有＂人文奥运＂含义最深,意义最大,群众的参与性最强。北京奥运要利用这次难得的契机,使中国文化与世界文化相互交融,使中国文化走向世界,使之成为全世界共同的精神财富。虽然在世界范围内还存在不同的呼声,但是在全球化和人类走可持续发展之路的今天,我们更要利用这次难得的契机,宣传奥林匹克精神,宣传＂人文奥运＂,宣传中国传统文化,为世界的奥林匹克运动,为世界的和平、友谊、和谐、进步,做出我们应有的贡献。     

北京奥运会遗产的评估、开发与保护研究

北京奥运会是一个"无与伦比"的奥运会,不仅体现在辉煌比赛成绩上,更体现在奥林匹克历史传承留下的遗产上.北京奥运会遗产是我们留给子孙后代的历史文化财富和共同记忆,我们应该本着"对历史负责、为未来着想"的态度,做好北京奥运会遗产的评估、开发与保护.本文在分析探讨奥运会遗产内涵的基础上,提出了北京奥运会遗产的评估、开发与保护的有关问题.     

Reluctant mediator: Hong Kong,the two Koreas and the Tokyo Olympics

This essay examines the complex, and ultimately unsuccessful, negotiations between North and South Korea, undertaken with the encouragement of the International Olympic Committee during 1962–63 to form a united Korean team to participate in the Tokyo Olympics of 1964. In particular, it focuses on the role of Hong Kong, chosen as a ‘neutral’ site for the two Korean delegations to meet. It shows how the IOC's optimism for a ‘sporting’ solution was to founder on continued mutual suspicion and recriminations between the two Koreas and how the Hong Kong government's reluctance to get involved, the US political intervention, and North Korean participation in the GANEFO Games were all to complicate the process.     

多哈亚运田径"霸主"现象之分析

本文运用文献资料法,数理统计法、比较法等方法把我国运动员在多哈亚运会获得的田径14枚金牌的成绩与雅典奥运成绩以及我国第十届全运会成绩进行了多项比较分析,发现我国田径运动员多哈亚运成绩真正具备奥运竞争实力的项目非常少;运动员亚运会成绩普遍差于十运会成绩;多哈亚运会多项金牌得主成绩低于我国十运会成绩等问题,同时针对这些问题提出要长远考虑如何把全运会、亚运会以及奥运会紧密的衔接,让我们的运动员能在国际赛场上表现出最高的水平等建议,以期为我国田径的发展提供一定的参考。