On the origin of the notion that sport serves as a means of national representation
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11348667 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Arnd Krüger (University of Göttingen, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1993 |
| Volume | 16 |
| Issue | 4-6 |
| Pages | 863-869 |
| Publication date | 1993-01-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | History of European Ideas (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0191-6599 • E-ISSN: 1873-541X |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1016/0191-6599(93)90233-g |
| OpenAlex | W2071025073 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
| References cited | 4 |
In the following paper the beginning of the notion that elite sports serve the purpose of national or political representation will be looked at. Although like so many other things this notion was already present to some extent in Greek antiquity,’ I will limit myself to modern sports. Betts claimed that ‘by 1920 sport had become associated in the minds of millions of Americans, with local and national prestige and with democratic society’,’ yet not until the Amateur Sports Act of 1978 did the American government and Congress provide money to enhance this prestige.3 This underlines the problem of operatising the association in the minds of millions at a time when public opinion surveys were unheard of. I will therefore try to find ‘hard’ evidence that the notion of national prestige through elite sports was publicly accepted and that something was done about increasing or maintaining such prestige. As very little was done to prepare American teams for international competition by national bodies, even at a time after 1952 when international competition against the Soviet Union was connected with such prestige-as it was supposed to be the touchstone for the effectivity of the socio-economic system4I will look mainly at Europe for the origin. National prestige through elite sports requires international competition to show one’s superiority. Although some international championships already took place prior to the revival of the Olympic Games in 1896,5 they did not have the format to do anything for national reputation. One of the first international comparisons for the sake of national prestigeother than fighting wars-took place in the international expositions in London 1851, followed by others in Paris 1855,1867,1878,1889,1900, Vienna 1873, Philadelphia 1876, Sydney 1879, Melbourne 1880, 1888, Chicago 1893, Brussels 1897, 1910, Saint Louis 1904, Liege 1905, Milan
Amateur · Competition (biology · Democracy · Elite · Government (linguistics · Media studies · Nationalism · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Prestige · Representation (politics · Reputation · Sociology · Doping in Sports · Law · Sport and Mega-Event Impacts · Sports, Gender, and Society
| Citations per year | 0.22 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1999 - 2013 (15) |
| Highly cited | No |