Sport And Politics Essay

The relationship between sport and politics is an extremely important relationship in the context of international relations, power and other political factors. Some people, as the title of this literature review suggests, may try to obscure this relationship between the two with catchphrases such as ‘Sport and politics don’t mix’. In this literature review however, the flawed basis to such a sentiment will be shown in the context of international sport. This literature review will then move on to how sport provides a successful platform for States to express their political ideologies to other countries will be discussed. By the end of this review, the reader will be fully sure that sport and politics do in fact mix and have done so since the beginning and that sport provides a great platform for political ideologies to be shared.
Sport and politics have been interlinked from the very beginning. In Allen Guttmann’s (2002) insight into Olympic history, the founder of the modern Olympics which took place in Athens in 1896 was the Frenchman, Baron de Coubertin. Angered by the French defeat to the Prussians, he went about looking for ways to get back pride in the French army and state. He seen how Muscular Christianity had had a profound effect in England with Thomas Arnold and decided to adopt some of these principles, and this influenced him into founding the modern Olympics in 1896 (Guttmann, 2002). This proves that politics has been linked with sport from its origin and that the statement is inherently flawed. In more recent times this statement can be shown to be flawed just as much.
Since the September 11 attacks, the concept of ‘Soft Power’ has been emphasised as to be just as important as hard power. Hard po...

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...logy such as Muscular Christianity to create a strong army from schoolboys.

To say that sport and politics don’t mix is a statement which cannot be described as anything but flawed in its basis. From the material investigated, analysed and discussed, it would be wrong to say that sport and politics should be kept separate as they have been matched together and have been closely tied since the very beginning of modern sport and have continued to do so to this day. Whether it be, for example, governments using a mega-sporting event to improve a countries image and international relations or, as was mentioned, to further the country’s ‘soft power’, sport and politics are yet again intertwined. Sport has also been used as a platform to express political ideologies and has been successful in some cases highlighted in this literature review.

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