Can Sport Form a National-Socialist Elite? The Example of SS Sports

Heinrich Himmler, leader of the Schutzstaffel (SS, Protection Squadron), regarded sports and sports competitions as efficient means to strengthen the importance of his organisation. The members of the SS were obligated to obtain the sports badges of the Sturmabteilung (SA, Storm Detachment) and the ‘German Sports Badge’, thereby – according to national socialist ideology – promoting a ‘natural selection’ and guaranteeing the formation of an elitist troop. The SS wanted to ensure they could successfully compete with other organisations during nationwide sports events and to nominate 50% of the members of the German Olympic Team. Moreover, the athletic rivalry between SS and SA continued in the struggle over the leadership within German sports. The SS tried to occupy as many positions of party officials as possible and consequently SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich saw himself as the legitimate successor of the Reichssportführer,1 ^1. On April 28, 1933, Hans von Tschammer und Osten was first named Reichskommissar für Turnen und Sport (Commissioner for Gymnastics and Sports of the Reich). On July 19, 1933, he was elevated from Hitler to Reichssportführer and the whole sports sphere in Germany was placed under his power. the leader of the national socialistic sports system.     

Well-being in competitive sports—The feel-good factor? A review of conceptual considerations of well-being

This paper summarizes the topic of well-being as it applies to competitive athletes, with a particular focus on definitional and conceptual issues. Established definitions within research on human happiness and flourishing based on the hedonic and eudaimonic perspectives are contrasted against definitions applied within sport psychology. The majority of the reviewed sport psychology studies either failed to define well-being or used a variety of labels to describe the construct (e.g., subjective well-being, psychological well-being, mental well-being). A large number of assessments have been used to assess well-being among athletes, but most were applied with only a weak theoretical rationale and did not distinguish between well-being at the global and sport levels. It is concluded that well-being studies within sport psychology have been hampered by conceptual ambiguity, which makes it difficult to compare results across studies and generalize findings in order to develop a sound theoretical base of knowledge. Future research needs to more explicitly define the conceptual framework of well-being and the level (global or context-specific) on which the construct is investigated. Toward this goal, an integrated model is presented to provide a conceptual well-being structure in sport studies, and future directions for research are discussed.     

The International Boxing Union (1913–1946): A European Sports and/or Political Failure?

In 1913, some interested Frenchmen, aided by a Belgian launched the International Boxing Union (IBU), the only body whose primary purpose was to govern the sport at a world level. In the immediate post-war years, this initiative, continuously driven by Frantz Reichel and Paul Rousseau, foundered despite the brief participation of the English, through the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBC), and of some Americans. But the IBU could never establish a monopoly over the diverse international community involved in professional boxing. The USA, in particular, was itself unable to regulate the sport at a national level and this helped confine the IBU to having a purely European role. The involvement of the fascist powers of Italy and Germany and the improvement in relations between the BBBC and the IBU reinforced this continental perspective as did the failure of the World pugilistic congress at Rome in 1938 to establish an unified international organization. The Second World War witnessed the final transformation of the IBU into a European organization under Italian control. In reality, though, the change of name in 1946 to the European Boxing Union was merely the final confirmation of a transformation that had occurred many years before.     

The Finitude of Sports Performances and the Infinite Number of Reproducible Images – A Case Study on Sporting Heroes in Twentieth-Century Germany

Modern sport regards itself as the self-evident representation of the escalation principle: faster, higher, further! As a system of social action, however, it seems to have reached its boundaries, since potentials for growth have been exhausted following the successful recruitment of women, young people and lower social classes and the triumphant conquest of distant regions of the world. The article asks whether it is possible to compensate for the social limits to the growth of sport, or even surmount them by increasing the production of images instead of increasing and intensifying social action. The study is carried out using the example of the sporting hero in Germany in the twentieth century, i.e. ‘in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’ (Walter Benjamin).     

Michael Novak’s alternate route: political realism in The Joy of Sports

This work seeks to honor Michael Novak’s contribution to sport ethics by returning to his seminal work, The Joy of Sports. Novak runs an alternate route in developing his ethic, drawing largely on the school of political realism, particularly the work of Reinhold Niebuhr. In so doing, he offers a distinctive lens through which to approach to the myriad ethical issues in sport, including those related to competition, violence, and engagement in foul play. The essay outlines four core dimensions of realism within Novak’s larger corpus in order to elucidate their unfolding within The Joy of Sports. It also contributes to an understanding of how political realism might be appropriated for sport ethics.     

The Control of Space and the Development of Sport: A Case Study of Twenty Two Sports in the Mining Communities of East Northumberland, 1800–1914.

This paper is a continuation of my ongoing efforts to wrestle ‘With the theoretical implications of the mass of empirical work’ I have done on sport in the mining communities of East Northumberland during the nineteenth century. The paper attempts to bring some coherence to the histories of tenty two sports by focusing on a unifying theme. In fact, there were several themes that emerged from the data; the central importance of the 1870s, the increasing importance of various social institutions, the impact of economic conditions on sport and the role of several individuals in contouring the social life of the mining communities. However, there was one theme that was more important than any other; ownership, control and actual use of space. The paper will not examine the complex relationships between these elements except to say that the relationships between ownership, control and actual use were a contested domain. Rather I will use the actual control of space as my unifying theme and consider the different roles of those who controlled space had on the development of sport.     

A whitewashed curriculum? The construction of race in contemporary PE curriculum policy

Analyses of curricula in a range of countries show how they tend to reinforce, rather than challenge, popular theories of racism. To date, we know little about the contribution of physical education (PE) curriculum policy to the overall policy landscape. This paper examines the construction of race and racism in two national contexts (Norway and England) as a means of putting race and anti-racism on the PE policy research agenda. It adopts a critical whiteness perspective to analyse how whiteness, as a system of privilege, contributes to the racialisation of valued knowledge in PE and asks, who potentially benefits and/or is marginalised within the learning spaces available in the texts? The discourse analysis reveals that two discursive techniques of whiteness combine to privilege white, Eurocentric knowledge content. Unmarked white PE practices and students are constructed as universal, normative and contingent. As a result, non-white PE practices and students are positioned on the margins in contemporary policy texts. By revealing the racialisation processes evident in the texts, we aim to trouble the profession's taken-for-granted truths about race in PE as integral to working towards the development of an antiracist subject.     

Mixing Business with Leisure? The Football Club Doctor,Sports Medicine and the Voluntary Tradition

The football club doctor has traditionally been a role fulfilled by a local general practitioner on a casual basis over a long period. Since the 1990s, due to football's accelerated commercialization, a number of clubs have appointed full-time doctors with specialist sports medicine knowledge. This article explores the origins and development of this role in its wider social context since the late nineteenth century and argues that initially club doctors were part of a voluntary tradition. In addition, the development of the role has reflected the nature of sports medicine in Britain and more particularly football, as well as highlighting the changing demands and pressures of the job in light of growing commercial demands.     

‘The Winner Takes it All’: Values and Benefits of Israeli Sports Gambling Advertisements

Sports gambling is a well-established practice in Israel, whose beginnings can be traced to 1951. In recent years, the activities of the Israel Sports Betting Board (ISBB), also known as the ‘Toto Commission’, have become extremely popular with the public at large, and especially with sports fans. The study examines the changing advertising messages and creative appeals featured in the ISBB’s various advertising campaigns throughout Israeli history, and specifically the broad social meanings that can be inferred from these campaigns. The findings illustrate how significant structures of meaning in advertising function as reflections of the state of sports and society in Israel and as representations of some of the most salient phenomena in these domains. For example, for many years advertisements have been dominated by male presence, reflected primarily in the featured characters and language representations. Also prominent are representations of militarism as well as global biases, which are illustrated by the use of English in the local Israeli gambling brand name (‘Winner’), for example.     

The media construction of the sports’ elite from the European perspective: an analysis of the European Symposium of Sports 2010

Since the first Olympic Games, the figure of the athlete has roused enormous passion. One may wonder if nowadays the cultural mechanisms that produce them are analogous and perform the same functions as in the past. This article aims to answer these questions. For this purpose, we have relied on the analysis of the discourse from different actors in the 2010 European Symposium of Sports “Thinking Sports, Transforming Society: The EU in favor of citizenship for the XXI Century”. The results will provide relevant information about the responsibility of the mass media in the production of a sports spectacle, the role of the big brands and the exemplarity of the sports’ elite. In this manner, the need was conveyed of producing a different view of sports, so that in the contest between humanistic values and materialistic values, those who contribute to the welfare of the citizens could achieve glory.     

Close Strangers or Strange Friends? The London Olympics and Anglo-Norwegian Sports Relations in a Historical Perspective

This article studies similarities and disparities between the two nations England and Norway as they could be observed before and during the London 2012 Olympics, and discuss them in the historical perspective of geopolitical and sportive relations. The main perspective is how these relations have been seen and experienced from Norway. The article also studies whether the London Olympics of 2012 did present new forms of relationships between the two geographical neighbours. The article discusses the role of ball games, preferably team handball at the 2012 Games, as one example of where sporting interests differ. The article reflects upon these matters in a historical context. It builds upon traditional historical methods, document and media analysis. It also looks at the 2012 London Olympics against the background of the former London Games of 1908 and 1948, and the overall historical sports relations between England, ‘land of sport’ and a small country like Norway, who generally has been on the receiving end of these interchanges. Such asymmetric relationships invite to a critical use of perspectives like cultural imperialism and post-colonialism. The article discusses whether such perspectives can be fruitful also when one discusses matters between the so-called First World nations. As the title of the article indicates, Norway and England are both close, politically and culturally, while also being strangers to one another, e.g. in parts of the sports culture. The 2012 Olympics seemed to reinforce this impression.     

Marking Physical Literacy or Missing the Mark on Physical Literacy? A Conceptual Critique of Canada’s Physical Literacy Assessment Instruments

Margaret Whitehead first introduced the concept of physical literacy over 20 years ago. Since that introduction, physical literacy has been gaining in popularity within many Western physical education and sport contexts. This is particularly true within Canada, where physical literacy has been embraced by two of the nation’s most notable national physical education and sport organizations (i.e., Physical and Health Education Canada, Canadian Sport for Life). As physical literacy has been generating interest and action by these organizations, they, and others, have been quick to also seek methods by which to measure it. However, it is our observation that despite the promises and possibilities of physical literacy resources, initiatives, and programs, Canada’s most accessible physical literacy assessment instruments are wanting for focused and direct contemplation. In this article, we offer a conceptual critique of the physical literacy assessment instruments being developed for and practices being encouraged within Canadian school communities. Our contemplations consider three physical literacy assessment instruments, and they are focused, principally, upon usability, trustworthiness, and fidelity to Whitehead’s conception of physical literacy. We conclude that the instruments differ in their ease of use and usefulness, some are lacking, markedly, with respect to trustworthiness, and some fail to capture physical literacy as Whitehead intended it. Finally, in light of these conclusions, we offer suggestions for future practice and inquiry.     

Education for the Aesthetics of Sport in Higher Education in the Sports Sciences – The Particular Case of the Portuguese-Speaking Countries

In this paper it is argued why and how the aesthetics of sport should be included in higher education curricula in sport sciences. It is claimed that within the scope of philosophy of sport, aesthetics has its own role to play, since it provides a ‘sensible knowledge’ that should not be undervalued, and philosophers of sport must be aware of this. Providing examples from Portugal and Brazil, it is enunciated how these countries have been taking seriously and incorporated (if only partially) inquiry and education concerning the aesthetics of sport. Through an interpretative analysis, it is argued about the adoption of the aesthetics of sport in academic curricula and also in the syllabus of sport philosophy and aesthetics of sport courses in the context of higher education in the Faculty of Sport at the University of Porto.     

Friendship—Development—Surpass——The Achievements of the International Cultural Exchange of Ji'nan Acrobatic Troupe

Chinese Power conquered Atlantic west coast once again on Feb.5,2005.In the 17~(th) Premier Juvenile Com- petition of Monte Carlo International Circus Festival,the act High Chairs on the Spinning Table from Ji'nan Acro- batic Troupe with the full marks from nine juries,on behalf of China,won the highest award“Gold K Award”and the“Princess Cup”.