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Does nature still matter in sport? In the balancing between natural and scientific training, Swedish upper-secondary ski schools have played an important role. This paper deals with specific landscape features for testing at three Swedish ski schools: Hallstatestet in Sollefteå, Hovfjällsracet in Torsby, and Stoltjonastestet in Järpen. The following questions will be addressed: How do the coaches at each school use local tests to analyze performance? How is the importance of local tests articulated, and what roles do history and nature play in this process? The paper concludes that the use of local landscapes to articulate elite performance connects ideas of measurability and scientization to the lingering tradition of natural training. Local landscapes thereby become a mediator between scientific and experiential knowledge about sport performance and point out how local sport heritage can be used for addressing environmental issues in sport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alpine skiing has been a popular activity since the 1950s. However, global warming leads to milder weather, melting glaciers, and reduced snowfall which deteriorates possibilities to skiing. The purpose of this paper is to sketch a contemporary history of alpine skiing and environmental awareness in Sweden through the narratives of ten alpine skiers. A temporal and spatial perspective contributes to make changes over time and meaning of places visible. The skiers share a fixed narrative: nature as central for skiing. This is not unproblematic since nature has been more adapted and modified and resulted in a crowded landscape. Nature is a space to be preserved but also as a space to enable skiing. In this constructed landscape, over time snowmaking is reconstructed to being normal, albeit not natural. A way to handle these changes is to care more for nature, travel less, ski more local, and show environmental awareness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In La Moitié de la Gloire, Axel Mayenfisch's documentary about the 1952 Swiss expedition to Chomolungma (Mount Everest), André Roch recalls how the retreating climbers simply abandoned much of their gear, either leaving it where it was or "throwing it into holes [crevasses]." Roch's tale was by no means unusual, as mountaineers at that time gave little thought to what became of their waste. By the 1970s, however, climbers were becoming increasingly aware of their impact on the environment. The resulting change of attitude led many mountaineering organizations to take concrete steps to protect the mountains (e.g., cleanup campaigns) and to issue waste management guidelines for trips into the high mountains. The Union internationale des associations d'alpinisme 1982 Kathmandu Declaration—a charter of ten principles for achieving greater harmony with the mountain environment—was an important milestone in this process. Drawing on documents held in the extensive archives of the Union internationale des associations d'alpinisme, the current paper retraces the path that led to the Kathmandu Declaration and the process by which the environment became an important aspect of the aforementioned organization's work. It also examines the hypothesis that the organization has progressively adopted a conservationist stance toward protecting nature; its aim is to reconcile environmental protection and economic development (especially tourism). The history of the Kathmandu Declaration supports this hypothesis, as it shows how the notion of sustainable development, which emerged in the 1980s, came to dominate conceptions of mountain protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the history of Canada Olympic Park (COP) as it transitioned from the Paskapoo Slopes to a venue for the Calgary 1988 Winter Olympic Games and how the site framed the fight for gender equality in the sport by women ski jumpers in Canada. Ski jumping is a sport that can be considered a "nature sport" as it is practiced in the open air while simultaneously relying on built environments. Understanding the COP ski jumping venue as a "sportscape" and a gendered landscape provides a unique opportunity to explore the tensions between land, air, and the body in this nature sport. Historical analysis of the XV Winter Olympic Games inventories held at the City of Calgary Archives is combined with autoethnographic reflections of my past experiences as a ski jumping athlete who trained at the COP ski jumping venue and plaintiff in the court case to get a women's ski jumping event added to the 2010 Winter Olympic Games to frame my analysis. This paper argues that women ski jumpers at COP carved out spaces of resistance for themselves, shifted the gendered landscape of the ski jumps, and effected change across generations of women ski jumpers on and off the hill. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1904, Edmond Desbonnet launched La Culture Physique, a magazine that presented itself as scientific and entertaining in its promotion of strength athletes. La Culture Physique prioritized photomechanical imagery to demonstrate the visual merits of the conditioned human body. A surprising number of women feature in nearly each month's issue. The magazine represented these athletes using a number of editing techniques that made their bodies seem remarkably muscular and yet conventionally feminine. But the specific formal qualities of the publication—such as paper quality, printing technology, and size—helped mask the work that went into making its subjects appear real. La Culture Physique is one of very few extant sources wherein the muscularity of specific women is promoted alongside men's during a period when gender disparity was deeply engrained in French society. La Culture Physique worked within and at times pushed against dominant French cultural values articulated around concepts of gender and belonging, using a set of tools that packaged its contents and form as works of art: as legible, desirable, and collectable. This paper demonstrates that these same tools also helped the publication maintain its veneer of authority. La Culture Physique has yet to be examined from an art historical perspective. This paper seeks to remedy this by arguing that La Culture Physique's 1904 issues are a crucial source of historical and visual documentation for scholars interested in how women participated and were represented in early French physical culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this paper is to analyze the relationship between women's football and lesbianism during the 1970s in Spain as well as the invisibility characteristics of this group of women in the context of the invisibility of women's football in this period and in the context of the political transition until 1982. In the repressive context of late Francoism and given the validity until 1978 of laws that expressly persecuted homosexuality, social, cultural, legal, and political pressure had a very important impact on lesbian women who participated in the incipient practice of football in Spain in the 1970s. Some of these players built gay social networks through sports clubs and later started clandestine meetings in bars and private celebrations. The period studied—between 1970 and 1982—coincided with the rebirth of women's football in Spain and the international emergence of this sport. The research has been based on the use of in-depth interview as a method and historiographical technique that has allowed us to obtain the life stories of nine lesbian or heterosexual women football players in different Spanish cities (who in general have lived and live in a private sexual identity) and two coaches linked to women's teams. These sources have been expanded and contrasted from others of a documentary nature (specialized press and bibliography) to reconstruct the context studied and contrast the reliability of the information collected. In conclusion, it has been established that, despite the low visibility of women's football and homosexuality, the legal pressure of the period and the opposition of the public authorities and institutions of the dictatorship, the field of football allowed these women to overcome some of the difficulties in the process of building their identity and discrimination based on sexual orientation. In turn, support networks—especially of teammates—private parties and atmosphere bars, were fundamental to the life experience of young lesbian athletes in the still repressive context of the end of the Franco dictatorship and the first years of the young democratic regime in Spain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The iconic image of Tommie Smith and John Carlos standing on the podium, with bowed heads, black-gloved fists in the air during the playing of the American national anthem at the 1968 Summer Olympic Games in Mexico City, is a symbol of resistance and the civil rights movement. This symbolic activism was part of a larger movement, the Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR) that was led by Dr. Harry Edwards. The movement was designed to be a nonviolent protest against the inhumane treatment of Black men in the United States. While Edwards and several of the track-and-field athletes worked to create awareness of their fight, a small group of rowers out of Harvard University also took notice. The Harvard men's eight was the crew selected to represent the United States at the 1968 Games in Mexico, and shortly after their selection, a number of the men decided that they too wanted to support the initiative that Edwards had started. In their attempt to prove that they were indeed allies to the Black athletes on the American team, the men met with Edwards and decided to send letters to each person selected to represent the United States at the 1968 Games in Mexico that outlined the plight of the Black American athletes. However, while their intentions may have been honorable, many within the OPHR movement did not agree with the involvement of the Harvard rowers. Several members argued that these privileged White men had no right to be involved and their initiative was unwanted. This raises important discussions surrounding allyship; more specifically what constitutes an ally compared to the "great white hope?" This paper uses Edward's concept of allyship and the oblivious possessive investment of whiteness and critically examines the Harvard men's support of the OPHR movement in 1968. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Swedish gymnastics has been reduced to a directory of progressive analytical movements intended to form the basis of what is known in French physical education as a global gymnastics. This article explains how Philippe Tissié was inspired by Swedish gymnastics in his development of a hybrid vision between the Swedish method of physical education and the French model that was largely derived from the works of Jean Saint-Martin Amoros and Philippe Sarremejane. The paper demonstrates how Tissié's French gymnastics was not only limited to analytical movements but also included the practice of sports. At the same time, it explains how the creation of this hybrid model meshed scientific findings from life sciences (biology and physiology) with human and social sciences (psychology and sociology). Between 1886 and 1935, Tissié's appropriation, thus, enabled him to structure his conceptions of physical education and to move from the Swedish to the Franco-Swedish method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes how professional wrestling expanded stereotyped race, national, and class images toward the Spanish public in the first two decades of the twentieth century. The professional wrestling circuit of music halls, theaters, and circuses helped connect a myriad of grappling practices spanning different national traditions. Nonetheless, it also helped convey different racial, ethnic, and national images within a frame of social class divide at a time of rampant imperialism and colonial domination. In this context, Spain experimented with a short-lived wrestling mania, with several international wrestling tournaments and jujutsu exhibitions before World War I. In these tournaments, both fighters and patrons exploited racial stereotypes as a way to better sell the activity to the paying audience, connecting with, but also reinforcing, the perceptions that populated the collective imagination about different people, due to ethnicity or nationality linked also to social class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

René Girard's "Mimetic Theory" of violence categorizes the victim depending on the level of consciousness that the community has of the conflict and the innocence of the victim(s). Academic research applying scapegoating theories to conflict resolution in sport has not categorized the victim. However, classifying each scapegoat is important to understand both the conflict and the social circumstances that may have ignited the violence towards the innocent minority or individual. This paper identifies four historical instances of Girard's scapegoat categories in sport, including athletes in ancient Greece, the Black Sox game-fixing scandal, Lance Armstrong's exclusion from cycling, and Cubs' fan Steve Bartman. The paper uses Girard's theory to determine the possible causes of each instance of victimization and describes both how the scapegoat mechanism operated and its violent conclusion. Thoughtful analysis of the causes of each conflict and the social environment that ignited the victimization process and of the similarities between them is an important step towards finding a solution to sport violence. This analysis also provides a tool to potentially foresee conflict and prevent instability and violence in sport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper serves as a re-reading of the historical record concerning the participation of a Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) team in the lacrosse championship of the 1904 St. Louis Olympic Games. Indigenous and deconstructionist methodological frameworks provide historians with strategies for reopening archival texts to ironic interpretation in the hope that we may better recognize the efforts of Indigenous peoples to confront and challenge colonial hegemony. Accordingly, this paper first evaluates the uncritical acceptance of a Kanien'kehá:ka lacrosse player roster comprising unconventional names into the official Olympic record. Second, a re-reading of archival texts allows us to reopen history to ironic interpretation, exposing the possibility that Kanien'kehá:ka players used humor and laughter to resist, subvert, and, ultimately, deny colonial hegemony. We may begin to support the larger missions of Indigenous resurgence and decolonization by revisiting our histories, and thus giving testimony to the past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eva Dawes Spinks (1912-2009) was an outstanding Canadian high jumper in the 1930s. The present paper traces her early life, successful athletic career, and her decision in 1935 to join a group of athletes on a goodwill tour of the Soviet Union organized by the Workers' Sports Association of Canada. Upon her return, Dawes was suspended by the Women's Amateur Athletic Union of Canada. She retired from competition and became involved in the Canadian campaign to boycott the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Much later, Dawes adamantly denied any political involvement. The purpose of this paper is to examine and possibly explain the incongruity between the historical evidence and Dawes's later denials. More broadly, it is a discussion about the relationship between history and individual memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the governing body of international gymnastics, the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG) and its relationship with the International Olympic Committee (IOC). It outlines the nature of the relationship between the two bodies and how that relationship has historically impacted the resulting policy of both organizations. In particular, this research focuses on three main areas of policy. The first is economics and the shift from amateur to professional and commercial gymnastics. When the IOC began to develop commercial interests, the FIG feared losing its purity if it was to follow suit. Second, it explores policy surrounding gender. This is particularly relevant in a sport where each discipline is not only categorized by gender, but also contested on the basis of performance-gendered ideals. And finally, this research examines athlete welfare. Gymnastics is known for its young, docile participant base and, more recently, cases of sexual abuse in the United States. While a range of protective policies have since been created, what existed at an international level before then? I argue that the FIG has had to work within the confines of its Olympic remit in order to retain its relevance to the Olympic behemoth and its inclusion in the Games as gymnastics' pinnacle event. At the same time, the FIG has mediated Olympic policy and exerted the will of the IOC over stakeholders in gymnastics. Moreover, this relationship is symbiotic: gymnastics is one of the top three most popular Olympic sports, attracting viewership and its attendant commercial benefits to the Games. This research is based on FIG bulletins and IOC correspondence, and it builds on a range of secondary works about the role of International Federations, their policies, and their rules in shaping the sports they govern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On November 1, 1959, a flying hockey puck broke the nose of goalie Jacques Plante. Thereafter, he insisted on wearing a face mask, a decision that signaled a broader introduction of safety equipment into North American ice hockey. This paper examines how head and facial protection became a standard requirement for playing hockey in North America at amateur and professional levels of the sport. During the mid-twentieth century, national governing bodies confronted growing safety concerns amid rising participation in organized hockey. Yet in the absence of league-wide mandates, players generally did not sustain helmet use. From the 1950s through the 1970s, masks for goalies and helmets and facial protection for skaters were mandated to protect against injuries. In the context of contemporary concussion concerns, the history of debates over hockey head and face protection illustrates the array of social, cultural, and organizational factors behind measures to protect athletes' health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper looks at the different positions two major international sport federations, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and the Fédération Internationale de Ski (FIS), took with respect to East Germany during the 1950s. Because these positions were greatly influenced by FIFA's and the FIS's prior relations with Germany and by the challenges posed by global politics, this study begins by examining these relations during the interwar period. By combining information from the FIFA, FIS, and International Olympic Committee (IOC) archives with documents from the German national archives and articles published in Switzerland's sporting press, the authors were able to highlight differences between the two federations' approaches and show the need for studies to go beyond an IOC-centric approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1966, the National Hockey League (NHL) expanded for the first time since the 1920s, doubling its size from six teams to twelve. Although hockey was still perceived as a distinctly Canadian passion, none of the NHL's six new teams were located in Canada. The disappointment across the country was palpable, especially in Canada's third-largest city, Vancouver, which had applied to be one of the expansion locations. A stable presence in minor league hockey on Canada's west coast for decades, it seemed only natural that Vancouver, as the lone bidder from the ostensible birthplace of ice hockey, would be tapped for NHL expansion. This paper examines Vancouver's attempted entry into the NHL and argues that the forces of commercialism and national identity, combined with political maneuvering among NHL owners, not only influenced the content and trajectory of the Vancouver bid, but also contributed to its ultimate failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1962, the Board of Broadcast Governors (BBG), an arm of the Canadian federal government responsible for broadcasting, made the unprecedented move to force the national public broadcaster to televise the Grey Cup, the championship game of Canadian football, ostensibly because it was in the national interest. However, research reveals that this decision was not necessarily made because it was in the national interest, but more so to assist the new struggling private television network, CTV. The important content, allegedly linked to cultural citizenship, was not the national championship, but the television commercials. This paper explores why the BBG intervened and how the dispute was settled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How can Global Sporting Governing Bodies (GSGBs) like the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) take a stand on political issues in places where a sporting event which comes under their aegis is being held without compromising their own position as neutral governing bodies of sport? Drawing upon a historical sociological approach and using the FIA and the Formula 1 world motorsport championship as its key example, this paper argues that one reason why controversy about this is growing is because FIA's current power structures were established in an era less suited to today's world of sports and stakeholdership. In order to change, we need to review the historical processes that shaped current power relations between the GSGB and its stakeholders and, through that, identify an alternative view of power which may resolve the dilemma which the relation between sport and politics currently throws up. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anglo-American relations in tennis are a fascinating subject, particularly in the period of the late-19th/early-20th century, during which on- and off-court developments reflected and indicated broader societal shifts, as the US gradually replaced Britain as the world's leading industrialized nation. This paper aims to discuss how Anglo-American relations in lawn tennis shifted throughout this period, from when lawn tennis was "invented" in Britain to the onset of the Great War, and to contextualize these developments in the light of shifting broader cultural relations more generally between both nations, alongside developments within sport and tennis more specifically. The following aspects are examined: attitudes toward the relative standards of both American and British players from correspondents of both nations in terms of their overall rank and possibilities of success; and, attitudes from tennis officials toward the formal organization of competitions between players of both nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The specific information provided in this paper offers a descriptive history regarding the attempts of Southern Methodist University (SMU) to be "modern" through tracing the institution's movement from one playing field to another. Like other southern universities, SMU started football and built an on-campus stadium of concrete and steel believing their legitimacy as an institution could be enhanced through providing football as a product for consumption. However, SMU is unique among many of its contemporaries because soon after building an on-campus facility, it decided to move off campus in the pursuit of greater name recognition and revenue. Collectively, such efforts were recognized as helping to make SMU the "educational surprise of the decade, if not the century," following its opening in 1915. The modernization of SMU football stadia involves construction and renovation of facilities from Armstrong Field (1915) to Gerald J. Ford Stadium (current). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the establishment of Canadian National Sports Centres (NSCs) and examines the benefits of these sports centres to Canadian society. Details are provided about the release of the Canadian National Sports Centres Position Paper by the organizations Sport Canada, the Canadian Olympic Association (COA), and the Coaching Association of Canada (CAC). According to the article, these NSCs are essential to the proper training and development of Canadian athletes. The political, economic, and discursive factors which contributed to the development of these NSCs are also described.