The 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games


Book Description

The 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games stand as the most profitable and arguably the most important event in the history of the modern Olympic movement. Fresh off the back of the financially disastrous Montreal Games of 1976 and the politically controversial Moscow Games of 1980, the Olympic movement returned to the United States for the sixth time in an attempt to salvage the economic viability and global prestige of the Olympics. The Los Angeles Olympics proved to be both provocative and polarizing. On the one hand they have been heralded as an overwhelming, transformative success, ushering the Olympic movement into the modern commercial age. On the other hand, critics have repudiated the Games as a manifestation of commercial excess and a platform for western political and cultural propaganda. In conjunction with the 30th anniversary of the Los Angeles Olympics, this volume examines their legacy. With an international collection of contributing scholars, this volume will span a range of global legacies, including the increasing commercialization of the Games, the changing participation of women, the Communist boycott movement, nationalism and sporting identity, and the modernization and California-cation of the Games. This book was originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport.




The 1972 Munich Olympics and the Making of Modern Germany


Book Description

The 1972 Munich Olympics were intended to showcase the New Germany and replace lingering memories of the Third Reich. In this cultural and political history of the Munich Olympics, the authors set these games into both the context of 1972 and the history of the modern Olympiad.




New Dimensions of Sport in Modern Europe


Book Description

New Dimensions of Sport in Modern Europe offers new perspectives on European sport history in the ‘long twentieth century’ designed to challenge and deconstruct what might be considered ‘traditional’ or more familiar Euro-centric conceptions and geographies of sport and leisure—especially those deriving from the leading hotbeds of European sport history. This anthology adds to the growing corpus of explorations of sport and leisure in late-modern European history from a variety of countries: France, Spain, Finland, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Slovenia. With topics covering several different sports and ranging from sport during empire to mega-events, and sport literature to women’s sport attire, the insights provided by this new body of research demonstrate a greater understanding of the connections between sport and society in Europe throughout the long twentieth century. This book was originally published as a special issue of The International Journal of the History of Sport.




The Olympic Winter Games at 100


Book Description

2024 marks the 100-year anniversary of the winter sports week festival celebrated in Chamonix in 1924, which is now recognized as the first Olympic Winter Games. As a globally watched quadrennial mega-event, the Winter Olympics is unique from both summer sport festivals and other winter festivals, such as the Winter X Games. This book explores the impacts, issues, and legacies of the past century of the Olympic Winter Games. Grounded in sport history, the chapters in this volume draw on the disciplines of cultural history, diplomatic history, global history, environmental history, and media history to analyze the continued allure of the Winter Olympics, a century after its origin, and in light of the sustained and significant problems facing the Olympic movement. Host cities’ efforts to create positive and lasting legacies are analyzed to highlight the challenges and complexities that have plagued the Olympic movement throughout the last century. The Olympic Winter Games at 100 is essential reading for any researcher, advanced student or scholar with an interest in Olympic Studies, sports development, sport policy and history. The chapters in this book were published as two special issues in The International Journal of the History of Sport.




National Identity and Global Sports Events


Book Description

National Identity and Global Sports Events looks at the significance of international sporting events and why they generate enormous audiences worldwide. Focusing on the Olympic Games and the men's football (soccer) World Cup, the contributors examine the political, cultural, economic, and ideological influences that frame these events. Selected case studies include the 1936 Nazi Olympics in Berlin, the 1934 World Cup Finals in Italy, the unique case of the 1972 Munich Games, the transformative 1984 Games in Los Angeles, and the 2002 Asian World Cup Finals, among others. The case studies show how the Olympics and the World Cup Finals provide a basis for the articulation of entrenched and dominant political ideologies, encourage persisting senses of national identity, and act as barometers for the changing ideological climate of the modern and increasingly globalized contemporary world. Through rigorous scholarly analyses, the book's contributors help to illuminate the increasing significance of large-scale sporting events on the international stage.




Routledge Handbook of Sport and Legacy


Book Description

What remains of a great sporting spectacle after the last race is run or the final match is played? How can the vast expense of mounting such events be justified? What if there is nothing left behind or what if the legacy is negative, a costly infrastructure which is unused or a debt-ridden host city? The Routledge Handbook of Sport and Legacy addresses perhaps the most important issue in the hosting of major contemporary sporting events: the problem of ‘legacy’. It offers a rigorous, innovative and comparative insight into this contested concept from interdisciplinary and practical perspectives. Major events must now have a conscious, credible and defined policy for legacy to meet public expectations. The book provides a comprehensive survey of the various kinds of legacy that can be delivered, as well as a close examination of the potential benefits and practical challenges involved in each. From ‘hard’ legacies, such as stadia and infrastructure, to ‘soft’ legacies including skill development, attitude change and capacity building, the book offers both a historical case study and an innovative strategic management approach, and establishes the limits of what can realistically be achieved in terms of economic, social, cultural, physical and sporting development. The Routledge Handbook of Sport and Legacy includes contributions from world leading scholars and practitioners and features detailed case studies of major sports events from around the world, including the FIFA World Cup and ten Olympics Games from London in 1908 to London 2012. It is invaluable reading for students and researchers working in sport studies, events management, human geography, economics or planning, and an essential reference for any professional engaged in delivering legacy through sport.




The Oxford Handbook of Sport and Society


Book Description

"The Oxford Handbook of Sport and Society features leading international scholars' assessments of scholarly inquiry about sport and society. Divided into six sections, chapters consider dominant issues within key areas, approaches (theory and method) featured in inquiry, and debates needing resolution. Part I: Society and Values considers matters of character, ideology, power, politics, policy, nationalism, diplomacy, militarism, law, ethics, and religion. Part II: Enterprise and Capital considers globalization, spectacle, mega-events, Olympism, corruption, impacts on cities, communities, and the environment, and the press of leadership cultures, economic imperatives, and marketing. Part III: Participation and Cultures considers questions of health and well-being, violence, the medicalization of injury, influences of science and technology, substance use and abuse, the roles of coaching and emotion, challenges of child maltreatment, climates for scandal and athlete activism, and questions over animals in sporting competition. Part IV: Lifespan and Careers considers child socialization, youth and elite athlete development, the roles of sport in education and social mobility, migratory sport labor practices, arcs defining athletic careers, aging, and retirement, and emergent lifestyle sport cultures. Part V: Inclusion and Exclusion considers sport's role in social inclusion and exclusion, development and discrimination, and features treatments of race and ethnicity, indigenous experiences, the intersection of bodily ideals, obesity, and disability, and the gendered impacts on masculinities, femininities, and non-binary experience. Part VI: Spectator Engagement and Media considers sporting heroism and celebrity, fandom and hooliganism, gambling and match-fixing, and the influences of sport journalism, television and film treatments, advertising, and new media"--




Routledge Handbook of Theory in Sport Management


Book Description

Theory is an essential element in the development of any academic discipline and sport management is no exception. This is the first book to trace the intellectual contours of theory in sport management, and to explain, critique and celebrate the importance of sport management theory in academic research, teaching and learning, and in the development of professional practice. Written by a world-class team of international sport management scholars, each of whom has taken a leading role in developing a particular theory or framework for understanding sport management, the book covers the full span of contemporary issues, debates, themes and functional approaches, from corporate social responsibility and diversity to strategy, marketing and finance. Every chapter explores a key theoretical approach, including an overview of that theory, a discussion of the process of theory development and of how the theory has been employed in research, practice or teaching, and outlines directions for future research in that area. Each chapter includes cases and examples, as well as short illustrative commentaries from people who have used that particular theory in their work, and attempts to highlight the theory-practice links, or gaps, in that area. For a fully-rounded understanding of what sport management is and how it should be studied, taught and practiced, a thorough grounding in theory is essential. The Routledge Handbook of Theory in Sport Management is therefore important reading for all advanced students, researchers, instructors, managers and practitioners working in this exciting field.




The Olympic Games


Book Description

This 2nd edition of a highly successful book (published in 2000) provides a comprehensive, critical analysis of the Olympic Games using a multi-disciplinary social science approach. This revised edition contains much new data relating to the Sydney 2000 Games and their aftermath; and preparations for Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008 Games. The book is broad-ranging and independent in its coverage, and includes the use of drugs, sex testing, accusations of power abuse among members of the IOC, the Games as a stage for political protest, media-related controversies, economic costs and benefits of the Games and historical conflicts between organizers and host communities.