It would seem obvious athletes are the most important part of the Olympics. But competing issues, from sponsorship rules to politics, means the rights of athletes aren’t always the top priority.
As the Olympics get underway, what would the man who founded the modern Olympic movement think? Pierre de Coubertin’s vision of the Olympics as a tool of peace and faith in youth still resonates.
The Olympics have been plagued by doping, corruption and political problems. But academic and former Olympian Bruce Kidd says the Olympic Games are still an important humanitarian movement.
Sporting extravaganzas are a way for globalising cities in emerging market economies to try and play the “modernity game”. But they don’t make the rules, and so they can never “win”.
Sport participation in South Africa remains rooted in the dilemmas of colonial society. It necessitates an ongoing need for discourse, debate and dialogue on decolonisation in sport history.
The Paralympic Games started off as a way to motivate and rehabilitate returned servicemen and women after the second world war, and has evolved tremendously since then.