This Great Symbol is the definitive study of the origins of the modern Olympic Games and of their founder, Pierre de Coubertin, whose ideological stamp the Olympics still bear. Behind this fascinating blend of biography and history lies an impressive framework of cultural, social, and psychological theories skilfully employed to interpret the creation and symbolism of the modern Olympic Games. Hailed as both a classic in sport history and as a paradigmatic study in the anthropology of the past, This Great Symbol helped launch the new collaboration between historians and cultural anthropologists that continues to mark the human sciences worldwide. For this 25th anniversary edition, Professor MacAloon adds a new preface evaluating subsequent scholarship on Coubertin and the Olympic origins and a highly personal afterword describing the impact of This Great Symbol on his own subsequent career as an Olympic anthropologist and cultural performance theory. This book was published as a special issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport.

The collection starts from the premise that Olympism and the Olympic Games make sense only when they are placed within the broader national, colonial and post colonial contexts and argues that sport not only influences politics and vice-versa, but that the two are inseparable. Sport is not only political; it is politics. It is also culture and art. This collaboration is a first in global publishing, a mine of information for scholars, students and analysts. It demonstrates that Olympism and the Olympic movement in the modern context has been, and continues to be, socially relevant and politically important. Studies focus on national encounters with Olympism and the Olympic movement, with equal attention paid to document the growing nexus between sports and the media; sports reportage; as well as women and sports. Olympism asserts that the Olympic movement was, and is, of central importance to twentieth and twenty-first century societies. Finally, the collection demonstrates that the essence of Olympism and the Olympic movement is important only in so far as it affects societies surrounding it. This book was published as a special issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport.

This text explores the social and cultural impact of the Olympic Games, examining gender and sport, the inequalities between nations and people and at what the Games offer and how they are changing, in relation to spectacles, spectatorship and culture, including the links between art and sport.

With its winning mix of gripping narrative and easy-to-implement performance-raising tips, this book has become a best-selling classic. It's garnered 5-star reviews and wide-ranging endorsements - from Sebastian Coe and Dame Kelly Holmes to Lord Digby Jones. The book tells the inspiring story of how Ben Hunt-Davis - an ordinary guy in an ordinary team - achieved something pretty extraordinary: Olympic Gold. Co-author Harriet Beveridge, Executive Coach, then gives a simple, engaging account of how we can apply these strategies to raise our own game... in sport, in business and in life. Building on the huge success of the original, this second edition includes two completely new chapters - on high performance conversations and performance under pressure - as well as a general update, based on the successes readers and businesses have reaped from the first edition. In the book's signature, down to earth and practical style, the new chapters unlock simple ways for readers to thrive in their own pressured environments, and to communicate in ways which consistently improve results. Whether you are a business leader looking to achieve a compelling vision, an individual with a dream, or a coach supporting others to unlock their potential...this book is jam-packed with tried and tested methods to help you achieve your own 'gold medal'.

This innovative study examines the Olympic programme from a critical feminist perspective, to shed new light on the issues of gender and inclusion at the Olympic Games and in the Olympic Movement. Incorporating both quantitative and qualitative data, the book identifies and analyzes the changes - and remaining gender differences - made on the Olympic Programmes for London 2012, and each of the subsequent Summer and Winter Olympic Games (Sochi 2014, Rio 2016, and Pyeongchang 2018), as well as the Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022 Games. The book draws on the IOC's own publications, information from International and National Sport Federations, and media sources to describe and explain the IOC's slow and uneven progress toward gender equality at the Olympic Games. This is important reading for any student, researcher, practitioner or policy maker with an interest in the Olympic Games, sport studies, gender studies, women's sport or major events.

This book examines the changing nature of opposition to bidding for and hosting the Olympic Games in contemporary American cities. It explores and critiques the process by which cities bid for the Olympics in the current context of the International Olympic Committee's changing bid requirements and from the social justice perspectives of Olympics opponents. Using detailed case studies of the Olympic bids in Chicago, Boston, and Los Angeles, it shows how opposition to bidding for and hosting the Olympics has changed dramatically in American cities.

This handbook offers an important and timely contribution to the interdisciplinary field of Olympic studies. It brings together for the first time in a single volume a complete analysis of current and future economic, commercial, socio-political, cultural and governance challenges facing both the Olympic and Paralympic Games, their athletes and institutions. The book presents new research and broad surveys exploring pressing debates, challenges and possible solutions surrounding the modern Olympic and Paralympic Games, across diverse socioeconomic and political contexts. Featuring chapters written by leading scholars, athletes and administrators from a range of disciplines and backgrounds, the handbook is divided into four main areas: athletes, business, governance and socio-cultural issues within the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Examining key themes, theories and new emerging issues within the field, the book offers expert insights into every major topic related to the Olympic and Paralympic Games, including doping, integrity, athletes' rights, culture, nationality, sponsorship, branding, governance, sports policy and law, marketing, social media, technology, e-sports, politics, ethics, international relations, legacy and impact. The only up-to-date handbook to reflect the true breadth and depth of this international field of research, the Routledge Handbook of the Olympic and Paralympic Games is a landmark publication for all students and scholars of sport studies, as well as those working in sport business, media, event management and administration, economics, marketing, management, politics, Olympic studies and cultural studies. It is also an important resource for sport management practitioners and sports officials.

The first book to fully chronicle the struggles and triumphs of African American athletes in the Modern Olympic summer games. In the modern Olympic Games, from 1896 through the present, African American athletes have sought to honor themselves, their race, and their nation on the global stage. But even as these incredible athletes have served to promote visions of racial harmony in the supposedly-apolitical Olympic setting, many have also bravely used the games as a means to bring attention to racial disparities in their country and around the world. In Black Mercuries: African American Athletes, Race, and the Modern Olympic Games, David K. Wiggins, Kevin B. Witherspoon, and Mark Dyreson explore in detail the varied experiences of African American athletes, specifically in the summer games. They examine the lives and careers of such luminaries as Jesse Owens, Rafer Johnson, Wilma Rudolph, Florence Griffith-Joyner, Michael Johnson, and Simone Biles, but also many African American Olympians who have garnered relatively little attention and whose names have largely been lost from historical memory. In recounting the stories of these Black Olympians, Black Mercuries makes clear that their superior athletic skills did not always shield them from the racial tropes and insensitivity spewed by fellow athletes, the media, spectators, and many others. Yet, in part because of the struggles they faced, African American Olympians have been extraordinarily important symbolically throughout Olympic history, serving as role models to future Black athletes and often putting their careers on the line to speak out against enduring racial inequality and discriminatory practices in all walks of life.

This book is the first longitudinal study that addresses language policy and planning in the context of a major international sporting event and examines the ideological, political, social, cultural, and economic effects of such context-specific policy initiatives on contemporary China. The book has important reference value for future research on language management at the supernational level and language services for linguistically complex events. At the same time, it presents some broader implications for current and future language policy makers, language educators and learners, particularly from non-English speaking backgrounds. Foreword by Ingrid Piller

This book explores the relationship between diplomatic discourse and the Olympic Movement, charting its continuity and change from an historical perspective. Using the recent body of literature on diplomacy it explores the evolution of diplomatic discourse around a number of themes, in particular the increasing range of stakeholders engaged in the Olympic bid, disability advocacy and the mainstreaming of the Paralympic Games and the evolution of the Olympic boycott. The work addresses the increasing engagement of a number of non-state actors, in particular the IOC and the IPC, as indicative of the diffusion of contemporary diplomacy. At the same time it identifies the state as continuing in the role of primary actor, setting the terms of reference for diplomatic activity beyond the pursuit of its own policy interests. Its historical investigation, based around a UK case study, provides insights into the characteristics of diplomatic discourse relating to the Games, and creates the basis for mapping the future trajectory of diplomacy as it relates to the Olympic Movement.

Craig Reedie came from a love of badminton. His efforts for his sport included the building of its own six-court hall and official offices. For the International Federation, he resolved major political issues and worked for the inclusion of the sport in the Olympic Program. For the BOA, he helped a change in the structure of British sport and the organization of bids to host the Olympic Games. Seven years of organization led to the successful 2012 London Games. A member of the IOC since 1994, he became president of WADA, facing the Russian doping issues.

An exploration of how the Olympics are organized in response to risk. This book looks at the tension between the riskiness of mega-events, attributable to their scale and complexities, and the societal, political and organizational pressures that exist for safety, security and management of risk - leading to changes in how the Games are governed.

The extraordinary true story of the U.S. sled hockey team that overcame physical adversity and internal strife to win Paralympic gold. When former NHL star Rick Middleton accepted the position of head coach for the United States sled hockey team, he wasn't sure what to expect. The program had never medaled-had never even come close, in fact. But where Middleton might have found despair, he instead found an incredible group of men who had battled their way back from hell to play the sport they love. In Hockey's Hidden Gods: The Untold Story of a Paralympic Miracle on Ice, S.C. Megale uncovers the remarkable tale of a team that shocked the world by taking U.S. sled hockey from worst to first in the 2002 Paralympics. Odds of winning were dismal. The road to victory seemed unfathomable. But this cast of fifteen athletes with disabilities, athletes who had helped build a groundbreaking U.S. sled hockey program with almost no outside support, ultimately persevered on the global stage. Featuring a fascinating history of sled hockey, exclusive interviews with players and coaches, action-packed game coverage, and intimate profiles sharing the players' personal journeys, Hockey's Hidden Gods is the uplifting story of how once-shattered dreams can be reborn and rebuilt through tenacity, grit, and an indomitable spirit.

This book deals with the events leading up to the 1936 Popular Olympics which would have united the Popular Front in opposition to the Berlin Olympics. It also discusses the days after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War which began on the same day the games were due to start. Using a variety of primary and secondary sources, the book traces the biographies of several Popular Olympians who would go on to volunteer in the Spanish Civil War. The book also examines the planned events and locations for the Popular Olympics as well as the international funding that the games secured. The book argues that the events were a departure from Workers' Sport as well as the IOC's Olympic games and represented an important cultural manifestation of the Popular Front.

This innovative study examines the Olympic programme from a critical feminist perspective, to shed new light on the issues of gender and inclusion at the Olympic Games and in the Olympic Movement. Incorporating both quantitative and qualitative data, the book identifies and analyzes the changes - and remaining gender differences - made on the Olympic Programmes for London 2012, and each of the subsequent Summer and Winter Olympic Games (Sochi 2014, Rio 2016, and Pyeongchang 2018), as well as the Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022 Games. The book draws on the IOC's own publications, information from International and National Sport Federations, and media sources to describe and explain the IOC's slow and uneven progress toward gender equality at the Olympic Games. This is important reading for any student, researcher, practitioner or policy maker with an interest in the Olympic Games, sport studies, gender studies, women's sport or major events.

This book examines women's participation in the Olympic Games since they were allowed to be included in that global arena. Using a holistic, social scientific approach, and emphasizing the rhetoric of sport mediatization, Female Olympians reviews the literature relative to sexism, racism, and ageism before providing historical, political, economic, and socio-cultural perspectives such as the gendered language of Olympic reportage, religious considerations, women's bodies relative to their training for the Games, drugs and doping, and female Paralympians. With numerous critical case studies, never-before assembled data, and personal interviews with athletes, this volume offers insights that both investigate and celebrate female Olympians' successes.

This book evaluates the local impacts and legacies of the Olympics in Rio by comparing Rio2016 with other Olympic experiences and evaluating the ways in which the Games served the city. The 2016 Rio Olympic Games took place in a scenario of enormous economic challenges and persistent inequalities. In contrast to all previous Olympic experiences, Brazil faced its worst economic recession ever recorded during the preparation phase for the Games. In addition to the national crisis, falling oil prices and corruption scandals fuelled the State of Rio's economic downfall. This book specifically assesses the relative social performance of Rio's city population with respect to control groups; covers traditional aspects of the Games' legacy such as tourism, infrastructure and sports practice; includes ordinary day-by-day aspects of the city's life, such as education, employment and housing; and scrutinizes critical areas such as urban mobility, gentrification and Guanabara Bay's pollution. This thorough analysis offers readers further understanding on assessing the impacts and legacies of the Olympic experience. It will be of great interest to upper-level students and academics of tourism, hospitality and events management.

This pivot examines how the Theatre Olympics, born in 1995, have served to enrich each host country's culture, community, and foreign relations. Looking at the host country's political, social, and cultural circumstances, it considers how the festival expands the notion of Olympism beyond its application to the Olympic Games, expressing the spirit of Olympism and interculturalism in each country's distinct cultural language. It also emphasizes the festival's development over the twenty years of its existence and how each festival's staging has reflected the national identity, theatre tradition, and cultural interest of the hosting country at that time, as well as how each festival director's artistic principle has attempted to accomplish cultural exchange through their productions.

This book focuses on the ground-breaking coverage of the London 2012 Paralympic Games by the UK's publicly owned but commercially funded Channel 4 network, coverage which seemed to deliver a transformational shift in attitudes towards people with disabilities. It sheds important new light on our understanding of media production and its complex interactions with sport and wider society. Drawing on political economy and cultural studies, the book explores why and how a marginalised group was brought into the mainstream by the media, and the key influencing factors and decision-making processes. Featuring interviews with key people involved in the television and digital production structures, as well as organisational archives, it helps us to understand the interplay between creativity and commerce, between editorial and marketing workflows, and about the making of meaning. The book also looks at coverage of the Rio Paralympics, and ahead to the Tokyo Games, and at changing global perceptions of disability through sport. This is fascinating reading for any advanced students, researchers, or sport management or media professionals looking to better understand the media production process or the significance of sport and disability in wider society.

Chinese Subjectivities and the Beijing Olympics develops the Foucauldian concept of productive power through examining the ways in which the Chinese government tried to mobilize the population to embrace its Olympic project through deploying various sets of strategies and tactics. It argues that the multifaceted strategies, tactics, and discourses deployed by the Chinese authorities sustain an order of things and values in such a way that drive individuals to commit themselves actively to the goals of the party-state. The book examines how these processes of subjectification are achieved by zooming in on five specific groups of the population: athletes, young Olympic volunteers, taxi drivers, Chinese citizens targeted by place-making projects, and the Hong Kong population. In doing so it probes critically into the role of individuals and how they take on the governmental ideas to become responsible autonomous subjects.

Every four years the summer Olympic Games capture the world s attention. Over 10,000 athletes from more than 200 countries gather to prove they are the best in their sports. From the first competition held in 1896 to the 2012 London Olympics, the games have hosted some of swimming s greatest victories and deepest defeats. Fans have witnessed Johnny Weissmuller win back-to-back Olympic gold medals before he found fame on the big screen as Tarzan; they have seen Dara Torres defy age to win three silver medals at the age of 41; and they will forever remember Michael Phelps capturing a record eight gold medals at the 2008 games. The Most Memorable Moments in Olympic Swimming reveals the sport s greatest moments on its biggest stage. Through careful research and the personal recollections from the athletes themselves, John Lohn has brought together the key performances, top athletes, major controversies, and improbable victories of the games. Organized chronologically, the progression of swimming as an Olympic sport comes to life as the top 25 moments are revealed. The best swimmers in Olympic history are featured throughout, from Mark Spitz and Ian Thorpe to Debbie Meyer and Dawn Fraser. Dozens of photographs highlight the athletes and their shared passion for swimming glory. Detailed appendixes include the top Olympic medal winners by country and by athlete, and a bibliography provides key swimming references for the reader. Swimming fans, coaches, athletes, and researchers will enjoy this history of a sport rich in tradition and spectacular moments, as will all enthusiasts of the Olympic Games."

This book examines Russia's 2013 anti-gay laws and their implications for the Sochi 2014 Olympics. Lenskyj argues that Putin's Russia and the International Olympic Committee wield power in similar ways, as evident in undemocratic governance, fraudulent voting processes, hypocrisy and absence of accountability.