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"The Geopolitical Economy of Sport: Power, Politics, Money, and the State" is a book edited by Simon Chadwick, Paul Widdop, and Micheal Goldman that explores the intersection of sport and geopolitics. The book covers various regions, including Russia and Ukraine, China, The Gulf and South Asia, and Africa, and examines topics such as athlete reactions to war, sports sanctions, and the use of sport for peace and diplomacy. It also delves into specific cases, such as the NBA's relationship with China and the impact of the European Super League on football. The book provides valuable insights for researchers and students studying sports governance and politics, as well as anyone interested in the geopolitics of sport. [Extracted from the article]

Professional sport is a central element of our daily entertainment that contributes to shaping us individually and bonding us collectively: it provides us with shared 'historic' moments. This article is interested in these moments, and how the field of sports generates them, by asking the following questions: (1) has the frequency of 'historic moments' changed over time, and (2) is the way we make sports history consistent throughout the years? We conducted a temporal analysis of newspaper and magazine articles (n = 1062) published in France (Le Monde, l'Équipe) and in the United States (USA Today, Sports Illustrated) during three time periods in the 21st century (2003, 2010, 2019). Our results show that: (1) as time passes, 'historic' moments occur more frequently; (2) sporting history is increasingly linked to social dimensions; and (3) statistical performances continue to mark history above all else. Although performance-based achievements are consistently celebrated, sporting history cannot be separated from our collective social existence, and the currents therein. We show that the act of making sports history is also bound to the normative, social, and cultural history of a society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Who gets to be 'sporty' and active in public is an enduring topic of socio-political debate. Disparities in participation continue from limited access, support and funding to ill-fitting equipment and clothing. This article focuses on the latter. Women have long been disproportionally restricted and harassed in public space not only in relation to how, where and when they move but also what they wear. I approach this issue via a unique data source – global clothing inventions for sport and athletic activities (1890–1940). Analysing convertible, multiple and hidden clothing patents, by and for women, reveals how inventors tackled ongoing socio-political restrictions to women's freedom of movement from the ground up and, often secretly, from the inside out. I suggest these data might be read as acts of resistance, enabling wearers to move and inhabit spaces in new ways, engage in a wider range of activities and make claims to equal public participation and mobility rights. These lesser-known clothing inventions invite us below the surface of conventional sporting histories, expand ideas around the creative possibilities of sport and activewear, and spark imaginaries of what other kinds of inclusive and inventive athletic identities might be possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the intersections between the study of sport and the study of the city through the extension of sport history to themes traditionally explored by geography—notably urban planning scholars. Its focus is two case studies related to urban planning decisions in early millennial Sydney, Australia. Through an examination of public submissions in response to building development applications made by two community-owned professional sports organizations competing in the National Rugby League, the study explores how modern sporting fandom complicates ideas about place and locality through forms of delocalization and glocalization. The authors conclude that when exploring the phenomenon of place protection, the built environment is not necessarily the primary factor informing a sense of place attachment in an urban environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Applying Bronfenbrenner's Bio-Ecological Systems Theory and PPCT model recommendations, this study examined whether specific or multiple factors were associated with participation status in Australian youth swimming; a context known for high dropout rates. Methods: Participants were continuing (N = 99) and former (N = 104) swimmers, aged 8–18 years, who competed at club-national level in New South Wales, Australia. Participants completed an online survey, examining socio-demographic, participation history, and coach-created motivational climate characteristics (using the EDMCQ-C). To identify influential factors, a combination of T-tests, Odds Ratios, and MANOVA analyses were used. To confirm the presence of coach-motivational climate types and their association with participant status, cluster analyses with follow-up Odds Ratios were used. Results: Except athlete age and sex, other socio-demographic, participation history, and family sport history participation were not associated with dropout. Meanwhile, EDMCQ-C analyses identified three cluster types of coach-created climate (empowering, disempowering, and neutral), with disempowering and empowering types, respectively, associated with dropout and continuation. The neutral climate was associated with low-moderate EDMCQ-C sub-scale scoring and was neither associated with dropout nor continuation. Conclusion: Findings identify the influence of coach-created motivational climates and not athlete-related factors on continued Australian youth swimming participation, highlighting coaching implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1991, Sheffield was the host city for the XVI Summer Universiade, better known as the World Student Games (WSG). Studies of the 1991 WSG commonly assert that it received little to no television coverage. This article intervenes to demonstrate that the WSG did receive substantial television coverage on Sky Sports and across the ITV network. The article draws on new archival sources to provide perspectives on the negotiations and interactions between the WSG organizers and the broadcasters, focusing on BSkyB. The article serves as an instrumental case study on how newly available television archival collections can be used to reframe perspectives of television history. In particular, the article considers the early history of Sky Sports, its approach to sports acquisition, its relationship with public service broadcasters, and the impact of satellite television on live-sports coverage and a rapidly changing media landscape in the UK in the early 1990s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1924 Tex Austin, an American showman, brought his world travelling Rodeo to Croke Park in Dublin. Coming at a time of significant social and political upheaval in Ireland, Austin's rodeo promised an entirely new kind of spectacle which was free from imperial or British connotations. Austin's rodeo, and cowboy paraphernalia in general, seemed largely immune from cultural suspicions despite the fact that few citizens knew what a rodeo actually entailed. The purpose of the present article is twofold. First it provides a detailed examination of Tex Austin's Dublin Rodeo, and a growing proliferation of cowboy culture in interwar Ireland. Second, it uses Austin's Rodeo and its aftermath, to discuss the rise of cowboy masculinities in Ireland. Done to highlight the multiplicity of masculine identities in the Free State, the article discusses the appeal of cowboy inspired masculinity in Ireland, as well as the mediums through which it passed. Such an identity was not all encompassing but it did exist, and was sustained by the entertainment and leisure industry. Its study reiterates the need for more work on the various pressures and influences brought to bear on Irish masculinity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the rise of internet distribution has transformed television, precipitating the continued expansion and fracturing of the medium, sports television has not been excluded. In analyzing the effects of internet distribution on sports television, this article specifically examines how internet distribution has fostered the emergence of independent sports television producers and distributors operating outside the traditional sports television system. Using the sport of Ultimate frisbee (Ultimate) as a case study, the article first argues that the new streaming companies that have emerged around that sport have largely modeled their streams on legacy sports television, but have also looked to adapt the conventions of traditional sports television to the specificities of the sport. Second, the article suggests that a particular area of concern for these independent streaming companies has been representation, as these companies have sought to offer a more progressive form of sports television. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is a content analysis of Eurosport's football coverage on its French, English, German and Spanish websites during the 2019 Women's World Cup. It examines the place given to women's football by leading sports news websites in Europe and explores cultural differences across those four countries while limiting corporate differences (as all four websites belong to the same company). Analysis found the women's game represented up to 20% of coverage on two websites, much more than the usual 5% or less usually dedicated to women's sports, but the tournament still took a back seat to offseason men's club football. The production value also showed some sex differences with Eurosport's staff resources seemingly more directed toward coverage of the men's game – despite the Women's World Cup being the only Europe-based senior tournament played by European nations during the study. Differences in coverage among the four countries studied suggest Spain is embracing women's football more than its neighbours, and the vast colonial histories of France, Spain and the UK, and the international relations they shaped, are profoundly affecting the sex gap in football coverage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Sports-related concussion (SRC) is a common form of brain injury that lacks reliable methods to guide clinical decisions. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) can influence biological processes involved in SRC, and measurement of miRNAs in biological fluids may provide objective diagnostic and return to play/recovery biomarkers. Therefore, this prospective study investigated the temporal profile of circulating miRNA levels in concussed male and female athletes. Methods: Pre-season baseline blood samples were collected from amateur Australian rules football players (82 males, 45 females). Of these, 20 males and 8 females sustained an SRC during the subsequent season and underwent blood sampling at 2-, 6- and 13-days postinjury. A miRNA discovery Open Array was conducted on plasma to assess the expression of 754 known/validated miRNAs. miRNA target identified were further investigated with quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) in a validation study. Data pertaining to SRC symptoms, demographics, sporting history, education history and concussion history were also collected. Results: Discovery analysis identified 18 candidate miRNA. The consequent validation study found that plasma miR-221-3p levels were decreased at 6d and 13d, and that miR-27a-3p levels were decreased at 6d, when compared to baseline. Moreover, miR-27a and miR-221-3p levels were inversely correlated with SRC symptom severity. Conclusion: Circulating levels of miR-27a-3p and miR-221-3p were decreased in the sub-acute stages after SRC, and were inversely correlated with SRC symptom severity. Although further studies are required, these analyses have identified miRNA biomarker candidates of SRC severity and recovery that may one day assist in its clinical management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article was to analyze the model of Brazilian School Games (BSG) developed from 2005 to 2017 under management of the Brazilian Olympic Committee (Comitê Olímpico do Brasil (COB)). The research used document analysis, and an interview as supplementary data. The initial categories adopted were the cultural flows that characterize the development and globalization process proposed by Appadurai. From analyzing the data we affirm that the BSG, in the investigated period, presented a globalized structure for the development of school sports, perceived by all of Appadurai's flows—ethnic, media, technological, financial and ideological—and given the history and position of the COB in national and international sports fields, it had a key role in consolidating this globalized perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the trajectories of elite sports actors in Lebanon, focusing on the three most popular sports in the country: football, basketball, and volleyball. Employing a combination of Life Course Theory and Norbert Elias's figurations, the research analyzes data gathered from interviews, academic literature, and official documents. It reveals that despite the complex Lebanese context, sports actors have the capacity to navigate and select various paths within the social and sports figurations. The findings highlight significant influences of religious communities and political structures on these trajectories whilst also identifying margins for freedom and individual strategies. The post-civil war era has distinctly shaped sports actors across generations, evolving toward a diversified and stratified governance in sports. This research underscores the need for a relational approach to comprehend the intricacies of trajectories within the Lebanese sports system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The enormous success of The Last Dance, the sports documentary on Michael Jordan's career, and especially his last season, is the result of a rare confluence of factors, each of which is a unique and rare phenomenon in the history of sport. Their combination has already turned the mini-series into a global media event of the kind that is usually reserved for live broadcasts of extraordinary events. A basketball player with unusual personal and professional abilities, supported by a highly polished and well-oiled marketing system; the specific window of time in which his star shone – the late 1990s, when the era of media commercialization and globalization flourished, yet before the emergence of social media and their typical critical discourse; the rise in sports documentaries in recent years; and encasing all of these is the time of the documentary's broadcast, when sports life across the world ceased due to the coronavirus. The mini-series, which seemingly deals with a single season in the career of a single player in a single sport, is actually so much more. It is a composition reflecting much wider social, sports and media phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taken as a whole, Ken Burns's 1994 documentary Baseball and its 2010 follow-up The Tenth Inning stand as some of the most influential documentaries on the history of American sports. Baseball develops the link between the "fun" of the game and philosophical beliefs about American democracy through a "dialectical aesthetic" that operates through Baseball's choice of subjects and historical events as well as through its formal documentary strategies. While many critics dismiss Baseball as overly nostalgic, this essay argues that Baseball engages the reader with the dialectic to encourage self-reflection about the future of the game and its role in civil society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history of sports culture and fandom has long been as reactionary as it has been hospitable to progressive politics. As the most conspicuous recent example, NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick's U.S. anthem protest generated intense controversy with many critics claiming that sports and politics should, generally, not mix—a condemnation that ignores that context's already pervasive militaristic nationalism. This article offers the first nationally representative examination of fans' antipathy toward sports' politicization through a critical textual analysis and inductive classification of their responses to the issue. Ostensibly "aracial" rebukes to that activism could nonetheless be characterized in lineage with historically stereotypical representations of and affronts to black athletes: as threatening to society, not intellectually equipped to engage, and illegitimate as leaders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Professional sports leagues play a major role in our society, but little attention has been given to organizational factors related to league survival. We address this issue by examining the effects of related agglomeration (the extent to which league teams are located near teams from other sports that share the same broad professional sport identity), sport age, market heterogeneity (high variance in the number of teams from other sports in its teams' cities), and within-sport league competition (high niche overlap) on league mortality. Related agglomeration may lead to intensified competition but may also lead to benefits by producing agglomeration economies and by driving the development of regional identities. We propose that the effects of related agglomeration vary over a focal population's life cycle. We also argue that leagues with high market heterogeneity have higher chances of failure, particularly under conditions of high competition. We test our ideas using event history analysis to examine mortality in the entire population history of professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada (which are fundamentally different from leagues in other parts of the world) from the first league founding in 1871 until 1997. We find that leagues in young sports whose teams tend to be located in cities with large numbers of other sports (high related agglomeration) suffer from higher mortality rates while leagues that are in more established sports are less likely to fail under these circumstances. Consistent with prior research, leagues are more likely to fail when they experience higher competition (higher niche overlap) with other leagues in their sport, and the effects of competition are exacerbated by high variance in the number of other sports across the leagues' cities (high market heterogeneity). We end by discussing the implications of our results for more common multi-unit organizational forms such as franchises and by considering promising avenues for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Curran, Conor Physical Education in Irish Schools, 1900-2000: A History. In his history, Conor Curran sometimes sets sport and physical education out in opposition to each other (p. 2) and sometimes moves between the two in the same sentence as if they are the same thing (p. 3). It is true, also, that these interviews expand insight into the experiences of teachers and allow for a more comprehensive insight into how policies on physical education were perceived by teachers. [Extracted from the article]

The tennis rivalry between Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova was among the most compelling in sport history. Although it ended with Evert's retirement in 1989, memories of that rivalry were evoked by their" inclusion in ESPN Sportscentury's "top 50" athletes of the 20th century in North America. In this article, the author examines how the half-hour segments provide useful insights into the cultural construction of gendered and national identities. More specifically, this article scrutinizes how ESPN's coverage re-creates impressions of Evert as "America's sweetheart"/"Chris America" while positioning Navratilova as Czechoslovakian/lesbian (read: "other"). Finally, this article explores how media representations work to naturalize difference, thus leaving the impression that identities are fixed and unrelated to historical and cultural conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Talks about the organization of amateur sport in the U.S. Evolution of amateur sport; Characteristics of amateur athletics; Internalization of athletic capital; Conclusion.

The article lists various sports related books for the month of February. The list includes "Hockey Night in Canada: Sport, Identities and Cultural Politics," by Richard Gruneau and David Whitson; "Little Big Men: Bodybuilding Subculture and Gender Construction," by Alan M. Klein; "The National Collegiate Athletic Association: A Study in Cartel Behavior," by Arthur Fleisher, Brian Gaff, and Robert Tollison; "The Body and Social Theory," by Chris Schilling; "Performance Versus Results: A Critique of Values in Contemporary Sport," by John Gibson and others. The other books in the list are based upon sports history, sports law, and sports business.