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Between 1961 and 1980, a group of bilateral actions were developed jointly the Argentine Republic (AR) and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) regarding physical education and sports. Based on these agreements, training and advice were provided for the reform of physical education teachers' training and school physical education, the construction of infrastructure was encouraged, and sports medicine was promoted. This paper analyzes how the relationship between the FRG and the AR for the promotion of 'sports science' was shaped. The aim is to delve into the temporalities of the different topics and their processes of translation and approval by local actors. The analysis shows that the construction of this bilateral agenda took place in the interaction of the policies for physical education and sport of the AR and the FRG, resulting in translations and re-appropriations of the proposed programmes. In addition, the agenda was also structured by the relationship networks built for almost two decades. Understanding such nuances makes it possible to point out how these exchanges took place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at the genesis of the International Fencing Federation, which was founded in 1905 as the 'Comité International d'Escrime' (CIE). The Franco-Italian rivalry of the 1880s was the starting point for a transnationalism that took off with the trade fairs and the revived Olympic Games. Under the impetus of the Frenchmen of the 'Société d'Encouragement à l'Escrime' of Hebrard de Villeneuve and with the help of the Belgians, a first attempt to harmonize the rules of the three weapons led to the creation of a committee to federate the major fencing families in the absence of federations in most Western European countries. The CIE was effective, but was soon obsolete because of federal changes in several major countries, including France from 1906. Sweden's autonomy over the rules of the 1912 Olympic Games forced the Franco-Belgian couple to resume international construction by thinking up the conversion of the CIE into an International Fencing Federation, in a subtle game that consisted of integrating as many national federations as possible while giving decisive weight to the historic nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The historiography of 'associative gymnastics' has mostly focused on the ways individual countries used gymnastics in education and in the military and to build patriotic fervour. In contrast, scholars have paid little attention to the early internationalization of gymnastics in Europe and beyond. The present paper draws on original research, notably in the archives of the Swiss Gymnastics Federation and the Olympic Studies Centre, to examine the process by which Switzerland's model of 'federal' gymnastics festivals spread throughout Europe from the 1860s onwards and gave rise to intense exchanges (documentation, official delegations, competitors) between the national federations that were emerging at the time. This process, together with the work of Nicolaas Jan Cupérus, from Belgium, helped pave the way for establishing the Bureau des Fédérations Européennes de Gymnastique (BFEG), whose foundation historians traditionally trace back to a meeting in Liège in 1881. Analysis of the BFEG's early history revealed the main issues (apoliticism, secularism, amateurism) and tensions (nationalism vs. internationalism) that accompanied its development. Its relationship with the newly founded International Olympic Committee and the modern doctrine of Olympism also had a profound impact on the BFEG and its decision to create a true international gymnastics tournament. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the nineteenth century, industrial planning discourse conveyed the challenge of paternalistic industrialists to provide a biopolitical agenda that was aimed at controlling and disciplining the daily lives of the workers. Paternalistic industrialists used sports-related spaces as a tool to enable their biopolitical goals. Accordingly, they made certain efforts to insert sports-related spaces into the industrial landscape. In this paper, physical culture and sports as biopolitical initiatives of paternalism are explored in industrial planning discourse. Exploring history through the perspective of sports reveals that industrial planning provided a spatialized approach to regulating working-class life socially and culturally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Joan Whitney Payson developed an extraordinary relationship with the press after becoming the first woman to buy a sports team in North America. As owner of the New York Mets from their inception in 1962 until her death in 1975, Payson made baseball writers feel appreciated, inviting them to help choose the team's name, hiring a manager they loved, acquiring players they knew, and presenting them with World Series rings. One reporter who treated Payson well ended up on the Whitney payroll, hired by Joan's brother, the publisher of the New York Herald Tribune. For half a century, Payson's habit of downplaying her role with the team has produced an inaccurate public image of an uninvolved figurehead. This paper consults the Whitney family papers, period coverage, and original oral history interviews with players and sportswriters to reveal previously uncovered factors that prompted flattering coverage of 'the mother of the Mets'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper describes the institutional development of the Olympic movement in the Philippines from the American period to the contemporary era as it operates within the values of 'Excellence, Respect and Friendship' of Olympism. Using Bowen's document analysis as a qualitative tool, the paper highlights the institutional changes and policy reforms in the Philippine sports governance in the development of the Olympic movement with emphasis on the promotion of athlete welfare in the Philippines. As an added dimension, the paper offers a passing review of the recent Olympic athletes' protest in the Philippines and analyses the underlying assumptions of Filipino athletes' passivity on social issues. Furthermore, the paper examines the significance of the Philippines Olympic Committee (POC) Athletes' Commission in addressing the athletes' rights and welfare as it interrelates and aligns itself with the goals and objectives of the International Olympic Committee Athletes' Commission. More importantly, the paper proposes an Input-Process-Output-Outcome/Result (IPOOR) Model to measure the success of the POC Athletes' Commission qualitatively in terms of the three levels of analysis espoused by the IOC Athlete's Commission namely, input, output, and results, as ways forward in the promotion and development of the strategies, programmes, and projects of the Philippine Olympic movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Football frequently evokes emotions across ethnic fissures and could threaten national peace. In 1977, at the semi-final stage of the Africa Cup Winners' Cup, Enugu Rangers supported by Igbos in the Eastern part of the country confronted Shooting Stars of Ibadan, the most popular club among the Yorubas in Western Nigeria. After the first leg of the two-legged encounter ended 0-0 in Lagos, a heated debate emerged about the location for the final leg. There was controversy over which of the clubs' players should be released from the national team camp for the match. A crowded football calendar emerged with the national team involved in a contest for a place at the 1978 World Cup finals. This paper employs historical method to analyze content from three newspapers – Daily Star in Enugu, Nigerian Tribune in Ibadan, and the New Nigerian in Kaduna. Using the instrumentalist theory of ethnicity, it reveals how both teams sought to gain support but came close to causing ethnic turmoil that was extinguished by intervention of the military leadership who ordered the second leg moved out of Lagos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the early Republican period of Turkey (1923–1945), the newly established state provided a biopolitical agenda for developing modern and secular life in order to break the Ottoman heritage religious-traditional social structure. Thereupon, sports, as an indicator of modernization, took an important place in the biopolitics of the regime. Sports spaces were instrumentalized as a medium where biopower infiltrated to build a modern life. In order to effectively accomplish the modern life-building project, the Republican Regime invited international modernist architects to insert sports spaces into the social realm in urban, rural, and industrial areas. Accordingly, this paper explores sports-related spaces as a biopolitical agenda of the Republican Regime in the discourse of planning the city of Ankara and rural and industrial areas. Exploring history through the lens of sports reveals how the city of Ankara and rural and industrial areas formed a spatialized approach to the Republican Regime as a biopower to develop modern life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores Duncan Bell's heuristic of the mythscape as a means to conceptualize the nationalistic narrativization of the sporting past. Bell approaches the forging of national identity through evocations of the past as mythologized: that is, partial, contested, power-laden, and perpetually mutating. First, we introduce Bell's concept as a means to evaluate the selective, contested and shifting construction of the sporting past through the prism of nationalism. We first chart the narrativisation of the New Zealand – South African rugby rivalry within popular literature during the apartheid era (1948–1994). This was characterized by the production of 'governing' myths and oppositional narrations from the 1960s onward. We then evaluate subsequent post-apartheid narrativizations (1994 onwards) within popular rugby histories, focussing on the 1986 Cavaliers rugby tour to South Africa – the final event in apartheid-era rugby ties between the two nations. We explore how writers use particular narratives, and what they have chosen to exclude, and how it informs a national mythscape. We find the rehabilitation of governing myths that sanitize and redact connections between New Zealand rugby and apartheid. This is symptomatic of a selective construction that valorizes rugby as a idealized national institution. Finally, we offer comments on the utility of the mythscapes concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1854 Reverend Bernard J. McQuaid set forth the outline behind his ideals for a young men's Catholic association. Similar to the existing Protestant-rooted Young Men's Christian Association which had arrived in the United States three years prior, McQuaid's ambitions could be seen as one of many concurrent attempts to embrace the idea of Muscular Christianity and general reform movements of the late nineteenth century. However, to do so, would do an injustice to the ground-breaking, innovative, and controversial, methods embraced by McQuaid. He was one of the first in the Unted States to propose that sports and games of chance were not 'evil'. Though his association eventually faltered under the weight of his lofty ambitions, he remains an underappreciated figure in the world of sport history. The Young Men's Catholic Association offered a legitimate challenge to the often unwelcome Protestant morality of the YMCA in urban immigrant communities in the late nineteenth century United States. This paper argues that McQuaid's recreation aims in Rochester developed as a reaction against the YMCA. McQuaid's association, the Young Men's Catholic Association, presented itself to the city's immigrant, Catholic, working-class population as an alternative to the Protestant-inspired, 'cult of strenuosity'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hanne Wassermann's contributions to teaching gymnastics and body culture during Vienna's interwar period took place within the rich contexts of ongoing developments in radium research, psychology, physiology and anatomy, and gynecology. This paper explores the movement theories she developed for her classes as well as the ways in which she distinguished her teaching from other renowned female physical culturalists of the time. In 'Tägliche Gymnastik', a workbook on daily gymnastics that Hanne co-edited with Jewish gynecologist Oskar Frankl in 1934, and other published and unpublished manuscripts, she described the psychological theories supporting her 'Gymnastik Methode'—mainly the principles of Gestalt psychology learned from psychologists Karl and Charlotte Bühler at the Vienna Institute of Psychology. She was able to tap into a remarkable network of associates and acquaintances, including celebrated physicians, scientists, movie stars, multi-millionaires, and royalty—and use their influence and status to popularize and begin to commercialize her 'Gymnastik Methode', as well as to assist her escape from Vienna following the Anschluß Österreichs (Annexation of Austria) and develop a successful career in massage and remedial gymnastics in North America. She took with her copies of 'Tägliche Gymnastik' and the as yet unpublished 'Methode' which became important supports to her future livelihood in North America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper on the social and economic history of triathlon restores the past that has been overshadowed by the International Triathlon Union and the World Triathlon Corporation narratives. It is based on documents from the 1970s and 1980s. Focusing on the USA, the paper explains how two processes shaped triathlon. The first was democratization which formed mass-participation sports. Triathlon, with its inclusive features, was born out of the fitness, running, swimming, and masters sports movement of the 1970s. Key ideas of this mass-sports originated from 'left-wing' sports movements of the 1930s. The second process was the commercialization and commodification of endurance sports in the 1980s. It was connected with the elimination of the Amateur Athletic Union's governing role in amateur sports. The commercialization of triathlon was started thanks to interests of Kona-Kahaua tourism, and mostly American Budweiser Light advertising. It gave support to two leading for-profit organizers, which instigated the commodification of triathlon as a whole. A five-fold increase in entry fees over five years has led to the morphing of a classless triathlon into a sport only for the wealthy. The root cause is the loss of amateurism in sports governance, that was provoked by the rise of neoliberalism in economic policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1990s, most athletics federations have undertaken sponsorship negotiations with private shoe/apparel corporations. While these deals bring great sums of cash into the sport, some of which trickles down to the athletes, a great deal of it is used to leverage both hard and soft power in different regions of the world. The sponsorship regulations of national athletics federations have been recently politicized because of the ways that they conflict with their individual sponsorship agreements with other companies. Few, however, have examined the historical lineages and concerns for Ethiopian and Kenyan athletes – who come from some of the most cash poor and talent rich regions of the athletics world. This paper charts the historical relations and implications of the changes to commercial development and sponsorship as it pertains to Ethiopia and Kenya to broaden the geopolitical scope on this issue. Drawing on archival material and interviews with athletes and agents, it becomes clear that sponsors had their eyes on far more than outfitting the world's top distance runners with their logo. Rather, they were after soft power that would enable them greater control in the flow of goods and capital to and within these countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sporting diplomacy has long been a topic of considerable interest to sport historians. This is especially true in discussions of British colonialism in India. Building on such work, this article provides an in-depth examination of George Robert Canning Harris, the Fourth Baron Harris, who was Governor of the Presidency of Bombay from 1890 to 1895. Absent from the historical examination of cricket in the subcontinent is the extent to which the domestic press used the sport to understand the habits of local colonial leaders. Lord Harris' use of cricket as a personal governing tool will be addressed, but of greater importance will be the framing of his actions vis-à-vis cricket parlance by the local newspapers. This paper seeks to understand how cricket was used as the central framework through which both Lord Harris executed his governorship and as a means for the local press to understand the virtues of their inexperienced leader. In doing so, this work draws from several local and national Indian newspapers which comprised the Anglo-Indian press during Lord Harris' term. This article presents neither a glorification nor a critique of Lord Harris' stewardship of Bombay, but rather a critical analysis of how cricket was embraced as a framework through which colonial policies and native reactions were understood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since its founding in the late nineteenth century, the procedure to elect the members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has remained largely unaltered. Although generally accepted in the Olympic Movement, this procedure has been criticized and even contested. Moreover, particular nominations and elections for membership in the IOC have occasionally been challenged. For the most part, due to the inner workings of the IOC and its tight-lipped approach, these criticisms, contestations, and challenges have not played out publicly and scant details are known about them. This paper analyzes the contentious election of Argentine Roberto G. Peper to the IOC in the mid-1970s. The vicissitudes of his case lay bare a challenge to the IOC's procedure to nominate and elect its members. They reveal that the Argentine Olympic leadership was not a passive recipient of the IOC's dictates and illustrate the existing tensions between the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and the global Olympic leaders, which at the same time help to frame and understand the controversy at hand. The paper demonstrates that the IOC's insistence on its procedure to elect its members brought unexpected instability to its structure and offered the NOCs an opportunity to challenge its power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The communist takeover in Romania in 1948 initiated profound transformations across multiple sectors, including sports, which were reshaped to reflect the new political landscape. The regime aimed to align Romanian sports with the Soviet model, emphasizing state control and ideological conformity. This led to a systematic effort to eradicate the influences of the previous political regime and redefine the role of sports in society. Rugby became a focal point of this transformation. The Communist regime rebranded rugby as a tool for fostering pride and unity, promoting it as an emblem of socialist ideals. The regime reorganized traditional rugby clubs and associations, and established new structures to ensure that the sport served state objectives. This restructuring aimed to create a cohesive identity that aligned with communist values. Simultaneously, the regime sought to enhance rugby's profile both domestically and internationally. The regime invested in training programs, the promotion of rugby in schools, and the organization of national competitions. The recruitment of coaches and players who were ideologically aligned with the regime was crucial to this effort. This ensured that rugby not only became a popular sport but also a vehicle for promoting socialist values and fostering loyalty to the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 halted the expansion of both professional and amateur sport, which had gained momentum following the Second Republic's sweeping reforms in 1931. Under Republican control, leftist political parties and trade unions frequently expropriated sports facilities and organizations to advance the democratization of sport. In Madrid, the Castilian Football Federation (CFF) came under the control of the Federación Cultural Deportiva Obrera (FCDO), the leading workers' sports organization in Spain. Leveraging the CFF as a political hub, the FCDO established a battalion primarily comprised of athletes, the Sporting Battalion, in August 1936. This unit, consisting of hundreds of professional and amateur sportsmen, fought for the Republic on the Madrid front. Detailed records allow for the study of 95 individuals out of an estimated 500 to 1,000 members, including women, across its three companies. The Sporting Battalion's dual role as both shock troops and a propaganda weapon through sports exhibitions made it a unique phenomenon, significantly contributing to the war effort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the significant impact of elite sports on national image and global influence, the role of sport-specific institutions in fostering student-athletes' talents remains underexplored. Korea National Sport University (KNSU) has played a crucial role in South Korea's rise as a global sporting powerhouse, contributing 100 Olympic medals within 40 years. This success is due to substantial investments in elite sports through centralized government sport-related policies. This study addresses the underexplored area of sport-specific institutions' roles in fostering athletic talent by investigating KNSU through qualitative methods, including literature review, historical analysis, case study and comparisons with international universities. Findings reveal KNSU's strategic focus on less popular individual events, maximizing impact with minimal resource allocation. By providing attractive benefits to student-athletes and coaches, investing in cutting-edge sports science and developing world-class facilities and training systems, KNSU has nurtured generations of champions. This model highlights KNSU's unique position as a global leader in elite athlete development. Beyond athletic achievements, KNSU's contributions extend to advancements in sports science and policy, shaping the landscape of elite sports in South Korea. This study underscores the potential of specialized institutions like KNSU to enhance national sporting success and offers valuable insights for policymakers and educators globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

World Athletics was officially founded in 1913 following an initiative by Swedish members of the Organising Committee for the 1912 Olympic Games. This article examines the forces at work that led to its creation. By highlighting the developments in athletics in certain countries, it is possible to understand the need for an international federation (IF) governing the sport and an overarching set of rules. The constitution and focus of World Athletics in its early stages were influenced by a number of protagonists from Western nations, who led the national athletics movements in their home countries. Founding the federation in the first place was a struggle for them since it was viewed critically by Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic Games, as he saw athletics holding a special position within the Olympic Movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines Taiwan's perspective on its participation in the International Olympic Committee (IOC) from 1949 to 1972, during which period the Republic of China (ROC) government came to Taiwan (1949) and Avery Brundage, an American, served as the IOC President (from 1952 to 1972). Although the international situation was relatively favourable for the ROC in Taiwan during this period, the country was asked to change the name of the Olympic Committee in Taiwan. This article discusses the naming issue by analysing the content of the IOC sessions and changing international politics. Sources, including correspondence between the IOC and the Olympic Committee of the Republic of China, executive board minutes, and IOC bulletins, were gathered from the IOC archives. In addition, through the correspondence between the IOC and the Olympic Committee of the Republic of China, this paper shows why the Olympic Committee was reluctant to be called the Taiwan Olympic Committee. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although badminton has been played in New Zealand for approximately 150 years it has received only minimal attention in scholarly discussions of sport. This paper evaluates the historical development of badminton in New Zealand between 1870 and 1939. It argues that from the last quarter of the nineteenth century badminton was initially played alongside games such as croquet and tennis in mostly private venues as a form of upper-class recreation. It then gained a wider appeal primarily as a winter sport that could be played by tennis players during the off-season. During the interwar period it was promoted as a suitable form of recreation for women because it was non-contact and believed to be not overly strenuous. Although its construction as a useful winter sport for tennis players and a suitable game for women helped badminton achieve a position as a niche sport, such characterizations hindered its further development because it was seen as a supplementary sport to tennis, the then dominant racket sport in New Zealand. Moreover, in comparison to its contemporary racket sports badminton was often criticized as an inferior game. Accordingly, it occupied a somewhat ambiguous place in New Zealand's sporting hierarchy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper sketches out the mode and influence of the sports culture of martial arts, from Republican China to Southeast Asia's Chinese societies. The Chin Woo Athletic Federation was the first non-governmental sports organization in Republican China after the feudal monarchy. In the 1920s, it began to expand its organizational territory to Southeast Asia, and its development reached its peak in the 1930s. This paper focuses on the spread of Wushu to Southeast Asia against the background of the rise of overseas Chinese nationalism. It interprets how it embodied the Chinese immigrant nationalism, especially contextualizing the conflict between tradition and modernity in the early twentieth century, which is a rarely discussed topic. The results show that the dissemination of Chin Woo organizations was a form of organizational cloning of 'mother' organizations in the mainland. The association between different Chin Woo athletic associations suggests an attempt at cloning the organizations and their practice in the interests of building a form of quintessential Chinese-ness, at the initiative of Chinese business and other community leaders. The physical training and performance of the Chin Woo members was a manifestation of Southeast Asian Chinese immigrant nationalism. Finally, Wushu was a cultural element in the historical identity of Chinese immigrants in Southeast Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compared to other sports around the globe, netball has received relatively little attention from academic historians. The reasons for this omission are obvious, in that generally sport played by women has nearly always suffered in comparison to men's sports in terms of exposure, acceptance, and financial support. Therefore, it is perhaps not surprising that the academy, throughout much of the twentieth century, has tended not to focus on studies of female sports. The purpose of this paper, then, is to explore the origin stories of netball in one particular state of Australia, namely Victoria. This task is constrained by the fact that there is only a relatively small number of published works on the history of netball in Australia, and a general lack of systematic or verified research regarding the diffusion of the sport to the antipodes. Critically, the paper is not based around a quest for a single point of origin. Rather, it calls for a better understanding and appreciation of the social context surrounding multiple origin stories, and how they may evolve, shift or be used in the light of new evidence, unexpected discoveries, or more informed interpretations. In short, the paper argues that the complexities of netball's origin stories need to be further explored, understood, and embraced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores local history accounts of netball in South Africa's black communities from the second decade of the twentieth century until the 1960s. An attempt has been made to undo the notion that black people in South Africa do not have a netball history because of their absence in formal research. Therefore, at the core of this research is the creation of local narratives. These narratives highlight the names, results and the historical context that show how netball was part of the social fabric of society. After an introduction to the study, a motivation and methodology is laid out. A patchwork of netball histories in mission schools, prior to the Second World War, is then created and explored and used to create legacies. What follows is a social-historical accounts of netball at schools and colleges in Cape Town. The paper then concludes with discussion about why netball in South Africa's black communities is worthwhile recording, documenting and re-telling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the nineteenth century, both medicine and sport were transitioning into recognizably modern identities but no formal relationship between the two existed. It has been suggested that the medical profession had little engagement with sport during this period. One sport that was particularly popular during the nineteenth century was pedestrianism in which athletes performed a range of endurance walking challenges for money and fame. While it has previously been recognized that some medical practitioners were involved in the support of pedestrian athletes, to date there has been no formal evaluation of the magnitude or nature of that involvement. Hence there is a potential that the contribution of medicine to aspects of sport in the nineteenth century may have been under-recognized. Using predominantly contemporaneous reports, this paper investigates the medical support utilized by nineteenth century professional pedestrians. It illustrates that during a period in which medicine underwent a seismic paradigm shift, some doctors were actively involved in both the clinical support and scientific assessment of pedestrians. In so doing, the role that nineteenth century medical practitioners played in supporting endurance pedestrians is clarified and a gap in the literature addressed pertaining to the nineteenth century interactions of medicine and sport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the way arbitration approaches developed through the first four stages of rule development, focusing in turn on the ways the popularity of wagering first created more need for formally signed 'articles of agreement' for each match, and then the inclusion of arbitration and judgement methods in the emerging early forms of rules. It then shows the way various official roles evolved over time alongside broader rule developments: the need for 'umpires' in cricket, pugilism, and some other sports; the role of 'tryers', 'judges' and 'stewards' in horse racing; arbitration through expertise, experience, and status in cockfighting; and the rare attempts to take appeals beyond the immediate game. It then explores how these official roles developed from the early nineteenth century onwards, as national organizations grew in power, and how a new role, the neutral 'referee', was created to arrive at a solution when umpires or others disagreed. Changes in later nineteenth-century rugby and soccer illustrate the way the then new forms of football followed earlier processes in moving towards more neutral forms of arbitration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sambo, an acronym commonly derived from the Russian Samozashchita Bez Oruzhiya (self-defence without weapons), is a Soviet created grappling martial art noted for its assortment of painful holds, heavy throws, and take downs. Originally part of a secret military training syllabus with roots in judo, the sport was officially adopted by the USSR All-Union Sports Committee in 1938. Throughout the Cold War period, Soviet sambo slowly inserted itself into the wrestling halls and martial arts dojos of the United States, capturing the attention of American judoka and wrestlers. Sport sambo arrived in the United States at a time in which the Cuban missile crisis remained fresh in the memories of the citizenry while young Americans were being drafted to fight communists in the Vietnam war. Though Cold War tensions had cooled somewhat compared to the days of McCarthyism, the Soviet-US rivalry continued to colour public discourse, permeating every facet of American society. This paper breaks new ground in Western scholarship by analyzing the reception of sambo in the USA during the 1960s and 70s by the professional martial artists and athletes, in the lead up of the 1980 Olympics against the political backdrop of the Cold War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the author discusses articles within the issue on topics including international sports economy, sports sponsorship regulations, standardization of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) refereeing courses, and economic and tourism implications of the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, Mexico.

A unique aspect of Japanese football culture is that educational institutions have remained its primary exponents since its introduction in the late-nineteenth century. This paper analyses why educational institutions became so influential in Japanese football, utilizing articles published in the inaugural nationwide football magazine, Shūkyū, between 1931 and 41. Through a comprehensive analysis of various articles, selected essays provide evidence of (1) the eligibility of organized games to 'cultivate character'; (2) Japanese football's embrace and re-interpretation of the tenets of amateurism inherent in public school games; (3) the association of football participation in schools with the educational ideology of individualism; (4) the perception of sports by the educated elite as a fundamental element of Japanese education, rallying against the public perception that sports and schoolwork could be adequately balanced. Additionally, articles highlight the prominent role played by the Japanese 'educated elite' in promoting and disseminating the values of English association football as components of Japanese football culture, influenced by their ability to translate overseas sports media. This paper concludes that Japanese football literature was influential in disseminating the role of sport and education, which came to personify the institutionalization of the sport throughout the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historically, female athletes have been marginalized in both the fields of sport and videogames, and there is limited work that examines how female athletes have been represented in sport simulation videogames. In this article, this gap is addressed by tracing the history of playable female athlete characters in sport simulation videogames from the 1980s to the present. Unlike esports, which are sporting competitions, sport simulation games represent an element of sport such as gameplay or management. Playable athlete characters are important in these games because they are at once the equivalent of protagonists in a film or novel and are also the avatar through which videogame players interact with that storyworld. To illustrate the key insights that can be drawn from the study of such characters, the trajectory of playable female athletes in sport simulation games is traced across three periods: 1980–1995, 1995–2010, and 2010–2023. Analyzing this history through the lens of hegemony and intersectionality illuminates the general arc of playable female athletes within the sport simulation genre and also demonstrates how representations of female athletes in videogames register historical trends from the fields of both sports and videogames. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Turkey, being young and healthy was idealized as the politics of the state that had successfully ruptured the link with the Ottoman Empire, thereby making sport a significant component of culture and modern life in Turkey. One of the most important football grounds was the 19 May Stadium, which was the first football ground in Turkey and reflected the political and sports culture of the time. Yet, 19 May Stadium is not perceived to be part of the country's heritage equation; it has meaning for individuals of all ages, and it contributes significantly to the overall quality of life. Accordingly, this study makes an archaeological examination of 19 May Stadium as a form of material culture. It examines the evolving field of community archaeology projects and how they contribute to the importance of place, memory, and meaning in the historical context of the site, thereby making them more visible on the historical environment agenda in Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

R. Alan Eagleson, Executive Director of the National Hockey League Players' Association from 1967 to 1992, had a major impact on the business of hockey. Although he was suspected of conflicts of interest, questioned for unethical behaviour towards athletes and was eventually indicted by the FBI in 1994 on multiple charges, Eagleson remained in his position of power over 20 years. This study used media framing to reveal that Eagleson's expertise was one of the origins of his extensive power and why he was seen as the best candidate to protect and advocate for the rights of NHL players. The expertise frame was the only frame to emerge in newspaper coverage in Toronto's The Globe and Mail consistently throughout Eagleson's tenure, even when his power was challenged. However, there was a noticeable decrease in the use of the expertise frame once the FBI investigation was made public in 1991. This study revealed that a finite number of journalists deployed the framing elements, and the perception of his expertise may have played a role in how he was able to maintain power and influence in the sport for so long, despite allegations of conflicts of interest and criminal activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interaction of sport and politics has created various consequences in the evolution and development of Hungarian sport. The legal framework of sport organizations, the possibilities of elite and grassroots athletes, the incorporation of Hungary into the international sport structure and the financial public funding of physical activity have always been dependent on the dominant political powers and the international environment. The history of sport facility development and management in Budapest started simultaneously with the institutionalization of Hungarian sport in the second half of the nineteenth century, political endeavors arguably determine this progress. Until World War I, facility constructions were correlated with the Millennial Celebrations and preparation for the athletes' participation in the Olympic Games; moreover, the intention to host the Olympics in Budapest was also crucial in policymaking. In the interwar period, the idea of 'Justice for Hungary' inspired political decisions related to sport, and facility constructions served the goal to create adequate circumstances to enhance physical education of the society and to host international sporting events. Legal documents, minutes of parliamentary, governmental, and municipal sessions prove that political actors of both time periods prejudiced essentially the development of sporting life and sport facility constructions of the capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the body policies produced and transmitted from the physical culture and sports in Argentina during the period called the 'infamous decade' (1930–1943). In general terms, this period was characterised by fraud, electoral prescription, violence, mobilisations, strikes, and coercion and intimidation against the political opposition. This paper analyses two aspects of the elite's attempts to bring under control some of the modernist dynamics installed during the decade. The first part explores the role of eugenics in the scientific study of sport and the debate on female athleticism. The second examines the reform of physical education introduced by the filo-Fascist Governor, Manuel Fresco, in the schools of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina's richest and most populated electoral district. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper traces the evolution of netball as a sport in Zimbabwe. The analysis builds on the success of the Zimbabwe netball national team at the 2019 World Cup in Liverpool, England. This newly found interest in the sport has also highlighted the paucity of related academic studies. The social historical analysis is utilized to trace the development of netball from its colonial roots into post-colonial Zimbabwe. The analysis takes into cognizance the fact that netball in Zimbabwe has been confined to the margins, mainly due to the fact that it has been historically played by women, though recently men are defying societal norms to play the sport. Netball's history, therefore, is understood within a context in which sport has acted as a vehicle of the patriarchal expectations of society. It is only through the exceptional performances of the Zimbabwe senior women's netball team on debut at the Netball World Cup in 2019 that the sport attracted a national spotlight, becoming a source of national pride, and dominating national conversations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since Pierre de Coubertin's revival of the modern Olympic games, the state of California has hosted the Olympics three times and is currently preparing for the games in Los Angeles in 2028. This paper attempts to add to the history of California's Olympic legacy by examining the period prior to 1896 and demonstrating that the Olympic idea had been firmly rooted in California long before the revival of the modern Olympic games and the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics. Themes alluding to the Olympic idea had been exploited in California as early as the mid-nineteenth century, i.e. the time of the US annexation. In 1893 the Olympic Club in San Francisco organized the Ancient Greco-Roman Games with a statewide impact. The association of those spectacles with ancient Greek art or games attests to Californians' awareness of ancient athletics and to the significant role of the San Francisco events in a historical perspective. As the years passed the knowledge about sports with Olympic associations increased among Californians, and the 1893 Ancient Greco-Roman Games in San Francisco can be successfully considered the largest pseudo-Olympic sports event before the 1896 Summer Olympics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the authors discuss articles in the issue on topics including the origins of Racing Club de France, the role of Reverend Bernard McQuaid in the Young Men's Catholic Association and the R. William Jones Cup Intercontinental Basketball Tournament in Taiwan.

In this overview, succinct information is provided on how the recognition of the voices of athletes has developed over decades. Processes of continuity and transformation are outlined, which serve to highlight and create interest in the topics of the full papers connected with this collection. Following this preparation for 'stepping into the topic', a rationale is also presented regarding the order and grouping of the various studies. In essence, the sequence is based around three perspectives, namely: the lives and biographical profiles of athletes; the decision-making processes of, and for, athletes; and the formal and informal institutional representation of athletes. While the touchstone is primarily on the voices of athletes associated with Olympic-related sports, brief consideration is also given to the actions and opinions of athletes expressed in other sporting spheres. The paper concludes with a summary and acknowledgement of the institutional collaborations which have underpinned this work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the emergence of modern female physical education in late colonial India in the period between the beginning of the twentieth century and the late 1930s. Focusing mostly on physical training schemes directed at middle-class, upper-caste Hindu girls and women, the study provides detail about the role played by a variety of Indian and non-Indian historical actors that were committed to the spread of female physical fitness. It demonstrates that, despite different ideological tendencies, political agendas and methods, the extent to which these actors shared beliefs and assumptions about the fit female body is striking. The paper also makes it clear that it is necessary to move away from national or imperial lenses that have hitherto occluded the global interconnections and border-crossing trajectories at play when analyzing discourses and practices of female physical education in South Asia in the period under purview. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Calling on several disciplines from cultural history to media studies and gender studies, this paper analyses the representation of race, gender and culture in Japanese sports manga Kuroko no Basuke: Extra Game. First, it deconstructs the politics of sports manga and its representation of foreign athletes, as it allows Japanese mangakas to portray Japan as a rising cultural and athletic superpower. Then, it focuses on Kuroko no Basuke: Extra Game, in order to study the visual and textual representation of both American and Japanese athletes through the prism of race, gender and culture. Indeed, it draws a sharp contrast between American and Japanese masculinities. Also, it relays a deeply-stereotyped version of the myth of the Black Athlete. Last, this study focuses on the (soft) power of this cultural artefact, the duel of ethos which is relayed through it, and the signifying representation of bodies and emotions. In a nutshell, this work deconstructs Japanese sports mangas and their political dimension to assess the part played by these global cultural artefacts in shaping collective imaginations from Japan to France, via the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the development of the 'military preparation' movement during the Third Republic in France, which, in turn, gives an insight into sports development in France in comparison with its neighbouring countries. On the eve of the First World War, militarized physical activities were widespread in France. Gymnastics (USGF), shooting (USTF), and military preparation (USPMF) federations had more members than sports federations. The spread of training societies was linked to military and political issues, with the support of the republican government being a key explanation for the rise in the number of training societies. The latter aimed to prepare young men for military service and turn them into French citizens. Furthermore, gymnastics and shooting societies fulfilled a social function in providing leisure activities. The distinction between sports activities and militarized activities was not always clear. Recent studies have underlined that the growth of shooting and gymnastics societies has been underestimated, especially for the interwar period. Such associations were still numerous in the 1930s. For a long time, physical activities were oriented by military or political issues, and early sports policies were mostly designed to develop militarized activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the influential Austrian sports publicist, official and athlete Otto Herschmann (1877–1942). He created a unique contemporary document with his book Viennese Sport in 1904. This book is a key text for understanding the political and social condition of sport in Vienna in its constituent phase. Despite this, the book has been virtually unrecognized even in the relevant literature. The study examines the social and political situation of sport in the central European metropolis of Vienna around 1900, focusing primarily on the class relations of sporting practices. The overall question is how British sport diffused into the stratified society of the Habsburg Monarchy. The main sources are Herschmann's book and contemporary newspaper reports which are contextualized with the relevant secondary literature. The theoretical framework of the study is provided by Bourdieu's reflections on the differentiation of the 'semi-autonomous field of forces' of sport, as he set them out in the two texts Historical and Social Preconditions of Modern Sport and Program for a Sociology of Sport. Overall, it becomes apparent that there was no uniform, linear establishment practice of sport in Vienna around 1900. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Harlem Globetrotters basketball team visited Israel as part of its 1955 world tour. As representatives of American culture, the US team challenged the leaders of Israeli sports culture who sought to maintain a tight alignment between local sports, Zionist values, and political interests. This paper uses Debord's society of the spectacle theory to analyse the public criticism of the Globetrotters' visit to Israel. The analysis finds that the critique, which extended beyond strictly sports criticism, reveals the zeitgeist of Israel's first decade of independence and its prevalent attitudes toward body culture norms, and illuminates the role assigned to sport in Israeli ethos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of martial arts in Japan's cultural diplomacy, as well as the history of Japanese martial arts in Norway, remain underexplored. Despite its peripheral status in Japan's cultural diplomacy, Japan actively influenced Norwegian judo from 1945 to 1980 by dispatching instructors and 'goodwill' judo delegations to Europe. These visits aimed not only to promote judo but also to align the international development of judo with Japan's own martial arts discourse and cultural diplomacy strategies. In 1965 and 1968 the delegations worked to cement judo's status as a modern Olympic sport while reinforcing the image of 'New Japan' – a nation that is peaceful, democratic and economically strong. In 1979 and 1980 similar delegations sought to secure a Japanese presidency in the International Judo Federation, while highlighting judo's traditional cultural roots as a form of self-defence and character development. This discursive shift paralleled Japan's economic rise and the growth of nihonjinron – a discourse affirming Japan's unique culture. The Norwegian judo community adopted the sports discourse, but largely rejected the orientalised nihonjinron discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Before 1900, in the Czech lands of the Habsburg Monarchy, the lean body of an athlete became a representation of strength, health, and beauty. Through Sokol gymnastics, the body of every Czech man was to be shaped into the form of the somatic mythotype Apollo. After 1900, in circuses, variety shows, and strength sports clubs, a new ideal man embodying somatic mythotype Hercules appeared: the strongman, who transformed a lightly muscled Apollonian shape into a modern Herculean form bulking massive shredded musculature. Strongman Gustav Frištenský in particular, whose body was eroticized, photogenized, nationalized, and racialized, embodied a mobilizing sports star who strengthened the Czech national community. Frištenský's body was shaped by Hellenistic idealism, which gave rise to his adherence to the somatic mythotype of Hercules. This subsequently gave birth to 'musculinity', a new kind of hegemonic masculinity. The perception of Frištenský's body was influenced by a physical resemblance to the Estonian wrestler Georg Lurich, by practices of othering, and the myth of white male supremacy. The steel and statuesque aesthetic of Frištenský's body and the voyeurism of the masses then undermined traditional middle-class prudery and patriarchal control over the distribution of visual pleasure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the concept of sportswashing, understood as the actions of individuals, transnational corporations or governments using sports to improve reputations tarnished by misconduct, has become increasingly popular. Organizing sports events is one of the main methods utilized by countries attempting to deflect allegations of human rights violations. In the author's opinion, this view, prevalent in scientific and journalistic discourse, should be verified using quantitative methods based on available historical data. Therefore, this article contains the results of a study on the organization of world championships in Olympic sports from 1993 to 2022 by countries with incomplete democracy, defined by Freedom House as 'Partly Free' or 'Not Free' countries. The Winter and Summer Olympic Games were excluded from the analysis because they had previously been discussed many times in the context of sportswashing. A total of 1,064 world championships in summer and winter Olympic disciplines were analyzed, confirming how many organizational rights were granted by international sports federations to non-democratic countries. The results also included a detailed division into individual disciplines and countries and showed that while in the 1990s and early 2000s, countries with a 'Not Free' status hosted world championships sporadically, the number of such cases has significantly increased in the last decade. The conclusion presents reasons for this situation arising directly from sportswashing, as well as other factors, such as the decline of interest in hosting sports events by societies in democratic countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies the politico-diplomatic dimension of the 1935 and 1938 Germany-England football matches played during the National Socialist era. Despite being represented in both countries as international friendlies, these games proved highly politicized affairs because of the centrality of the British-German relationship in international affairs and the politization and diplomatization of international sport during the 1930s. The 1935 game, played in London, became the focus for a high-profile public campaign, led by trade union, Jewish, and other lobbying groups hostile to Nazi Germany, to ban the match. In turn, the 1938 fixture is famed for the Nazi salute, the 'infamous gesture' that British diplomats and Football Association officials instructed the England team to give before the beginning of the match. Using the archives of the Auswärtiges Amt (Foreign Ministry) and Bundesarchiv (Federal Archives) as well as a selection of German newspapers, this article provides an informed German perspective on both matches, which hitherto have been studied principally from a British perspective. Focused upon German aims, perceptions, political influences, and propaganda goals, this case study highlights the 'soft power' methods of totalitarianism in terms of both the adaptation of totalitarianism to football and the adaptation of football to totalitarianism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Founded in 1882, the Racing Club de France (RCF) was one of the very first sports clubs to exist in France. It began operating only in 1884, however, under the leadership of Georges de St Clair (secretary general) and Ernest Demay (president). After two difficult initial years, RCF was reorganized, and its responsibilities redistributed internally with the aim of starting afresh and extending its networks of influence. Until the end of the fifth President Michel Gondinet's mandate in 1908, the club was caught between issues of recognition by public authorities and social distinction, as well as geographic conquest and sport propaganda. The previous 26 years had, however, enabled the club's leaders to lay the foundations of RCF's long-standing presence in France's sports sphere, heralding its arrival on the international stage. This article contributes to understanding the political, economic, cultural, and social relationships between the Parisian elite and sport. RCF developed a range of sports, first based on athletics, then opening up to other practices. The stances adopted vis-à-vis values and the champion's role, as well as infrastructure financing and women's position, attested not only to a certain relationship to sport, built on excellence and performance, but also to the RCF's contribution to a social undertaking based on an educational project, a political concept, and the intention to participate in change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intertwined landscape of physical skills, political power, and diplomatic strategies in the Cold War narrative is always hidden in the spatial configuration and ceremonial symbolic layout of the main venues of international events from where it extends outward. The Cold War historicity of the Taipei William Jones Cup is a case in point. The micro-history of sports diplomacy from the narration of diplomatic history archives, collected by the Academia Historica in Taipei, illustrates that sports diplomacy can also play a key role in the formal history of diplomacy—the establishment of diplomacy, national identity, and regime legitimacy resort to the service of sports. The discussion includes documentary and media discourses related to the Cup, such as spatial power, banal nationalism, symbolic ritual, and identity. Consequently, the Taipei Men's and Women's Jones Cup promoted the development of basketball in Taiwan and Asia, created a platform for activating people's diplomacy, and provided Chiang's regime with a temporary place to survive the Cold War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study conducts a comprehensive survey of the evolving discourse surrounding women's competitive sport in Iran from 1979 to 2020. This research identifies three distinctive discursive sequences delineating the trajectory of women's sport within this timeline. The initial phase, termed 'Suspending Discourse' emerged during the 1980s due to the disruptive effects of the Islamic Revolution and the Iran-Iraq War, resulting in the cessation of women's competitive sport in the country. Subsequently, the 'Modality Discourse' evolved after the late 1980s, characterized by efforts to align women's sport with Islamic regulations. Noteworthy accomplishments during this period include the establishment of the Islamic Women's Games, gender-segregated competitions, and increased international participation due to the acceptance of Islamic veils for Muslim female athletes by some international sports federations. Lastly, the 'Discourse of Conditional Growth' signifies the remarkable advancements in women's sports, notably in national team championships and the development of semi-professional sports leagues since the 1990s, despite persisting challenges. This study unveils the transformative phases of discourse, illustrating the progression of women's competitive sports in Iran. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]