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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]

Thirteen institutions left the Southern Conference to form the Southeastern Conference during 1932. Why did these schools leave the Southern Conference? Previous historical research portrays the large size of the Southern Conference and the desire to pass academic reforms as reasons for the Southeastern Conference's formation. This article argues that the university presidents and other administrators at Southeastern Conference institutions formed it to enhance the legitimacy of their member institutions. Throughout the Great Depression, the conference's administrators pursued increased legitimacy by attempting to reform academic eligibility rules, allowing football games to be broadcast over the radio, awarding athletic scholarships, allowing member institutions to compete in emerging postseason football bowl games, and hiring a commissioner. This instance of conference realignment is historically significant because some of the policies implemented by the Southeastern Conference contributed to its rise as one of the top revenue-generating conferences in college athletics. [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]

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]

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]

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]

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 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]

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]

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]

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 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 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 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.

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 provides information on the role of national governing bodies and international federations for solving challenges in sports including historiography of sport focuses on the International Olympic Committee (IOC), powerful stakeholders in the international sport system and independent economic impact on the sporting industry.

An introduction is presented discusses the work of historian Don Morrow as a sport historian in Canada, noting issue articles on Canadian high jumper Eva Dawes, lacrosse player Frank Grace, and an Indigenous lacrosse team at the 1904 Olympic games.

In 1977, the Canadian men's national hockey team returned to international competition, marking the end of a controversial boycott launched in 1970 by Canadian ice hockey officials in protest of the International Ice Hockey Federation's refusal to allow professionals to participate in international tournaments. However, Canada's much-heralded presence at the 1977 World Championships in Vienna, Austria, was memorable for mostly the wrong reasons. The hastily assembled team of professionals finished fourth, out of medal contention, and engaged in repeated acts of brutality against its opponents. The team's poor performance and unsportsmanlike conduct subsequently prompted Iona Campagnolo, the minister of state for Fitness and Amateur Sport, to commission a study on Canada's role in international hockey. Drawing from archival diplomatic communications, this article explores the changing political and economic dynamics that shaped the series of negotiations and compromises that culminated in Canada's return to international competition in 1977 and the fallout from its performance there. It argues that Canada's return to the International Ice Hockey Federation's World Championships in 1977 with a team of professionals marked a pivotal moment in the history of international hockey, further propelling the sport into a new era of commodification and accentuating the decline of the traditional amateur ideal—developments that consolidated the power of the National Hockey League in international hockey and over the Canadian men's national team. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the development of women's physical education (PE) in Taiwanese schools during the Japanese colonial period. It seeks to understand how Japanese colonizers cultivated and shaped Taiwanese women's bodies through PE in schools. First, Japanese colonizers faced the challenge of dismantling footbinding customs when implementing women's PE and body engineering policies. However, when women were liberated from footbinding and the concept of natural feet emerged among the population, women's PE came out of the shadow of footbinding. Second, as the natural feet generation arose, Taiwanese women started participating in physical activities and competitive sports while still abiding by the canons of the "Japanese woman." Third, during the Pacific War, improving one's physique and developing PE policies became part of a national defense strategy and the main focus in the process of producing imperial citizens. The body was given different meanings, yet its control and standardization were omnipresent under colonial governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the significance of fencing among European Jews who immigrated to Palestine during the early-to-mid 20th century, particularly fencing as a means of social integration and assimilation, and why many European Jewish immigrants chose a sport considered socially elitist in their new land.

From 1914 to 1957, athlete, author, and artist Harry Paschall entertained physical culturists with his striking images, wisdom, and wit. As a columnist and editor for Strength & Health, he gained notoriety for his pungent writing style and controversial views, enhanced by cartoons of Bosco, a superstrong hero who defends Paschall's views on health, fitness, and weight training. Behind the scenes, however, suspicions always lurked that Paschall's idealistic portrayals were not reality-based. Some suspected that Paschall harbored anti-Semitic sentiments and his articles were as much political statements as physical culture contributions. This perspective stems largely from Harry's scathing portrayal of Bosco's antithesis, Weedy Man, a caricature of training methods espoused by the rival Weider organization which stressed form rather function. By unpacking evidence of Harry Bosco's life, it is possible to determine how much anti-Semitism, alcoholism, homophobia, and an unhealthy lifestyle played a role in his intemperate actions and death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the mid-1960s, how did a small French mountain village become a high performance international Olympic training center? This article intends to answer this question by examining the social conditions behind the center's creation. The sporting and political context of the Olympic Games in Tokyo (1964) and Mexico (1968) proved fertile ground for the rationalization of sports through stabilizing a medical and sporting administration and implementing a stronger scientific framework. From this perspective, the medicalization of athletic performance in the 1960s played a central role in the conversion of Font-Romeu, transformed from an acclimatization station in the early 1960s into a renowned international altitude training center just a few years later. The article will take a comprehensive look at the construction and management of such a center, and how it became a game changer in the international movement of sportspersons and sports-related personnel the world over. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examines the early wooden facilities and grounds of American college football within National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Football Bowl Subdivision and Ivy League schools from 1869 through 1903. Within, we identify what set of events and opportunities led to the development of the earliest football playing spaces. Furthermore, we recognize and explain what patterns of construction and renovation influenced the creation of permanent stadia. Critical environmental conditions that impacted the spread of knowledge about football and its playing grounds are recognized in addition to specific rules, which influenced the evolution of fields and facilities. Finally, we recognize the importance of facility enclosure and interests in producing revenues, and feature discussion on the movement of games from off- to on-campus while offering a collective picture of what these places looked like as potential synedochial social anchors for their institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of "muscular Judaism" coined by Max Nordau has been interpreted in different ways. For Nordau, the image of a Jew standing fit was a rebuttal to anti-Semites and the answer to Jews' unmet aspirations for a national home. In practical terms, "muscular Judaism" translated into excellence in sport. As athletes, the Jews could make their mark and move from the fringes of society into the mainstream. This concept evolved over the years, reflecting changing times, shifts in global thinking and national needs. After the establishment of the state, Israeli society underwent a process of Americanization that was accompanied by a new understanding of muscular Judaism and body image. This article discusses three physical fitness trends that redefined the concept of muscular Judaism: gym training, bodybuilding, and catch wrestling. These were rooted in the American aesthetic ideal, a far cry from the ideology and collective socialist worldview prevalent in Israel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zainichi Koreans are a unique political product of the Korean Peninsula. They were taken to Japan under the Japanese occupation (1910–45) of Korea and stayed there without becoming naturalized Japanese citizens. Baseball was a mechanism for the children of Zainichi Koreans, who were oppressed on Japanese soil, to overcome the discrimination they were experiencing in their daily lives and assimilate into Japanese society. From 1956 to 1970, South Korean newspapers invited Zainichi Korean children playing baseball to their home country for regular national baseball exchanges. This event provided nourishment for the growth of Korean baseball and served as the only cultural bridge for Zainichi Korean children to experience and understand their motherland, which they had previously only imagined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On July 27, 1859, "Canada" Kate Clark met two Americans, Nellie Stem and Mary Dwyer, for a pair of prize fights in Fort Erie, Canada West. Beginning their adventure in Buffalo, New York, they rowed their way across the Niagara River to the fighting grounds in the British colony. Like pugilists before them, they stripped to the waist to limit potential grappling in battle. Both the journey and pre-fight fight preparations were tried and true components of mid-nineteenth century prize fighting. Although the press, and later historians, overwhelmingly associated such performances with male combatants, women were indeed active in Canadian pugilistic circles, settling scores, testing their mettle, and displaying their fistic abilities both pre- and post-Confederation. In this article, we begin to untangle the various threads of female pugilism, situating these athletes and performers within the broader literature on both boxing and women's sport in Canada. By examining media reports of female boxers—both in sparring and prize fighting—we hope to provide a historiographic foundation for further discussions of early female pugilism, highlighting the various ways these women upheld and challenged the notion of the "new woman" in Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Alberta, Canada during the 1960s and early 1970s the popularity of recreational paddling expanded considerably. The reasons for this were varied, including wider demographic and economic shifts that produced a population that was both able, with time and the means, and eager to engage in these activities. But at the same time there was a notable change in the material reality of the sport brought on by the development of new construction techniques and materials. The goal of this article is to investigate the changing nature of recreational paddling in the 1960s and 70s with a focus on the influence that changing materials and construction methods had on these processes. Developed for other commercial purposes, fiberglass provided paddlers in Alberta with a means of constructing more robust canoes cheaply, quickly, and with a great deal of customization. To facilitate this construction, paddlers came together to share knowledge, materials, designs, and labor. In turn, these boatbuilding workshops became the nucleus of a budding and ultimately vibrant paddling community in the province. Moreover, the increased durability and design adaptability allowed paddlers to push the limits of the sport and successively redesign and further specialize the boats allowing for even greater skill development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explains how the Council of Europe (CE) influenced the international anti-doping movement from the 1960s until the establishment of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in 1999. As a European regional intergovernmental organization, the CE endeavored to cultivate a unified Europe by guiding countries in harmonizing their laws and by facilitating cultural exchanges. This mission led the CE to recruit sport as a tool for cultural exchange and to in turn enact anti-doping legislation. Moreover, given its structure, the CE's work in anti-doping took the form of harmonized international legislation that helped lay the foundations for an international anti-doping movement. Ultimately, the CE's work served as a touchstone for many sport organizations, especially the International Olympic Committee and its efforts to manage doping in elite sport. This kind of involvement, including collaboration in the setup of WADA in 1999, makes a plausible case to consider the CE a main, rather than periphery, player in anti-doping history and one of the greater influencers regarding the international anti-doping governance structure and legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last few years there has been an increase in the popularity of sport hunting as well as heightened editorial and social media coverage of conservation stories, leading to polarizing views on hunting for wildlife management. This research project takes a critical look at the core ethical practices that are imperative to the sustainability of hunting, from the perspective of local hunters in British Columbia. A community-based participatory research (CBPR) methodology was utilized and semi-structured interviews with resident hunters and Indigenous peoples were conducted in order to integrate the opinions of these two groups whom are key stakeholders in the success of the province's hunting economies. Themes of stereotyping, sustainability and inclusion were discovered. It is apparent through this research that the integration of their perspectives and knowledge of the land is central to the sustainability of both the hunting industry and the environment despite circulating discourses on hunters and hunting practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the post-war period of 1940s Montreal, in part characterized by the Quebec nationalism of Premier Maurice Duplessis, the businessman Adrien Gagnon challenged the monopoly on bodybuilding, physical training, and physical culture enjoyed by fitness entrepreneurs Ben and Joe Weider. Gagnon mobilized sentiment against the dominance of English businessmen in Montreal, through his magazine Santé et Développement Physique. This article examines how Gagnon wielded aspects of French Canadian nationalism, and the respective influences of language and religion as cultural and moral enterprises, in the sale of his publications and products as he attempted to dislodge the market share and influence of the Weiders in the business of health and exercise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article looks at the ways in which the Gerald Ford administration involved itself in the United States Olympic program. Though short in tenure, Ford's administration dealt with four Olympic-related issues and acted in the best interest of the US Olympic Movement in each case: the creation of the President's Commission on Olympic Sports, funding for the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Games, the revocation of Radio Free Europe's press credentials in Innsbruck, and the status of the Republic of China's team in Montreal. It argues that Ford understood the distinction between presidential support for the Games and too much presidential interference in the Olympic Movement and that his administration always acted appropriately. Though often overshadowed by his successor Jimmy Carter's outright interference in American sporting diplomacy, Ford's legacy regarding American amateur sport and particularly the Olympic Games should be positive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the State's First Decade Israel had to deal with existential challenges. One of the challenges was isolation in the international arena. This article examines the way in which sports was used as a means of implementing the goals of the young state, especially in the field of propaganda. During the first decade of statehood, Israel sent delegations to three Olympic Games: Helsinki, Melbourne and Rome. The achievements in sports were secondary compared to the representative role that athletes were required to play. Toward the end of the decade, the notions of pioneering and cooperation gave way to instrumentalist-individualist-capitalist spirit. The code of amateurism that had characterized sports during the pre-state period and in the first years of statehood slowly dissipated. The privatization of sports heralded the end of the era in which athletes served as ambassadors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One could easily dismiss MGM's 1954 production of Athena as a light-hearted, romantic, musical romp, devoid of intellectual, artistic, or social value. Although it was scripted by William Ludwig and featured several accomplished stars, it never lived up to box office expectations or critical acclaim. Much fault can be found in this film. The script seems whacky and simplistic, the acting wooden, and the songs unmemorable. Furthermore, Athena does nothing to remove existing stereotypes at a time when bodybuilders were often stigmatized as muscle-bound, narcissistic, and homosexual and health food aficionados viewed as kooks. Its legacy, however, was different. It inspired many other peplum films of the 1950s and early 1960s featuring bodybuilders, laying the groundwork of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Pumping Iron, and the fitness craze that swept America and the world in the 1970s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study utilized a historical institutionalism frame to examine three questions. First, what environmental conditions must be present to prompt a city or region to support the creation of a college football bowl game when the failure rate (50%) of bowl games is so high? Second, how does a bowl game survive in an uncertain institutional field? Third, how does a bowl game improve its standing in a competitive institutional field? Focusing on the collective history of the Fiesta Bowl (i.e., 1968 to 2015) as a theoretical sample, this work utilizes Barringer and Harrison's interorganizational relationship (IR) typology (i.e., joint ventures, networks, consortia, alliances, trade associations, and interlocking directorates) and Oliver's IR environmental determinants (i.e., necessity, asymmetry, reciprocity, efficiency, stability, and legitimacy) to explain the Fiesta Bowl's ascension to a top-tier event. Specifically, we found conference affiliations, corporate sponsors, and television broadcast agreements were major areas involving IR. These relationships show IR helped improve the market position and value creation of the Fiesta Bowl in a competitive institutional field. Furthermore, this works uniquely demonstrates that a bowl game's timeliness to use emerging IR may enhance their institutional position (i.e., tier-status) and ability to help create a new product. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Raquette, a two-stick version of the ubiquitous Native American stick-and-ball game from which lacrosse evolved, was played in New Orleans and elsewhere in Louisiana from the mid-eighteenth century until the early twentieth century. Invented by Native Americans in the Southeast, both enslaved and free people of color remade raquette into a uniquely Creole sport in the eighteenth century before white Creoles began play in the middle of the nineteenth century. Anglo-Americans seldom participated in the sport, so the enjoyment of raquette repeatedly rose and fell (and ultimately collapsed) with the fortunes and vitality of the larger Creole culture. Raquette displayed the improvisational character of a premodern sport throughout almost its entire history, dying out chiefly because it failed to adopt the institutional structure, formalized rules, and other characteristics that distinguish modern sports from their premodern predecessors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay assesses the merits of life writing in sport history as it is represented in one rare document, the Record, a diary-notebook-scrapbook constructed by lacrosse player Frank J. Grace (1878-1954) beginning in 1907. A talented athlete, Grace was a professional "tourist" who suited up for teams in Ottawa, Hamilton, Toronto, Chatham, Orillia, and Winnipeg during the twilight of Canadian lacrosse; that is, in the years preceding World War I. The highlight of Grace's career was his selection to the All-Canada Lacrosse Team that traveled to play 16 games against teams in Australia in July and August of 1907, which prompted him to begin recording his life in the sport. This study makes sense of the Record by examining its making as an historical document, by placing it in the context of its times, and by interpreting the story it tells about Grace's life in the game. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the historical significance of Jang Gwon's activities in the sport promotion carried out by Korea's YMCA. At its birth, the Korean YMCA's sport promotion was closely linked with the Korean nationalist movement under Japanese colonial rule, and this link was most evident around 1920, when Jang Gwon worked as a judo master. Citing the Sokol movement in Czechoslovakia, Jang Gwon took initiatives to enlighten Korean people's consciousness and popularize sports, including judo and basketball, across the country through the Korean YMCA's sport promotion. In particular, Jang Gwon introduced modern judo--formally known as Gangdogwan (Kodokan judo), initiated by Jigoro Kano--in Korea and took initiatives to establish the Korean Basketball Association and the Korean Basketball Referee Association. Through the Korean YMCA's sport promotion, Jang Gwon motivated the Korean people to aspire to liberation and independence from Japanese colonial rule. Moreover, amid the prevailing social climate, in which physical activities were discouraged due to the influence of Neo-Confucianism, he provided a paradigm shift that called for "sport for all," which enabled the modernization of sports and physical education in Korea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]