Britain and the Olympic Games, 1908-1920 focuses upon the presentation and descriptions of identity that are presented through the depictions of the Olympics in the national press. This book breaks Britain down into its four nations and presents the debates that were present within their national press.

In an international arena where the utility of military force may be declining, statesmen are inclined to search for alternative means of pursuing national policy. The manipulation of international sport is one such means. This book examines the 1980 United States boycott of the Olympic Games in order to assess the desirability and effectiveness of using international sport as a political instrument. Derick L. Hulme, Jr. reveals the pitfalls as well as the opportunities of such diplomacy by using the 1980 Olympic boycott as a framework. Concluding that the boycott was both a success and a failure, Hulme challenges generally accepted views of employing sport as a political instrument. The book points out that while the boycott succeeded in inflicting significant costs upon the Soviet Union for its invasion of Afghanistan, the White House was unable to enlist Western European support, reinforcing the perception that the leadership capabilities of the post-Vietnam United States were in decline.

The book offers comprehensive coverage, from both a descriptive and analytical viewpoint, of the events in 1980 surrounding the decision to boycott. Hulme examines this decision as well as the domestic and international campaigns to rally support for President Carter's initiative. This provides a foundation upon which to critically assess the boycott effort. Finally, the book evaluates the relevance of the 1980 boycott to the emergence of international political sport as a significant policy alternative. Students and scholars of international diplomacy as well as anyone interested in the Olympic Games as a diplomatic tool, will find "The Political OlympicS" a valuable resource.

Nowadays, sports Mega-events - with the Olympic Games leading the way - go over immense effort to showcase their environmental credentials. With that in mind, this book compares and contrasts the environmental credentials of four Olympic Host cities starting with Sydney 2000, the host of the first Green Summer Olympics, and culminating with London 2012. Setting out a comparative cross-national study that makes extensive use of perspectives offered by environmental sociology, this book showcases the scientific analytical vigour of this sociological sub-discipline. Since in most cases, the linkages between hosting the Games and the environment that are made by the general public and policy-makers are mostly in relation to the regeneration of the host city, this book engages with this type of environmental related contributions that can be made by Olympic Games hosting. Yet, inspired by the emphasis that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) gives on the environmental impact and legacy of Games in terms of the Ecological Modernization (EM) perspective, the book engages with the potential imbued by Olympic Games hosting for the EM of the host nation.

The Olympics Games are the biggest and most significant mega-sport event in the world. Planning and then staging the Olympic Games is a highly complex task which is exasperated by the fact that the Games are continually moving and not held consecutively in the same city. This means that start-up knowledge is required for each Olympics. Given the massive scale, scope and complexity of the Games it is surprising that very little research has been published that explores how the event is managed and organised. While the Games themselves are held over two weeks, the planning and preparation from bid stage to completion can be more than a decade in the making. The express purpose of this volume is to critically examine the planning, management and operation of the Olympic Games as the world's premier mega-sport event. The authors analyse and discuss how Olympic organisers and related stakeholders might effectively manage and deliver the Games, taking into account what has been learned from previous Olympics as well as the emergence of models of best practice from the management, project management and sport management literature.

This text evaluates the moral project of Olympism, analzying the changing value positions adopted in relation to the ideology of Olympism across the period from the 1890s to the present day. The book also analyzes discourses of Olympism concerned with youth, governance, sport for development and international relations.

A comprehensive, state-of-the-art reference collection, bringing together an authoritative and international line-up of scholars to examine key social and political issues related to the Olympics. An essential, 'one-stop' volume for a wide range of academics, students and researchers.

The media increasingly refers to football clubs as brands. Certainly concepts such as loyalty, affiliation, emotional ties with football clubs seem to parallel the relationship between consumer and brand in the broader marketing sphere. This book delves deep into the world of the lucrative business of sports branding.

Analysing the politics of the 2012 London Olympics, Stephen Wagg examines the framing of London's bid to host the Games, arguments about the Games' likely impact and the establishment of 'Fortress London' to protect the Games. The book asks who won, and who lost out, in this important event as well as exploring its media coverage and legacy.

La gran lecci n de vida que recibi "Mauri," al notificarle su m dico ur logo que ten a c ncer de pr stata y sobrevivir a una cirug a complicada que lo mantuvo en convalecencia por m?'s de 2 meses, lo motiv a meditar sobre la necesidad de escribir sus experiencias deportivas como corredor, ciclista y atleta "m ster," aport ndolas mediante los programas de entrenamiento que utiliz, para ganar competencias de ciclismo, triatlones ol mpicos, medios Iron Man, un tercer lugar en el Iron Man y destacadas participaciones en innumerables carreras pedestres desde 5km. hasta el marat n. Sin duda servir como una gu a para aquellos que quieran disfrutar de cualquiera de estos deportes sin importar su edad, adem?'s sepan que con la adquisici n de este ejempla, contribuyen con un granito de arena con los ni os que padecen c ncer y son tratados en el Centro Estatal de Cancerolog a Dr. Miguel Dorantes Mesa en Xalapa, Veracruz.

Higher, faster, stronger… The Olympic motto conjures images of heroes whose achievements transcended their athletic prowess, but also of tragedy and disgrace. By 1980, the modern Olympic movement was gasping for breath, bankrupt financially, politically, and culturally. But under the leadership of Juan Antonio Samaranch, and, subsequently, Jacques Rogge, the Olympics began a journey back from the brink. Michael Payne, who served as the International Olympic Committee's top marketer for over twenty years, offers unprecedented access to the people and negotiations behind one of the most dramatic turnarounds in business or sports history. Through a multi-pronged strategy, the IOC managed to secure lucrative broadcasting commitments, entice well-heeled corporate sponsors, and parlay the symbolism of the Olympics into a brand for which cities around the world are willing to invest billions of dollars. Packed with previously untold stories from the high-octane world where business, sports, politics, and media meet, Olympic Turnaround is a remarkable tale of organizational renewal and a fascinating glimpse behind the curtain of the world's most iconic brand. The 2008 Games in Beijing, for example, are expected to involve over 10,000 athletes from 200 countries, draw 20,000 media representatives, and generate over $4 billion in sponsorships and broadcasting rights. Packed with previously untold stories from the high-octane world where business, sports, politics, and media meet, Olympic Turnaround is a remarkable tale of organizational renewal and a fascinating glimpse behind the curtain of the world's most iconic brand.

In this "must-read for anyone concerned with race, sports, and politics in America" (William C. Rhoden, New York Times bestselling author), the inspirational and largely unknown true story of the eighteen African American athletes who competed in the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, defying the racism of both Nazi Germany and the Jim Crow South. Set against the turbulent backdrop of a segregated United States, sixteen Black men and two Black women are torn between boycotting the Olympic Games in Nazi Germany or participating. If they go, they would represent a country that considered them second-class citizens and would compete amid a strong undercurrent of Aryan superiority that considered them inferior. Yet, if they stayed, would they ever have a chance to prove them wrong on a global stage? Five athletes, full of discipline and heart, guide you through this harrowing and inspiring journey. There's a young and feisty Tidye Pickett from Chicago, whose lithe speed makes her the first African American woman to compete in the Olympic Games; a quiet Louise Stokes from Malden, Massachusetts, who breaks records across the Northeast with humble beginnings training on railroad tracks. We find Mack Robinson in Pasadena, California, setting an example for his younger brother, Jackie Robinson; and the unlikely competitor Archie Williams, a lanky book-smart teen in Oakland takes home a gold medal. Then there's Ralph Metcalfe, born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, who becomes the wise and fierce big brother of the group. From burning crosses set on the Robinsons's lawn to a Pennsylvania small town on fire with praise and parades when the athletes return from Berlin, Olympic Pride, American Prejudice has "done the world a favor by bringing into the sunlight the unknown story of eighteen black Olympians who should never be forgotten. This book is both beautiful and wrenching, and essential to understanding the rich history of African American athletes" (Kevin Merida, editor-in-chief of ESPN's The Undefeated).

Realpolitik as a component of the Olympic Games held in East Asia has been largely ignored by historians. However, sport was an integral part of cultural diplomacy and the expression of national prowess for the three Games held in East Asia: 1964 Tokyo, 1988 Seoul and 2008 Beijing. It is time this was recorded. The Olympic Games had transformational political, economic and cultural effects for the host cities and countries. This also is a neglected topic. The Triple Asian Olympics: Asia Rising explores the realities of global transformation, regional ascendancy and metaphorical modernity of the East Asian Olympics and, by extension, East Asia. As the axis of global geo-political and economic power shifts to the East, analyzing the significance of the Olympic Games in East Asia becomes significant to an understanding the shifting nature of the nations of East Asia. The Triple Asian Games are harbingers of dramatic geopolitical change. This is the first study to record, confront and examine this contemporary phenomenon. For this reason, this unique collection promises to attract a wide readership. This book was originally published as a special issue of The International Journal of the History of Sport.

In the first forty or so years following its revival at the end of the nineteenth century, the burdens placed on cities hosting a modern Olympic Games were relatively modest. However, as the Games have grown in size and stature, morphing from a small-scale summer festival into an intensively mediated global lollapalooza, demands on host cities have massively increased, resulting in the construction of vast and expensive new stadia, Olympic villages, and associated infrastructure. Moreover, after the Second World War, host cities have increasingly used the Olympics as a means to achieve ambitious non-sporting policy goals.

Edited and introduced by two leading scholars, this new four-volume collection from Routledge brings together key primary-source materials and the best scholarship and serious commentary to elucidate and explore the planning, making, and generation of Olympic cities. The gathered materials (some of which are reproduced in facsimile to give users a strong sense of immediacy to the original texts) cover topics such as how cities have embraced the Olympics into their town-planning strategies; built new stadia and sports facilities; and constructed new transport and other communications networks. From what is widely seen as the paradigm of Olympics-led urban regeneration (Barcelona, 1992) to the planning disaster of Montreal, 1976, issues around the short-term impact, and longer-term legacy, of the Olympics on various cities are also closely interrogated.

Fully indexed and with a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editors, which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context, The Making of Olympic Cities is an essential work of reference. It is destined to be welcomed as a vital one-stop research tool.

The Olympics: The Basics is an accessible, contemporary introduction to the Olympic movement and Games. Chapters explain how the Olympics transcend sports, engaging us with a range of contemporary philosophical, social, cultural and political matters, including:

• peace development and diplomacy
• management and economics
• corruption, terror and activism
• the rise of human enhancement
• ethics and environmentalism.

This book explores the controversy and the legacy of the Olympics, drawing attention to the deeper values of Olympism, as the Olympic movement 's most valuable intellectual property. This engaging, lively, and often challenging book, is essential reading for newcomers to Olympic studies and offers new insights for Olympic scholars.

On 6 July 2005, the International Olympic Committee awarded the 2012 summer Olympic Games to the city of London, opening a new chapter in Great Britain 's rich Olympic history. Despite the prospect of hosting the summer Games for the third time since Pierre de Coubertin 's 1894 revival of the Olympic movement, the historical roots of British Olympism have received limited scholarly attention. With the conclusion of the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the passing of the baton to London, Rule Britannia remedies that oversight.

This book uncovers Britain 's early Olympic involvement, revealing how the British public, media, and leading governmental officials were strongly opposed to international Olympic competition. It explores how the British Olympic Association focused on three main factors in the midst of widespread national opposition: it embraced early Olympian spectacles as a platform for maintaining a sporting union with Ireland, it fostered a greater sense of imperial identity with Britain 's white dominions, and it undertook an ambitious policy of athletic specialization designed to reverse the nation 's waning fortunes in international sport.

This book was previously published as a special issue of International Journal of the History of Sport.

This book focuses on the processes of documenting the Beijing Olympics ? ranging from the visual (television and film) to radio and the written word ? and the meanings generated by such representations. What were the ?key? stories and how were they chosen? What was dramatised? Who were the heroes? Which ?clashes? were highlighted and how? What sorts of stories did the notion of ?human interest? generate? Did politics take a backseat or was the topic highlighted repeatedly? Thus, the focus was not on the success or failure of this event, but on the ways in which the Olympics Games, as international and historic events, are memorialised by observers.

The key question that this book addresses is: How far would the Olympic coverage fall into the patterns of representation that have come to dominate Olympic reporting and what would China, as a discursive subject, bring to these patterns?

This book was previously published as a special issue of Sport in Society.

Mexico City's staging of the 1968 Olympic Games should have been a pinnacle in Mexico's post-revolutionary development: a moment when a nation at ease with itself played proud host to a global celebration of youthful vigour. Representing the Nation argues, however, that from the moment that the city won the bid, the Mexican elite displayed an innate lack of trust in their countrymen. Beautification of the capital city went beyond that expected of a host. It included the removal of undesirables from sight and the sponsorship of public information campaigns designed to teach citizens basic standards of civility and decency.

The book's contention is that these and other measures exposed a chasm between what decades of post-revolutionary socio-cultural reforms had sought to produce, and what members of the elite believed their nation to be. While members of the Organising Committee deeply resented international scepticism of Mexico's ability to stage the Games, they shared a fear that with the eyes of the world upon them, their compatriots would reveal Mexico's aspirations to first world status to be a fraud. Using a detailed analysis of Mexico City's preparations for the Olympic Games, we show how these tensions manifested themselves in the actions of the Organising Committee and government authorities.

This book was published as a special issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport.

The Olympics: A Critical Reader represents a unique, critical guide to the definitive sporting mega-event and the wider phenomenon it represents ? Olympism. Combining classic texts and thoughtful editorial discussion with challenging new pieces, including previously unseen material, the book systematically addresses the key questions in modern Olympism, including:

• what does studying Olympism entail?
• how do historical accounts create and challenge Olympic myths?
• how do different theoretical perspectives inform our understanding of Olympism?
• which socio-political processes influence personal, collective and imagined Olympic identities?
• how do we experience and make sense of Olympism?
• who owns Olympism and why does it matter?
• how do cities compete for and celebrate the Olympics?
• How are the Olympic values promoted?
• why is it important to protect the ethical principles and properties of Olympism?
• what are the grounds for contesting Olympism?
• how can Olympism be taught?
• how can the principles and practices of Olympism be sustained in the future?

Each thematic part has been designed to include a range of views, including background treatment of an issue as well as critical scholarship, to ensure that students develop a well-rounded understanding of the Olympic phenomenon. The Olympics: A Critical Reader is essential reading for students of the Olympics and Olympism, the sociology of sport, sport management and cultural studies.

The Beijing 2008 Olympic ceremonies were spectacular performances and technological accomplishments by the People's Republic of China. However, the audience in Beijing was only the most overt element of a global audience receiving the message of the Games. For this global audience, the Beijing performances were a harbinger of wider regional and international ambitions; a message of intent that pointed to a larger Chinese plan to a degree not seen since the Ming dynasty. New Chinese ambitions embrace both soft power and hard power. The actor in this political drama of international scope is the Chinese state and its political ambitions on the world stage. The Beijing Olympics can be seen as its opening act, and the audience as global. Rather than the kind of "morality" play that is typically used in China to educate the people in politics, this new production - a production on many levels - was one aimed at audiences all around the world, and one that was a calculated expression of realpolitik. This book was previously published as a special issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport.

For more than a century, the Olympics have been the modern world's most significant sporting event. Indeed, they deserve much credit for globalizing sport beyond the boundaries of the Anglo-American universe, where it originated, into broader global realms. By the 1930s, the Olympics had become a global mega-event that occupied the attention of the media, the interest of the public and the energies of nation-states. Since then, projected by television, funded by global capital and fattened by the desires of nations to garner international prestige, the Olympics have grown to gargantuan dimensions.

In the course of its epic history, the Olympics have left numerous legacies, from unforgettable feats to monumental stadiums, from shining triumphs to searing tragedies, from the dazzling debuts on the world's stage of new cities and nations to notorious campaigns of national propaganda. The Olympics represent an essential component of modern global history. The Olympic movement itself has, since the 1990s, recognized and sought to shape its numerous legacies with mixed success as this book makes clear. It offers ground-breaking analyses of the power of Olympic legacies, positive and negative, and surveys the subject from Athens in 1896 to Beijing in 2008, and indeed beyond.

This book was published as a special issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport.

Beijing 2008: Preparing for Glory - Chinese Challenge in the 'Chinese Century' brings together international scholars with an interest in sport and politics and sinologists with an interest in China - past, present and future - to explore global reaction to the Beijing Olympics - China's anticipated moment of glory on the world stage. The Beijing Olympics was, first and foremost, a political act of assertion. It was also a statement of national intent, the culmination of ideological effort going back to 1949 and the outcome of political, social, cultural and economic change. From the moment of the birth of the 'New China' sport has been viewed as a means of internal and external projection illustrating the capacity of the system and people to more than hold their own with those of other nations. In short, sport has been the chosen 'stage' on which the Chinese perform in pursuit of world recognition, respect and esteem. This assertion is not hard to understand. China's 'century of humiliation' at the hands of first the West and then Japan remains a traumatic experience. Beijing 2008 wass to assist the restoration of China's national self-esteem. He Zhenliang, Chairman of the IOC Commission for the Culture of Olympic Education, has remarked pointedly that the most significant outcome of the Beijing Games will be the elevation of the self-confidence and sense of pride of the Chinese people. Beijing 2008 was an act of political self-renewal on the world stage. This Collection demonstrates that sport is inseparable from politics. This book was previously published as a special issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport.