ICS Olympics Coverage
The Tokyo Olympics have become a major talking point following the endless concerns and controversies surrounding the games. Originally scheduled for the summer of 2020, the event was postponed for a year due to the COVID-19 outbreak and evolved into the longest-awaited games of our time. Despite the ongoing pandemic and backlash, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has been adamant about proceeding with the games. However, The Tokyo Olympics isn’t the only time the games have been plagued with scandals and controversies.
The Olympic games and the philosophy behind Olympism have long been a centre of cultural attention. Here is some of the media coverage and academic research papers written on past and present Olympic games by our ICS members.
Tokyo Olympics
The disruptive games: The legacy of 1968 and the new Olympic order
Earlier this year, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) claimed that Tokyo 2020 would be the ‘first ever gender-balanced Olympic Games in history’. Waiving a concept of gender-equality based on numbers of women’s athletes taking part in the Games, the IOC was signaling its disposition to embrace a narrow understanding of diversity that fits in their neoliberal outline.
Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games: Will They Be Sustainable Or A Disaster?
By David Rowe
While some Australians are still celebrating the announcement, some others are concerned about the economic impact of the Games and how they will affect residents in South East Queensland. As an example, the Sydney 2000 Games did not bring the expected tourism bonanza and lost 2 billion dollars.
The Brisbane Olympics are a leap into an unknowable future
By David Rowe
There’ll be two types of Australian high jump in Tokyo this month. The first, most likely scripted, was Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s front row leap after Brisbane was awarded the right to host the 2032 Olympics. The second will be in response to Australia winning any medals. Palaszczuk’s leap is also a plunge into an uncertain future. For the next 11 years there will be much debate about whether it’s worth it.
Negacionismo Olímpico: o último apelo para cancelarem os Jogos Pandêmicos de Tokyo
By Neilton Ferreira Junior and Jorge Knijnik
Pierre de Coubertin, militar, aristocrata, historiador francês e idealizador dos Modernos Jogos Olímpicos, sonhava com uma agenda esportiva internacional que traria paz e fraternidade a um mundo imerso em crises econômicas e conflitos.
Olympic Denial: The Last Plea to Stop the ‘IOC Pandemic Games’
By Neilton Ferreira Junior and Jorge Knijnik
This brief historical account of 1904 Saint Louis, 1932 Los Angeles and 1936 Berlin Olympic Games suggests that the history of the Olympic Games is also the history of it’s ‘non-postponement’ and calls for the cancellation of the Tokyo games in response to the raging pandemic.
Stateless athletes to compete in Tokyo Olympics as Refugee Team
By David Rowe
This year’s Refugee Olympic Team consists of 29 athletes which means there is a growing recognition in international sporting competitions of the need to remove barriers of entry for stateless athletes.
This swimmer gave up his Olympic dream to make a statement. Will others follow?
By David Rowe
Swimmer Win Htet Oo gave up his chance to compete at the Olympics for his homeland Myanmar to protest the military regime. He now calls for the IOC to ban Myanmar from attending the games but what is the likelihood of this happening?
Myanmar swimmer pressures Olympic Games organisrs over the Myanmar military coup
By David Rowe
Win Htet Oo’s request to expel Myanmar’s National Olympic team from the Tokyo games was denied by the IOC, which already has a chequered past when it comes to being politically neutral.
Growing calls for Australia to impose diplomatic boycott on 2022 Beijing Olympics
By David Rowe
As Australia’s diaspora communities from Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong are pressuring the federal government to impose a diplomatic boycott on the 2022 Beijing Olympics, David Rowe suggests there are tensions in the Olympic charter that can be hard to reconcile with how the games have evolved in modern times.
The Olympics Have Always Been a Platform for Protest. Banning Hand Gestures and Kneeling Ignores Their History
By David Rowe
Bringing the athletes of the world together inevitably means they bring along their politics too. In response to a growing wave of athlete activism, the IOC has banned all forms of political expression.
Going for Gold: The Economic Impact of the Olympics
By David Rowe
Listen to David, in conversation with Tim Harcourt, discussing the economic impact of the Olympics on the host nations and the negative legacy it leaves on the local population.
Past Olympics
The Sydney Olympics: How Did the ‘Best Games Ever’ Change Australia? by David Rowe
Bodies of Protest: Performing citizenship at the 2000 Olympic Games by Brett Neilson
‘Grotesque spectacle’? Rio has a long way to go to become more accessible by Tracey J Dickson, Jorge Knijnik, and Simon Darcy
Rio Olympics has its commandments – but what legacy will it leave? by Jorge Knijnik
Go for Gold [i] ! Os primeiros Jogos Olímpicos do Hemisfério Sul by Jorge Knijnik
Transformando neve em ouro: a Australia nos Jogos Olimpicos de Inverno by Jorge Knijnik
If things go South: The renewed policy of sport mega events allocation and its implications for future research by Billy Graeff, Jorge Knijnik
Olympics, Media and Politics: The First Olympic Ideas in Brazilian Society During the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries by Fabio de Faria Peres,Victor Andrade de Melo & Jorge Knijnik
The Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro 2007: Consequences of a sport mega-event on a BRIC country by Martin Curi, Jorge Knijnik, Gilmar Mascarenhas
Educating Copacabana: a critical analysis of the “Second Half”, an Olympic education program of Rio 2016 by Jorge Knijnik & Otávio Tavares
The Worlds That Are Watching: Media, Politics, Diplomacy, and the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics by David Rowe
2018 Winter Olympics set to begin against the backdrop of warm words and cold politics by David Rowe and Jung Woo Lee
The Winter Olympics and the two Koreas: how sport diplomacy could save the world by David Rowe and Jung Woo Lee
Sport, Sochi and the rising challenge of the activist athlete by David Rowe
Television, nation and the Olympic universe by David Rowe
From Pride to Smugness and the Nationalism Between: Olympic Media Consumption Effects on Nationalism Across the Globe by Andrew C. Billings, Natalie A. Brown, Kenon A. Brown, Guoqing, Mark A. Leeman, Simon Ličen, David R. Novak & David Rowe
Opening ceremonies and closing narratives : the embrace of media and the Olympics by David Rowe
Torchlight temptations: hosting the Olympics and the global gaze by David Rowe and Jim McKay
The 'economic Olympics'? : Shanghai 2010 after Beijing 2008 by David Rowe
Mediating the Asian Olympics: The Summer Games – Image Projection and Gaze Reception by David Rowe
Australia: Mediated Representation of Global Politics by David Rowe, Callum Gilmour and Thomas Petzold
Sydney 2000: Sociality and spatiality in global media events by David Rowe and Deborah Stevenson
Global Media Events and the Positioning of Presence by David Rowe
Cathy Freeman: Live at Stadium Australia, 25 September 2000 by David Rowe
The bid, the lead-up, the event and the legacy: Global cultural politics and hosting the Olympics by David Rowe
