Were the Latin American Games (1922) the Work of Sporting Diplomacy Promoting Latin Solidarity or Pan-Americanism

The Latin American Games, organised by Brazil, are of undeniable geopolitical and diplomatic importance for the South American region. These regional games bring together neighbouring countries, with different cultures and languages, around a common sporting event. At the initiative of the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), these games brought countries together in Rio de Janeiro in 1922 to share a common geographical entity and establish inter-American solidarity with the United States of America (USA) and Olympic solidarity with the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Could these games be seen as a first step towards Pan-American or South-American Games? Or was it the attribution of an ideology to sport as a means of controlling the Latin nationalism of the 1920s in this region? The establishment of these Latin American Games provides an opportunity to examine the issues involved in the circulation of modern Olympism in 1922 and in the 1920s, in an Olympic movement still searching for meaning and still marked by the myth of pacifism that surrounds modern Olympism. Our work shows that these Latin American Games illustrate a stage in the establishment of Games on an American scale under the Olympic banner, after the Great War

Diplomacy · Latin American studies · Latin Americans · Solidarity · Sport and Mega-Event Impacts · Sports and Physical Education Studies · Sports, Gender, and Society