Boycott,Exclusion or Non-participation? Hungary in the Years of the 1920 and 1984 Olympic Games

Sport is a double-edged sword: it has the potential to bring nations together but it can also demonstrate and exacerbate the political tensions and conflicts of the world. Sporting events, especially the Olympic Games, can increase understanding, celebrate commonalities, facilitate cooperation and bridge differences but they can also provide a stage for political rivalries and struggles. This article critically compares the backgrounds of Hungary's non-participation in the 1920 Antwerp and the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Games, given the label ‘boycott’ by the international community.

The unique international political circumstances and Hungary's dependent position restricted the role, strength and efficacy of the contemporary Hungarian sport diplomacy to decide freely. The research implicitly describes the objectives and targets of the actual international alignments, the policy of the Hungarian regime and the processes which resulted in the involuntary non-participation.     

Extraterritorial Outlet of Korean Nationalism in the Far Eastern Championship Games, 1913–1934

The Far Eastern Championship Games (FECG), held between 1913 and 1934, were a precursor to the Asian Games and among the first international athletic competitions in the Asian region. The FECG were launched in Manila, the Philippines, and supported by the Young Mens' Christian Association. Three countries participated in the Games: the Philippines, Japan and China. It is noteworthy that Korea, one of most powerful sports entities in Asia now, also participated in the FECG, but as part of the Japanese team. Although Korea was a powerless Japanese colony during the era, this paper argues that Korea's participation in the FECG permitted the colonized country to express its nationalism and become the cornerstone of modern sports development in Korea.     

Sport and Politics: The Cultural Revolution in the Chinese Sports Ministry, 1966–1976

Abstract

The Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) was one of the most violent political movements to have taken place in modern Chinese history. Sport was not immune from this political storm. In the first phase of the revolution (1966–1972), the country’s sport system was brought down by the Red Guards and revolutionary rebels. Athletes, coaches and officials who dared to challenge the Maoists were arrested and tortured, and suffered greatly as a result of their ‘counter-revolutionary’ status. In the second phase of the revolution (1972–1976), the Sports Ministry became a battlefront in the power struggle within the PRC leadership. This paper studies the relationships between sport, politics and power struggle during the Cultural Revolution. It points out that what happened in the Sports Ministry demonstrates how China’s sport system was linked to and affected by top-level power struggles and ideological conflicts. It also reflected how ordinary people’s lives were affected by the revolution.     

German Sports Shoes,Basketball, and Hip Hop: The Consumption and Cultural Significance of the adidas ‘Superstar’, 1966–1988

During the 1960s, adidas was the world's leading sports footwear manufacturer. Based in Bavaria and with a history stretching to the 1920s, the company dominated elite sports through aggressive promotion and innovative shoes that catered to athletes' needs. The ‘Superstar’ is one of the company's most successful models, still in production over 40 years since its launch in the late 1960s. Designed to wrest control of the basketball market from American rubber companies, in the two decades that followed it developed cultural meanings far beyond those envisaged by adidas, becoming associated with hip hop, a youth music and subculture born in 1970s New York. Arguing that design is shaped by use and consumption is allied to practice, this article examines the processes by which the ‘Superstar’ came into being, placing it into a wider context of changes within basketball, corporate ambition, and international trade. Tracing the actions and influence of young consumers in New York, it also considers how new ways of thinking about the shoe arose, spread, and were eventually commodified by adidas. It argues that a product's meaning can never be fixed, that producers and consumers are engaged in a constant dialogue over how things are used and perceived.     

The National Games and National Identity in the Republic of China, 1910–1948

The significance of sport, especially mega sport events, has been widely acknowledged as contributing to the development of nationalism and national identity.1^?1. Alan Bairner, Sport, Nationalism and Globalization: European and North American Perspectives (New York: Suny Press, 2001). The use of the National Games by the nationalist government to promote Chinese nationalism and manage national identity in the Republic of China from 1910 to 1948 is examined in this paper. It begins with an interpretation of how Western sport was introduced to China, how China achieved its sovereignty of sport and how sport aided national salvation and nation-building. It examines the birth and the development of Chinese National Games, and the interplays of National Games and nationalism in the context of political and economic perspectives. It concludes that the promotion of National Games met the demands of China's national salvation and the principles of Chinese nationalism such as sovereignty, territorial integrity and patriotic sentiments. The National Games in the Republican China era played a role that was more than that of a sport event but one of shaping Chinese independent nationhood and national identity.     

Cultural Imperialism,Nationalism, and the Modernization of Physical Education and Sport in China, 1840–1949

Abstract

This paper examines how missionary educational institutions and Young Men’s Christian Association physical education and sport programmes, in conjunction with the nation-building project of the Nationalist government, transformed and modernized physical education and sport in China from 1840 to 1937. The concepts of cultural imperialism and nationalism are central to this study, to understand how the two interacted in the process of the development of modern physical education and sports in China. This paper argues that the cultural imperialism model is ineffective for an understanding of the impact of missionaries on Chinese society and the subsequent transformation and indigenization of physical education and sport in modern China. More precisely, the way in which Chinese nationalism played an active role in resisting, selecting, and reshaping the cultural products (modern physical education and sport) evidences a process that was an active negotiation, rather than a passive consumption, of Western culture. This said, Christian physical education and sport programmes had long-lasting effects on how physical education and sports became the way to define ‘modern’ bodies as they were incorporated into the wider education programme of modernizing China under the Nationalist government.     

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 Whole Place is in Pandemonium': Dick Tiger Versus Gene Fullmer III,and the Consumption of Boxing in Nigeria

This article focuses on the third fight between Dick Tiger and Gene Fullmer that took place in Ibadan, Nigeria, as a lens to view the consumption of leisure and sport in Nigeria in the years after Nigerian independence in 1960. More specifically, this fight not only highlights the importance of sport and boxing to Nigerians but also shows how Nigerians consumed boxing primarily in newspapers, as well as at boxing venues, and through the ‘performance' in the ring. Using archival research, oral interviews and newspaper coverage of the fight, this article analyses the collection and valorisation of fighters' pictures, how the ‘performance' of boxing and ‘the ring' were sites of consumption and places where ideals of manliness, sportsmanship and fair play were contested and recreated, and how sports fandom surrounding boxing was an important part of everyday life that was furiously discussed, debated, consumed and enjoyed.     

‘The Cradle of American Champions,Women Champions Swim Champions’: Charlotte Epstein,Gender and Jewish Identity,and the Physical Emancipation of Women in Aquatic Sports

Charlotte Epstein advocated ardently for American women's competitive swimming and expanded swimming for women nationally and internationally in the early twentieth century. In her leadership as chair of the Athletic Branch of the National Women's Life Saving League (1913), and in battling the United States Olympic Committee to allow girls from the swim club she founded, the Women's Swimming Association of New York (1917), to compete in the 1920 Olympics, Epstein as an athlete and administrator advanced women's aquatic sports. This article explores the importance of Charlotte Epstein, an American Jewish woman, and the gender and ethnic contexts of her efforts in increasing women's participation in various swimming events. Epstein's ties with Jewish organizations such as the Young Women's Hebrew Association and the Maccabiah Games shaped her identity in aquatic sports. This analysis of Epstein's activism in swimming, such as in promoting swim races for suffrage and bathing-suit reform, illustrates her vital role in women's physical emancipation in the water and in American culture.     

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.     

The Rise of Modern Sport in Fin de Siècle São Paulo: Reading Elite and Bourgeois Sensibilities,the Popular Press,and the Creation of Cultural Capital

In the period between 1890 and 1910, British sport flourished in a rapidly modernizing Brazilian city. São Paulo boomed as a coffee export centre for the global market, growing into the second largest metropolis in Brazil. New businesses and industries developed and thousands of immigrants from around the world migrated to the expanding South American city. Along with the flow of new residents came new ideas, new attitudes, and new lifestyles. British sporting customs particularly attracted the attention of São Paulo’s wealthy elites and expanding middle classes who saw in these habits the potential to advertize their commitment to modern ideals of civilization and order. The new British-style sporting clubs that sprang up in São Paulo conferred the cultural capital that the leadership castes needed to gain and maintain their hegemony in the city’s rapidly changing social landscape. São Paulo’s press circulated these new sensibilities and revealed that the city’s sporting enthusiasts both reproduced Westernized norms and re-signified athletic sensibilities to fit Brazilian social patterns.     

‘One of the Worst Statistics in British Sport,and Wholly Unacceptable’: The Contribution of Privately Educated Members of Team GB to the Summer Olympic Games, 2000–2012

Much has been published on sport in Britain's private schools of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, but no research of modern policy, practice and outcomes has been conducted since the 1970s. Assessment of the contribution of these schools to Team GB at recent summer Olympic Games – and to international sport in general – by politicians, sports leaders and physical education lobbyists has thus largely been informed by speculation. Future government policy on physical education and sport in schools may therefore be influenced by flawed evidence. This article examines the schooling of all members of Team GB for the summer Olympic Games of 2000–2012, and compares the contribution of its privately educated and state-educated members in terms of performance in competition and medals won. Online research using the websites of schools, sports associations, governing bodies of sport, Olympic associations and the media, together with biographies of sportsmen and sportswomen, provided information about each team member's schooling, sporting background and Olympic record. The speculation was inaccurate – exaggerating the proportion of privately educated members of Team GB but underestimating their contribution.     

The Diffusion and Transmission of Football in the Straits Settlements and Malay States, 1874–1899: Early Inter-Settlement Games and Inter-State Competition Among European Clubs and Teams

Abstract

Since 1786 the British occupied Penang, Malacca, and Singapore known as the Straits Settlements. They began indirect rule in Selangor, Perak, Negri Sembilan, and Pahang to form the Federated Malay States in 1896. Cricket and later, football was played by the military and European clubs like the Singapore Cricket Club, the Penang Cricket Club, Selangor Club Lake Club, and Perak Club. The Chinese and Malay in the Straits formed their clubs along ethnic lines. The outstation Malay States clubs of the Kajang Recreation Club, Klang Club, and Malay States Guides had a mixed team of European and Natives. The football tournaments in Singapore were exclusively for Europeans. While the Rodger Football Cup in Selangor was for various non-European teams located in the many districts around Kuala Lumpur. After the railway lines began linking in land towns of Kuala Lumpur, Taiping to Seremban to their respective ports, football teams travelled to other settlements to play matches, facilitating the growth of inter-settlement matches. It enabled the Federated Malay States to organized the first inter-state league in 1899. The diffusion and transmission of football in the Malay States should be seen in context social and political changes in the Malaya Peninsula and its economic growth.     

Now you see,now you don’t … the influence of visual occlusion on racket and ball kinematics in the tennis serve

The serve is considered amongst the most important strokes in tennis. Not surprisingly, the development of a mechanically consistent and proficient serve is paramount. Correspondingly, drills that involve players serving with their eyes closed are thought to promote mechanical consistency. The purpose of this study was therefore to contrast the effect of the removal of visual feedback on ball and racket kinematics in the serve. A 10-camera 500-Hz VICON MX motion analysis system recorded the service actions of eight elite young players as they performed three serves with eyes open and three serves with eyes closed. Removal of vision resulted in considerable differences in both racket and ball kinematics, with players failing to make contact on 16 of 24 serves. Temporally, the preparation phase was significantly shorter with eyes closed. Spatially, the ball was located 6.5 cm further to the right at zenith, and 13 cm higher at impact with eyes closed. These results highlight that the serve is not entirely pre-programmable, and that visual feedback is critical to the spatiotemporal regulation of the serve. In turn, coaches need to be aware of the implications of modifying visual feedback in serve, and ensure that the consequence is congruent with their intent.     

Lacrosse History,a History of One Sport or Two? A Comparative Analysis of Men's Lacrosse and Women's Lacrosse in the United States

Men's lacrosse and women's lacrosse share a name, but their histories differ. Both sports developed and became organised in close concert with the race, class and gender expectations of the eras. As a result, the sports began with rules that reflected those norms. Over time, the sports developed separately and generated unique forms, even as they sustained moments of interaction. Therefore, men's lacrosse and women's lacrosse are different sports. Using comparisons as the mode through which to view the sports, this article explores the organised beginnings of men's lacrosse and women's lacrosse to establish that the sports began and continued within identity-based norms. Through the discussion of the practical distinctions and critical understandings of the differences between the games, the author poses that these dissimilarities are relevant in considerations of the separate sports as they continue to change in the larger US sporting context. As sports such as basketball demonstrate, these arguments matter because broad-scale comparisons of women's sports to men's frequently render women's sport participants, and the sports they play, inferior. Notably, women's lacrosse participants also employed comparisons to distinguish and claim their history as unique from that of men's lacrosse. A comparative analysis highlights points of disjuncture between the sports and contextualises the importance of gender in the articulations of difference.     

Sport and the welfare state in Europe1 This article is based on an intercultural comparative project on “Sport and Welfare Policies” including six European countries (Denmark,Germany, France,Great Britain,Italy and Spain), financed by the Club of Cologne (Heinemann, 1999).

Abstract

The article analyses the mutual interconnection between welfare states and sports systems in six European countries (Denmark, Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Spain). It seeks to address, on the one hand, questions such as the following: what were the underlying rationales and ideologies evident in the justification of sports policy in welfare frameworks? What cultural values, historical contexts, and political configurations were evident in the specific arrangements of a given welfare state and its governmental welfare poicy infrastructure? On the other hand it portrays the legal, institutional and organisational similarities and dissimilarities which exist in a given country between the institutional structure of the sport system and the organisation of the welfare state, and seeks to identify to what extent comparable structural elements have developed, and where dissimilarities can be found.

This paper illustrates how, where sports and welfare systems in different European countries are derived from different historical roots and are based on different ideologies and organisational structures, the welfare state maintains a different position and influence on sport. To the extent that the traditional welfare states of western industrialised countries are heading towards crises in terms of increasing funding requirements and legitimation deficits, the sport system will also be affected by the immediate consequences of such developments and will be required to adjust and adapt.