International Journal of the History of Sport最新文献

This paper reassesses the role of women in judo in Japan, from its secluded and restricted beginnings in the late nineteenth century to the gradual changes in gender and social paradigms triggered by the influence of Western feminist struggle from the 1960s onwards. Judo has been considered in theory an inclusive martial art because its creator, Jigoro Kano, stressed safety, etiquette and moral teachings irrespective of age, size or gender of its adherents. However, the social and cultural environment in Japan has traditionally discriminated against women both outside and inside the dojo (training place). We treat this issue historically, considering the broader context of the Japanese social, political and cultural developments.

In the nationalistic atmosphere of the early twentieth century, a nurturing medium for sports practising martial manliness abounded throughout Europe. This framework supported the invention of a new multi-disciplinary sport, aided by Baron Pierre de Coubertin himself: modern pentathlon. Though the idea of a new form of pentathlon was already born in 1894, it took 30 years, until Paris 1924, to establish modern pentathlon within the Olympic Games. This study is concerned with the reasons for that delay. It will be assessed whether the active military preparations around the First World War and the contemporary image of masculinity had a decisive influence on the early history of modern pentathlon. By including historical documents from the IOC archives in Lausanne, Switzerland, the research office for military history in Potsdam, Germany, and the LA84 Foundation in Los Angeles, USA, as well as literature on gender, military sport and Olympic history, this study offers an entirely new view on the early history of a sport that was born in an atmosphere of glorifying manliness and apparent militarism. The history of modern pentathlon thereby provides a particularly appropriate area for the analysis of connections between sport, militarism and masculinity. It was not by chance that the implementation of a combined sport, which included besides swimming and running the three military disciplines of shooting, fencing and horse riding, arose in a pre-war context. Though in 1912 the Great War had not yet begun, the awareness of an upcoming battle was rising and led to a higher attention to Coubertin's almost forgotten assumption of a new sport. In 1924 the advantages were finally admitted on two sides: the army recruited modern pentathletes as future military officers; the sports community appointed skilled officers as successful competitors. Thus the lobby for an Olympic recognition of modern pentathlon was found.

Edmondo De Amicis (1843-1908) was one of Italy's most popular writers, and perhaps more than any other figure in post-Risorgimento Italy, he reflected the common hopes, dreams and prejudices of his countrymen. De Amicis was particularly interested in gymnastics and physical education, and he wrote about them frequently. His most famous work on these subjects is his novella Amore e ginnastica [Love and Gymnastics] (1892) which explores female fitness, sexual stereotypes and gender roles in nineteenth-century Italy. This opus, along with two others (a lecture and a magazine article), can help modern readers understand the role of female sport and gender expectations in post-Risorgimento Italy. In addition to exploring women's gymnastics, De Amicis was also interested in female mountain climbing. By examining the activities and physical appearance of lady mountaineers, the author reveals his personal criteria for the perfect woman. When these are combined with the gymnasts in the earlier work, we can distill the writer's own particular attitudes toward gender and female perfection. For De Amicis a woman was required to be athletic, beautiful, modest, faithful, loving and with just a soupon of uncertainty about her sexuality to make her interesting.

The kinesiology concept is used worldwide and by many different professional groups with scientific aspirations. Yet nobody seems to know much about where it comes from and why it came into existence. This article traces the origins of the concept back to one of Sweden's greatest cultural exports of the nineteenth century - Swedish gymnastics - and the efforts of especially Swedish physiotherapists and physical educators to spread its scientific doctrines throughout the world. Primarily their goal was to convert the representatives of conventional medicine (pharmacology) into a more mechanical mode of understanding and curing illness (physiotherapy). While following in the footsteps of one physiotherapist/physical educator -'the father of kinesiology'- and examining the ideological and historical conditions his so-called 'mission' was ruled by, the social construction of knowledge and science is made visible in a way seldom highlighted in the history of medicine and physical education.

Participation trends in 100 m (161 km) ultramarathon running competitions in North America were examined from race results from 1977 through 2008. A total of 32, 352 finishes accounted for by 9815 unique individuals were identified. The annual number of races and number of finishes increased exponentially over the study period. This growth in number of finishes occurred through a combination of (1) an increase in participation among runners >40 years of age from less than 40% of the finishes prior to the mid-1980s to 65-70% of the finishes since 1996, (2) a growth (p < 0.0001) in participation among women from virtually none in the late 1970s to nearly 20% since 2004, and (3) an increase in the average annual number of races completed by each individual to 1.3. While there has been considerable growth in participation, the 161 km ultramarathon continues to attract a relatively small number of participants compared with running races of shorter distances.

The development of sport in Ireland was, contrary to some arguments, highly influenced by English examples and Anglo-Irish institutions. Trinity College and prestigious Irish schools did have an impact, as did the number of Irish students sent to England for public school or university education. Athleticism was evident in Ireland as it was in England. Although the development of soccer did follow a slightly different trajectory from other sports, as was also the case in both England and Scotland, this does not mean that it departed from this broad evolutionary model of Irish sport. Yet this was Ireland: and Ireland was different. As opposition to British rule intensified, forms of sporting participation took on more and more of a national symbolism. The outcome was the emergence of a very potent form of athleticism: an Irish athleticism for an Irish people.

This article discusses different expressions of mid- and upper-class Greek women's use of classical antiquity in relation to female bodily culture. It focuses on two cases, connected with successive phases of the collective women's action in Greece. The first case concerns principally the conjuncture of the Athens Olympic Games of 1896. The games offered the opportunity to the Ladies' Journal, the weekly that gave expression to the first feminist group in Greece and its leading figure, C. Parren, to put forward a discourse which, by constructing a specific image of the ancient Heraia games for 'maidens', 'invents' a specific athletic-competitive 'tradition' on behalf of Greek women of their social class. The second case rejoins the same circle of women principally in the interwar years as leading figures of the Lyceum of Greek Women, the organization which distinguished itself by juxtaposing to the newly formed militant feminist organizations its 'hellenic-worthy' activity, by organizing monumental festivals in the Panathenaic Stadium, which, through displays of 'national' dances - folk and 'ancient' dances - and other ritual events, performed the 'tradition' of the nation from prehistory until today.

Cricket tours provide an excellent insight into the relationship between the colonies and England during the Imperial era. New Zealand has never had much of a cricketing legacy, but the game was still cherished and English tours were enthusiastically followed because they provided a link with 'home'. Two English cricket teams visited New Zealand in the Edwardian age, the Lord Hawke XI in 1902-03 and the MCC in 1906-07. These tours were intended to be a panacea for a struggling local game while providing an extension of the cultural bonds of Empire. Both tours were rich in Imperial code and ceremony but their impact was lost in translation. The Lord Hawke XI, although all conquering, failed to win the hearts and minds of the New Zealand public because of a series of on-field moments of poor sportsmanship, and the public response to the treatment of the professionals in the team. The MCC team provided a fair challenge to New Zealand team, but lacked the star appeal of the Lord Hawke team, leaving the public somewhat underwhelmed. Both tours exemplify the difficulty in balancing the ideals inherent in the game with the realities of colonial sporting expectation.

This study investigates the evolution of the historiography of Greek sport from the foundation of the Greek state (1830) until 1982 and its links with Greek national history, which also took shape primarily during the nineteenth century. The gradual 'nationalisation' of sport as an element of Greek national character since antiquity corresponded to changes in perceptions of the national past reflected in historiography. The ancient Olympic Games, Byzantine contests and exercises, the competitions of the klephts and armatoloi (militia soldiers) during the Ottoman rule and the modern revival of the Olympic Games were all successively integrated in a national history of sport confirming national continuity and unity. However this particular genre of national historiography did not gain academic recognition until recently. The authors of histories of physical exercise and sport were amateurs or physical education instructors and could not ensure to their work the authority of a separate discipline.