William Penny Brookes – the Founding Father of the Modern Pentathlon?

For a long time William Penny Brookes' influence on the re-establishment of the Olympic Games has been neglected thanks to a focus on Pierre de Coubertin's creative force. Meanwhile Brookes' general work for the Olympic movement has been officially acknowledged by the IOC. However, the British origins have not been proved yet for the modern pentathlon, which is – just like the Olympics – widely presented to be Coubertin's child. The two sport officials had been in touch since the 1890s and while the Olympic Games did not include the modern pentathlon before 1912, a pentathlon was organised as early as 1868 on the occasion of the Wenlock Games. This combined event did not have the same shape as the later modern pentathlon, but the ideological similarities are as obvious as Brookes' general impact on Coubertin. By analysing historical documents located in the IOC Archives in Lausanne, Switzerland, the Archives of the Wenlock Olympian Society in Much Wenlock, UK, and the National Archives of Sweden in Stockholm, this study aims to trace to what extent Brookes and the Much Wenlock Games impacted upon the birth of the modern pentathlon. Thus, the study reinterprets the genesis of a 100-year-old Olympic sport that has, until today, been exclusively dedicated to Coubertin.     

Stockholm Olympics at the Movies

This article is a contribution to the special issue on the Olympic Games in Stockholm in 1912 commissioned by Christian Widholm. The text discusses the 1912 Olympics as a major media event with a special focus on the production, distribution and reception of moving pictures     

奥运会筹办的伦敦模式

2012伦敦奥运会筹办最突出的特征是其社会参与的多样性和广泛性。这与其奥运会组织者提出的办一届"每个人奥运会"的愿景具有内在的逻辑联系,旨在让奥运会从筹办开始就成为每一个人可以真切体验的事件,化为自己的生活经历,从而认同和选择奥运所提倡的通过参与体育促进个体发展,改善生活方式的理念。为了保证奥运筹办因社会广泛而多样的参与形成共识和合力,避免可能出现的冲突。伦敦奥运会的组织者为之设立了既能表达意见又能保持共识的法制平台,既分工明确又相互合作的组织机制,鼓励多元共享的参与方式及公开透明的筹办氛围。伦敦奥运会的筹办模式对目前奥运会等大型体育赛事的运作和体育参与中出现的问题,有很强的针对性,值得认真借鉴。     

我国竞技体育运动项目结构特征及奥运设项效益研究

运用数理统计法以我国高水平体育后备人才基地运动项目设置、各省（区、市）十运会和雅典奥运会所取得的成绩为研究对象，从运动项目结构和效益两个维度出发，分析我国运动项目结构的非均衡特征及形成机制，考察运动项目结构与全运战略和奥运战略的协调程度，对运动项目设项效益进行量化分析。研究表明，我国运动项目布局主要以全运竞争格局为导向，区域布局与普及率失衡，项目结构与奥运战略存在一定偏差，奥运设项效益偏低，通过竞赛体制改革，增进奥运战略导向力度，对运动项目结构进行调整是提高奥运设项效益的有效途径。     

对新形势下体育界不良师徒关系的思考

近年来,体育界不断传出诸如王德显、马俊仁等与其弟子“反目为仇”的事件。这种不和谐的师徒关系,在很大程度上影响了我国体育事业的发展,违背了现代社会的人文关怀和人性化教育。2008年奥运会既是人文奥运、绿色奥运,也是和谐奥运。如何认识这种不良现象,如何采取有利措施,并利用2008年奥运契机推动新型师徒关系的建立,是我们必须面对和亟待解决的问题。     

The 2012 London Olympics: Commercial Partners,Environmental Sustainability,Corporate Social Responsibility and Outlining the Implications

Historically, the Olympic Games have had a tremendous impact on the economy, tourism industry and social and political aspects of a hosting nation. The Olympic Games are the most globally promoted and commercialised sporting event in the world. This fact has led global firms to mandate significant changes in many aspects of traditional Olympics advertising relating to media content, media channel/placement and the overall budget allocation pattern. In pursuit of desired outcomes, sponsorship-linked promotion and marketing that primarily focuses on communication objectives allows both sport authorities and corporate sponsors to reach a considerable number of markets across the world. The aim of this paper was to explore the content characteristics of commercial partners who participated in the 2012 London Olympic Games on the basis of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) and environmental sustainability (ES). The intention is not to merely verify the marketing communication strategies of commercial partners, but to review historical and theoretical perspectives through a systematic review of the Olympic Partners. This facilitates our understanding of why there have been certain historical changes in their marketing communication strategies with regard to CSR and ES. Implications for mega-event managers and future research are also outlined.     

"绿色奥运"理念下构建我国大型体育赛事的绿色调控体系

“绿色奥运”的核心和本质是构建人与自然和谐发展的生态文明，是体育与自然生态的共生与双赢。大型体育赛事由于其规模大、涉及面广而成为一项复杂的社会系统工程。在2008年北京“绿色奥运”理念下，探讨和借鉴“绿色奥运”模式构建我国大型体育赛事的绿色调控体系将具有重要意义。我国大型体育赛事绿色调控体系的构建主要应包括：大型体育赛事的绿色规划与管理；大型体育赛事绿色供应链与绿色物流的组织；市场经营开发中突出“绿色”形象，塑造“绿色”品牌；引入ISO14000环境管理体系，进行赛事绿色成本与效益控制。     

新冠疫情对2022年北京冬奥会体育遗产影响的内容、路径和方式

以新冠疫情对2022年北京冬奥会体育遗产的影响为研究目标,将《2022年北京冬奥会和冬残奥会遗产战略计划》中体育遗产的7项重点任务作为分析框架,通过对国家体育总局、北京冬奥组委等部门的26名工作人员访谈,收集质性数据,发现新冠疫情对2022年北京冬奥会体育遗产的消极影响源自2条路径:①疫情直接影响冬奥体育遗产;②疫情导致东京奥运会延迟,间接影响冬奥体育遗产。其对冬奥体育遗产的积极影响源自3条路径:①利益相关者因疫情改变工作模式,获得新知识;②疫情的消极影响产生替代效应;③利益相关者在应对疫情中形成新关系。基于此,从冬奥遗产工作常态化疫情防控的必要条件、中和消极影响的基本方法、开发积极影响的路径与方式等维度提出建议。     

The Olympic Games in London 2012 from a Swedish Media Perspective

The purpose of this article is to analyse the cultural information on (Olympic) sports presented in Swedish media coverage of the London Games 2012. A starting point for the analysis is that the media plays an important part in shaping a majority of the viewers' ideas about what sport is, and who is a real sportsman or sportswoman. In that way, the media gives cultural information on sports. The article focuses on a quantitative analysis of media representations, exploring how coverage intersects with gender and nationality, and devotes special attention to a comparison between the ways in which Sweden and Britain are represented in the media. The study demonstrates that there was a higher percentage of articles on Swedish sportswomen participating in the London Olympic Games compared to previous Olympics. A possible explanation is that the Swedish gender equality discourse has permeated the Swedish media, influencing it to cover sportswomen more than before. In addition, the cultural information presented to the Swedish readership about the London Olympic Games is, in short and oversimplified, nationalism rather than internationalism; that women, and especially Swedish women, practise sport; that track and field, swimming, handball, equestrian sports and football are very important and that they are performed by both men and women; and, finally, that in Britain, men play football and women are not involved in many sporting activities.     

抓住北京奥运会契机，发展我国群体事业

从奥运会和大众体育的本质属性看两者的关系,指出发展大众体育是奥林匹克运动的重要目标,奥运会也对大众体育产生着积极影响。从发展群众体育的角度来看待正在筹备中的北京奥运会,它为我国群众体育发展带来了机遇。进一步提出以北京奥运会促进我国群众体育发展的具体措施。     

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.     

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 Olimpiada Popular: Barcelona 1936, Sport and Politics in an Age of War,Dictatorship and Revolution

In an attempt to undermine the IOC Games of 1936, organisations linked to the international worker sport movement responded to an invitation from the Comité Organizador de la Olimpiada Popular (COOP) to take part in an alternative Olympics, the Olimpiada Popular, in Barcelona in July 1936. It is estimated that some 10,000 athletes and 25,000 visitors were in Barcelona to celebrate the Olimpiada. Following the Fascist rising, which began in Spanish Morocco on 17 July, and reached mainland Spain the following day, the games had to be abandoned, despite attempts by the organisers to go ahead with a truncated programme. This article will assess the importance of the Olimpiada Popular in the context of the worker sport movement during the inter-war years and its significance with regard to the international campaign to boycott the Berlin Olympics.     

2022北京冬奥会举办的历史选择、成功基石与风险应对

在国际奥林匹克运动改革趋势与中国社会主义现代化强国建设征程的双重背景下,2022北京冬奥会的成功举办具有十分重要的时代意义与广泛影响。采用文献资料法、逻辑分析法对2022北京冬奥会的历史定位、条件保障和关键风险进行学理探析,认为成功申办冬奥会是以习近平同志为核心的党中央做出的重大决策部署,符合新时代中国的发展实际,契合国际奥林匹克运动的改革动向;习近平总书记思想指引、社会主义制度优越性、北京双奥之城的丰厚积淀、中国文化的独特魅力等构成北京冬奥会成功举办的重要基石;2022北京冬奥会举办各方需要冷静研判、整合力量、积极化解全球新冠疫情冲击与少数国家团体抵制冬奥会的关键风险。     

Tokyo - Bidding for the Olympics and the Discrepancies of Nationalism

Since the first Modern Olympics in 1896 only a few cities have hosted or will host the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games more than once: London, Paris, Los Angeles, Athens and Tokyo. There is no doubt that the improvements in infrastructures and structural changes that were carried out for Tokyo in preparation for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics demonstrated that ‘Japan was experiencing remarkable economic growth’. The ‘development’ of Tokyo, 97% of the Olympic budget being earmarked for improvements to infrastructures, resulted in excessively centralised politics and economics. Looking at the bidding process to host the 2016 and 2020 Olympics, it can be seen that various expectations of sports are political in nature: from the political problem of remembering legacies as mere representations to the current situation of a nation basing its presence on involvement in the Olympics. The Sports Promotion Act enacted in 1961 was revised 50 years later, and policies on sport came to be regarded as national strategies. The new act became the basis for establishing the Sports Agency and specified governmental support for hosting the international sporting events it promotes. The time has come to seriously consider the necessity of critically arguing about nationalism, as well as how to determine the relationship between a nation and sport in terms of sport governance.     

央视国际北京奥运会新媒体转播的个案研究

阐述了央视国际北京奥运会新媒体传播的概况,以及央视国际北京奥运会转播的主要特征:实现了奥运传播效益的最大化,新媒体版权得到有效保护,网络安全工作得到了充分保障,成立奥运新媒体转播联盟,开展广泛的技术合作,实现了多种媒体、多终端的互动.对大型体育赛事新媒体转播的成功经验及启示:重视前期准备工作,反复进行演练,实现传播效益的最大化,重视后期版权资源的开发问题,力争获得政府、社会各界的大力支持与开展广泛合作,手机和公交移动电视以及其他户外移动媒体将会成为未来体育赛事传播的主要手段.     

A Theory of Sport and Politics

The study of international relations purports to explain how nation-states and individuals interact around the globe. Yet one major area of such interaction – international sport – remains exceedingly understudied. This in spite of the fact that countries have gone to war over sport, fought for sovereign recognition through sport, and that citizens around the world have it as a daily part of their lives. Indeed it is astounding that a phenomenon that matters so much has been so little studied by a field that purports to explain relations between states and humans around the world. These deficiencies became more apparent in 2008 when we witnessed the world's biggest country hosting the world's biggest sporting event. The Beijing Olympics, though entertaining and exciting, showed how little we have thought about the link between sport and international politics. This article introduces a framework for understanding the link between sport and politics. Its point of entry is to argue that many of the questions about how China portrayed itself during the Olympics and whether the Games marked China's rise as a responsible power cannot be answered without first understanding how sport in general is related to a country's political development, and its sense of nationhood. My arguments do not represent new breakthroughs in political science, rather I attempt merely to offer a systematic way of thinking about how sports and the Olympics matter in world politics through three inter-related causal pathways relating to a country's sense of self, its diplomacy, and its capacity for change.     

北京冬奥精神的内涵特征、时代意蕴与传承路径

北京冬奥会和冬残奥会作为我国重要历史节点的重大标志性活动,孕育了伟大的北京冬奥精神,北京冬奥精神蕴含宝贵的精神财富。对北京冬奥精神的内涵特征、时代意蕴和传承路径进行了探讨,以期加深对北京冬奥精神的理解,为深入贯彻习近平总书记关于北京冬奥精神的重要论述,实现中华民族的伟大复兴作出积极探索。研究认为,北京冬奥精神体现了奥林匹克精神的核心价值理念,彰显了中华体育精神的向上奋斗力量。民族性、人民性和先进性是北京冬奥精神的主要特征,具体表现为以实现中华民族伟大复兴为动力之源、以尊重人民主体地位为根本宗旨和以构建人类命运共同体为美好夙愿。在后奥运时代,坚持教育引导、重视文化熏陶、促进体育发展,把北京冬奥精神融入奥林匹克教育、民族文化建设和体育强国建设,是北京冬奥精神传承的重要路径。     

The Asian Games and Diplomacy in Asia: Korea–China–Russia

In this article, I will look at the impact of sport on relations between states. In particular, I will study the role that sport has played in enhancing (or damaging) diplomacy in international relations. I will look especially at the role that the Olympics and the Asian Olympics have played in promoting diplomatic breakthroughs between countries. My cases focus on the use of sports diplomacy to foster the end of the Cold War in Asia, studying the breakthroughs between Korea, China and Russia. I will then look at the Beijing Games of 2008 and Guangzhou Asian Games of 2010.     

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.