Sport as a battlefield

At the end of the Second World War, civilians and soldiers used sport to forge links between peoples and gain influence by interposed land. In a masterful synthesis, Sylvain Dufraisse explores the new springs of this geopolitical use of sport, which marks with its seal the mutations in the unpublished alliances of the Cold War.

There “ sporting »In the era of the two big

With the media coverage of major sporting events, especially since the Paris Games in 1924, sport is invited as close as possible to spectators. Emotions are becoming an effective way to serve new ambitions. With previous work on the construction of the Soviet sports elite, Sylvain Dufraisse presents the two sides of the Cold War fairly and precisely explains how sport is backed by this conflict.

Thanks to an entry by “ The phenomenon of sportingthat is to say of specialization, professionalization and rationalization of physical practices with competitive purposes (P. 16), he brings the two large dialogue while venturing on the less known terrains of Asia and Africa. Standing out from the only Anglo-state story overlooking contemporary historiography, A sports history of the Cold War Invite to take a step aside, a welcome method similar to what Joseph Eaton has been able to offer a few years upstream.

The introduction details the essential conditions for the advent of the confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union, the two main powers which emerge from the ruins of the Second World War. However, the genesis of the political use of sport dates back to the constitution of new networks and alliances at the end of XIX^e century, on the sidelines of which the International Olympic Committee (Cio) was born.

From the outset, the sports movement is structured through the organization of new competing international competitions, often “ based on the meeting of a community of sportsmen around political affinities (P. 11). Since the 1920s, sport has been gradually publicized and has served the ideology of fascist regimes, which now have a certain influence in international bodies.

A Faustian pact

This prehistory makes it possible to identify the interest of Cio to present yourself as an independent organization, but also to explain the anti -communist turning point of the organization completed with the Second World War. Indeed, “ The presence of legitimate Soviet sportsmen, at low cost, the alleged apoliticalism of the sporting movement and its universalism beyond political cleavages (P. 13).

Despite this, it is clear that the sports movement manages to find spaces of expression and cooperation. The thesis of the book therefore reveals the Faustian pact of the international sporting movement, in full expansion and gradually better and more publicized: sport reaches maturity with its time, opening the way to new scales of conflict through “ acceptance of common regulations (P. 15). These rules of the game then make sports ground an ideal battlefield for the confrontation of Cold War.

The first two chapters deal with international organizations such as negotiation areas in the post-war transition period. From the outset, the author evokes the compromises of certain officials of the Cio with fascist regimes and underlines the speed of return to business of these “ infrequent », Thanks to the benevolence of Avery Brundage, then vice-president of CioAnd “ On behalf of the “Olympic family” (P. 22).

These philofascist feelings did not frighten Soviet sports authorities, who saw in sports “ bourgeois An opportunity to denazify the ancient countries of the axis now under their Soviet control, by rehabilitating them and sublimating them. For its part, the United States has exploited sport to embody an ideology of “ free world »Through black athletes – Jackie Robinson, the Harlem Globetrotters – embodying American economic success.

The book details the way the United States had to rely on the “ sports committee »Of their new cultural policy body, the US Information Agency (Usia). This agency would have deserved a more extensive analysis to qualify the links it weaves with the very young Council of Europe or theUnesco.

The author is also interested in the opinions formulated by the Information and Cultural Relations Committee of theNATO To encourage “ the development of competitions where the East-West confrontation can be manifested in a “civilized” confrontation, but also the solidarity of the blocks (P. 68). The reader would have appreciated more details on this illustration of the Pacific coexistence period, in particular on sources or differences of views within the Cicrwhich we know has been crossed by the permanent suspicion of the various member countries.

The Helsinki Games in 1952 are, for the author, a rocking point: this is the moment when “ Ideology slips into all corners of sports activity (P. 64), whether in the massification and media coverage of the sports show as in the redefinition of body standards.

The Cold War since the margins

In the third and fourth chapters, Sylvain Dufraisse shows the path of the various states now independent towards the development of a national sports model. He details the tightness of Algerian athletes, placed between the hammer of the French heritage and the anvil of the independence movement. The case of the international Rachid Mekhloufi, who defends the colors of the National Liberation Front team after wearing the jersey of theAS Saint-Etienne and the French team, is a well-chosen illustration.

The sports cooperation of Soviets is manifest: coaches, equipment or infrastructure development serve as diplomatic intermediaries. Loss of speed, the United States has a strategy under Kennedy ; Tommie Smith and John Carlos’ shine in 1968 is then a necessary cog in the machine of “ The East-West confrontation (which) focuses attention to sporting events with high symbolic potential (P. 156).

The challenge through the staging of the sportsman’s body is a source of disavowal for the great powers, showing that the sporting spectacle is now an essential diplomatic tool. Whether it is a confrontation of failures or the “ century series »Of hockey between Canada and theUSSR In 1972, performance optimization or “ Sex subversion (P. 206), the body of athletes is now staged.

Then was born the necessary “ scientificization “Of sport, that is to say that” The symbolic dimension of performance pushes states and private organizations to support research in this field (P. 195), which the author does not hesitate to compare spatial research programs. So we can explain the appearance of the sports sciences-which would then be only a discipline of circumstance ? -, as well as the invasive question of doping in sports competitions, that the Cio reluctantly treats because “ the public wants performance and the success of Olympic competitions depends on it (P. 204).

Confront, subjugate, normalize

The fifth and sixth chapters illustrate the perilous balance of the international sports movement at the Cold War: the Cio needs the cooperation of superpowers to legitimize, where the United States and theUSSR claim a Cio apolitical to present themselves under their best auspices. MEASURED, Sylvain Dufraisse does not give to read the victory of one camp over the other.

On the contrary, he quotes the “ Miracle on Ice “Lake Placid winter games in 1980, which saw the United States victory over Finland-and not” Against Soviets (P. 212) -, as a manifestation of the necessary factory of national heroes. He is also interested in Moscow games in 1980 as a “ Forgotten modernization moment (P. 246) rather than a failure caused by the American boycott.

The loss of speed of Soviet sport at the Los Angeles Games in 1984 seems to be more explained by the advent of “ The managers era “That by” The internationalization of the cause of human rights, the parallel forms of physical practices (surfing, sailing or yoga, marked by a spirit of freedom) and the irreversible attraction of the marketing of sport and the development of professionalism (P. 213).

This last aspect is treated in a particularly stimulating segment through the case of the West Nally company, owned by Patrick Nally and Horst Dassler – founder of the adidas brand and “ quasi-shadow of the shadow (which has become kings maker in international bodies (P. 261).

Lines of force

So we can, when closing the work, identifying three lines of force. First of all, the Cio has no choice but to bring together the great powers to avoid a new boycott. We must then convince to open up to the east of Asia, whose economic dynamics are remarkable. It is finally necessary to manage to counter the offensive of large media groups, which sponsor tournaments – like theATP Ternis tour – and compete with federations.

In the last years of the Cold War, Soviet clubs are experiencing a progressive conversion to financial autonomy, in particular the legendary football clubs of Dinamo kyiv or Spartak Moscow. Some athletes also join the major North American leagues, such as the basketball player Alexander Volkov in the Atlanta-and not “ Atlantic (P. 305) – Hawks, property of the Ted Turner media magnate. Note, the detail brought by the author to the role of Yugoslavia in the restructuring of the sporting movement, a model that very early on engaged in its “ Early conversion to self -management and self -financing (P. 312).

With exemplary rigor, Sylvain Dufraisse invites us to go beyond the idea that the history of sport of the Cold War would not be “ that a story of diplomacies, seeing states constantly summon the world of sportsmen to project their power on the world scene (P. 347). A sports history of the Cold War draws his strength from the author’s determination to give a voice all the actors of the international sports movement. It is therefore an impressive sum of detail and will to renew the analysis of sport in diplomatic and cultural history.