Senior men’s pacing profiles at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships

Abstract

The aim of this study was to describe pacing profiles used by senior men competing in the World Cross Country Championships. Lap times were collated for 1273 competitors across 10 races. Each individual’s lap times were expressed as a percentage of the eventual winner’s lap times, and athletes were grouped according to finishing position. Most athletes started the race by following the pace set by the leaders but slowed relative to the winner with each successive lap. The gold medallists were faster than the other medallists only after the final lap (P < 0.001). Most athletes who dropped out (61%) had completed the first lap within 105% of the winner’s lap time. The medallists used a strategy of running close to the front from an early stage, but did not separate themselves from other top 15 finishers until halfway, with the eventual medal positions decided even closer to the finish. Athletes finishing further down had positive pacing profiles relative to the winner, possibly because of early fatigue caused by a relatively quick first lap. Athletes should note that a patient approach during the early stages can benefit not only the mass field but also those who aim to win a medal.     

Comparing American soccer dialogues: social media commentary Surrounding the 2014 US men’s and 2015 US women’s World Cup teams

Abstract

Mega sporting events such as the World Cup have been found to stimulate categorization of in-groups and out-groups among fans. While self-categorization correlates with gender, the sport of soccer also facilitates nationalistic categorization. The World Cup features nation vs. nation competition while making gender a non-variable as the men and women compete in separate tournaments in separate years. This study examined 33,529 tweets illustrating social media match commentary involving US teams and opponents on Twitter during the 2014 and 2015 World Cups. Results revealed US teams were more likely to be described in regard to attributions of success and failure, while opposition teams were more likely to receive personal and physical attributions. Conversely, no differences were found between US Men’s and Women’s teams in regard to characterizations of success and failure, but revealed the Women’s team was more likely to receive personal and physical characterizations.     

Promoting women’s soccer through social media: how the US federation used Twitter for the 2011 World Cup

This study examines the coverage given to the US women’s national soccer team by its governing body, the US Soccer Federation (USSF), immediately before, during and immediately after the 2011 World Cup. Content analysis of two of the USSF’s Twitter accounts showed that although the differences in both quantity and quality of coverage between men’s and women’s soccer are not as great as those detected in traditional media between men’s and women’s athletics, a gender gap remains. Similar to traditional media, the USSF framed the women’s team as less important than the men’s, even though this study was purposefully conducted at a time when female soccer was supposed to be prominent because of the international schedule.     

Football participation legacy and Australia’s qualification for the 2006 Football World Cup

This paper examines the impact of qualification for the 2006 World Cup on football participation in Australia. Australia’s qualification for the 2006 World Cup created widespread media coverage across the country, and this was amplified by the fact that it was only the second time the nation had qualified for the event. Contrary to a number of studies that have examined sport participation legacy and major events, this research presents data that suggest an overall positive trend in Australian football participation post Australia’s successful World Cup qualification. Three of the four demographic categories examined in the study had witnessed increased football participation across the examined period.     

Xi Jin-Ping’s World Cup Dreams: From a Major Sports Country to a World Sports Power

Abstract

Football is among the world’s most popular sports. It is also one which China has sought to develop in the field of global professional sport. Nevertheless, the professionalization of football in China has not to date actually improved China’s Olympic achievement in the sport. In stark contrast to the glory of being the country that won most gold medals at the 2008 Olympics, China’s poor football performance has been troublesome for the country’s leader. In 2009, newly elected Xi Jin-Ping made a public statement about promoting elite football and expressed his personal hope that China would be capable of both qualifying for the final stages and winning the FIFA World Cup. With such concern on the part of the state leader, attention turned to football, with many private enterprises beginning to echo government policy by demonstrating a willingness to promote elite football. In addition, to accelerate football development, the Chinese Government promised to take action on the separation of government football associations. Research on this process was based on the theoretical framework of state corporatism derived from Schmitter’s work of 1974. Semi-structured interviews were conducted as the method of data collection aimed at helping us understand how Chinese Government either integrated or controlled relevant stakeholders such as NGOs and private enterprises, and further, to discuss the interactions between them.     

1982 FIFA World Cup: from Spain’s struggle for democratic legitimacy to Italy’s rediscovery of football nationalism

ABSTRACT

One of the most memorable moments in the World Cups history is Marco Tardelli’s second goal in Italy’s win over Germany in the 1982 World Cup finals. Better known as Tardelli’s scream, it is thus a perfect object to analyse in order to understand football’s deeper social meanings and its political and cultural undertones, in this case both for the World Cup champions, Italy, and for the host country, Spain. In the Spanish case, organizing the World Cup was a huge political opportunity for the just restored democracy to showcase to the world a modern and pluralistic society leaving behind the authoritarian and outdated dictatorship. As for Italy, their first World Cup winning since World War II was heavily politically used by actors across the political spectrum. Such nationalistic approach constituted a novelty after decades of a low profile national discourse.     

Barney Kieran,the Legendary ‘Sobraon Boy’: From the Mean Streets to ‘Champion of the World’

This article explores the remarkable career of Bernard Bede (Barney) Kieran, known in the Australian sporting press of the time as ‘the Sobraon Boy’. He was born in Sydney in 1886, grew up in the mean streets, was imprisoned aboard the industrial training ship Sobraon and, at the zenith of his sensational world record-breaking swimming career, died suddenly on 22 December 1905. He was only nineteen and was mourned by the public as one of Australia's first sporting icons to be cut down tragically in his prime. Incorporated in this study is the forgotten tragic sporting saga of the first great Australian twentieth-century swimming hero and its connotations of muscularly-based youth reclamation. Consideration is given to the social context, the growing popularity of swimming in the early twentieth century, Sydney and the widespread newspaper coverage of his career and death which helped to create the formation of the tragic sporting hero of Australian myth.     

Sport and the New Culture of the ‘Second Golden Age’: Amsterdam’s Sporting Entrepreneurs in the 1880s and 1890s

Abstract

In the second half of the nineteenth century, Amsterdam underwent important changes in its economic, social, and cultural life as the city entered what is often referred to as its ‘Second Golden Age’. Old elites gave way to new and a new more entrepreneurial culture emerged focused on mass, visible, and consumable activities, including sport, in which the body played a central role. This was especially apparent from the late 1870s and 1880s when spatial changes within the city helped to ensure that sport was increasingly the location for new kinds of associational activity and the development of new products, all underpinned by the potential for profit. Entrepreneurs such as Perry & Co., De Gruyter, and the Amsterdamsche Sport-Club were able to effect strategic combinations between the new body culture and consumerism, producing a range of new products and exploiting new technologies to create new markets. In seizing these opportunities, Amsterdam's entrepreneurs were also reproducing the concept of the trainable, measurable, and consumable body.     

Conquering the World: The ‘Martial’ Power of Japan Goes Global

Abstract

Throughout the twentieth century Japanese martial arts, or budo, in the West grew from a hardly visible practice for Japanese diasporas and a handful of Japanophiles to an integral part of Western culture. Today, when they have been joined by other cultural exports from Japan, and Karate has been recognized as an Olympic sport in the midst of the decline of traditional martial arts and the rise of Mixed Martial Arts culture, the question of what forces produce such powerful ‘waves’ of Japanese cultural expansion becomes relevant again. To answer this question, the article compares the forces behind the spread of three arguably most popular Japanese martial arts – Judo, Kendo, and Karate – in the West, mainly in America and Europe. Here I offer an analysis based on the division of these forces into those which ‘push’ Japanese culture beyond Japan’s borders (pushing forces) and those which stimulate its consumption in Western countries (pulling forces). Based on the results of the comparison, the article argues that there are certain repeating patterns in both types that form a unique mechanism of Japanese ‘martial’ expansion to the West, with the ‘pulling’ forces being just as, if not more, powerful, than the ‘pushing’ forces.     

‘Physical Education’s First Lady of the World’: Dorothy Sears Ainsworth and the International Association of Physical Education and Sport for Women and Girls

Abstract

Dorothy Sears Ainsworth has received wide acclaim for her pioneering efforts in international relations that enhanced collaboration among female physical educators in the decades following World War II. As Director of Physical Education for Women at Smith College (1926–1960), Ainsworth became a global figure, traveling extensively and organizing the first international conference on physical education for women and girls in Copenhagen in 1949. This resulted in the establishment of the International Association of Physical Education and Sport for Girls and Women (IAPESGW), today counting over 400 members from 45 different countries. In this paper we (re)consider the largely hagiographical accounts of Ainsworth’s career and re-examine her contributions to the international stage in light of her maternalist views on female sport and physicality. Indeed, women’s difference from men dominated the discourse of many international women’s movements at this time. We consider what IAPESGW’s long-term governance by primarily white and wealthy women may have meant in terms of the organization’s focus and globalizing efforts and conclude that though Ainsworth’s essentialist approach ignored earlier feminist sporting movements, and would not outlast the more progressive winds of change in the 1970s, neither should her early contributions to establishing bonds among female physical educators globally be minimized.     

‘A lesson in football wisdom’? Coverage of the unofficial women’s World Cup of 1971 in the Mexican press

ABSTRACT

When Mexico hosted the 1971 Women’s World Cup, it raised considerable challenges for local journalists. The domestic game had never received significant press attention, but mounting public interest in such a prestigious tournament demanded a response from national and sporting newspapers. In this chapter, we analyse the extent to which the masculine hegemonic environment of the newsroom dictated the perspective, language, and imagery deployed by journalists in their reports. While underlying sexism and cynicism characterised more traditional, conservative sections of the printed media, our analysis reveals a surprising degree of willingness to adapt and learn new ways. In tracing the dynamics of this process we assess the extent to which a more enlightened appreciation of Mexican women’s football only lasted for as long as they continued to win matches.     

Africa and the ‘World’ Cup: FIFA Politics,Eurocentrism and Resistance

The development of African football in the international playing arena during the last 25 years has been such that several noted commentators have predicted that the name of an African nation will soon be appearing on the World Cup trophy. [1 Most notably, Walter Winterbottom and Pelé expressed their belief that an African nation would win the World Cup before the new millennium. Such predictions remain unfulfilled, but the assertion of the former FIFA President João Havelange that an African team would qualify for the last four by, at the latest, 2002, was a feat that Cameroon and Senegal both narrowly missed out on during the 1990 and 2002 World Cups respectively. See F. Osman Duodo, ‘On the Threshold of Eating With Kings’, FIFA Magazine, Oct. 1996, 13–14. ] With the exception of Senegal's valiant efforts in reaching the quarter-finals of the 2002 tournament, the relatively weak performances of the continent's other representatives at the two most recent editions of the game's premier international tournament would not appear to bear out this assertion. [2 During France ‘98, only Nigeria qualified for the knock-out phase. At Japan/South Korea 2002 only Senegal reached the latter stages of the competition although the four other teams narrowly failed to progress from the group stages. ] The promise offered by Cameroon's quarter-final appearance at Italia 90, Nigeria and Cameroon's Gold medals at the 1996 and 2000 Olympic football tournament and African successes in FIFA's under-age competitions thus remains unfulfilled. [3 Nigeria and Ghana have twice won the biennial under-17 World Youth Championship since its inauguration in 1985. ] However, the disappointment that greeted the early exits of most of the African representatives in 1998 and 2002 should not conceal the fact that, in a political sense, both tournaments were a major victory for the African game. When one considers that African representation at the World Cup has historically been restricted by a Eurocentric bias at the heart of FIFA, the participation of five nations at both France 98 and Japan/South Korea 2002 allows these tournaments to be viewed as significant milestones for African football. Drawing on analyses of primary archival materials and other sources, this essay examines the ways in which the World Cup Finals, and more specifically, the political debate surrounding the distribution of places for the tournament has come to represent one of the key arena's in which Africa's quest for global football equity has manifested itself. [4 For a discussion of Africa's struggle for global equity within FIFA see P. Darby, Africa, Football and FIFA: Politics, Colonialism and Resistance (London and Portland, OR: Frank Cass, 2002). ] The essay concludes by assessing the extent to which the discourse on Africa's place at the World Cup can be read as a reflection of broader First World-Third World power relations.     

When Will China Win the World Cup? A Study of China’s Youth Football Development

Abstract

What is embarrassing for Chinese sports is that the supply of the sports cannot meet the needs of people with the rapid development in almost every field of sport in China. Furthermore, teenage sport has deteriorated year on year and is very short of backup talents in competitive sports. Faced with China’s devastated football, the appropriate attitude is neither seeking quick success and instant benefits nor ignoring it; the urgent thing for this moment is to establish a feasible and sustainable football system. An analysis of the history of Chinese football, the strategy of football development by the country’s leaders, and the policy of Youth Campus Football in 2009, coupled with sports humanism, suggests that the future lies in instilling a sharing sports concept, promoting the joint efforts of school, society, and family.     

Executive Committee of China 2009 World Stamp Exhibition Holds the Secretary-General’s Official Meeting in Luoyang

The Executive Committee of China 2009 World Stamp Exhibition held the Secretary-General’s Official Meeting in Luoyang on Mar. 10, 2008. It was presided     

Cuba’s Challenges Hosting the 1991 Pan-American Games and the Spectacle of the Revolution’s ‘Soft Power’

Abstract

This paper examines the confluence of global, regional, and national politics in the lead up to the 1991 Pan-American Games hosted by Cuba. Cuba’s contentious selection as host was wholly underpinned by the international politics of the time. Once selected, the preparations for the Games in Havana were surrounded by an unprecedented domestic economic crisis fueled by shifts in global politics. This paper analyzes how international politics informed the hosting of the 1991 Pan-American Games, and shaped the political challenge the Cuban government faced in hosting such an event. The Revolution’s use of sport domestically and internationally came to the forefront in its efforts as host and the results of those efforts proved to be providential given the emerging political economic contexts during and in the ensuing years after the Games.