‘The Best Football Team,The Best Platoon’: The Role of Football in the Proletarianization of the British Expeditionary Force, 1914–1918

This article examines the role of football, alongside other working-class pastimes, in engendering the proletarianization of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) during the Great War. The article details how the nature and longevity of the Great War, allied to the associated need to raise a predominantly working-class ‘civilian army’, stimulated new approaches to sustaining morale which embraced working-class-derived values and customs. The raison d’être of the BEF's combat motivation (why a soldier should fight) increasingly depended upon workplace-centred notions of solidarity and mutuality. In military terms, these proletarian set of motivational influences became known as ‘loyalty to the primary group’, and the proletarian sport of football became one of the major vehicles for their diffusion. Concurrently, troop entertainments and recreations became dominated by some of the temporary escapes of proletarian culture – most notably organized football tournaments, but also music hall, cinema, fairs and trips to the seaside. By 1918 the BEF was decidedly proletarian, not just in its composition but also in its values and customs.     

The 2012 Olympic Badminton Scandal: Match-Fixing,Code of Conduct Documents,and Women’s Sport

Abstract

At the 2012 Olympic Games, eight badminton players were disqualified from the women’s doubles tournament for intentionally losing matches in the group stage. The incident marks the largest mass disqualification of athletes from multiple countries for match-fixing at the Olympic Games in the twenty-first century. Significantly, it is also the first time that female athletes have been disqualified from a Summer Olympic Games for match-fixing not related to betting or gambling. This essay weaves together two interdependent arguments. First, it is suggested that the incident can be understood through the lens of three separate but interconnected issues: the history of match-fixing, the growth of code of conduct documents in sports, and the regulation of women’s bodies in sports. Second, it is argued that the athletes’ gender is a critical element of the incident. The primary aims of the article are to position the 2012 badminton scandal as a key moment in the history of match-fixing and to suggest that the incident is important for future research and policy creation.     

The Development of Social Media and its Impact on the Intercultural Exchange of the Olympic Movement, 2004–2012

Abstract

The development of social media, in the form of Internet and mobile platforms, has rapidly flourished in the early twenty-first century. The changes in broadcasting forms of the first three Olympic Games of the twenty-first century, Athens 2004, Beijing 2008 and London 2012, have corresponded and reflected the speedy expansion of this social media. This phenomenon invites not only attention to the historical transformation of the roles of media for the Olympic Games but also reflection on the concept of culture and intercultural exchange based on this phenomenon. This paper studies the relationships between social media, cultural exchange and the Olympic Games in the context of globalization. It argues that the characteristics of social media as ‘participation; openness; conversation; communities; connectedness’ will meet up with the goal of the Olympic Movement and aid the realization of the Olympic Ideal.     

The ‘inclusion’ of elite athletes with disabilities in the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games: An exploratory analysis of British newspaper coverage

The XVII 2002 Commonwealth Games held in Manchester, England, was the first major international multi-sport event to include elite athletes with disabilities (EADs) in its main sports programme and medal table. In this exploratory article we seek to examine some of the complex issues surrounding the inclusion of EADs in the Manchester Games by analysing the coverage afforded those athletes by six national British newspapers. The results suggest that: (1) there was a tendency by the British media to discuss the performances of EADs in terms more-or-less consistent with a medicalized understanding of disability; (2) the inclusion of EADs in the Games signalled the ‘end of a sporting apartheid’ between ‘able-bodied’ athletes and EADs; and (3) that the participation of EADs in the Games was said to reflect the alleged growing ‘inclusion’ of people with disabilities in the wider society more broadly. The paper concludes by discussing some of the unintended consequences of including EADs in the Games, including those brought about by the classification system used to group athletes into events according to their particular impairment. Those which were associated with the supposed need for greater media coverage of EADs in ‘able-bodied’ sports competitions such as the Commonsealth Games.     

‘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.     

Acting global,thinking local: ‘Liquid imperialism’ and the multiple meanings of the 1954 British Empire & Commonwealth Games

Challenging earlier scholarship that has suggested that the Commonwealth Games contributed unproblematically to imperial and commonwealth unity, this article explores the multiple, and conflicting, contemporary local meanings of the 1954 British Empire & Commonwealth Games held in Vancouver, Canada. In addition to emphasising the sporting and economic dimensions of the Games, the article introduces the concept of ‘liquid imperialism’ to highlight the complexity of Canada's imperial connection in the post-war era. By examining not only official pronouncements, but also oppositional voices and the manner in which the Games were appropriated by a number of competing interests, the article argues for a more complex understanding of the Games' cultural influence while examining the nature of Canada's imperial connection during the middle of the 20th century.     

‘Only the British Appear to be Making a Fuss’: The Science of Success and the Myth of Amateurism at the Mexico Olympiad, 1968

In the autumn of 1965 the British Olympic Association organised a party of doctors, scientists and athletes to investigate the effects of altitude on athletic performance. As the first major example of ‘sports medicine’ research in the history of the BOA, the Mexican Research Project is multiply symbolic. This paper explores the significance of the research project, and the rich rhetoric of ‘amateurism’ that was used both to support and attack the IOC's decision to hold the 1968 Olympic Games at altitude. As well as being a significant moment in the formation of sports medicine as a distinct specialty in the UK, the Mexican Research Project also demonstrates the tensions and trends in the international sporting and political scenes.     

Modern Weightlifting and Emerging Communities of Malayan and Singaporean Weightlifters during Pre-Second World War and Post-War British Colonial Rule, 1900s–1959: Competing in the Asian Games,Empire and Commonwealth Games,and Olympic Games

British Malaya consisted the Straits Settlements (Penang, Malacca, and Singapore), Federated Malay States (Perak, Selangor, Negri Sembilan, and Pahang), and the Unfederated Malay States (Perlis, Kedah, Kelantan, Trengganu, and Johore). This study attempts to document the development of weightlifting into two periods. During the first period of the early twentiethcentury the wealthy Straits Chinese community promoted weightlifting in the Penisula. As the Malayan economy grew and produced a working class population, the other Chinese and Malay communities set up clubs to practice weightlifting. The Singapore Amateur Weight Lifting Federation (SAWLF) was founded in 1934 to organize competitions according to the British Amateur Weight Lifting Association (BAWLA) regulations. In 1936 a Chinese weightlifter represented China at the 1936 Olympic Games. The second period occurred after the Japanese occupation (1942–1945). Singapore was separated from the rest of British Malaya in 1946. The Singapore Olympic and Sports Council (SOSC) was established in 1947. The Federation of Malaya Olympic Council was founded in 1953 and Malayan Amateur Weight Lifting Federation (MAWLF) in 1955. The Malayan and Singapore weightlifters competed separately at the Asian Games, Empire and Commonwealth Games, and the Olympic Games. Later, Malaya and Singapore became independent states in 1957 and 1959.     

The History of Modern Organized Badminton and the Men’s Team Thomas Cup Tournaments, 1948–1979

Modern organized international badminton began with the founding of the International Badminton Federation (IBF) in 1934, consisting of nine founding member associations. The inaugural men’s Thomas Cup tournament began in 1948 when 10 countries took part. Malaya won the Cup four times in 1949, 1952, 1955, and 1967. When Indonesia took part in the tournament for the first time in 1957, there were 19 competing teams. Indonesia won the triannual tournament seven times from 1957 to 1979. Throughout the 11 Thomas Cup tournaments, only two Asian countries have won the Cup. The only European country, Denmark, qualified to play in the finals five times without a single win. Malaya (later known as Malaysia), Indonesia, and Denmark became leading Thomas Cup teams because they produced singles and doubles players that won many All-England Badminton Championship titles. The winners of these titles were generally considered the world champions. The key sources of information for this research consisted of the IBF annual statutes for listing of participating nations, tournament programmes, and rare specialized books on badminton and the Thomas Cup competition. English language newspapers such as the Singapore Free Press and the Straits Times published historical match results for checking the secondary data collected.     

‘See These Brilliant Exponents of the Game’: The England Women’s Hockey Team Tour of Australia and New Zealand, 1914

Abstract

This paper argues that the 1914 England Women’s hockey tour of Australia and New Zealand has an ambiguous place within wider progress narratives of women’s sport. It created some important sporting precedents, being the first time Australian and New Zealand women’s teams had taken the field. The media reception of the tour was mixed. While the social pages and some of match commentary focused on the appearance of the players, the majority presented the tour as a worthy sporting spectacle. Indeed in the final match the New Zealand team was billed as the ‘All Blacks’, the name normally associated with national men’s teams. Moreover, the symbolic importance of the tour was enhanced by the fact that the tourists were accorded the same rites and rituals accorded men’s touring teams to New Zealand: parliamentary and civic receptions; playing in the leading sporting venues and being linked to imperial bonding.     

‘Play With Us,Not Against Us’: The Debate About Play Days in the Regulation of Women's Sport

During the 1920s, women physical educators promoted play days as an alternative model of sport for women that emphasized participation over competition. Play days were special events where girls played a variety of games and sports in teams comprised of girls from different schools. Winning was not important to the success of the day but social activities were. Women physical educators believed this model would ensure that women's sport avoided the abuses found in men's athletics while staying within the boundaries of acceptable gender and class behaviour. The women's leadership worked diligently to market play days as the correct way for women to play sports. They were quite successful with schools and colleges but not in other sport settings. By the 1960s, social forces began to erode the barriers between the play day model and the competitive model. The legacy of play days was at best a mixed one.     

‘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.     

‘The Product of the Town Itself’: Community Representation and the Stanley Cup Hockey Challenges of the Kenora Thistles, 1903–1907

This case study of community representation in Canadian hockey analyzes media accounts of four Stanley Cup hockey series played by the Kenora Thistles between 1903 and 1907. It examines newspaper coverage of the Thistles hockey club as it moved from an amateur team represented by players with roots in their home community to a professional aggregation that included paid imports from outside the town. The essay explores the relationship between sport and civic identity during a key time of change in top-level hockey. The dominant narrative surrounding the Thistles portrayed players as true ‘members’ of the town of Kenora. Even after the turn to professionalism, narratives of small-town, amateur purity and close connections to the community characterized coverage of the Thistles as they pursued the Stanley Cup. At the same time, however, a growing emphasis on securing the personnel that could ensure victory led to praise for the club’s efforts to please its supporters, or ‘customers’. As a result, this study of notions of civic representation in early hockey provides insight into the process by which sports teams came to be viewed as symbolic representatives of their communities.