Manfred Mann’s Earth Band – «Angel Station in Moscow» #5 – Moscow Sport Palace «Luzniki» – November 18, 2000.
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Although the precise origins of the connection between sports and international relations remain obscure, all cultures have participated over the course of history in different physical contests that fostered cultural exchange and contributed to their citizens’ political discourse. The ancient Egyptians swam, raced, wrestled, and played games with balls. The ancient Greeks held large athletic festivals, including the Olympic Games that drew athletes’ attention from all over the ancient world. Two of the very first ‘nations’ to engage their athletes in sport competitions, were the Greeks and the Romans. They competed in various athletic events like chariot races, or throwing the javelin, often relying on the participation of animals, or on the use of mechanical contrivances, a tradition continued into modern times in sports such as dog racing, horse racing, and shooting. During the Middle Ages, the cultural isolation imposed by the feudal system and religious doctrine that opposed the use of the body for play hampered the development of organised sport in the Western world. For many centuries, contests between knights in tournaments that emphasised military skill were among the only forms of approved, public sports. In the Renaissance and Enlightenment periods, games and exercise attained renewed popularity. As had been the case in ancient times, however, politics and social class circumscribed activity. Sports that required wealth or leisure, such as polo or falconry, were the province of the upper classes, affluent nations, while inexpensive, massed sports, such as soccer, took root among commoners and underdeveloped countries. The late 19th century witnessed an expanding belief in sport as useful recreation and as a mean of interconnectivity between people and nations, while in industrialized societies equipment was standardized, local and national organizations were set up to govern play, and a doctrine of character-building declared sports to be a necessary endeavor for men. The revival of the Olympics in 1896 and the blossoming U.S. intercollegiate athletic system boosted many forms of amateur, or unpaid sports at the same time that professional sports (such as baseball, boxing, and bicycle racing) drew large numbers of spectators. Sports that were traditionally played only in specific countries became by legislative act or general acceptance, national sports, like baseball in the United States, bullfighting in Spain and Mexico, cricket in England, and ice hockey in Canada. During the 20th century, sports took on an increasingly international flavor aside from the world championships for individual sports, like soccer’s World Cup, large-scale international meets, such as the Pan-American Games and the Commonwealth Games, were inaugurated. Sports have correspondingly become increasingly politicized, as the boycott of the 1980 Moscow games by Western nations has shown, or the retaliatory boycott of the 1984 Los Angeles games by Soviet-bloc nations, an exchange brought on by Soviet actions in Afghanistan. Despite the difficulties that rose over the past, sport events are considered today a great opportunity for individual countries to promote their cultures, politics and trade. The new terms of globalization and international relations came into the scene of economic evolution and affected sport’s politics, regulations, communication and society as a whole, by using sports mass acceptance as a dominant tool for international negotiations and cultural exchange.
During the 20th century, sports took on an increasingly international flavor; aside from the world championships for individual sports, like soccer’s World Cup, large-scale international meets, such as the Pan-American games and the Commonwealth games, were inaugurated. Sports have correspondingly become increasingly politicized, as shown in the boycott of the 1980 Moscow games by Western nations and the retaliatory boycott of the 1984 Los Angeles games by Soviet-bloc nations, an exchange brought on by Soviet actions in Afghanistan. Politics directly related with economic issues, influence the course of action one country might choose against another and affect sports as they are a vital part of a nation’s role in the global scene. Individual countries during the recent past have boycotted sport events or used them for propaganda reasons and thus, imposed their political views affecting the global scene. Due to the worlds’ interest in sport, the power to influence the public becomes a huge issue and has been the reason for many ‘country-battles’ in the recent past. At the same time, the commercialism that accompanied spectator sports gradually engulfed both amateur and professional sports. By the late 20th century, the televising of athletic events had made sports big business. On the other hand, expanding public concern with personal physical health led to mass participation, not necessarily competitive, in sports like running, hiking, cycling, martial arts, and gymnastics. Athletic activity by women expanded, especially after political action in the 1960s and 1970s opened doors to many forms of competition and an increased share of public funding for sports. Economic integration and free trade have and surely will, continue to affect the sports and fitness industry in the future. Countries use sports either to impose their economic power over others, or to elevate their current role. Due to sport’s great costs, counties’ governments engage themselves in promoting and supporting these economic needs by authorising special public monetary programs or by seeking private financing. Corporate sponsorships are today a reality, as companies spend about $6 billion annually sponsoring activities ranging from the Olympic Games to the World Cup. The popularity of sponsored events is due to several reasons. They enhance the reputation and image of the sponsor, they provide a focal point for marketing efforts and sales campaigns, and they generate publicity and media coverage. More cost-effective than advertising, sponsorships include prestige and at times target a worldwide audience. Broadcasting rights, ticket sales, merchandising, and sponsorships, are the main reasons of sport’s unique role in a country’s strategy. Living today in the information age, with amazing revolutions in technology and communication, sport experts believe that sport is greatly influenced by the actions of individual nations, as well as by the international trends that influence the world economy. Moreover, being a spectacle, sport athletes have become professionals that through them their country’s culture is promoted and their achievements contribute to the country’s fame. Thus, the sport and fitness industries, as part of our Global Society, have become lately an issue of great concern. Studies worldwide provide valuable information about the political, geographical, economic, cultural, social, aesthetic and historical aspects of sports and it is firmly believed that they will continue ‘shaping’ one another in the years to come.
Sport is one of the well-published issues in the Net. Sport issues gain a lot of publicity and discussions in the media. The examples are numerous: thousands of football news article depict the reactions of trainers to a particular event. Important soccer games are an everyday issue in TV channels. New technologies are used everywhere in coverage of sports: tennis streaming video presents the particular strokes of favored tennis stars, such as Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova. At the days of serious matches, fans enjoy watching the game of their favored teams in tennis or football online. We might ask ourselves: what is the role the Media plays in Sport?
One probable answer would be that the media successfully exploits the public need for entertainment. People have always felt the need to be entertained, starting from the days of gladiators, when the public’ general demand was to see people die in front of them in exchange for their money. As the years went by, the forms of the entertainment changed and became less cruel, but the principle of the crowd asking for Panem et circenses (i.e. “bread and circuses”) remained the same. In this matter, sports news is the best possible entertainment, and watching sport online or on TV is the best possible way to witness the actual thing happening.
And here comes the next possible answer: media adheres to the needs of the wide public, fulfilling the desire to watch the “actual thing” on-line. Although a football match might occur in Milano, and tennis game may take place in Moscow, media brings the tennis game and the football match straight to your living room, without the need to get up from sofa and buy the ticket to Milano or wherever you want to get to. Media makes use of our need to witness the actual thing by serving as a mediator between the sporting event, which happens somewhere out there, and us, the viewers.
Being a central part of our everyday experience, media brings sports coverage to our living room and shows it to us whenever we choose. I’d say it’s a good thing, but you – choose for yourselves.
POLITICS AND SPORTS:CUBA By alejandro Guevara Onofre
Like Park Chung-hee (Asia/South Korea: 1962-79) and Idi Amin Dada (Africa/Uganda: 1971-79), Fidel Castro is a sports fanatic and enjoys watching all types of Olympic sports. Fidel Castro has visited the national team’s training camps, sports schools, National Schools Games and spent time with the students-athletes and Olympic players. Since 1990, the Cuban dictatorship has spent more than $80 million per year into Olympic sport. However, Cuba is not an Olympic paradise. Cuba’s modern sporting history has been marked by sporting defections.
Every dictatorship has a style of its own. Leonidas Rafael Trujillo had one: Dominican music. Francois Duvalier had one: Haitian culture. Kim Jong Il has one: the cinematography. He likes films as “Gone with the Wind”, a famous film American. The dictator of North Korea wrote an essay “On the Art of Cinema”.
The Idi Amin Dada regime was notorious for torturing political prisoners, forbidding dissent and free speech. Under the dictatorship of Idi Amin Dada, about 350,000 people were killed. But he loves Olympic sports like Fidel Castro Ruz. During 1970s he had become an outspoken champion of sport in the Third World. I remembered that the Ugandan team won two gold, four silver and three bronze medals during the Commonwealth Games in New Zealand in 1974. Overall Ugandan team ranked tenth, before Wales, Trinidad Tobago, Tanzania and Jamaica.
Fidel Castro once said: “What has Cuba’s role been in the Olympic Games? What has it achieved? What has been the fruit of our efforts to promote healthy clean sports? At the 1972 Olympics, we finished 14th among 122 countries. At the Montreal Olympics in 1976—Juantorena remembers this well, and so do we—we finished 8th among 88 participating countries. In 1980, in Moscow we finished 4th among 81 countries; in 1992, in Spain we finished 5th among 169 countries; and in Atlanta, in 1996 we finished 8th among 197 countries. Could anyone refuse these figures”. But under one of the world’s oldest surviving dictatorships, the sport has become a useful way for women and men to access to freedom.
Certainly, Cuban sport is a story of both frustration and miracles. The Cuban government reacted with increduly when in 1980 Roberto Urrutia, a weightlifter, unexpectedly announced his decision to seek asylum in the United States. At the age 14 Urrutia made weightlifting high top priority, and ten months later he established national records. Urrutia entered the 1975 Pan American Championship at the age of 18 and won gold medals for Cuba. In December, in Matanzas, he become the first Latin American weightlifter to obtain a World record. In 1976 he finally realized his dream of competing in the Olympics. Like Alberto Juantorena (track and field), Teofilo Stevenson (boxing) and Mireya Luis Hernandez (volleyball), Roberto Urrutia Hernandez, former member of Youth Communist Union, was a symbol of the Cuban Revolution. Roberto, was born on December 12, 1956, in La Havana, won 3 gold medals at the 1978 Weightlifting World Championships and ended world Soviet’s-year domination of international weightlifting. Certainly, he was voted Hero of the Year by Prensa Latina. Before the Moscow Olympic Games, Roberto Urrutia defected to the United States via Mexico.
In the past few years, we have seen a number of events take place: Taimaris Aguero, a player, came to seek freedom in Italy; Odelin Molina, an outstanding footballer from La Havana sought political asylum in the United States; and Dulce Tellez, a sportswoman, came to San Juan de Puerto Rico.
Aguero, who at 1,77, was considered one of the best female athletes in the Americas, at the age of 16 she become the youngest person ever to be a member of Cuban Team. During the 1993 World Junior Championships in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Aguero finished first in the competition for best setter. When Tanya Ortyz, setter from 1987 to 1995, announced her intention to retire at the end of 1995, Aguero was considered a leading candidate for the post. Therefore, she was keywoman when Cuba finished first at the 1998 World Championship. In 2000 Aguero helped the Cuban team reach victory at the Olympic Games. If not the greatest setter ever, she is certainly the most celebrated in volleyball history. Nowadays Taimaris Aguero is one of the most remembered and dearest sportswomen by Cubans. Behind baseball, volleyball is the most popular sport in Cuba.
Dulce Tellez was named best player in the 2006 Pan American Championships in Puerto Rico. Under her leadership Cuba won the bronze medal in volleyball in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. She left Cuba in July 2006—three months before the World Championships in Tokyo. Before the 2006 World Championships, Cuba was ranked 3rd in the world. Now it is ranked 7th. Meanwhile, Odelin Molina, was born on August, 1974, in La Havana, was one of Cuba’s best footballer and played the 1991 World Championship Under-16 in Italy. In 1995 he defected to the United States, where he lives now.
SPORTING DEFECTIONS 1. Abvin Sánchez, Lazaro-Soccer…1995…United States 2. Aguero, Taimaris-Volleyball…2001….Switzerland 3. Aldama, Yamilé-Track and Field…2003…United Kingdom 4. Arocha, Rene-Baseball…1991…United States 5. Arrojo, Rolando-Baseball…1996…United States 6. Barthelemy, Giorbis-Boxing…1990…United States 7. Blanco, Enrico-Boxing…1967…Canada 8. Bordabehere, Roger-Cycling…1994…Venezuela 9. Borrell, Lazaro-Basketball…1999…Puerto Rico 10. Brito Ferrer, Michel-Gymnastics….2003…United States 11. Brito, Javier-Volleyball…2004…Puerto Rico 12. Caballero, Angel Oscar-Basketball…1999…Puerto Rico 13. Cala, Yosleider-Volleyball…2003…Puerto Rico 14. Campoalegre, Ramón-Water Polo…1998…United States 15. Casamayor, Joel-Boxing……..1993…..United States 16. Castillo, Ulises-Boxing……….1993…..United States 17. Contreras, José Ariel-Baseball…2002…Nicaragua 18. Chappe, Taimi-Fencing…2002…Spain 19. De la Pena, Janerky-Gymnastics…2003…United States 20. Delgado, Alberto-Soccer…2002…United States 21. Dennis, Angel-Volleyball…2001…Belgium 22. Díaz, Juan Carlos-Baseball…1996…Dominican Republic 23. Dominguez, Iván-Cycling…1998…United States 24. Duquesne, Alfredo-Basketball…1994…Canada. 25. Garbey, Ramón-Boxing…………1993…..United States 26. García, Ives-Swimming…2001…Puerto Rico 27. García, Osvaldo Junior-Water Polo…1995…United States 28. García Martínez, Aliet-Soccer…2000…..United States 29. Gato, Ramón-Volleyball…2001…Belgium 30. Gilbert, Andres-Basketball….1993…Puerto Rico 31. Gomez, Juan Carlos-Boxing..….1995…Germany 32. González, José-Cycling…1994…Venezuela 33. Gregory, Elvis-Fencing…2002…Portugal 34. Griñan, Fernando-Soccer…….1996….United States 35. Guillen, Alain-Water Polo…1998…United States 36. Guillen, Arnaldo-Water Polo…1998…United States 37. Hernández, Adrian-Baseball…2000…Dominican Republic 38. Hernandez, Alain-Soccer…2000…Costa Rica 39. Hernandez, Ihosvany-Volleyball…2001…Belgium 40. Hernandez, Jorge Luis-Volleyball…2001…Belgium 41. Hernandez, Livan-Baseball…1995…Mexico 42. Hernandez, Odalys-Softball….1993…Puerto Rico 43. Hernández,Orlando-Baseball…1997…By boat 44. Herrera, Roberto Carlos-Basketball….1999…Puerto Rico 45. Herrera, Ruperto-Basketball…1994…Canada 46. Hurtado, Diobelys-Boxing…1995…United States 47. Ibañez, Ciro-Weightlifting…1986….United States 48. Juncosa, Abel-Shooting….1999….Canada 49. Lapera, Ulises-Field Hockey…1999…Canadá 50. León Tamayo, Charles-Gymnastics…2003…United States 51. Marshall, Leonel-Volleyball…2001…Belgium 52. Martinez, Juan Carlos-Water Polo…1993…United States 53. Martinez, Rey-Soccer…2002…United States 54. Matienzo, Richard-Basketball….1994…Canada 55. Miranda, Arturo-Diving…1995…Canada 56. Montalvo, Niurka-Track and Field…1997…Greece 57. Muñoz, Daimara-Swimming…1998…Puerto Rico 58. Nuñez, Jesús-Cycling…1998…Venezuela 59. Nunez, Vladimir-Baseball…1995…Venezuela 60. Ortega, William-Baseball…1996…México. 61. Perez, Angel-Kayak…1993…United States 62. Perez, José-Track and Field…1997…Puerto Rico 63. Piedra, Armando-Water Polo…1995…United States 64. Pino, Héctor-Basketball…1999…Puerto Rico 65. Ramírez, Rio-Diving…1993…Puerto Rico 66. Rodriguez, Heriberto-Cycling…1998…Venezuela 67. Rodriguez Osorio, Gunther-Swimming…2003…Puerto Rico 68. Romero Mayeta, Laseer-Volleyball…2001…Bélgica 69. Rosales, Nubis-Swimming…1998…Puerto Rico 70. Salas, Maikel-Volleyball…2004…Puerto Rico 71. Sánchez, Alex-Baseball…1994…By boat 72. Sánchez, Alexis-Track and Field…1998….Puerto Rico 73. Toca, Jorge Luis-Baseball…1998…By boat 74. Trevejo, Iván-Fencing…2002…Portugal 75. Urrutia, Roberto-Weightlifting….1980….Mexico 76. Valdés, Tatiana-Kayak…1994…United States 77. Vázquez, Juan-Basketball….1999….Canada 78. Wilson, Jesús-Wrestling…1994…United States 79. Zayas, Daniel-Weightlifting…1987…United States
REFERENCES -Alfonso Jorge. “Cuba en los Juegos”, Bohemia, La Habana, 26 de julio de 1991 -Baxter Kevin. “Contreras to learn money changes everything”, Miami Herald, Miami, 5 January 2003 -El equipo cubano de voleibol sufre su novena fuga de jugadores en el extranjero, en -Enciclopedia de los Comités Olímpicos Nacionales Tomo-3. Comité Olímpico Internacional,Lausana, junio de 1980 -EE.UU : tercer atleta de Cuba deserta en campeonato de gimnasia, 25 de agosto de 2003, en-Fernández Mario. “El pariente pobre”, Suplemento Deportivo Deportetotal Diario El Comercio, Lima, 31 de mayo de 2004 -Fernández Urbano. “Deporte : Las pesas hacia Moscú”, Cuba Internacional, La Habana, mayo de 1980 -Lidz, Franz. “After the fall”, Sports Illustrated, New York, 15-22 july 2002 -García Anne-Marie. “La frustración de Yamilé Aldama”, Granma Internacional, La Habana, 20 de febrero de 2000 ………………… “Iván Trevejo recuerda a los Mártires de Barbados”, Granma Internacional, La Habana, 3 de diciembre de 2000 Montesinos, Enrique. “La batalla por reparar la infamia contra los atletas cubanos no ha terminado”, Granma, La Habana, 24 de octubre de 1999 -The Competition Results Volume III : The Official Report of the Centennial Olympic Games, The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games, Atlanta , 19997 -The Official Results of the 1984 Olympic Games Olympic Record, Olympic Committee, Pasadena, 1984 -Valle Manuel. “Taimi Chappé Valladares : espada de victorias”, en El Deporte Derecho del Pueblo, La Habana, 11 de diciembre de 1991
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