SPORT 1913 - 2013

part one_CHAPTER 2

The processes outlined have developed to such a degree that it can now be said that a SIC underpins the identification and production of talent in advanced industrial societies – all of which raises questions for those concerned with the rights of workers. This complex has four key dimensions: structural, ideological, cultural and institutional. In structural terms, several key groups, including state agencies, transnational corporations, non-governmen- tal agencies and sport associations are in- volved. A mix of state and TNC’s are involved in global sport. In ideological terms, states use global sports, and national stars, to promote the values and status of the nation, both inter- nally and externally. National traditions still mean much to people and governments use sports performers both to promote interna- tional prestige and to foster ‘soft diplomacy’. The institutional framework of this complex involves at least four main elements: sports medicine, sports science, sports science sup- port programmes and regional / national cen- tres of excellence. It is in the institutional di- mension that sports stars are actually identified, selected and developed. The ratio- nale and funding underpinning such research ensures that attention is directed at identify- ing factors that: maximise the development of talent; generate efficient training regimes; contribute to rational performance systems; identify effective recuperation programmes; and highlight strategies that enable perform- ers to cope with pain and injury experiences. Highly rationalized and technologized physi-

cal and mental training methods, and scien- tifically evaluated and scheduled fitness re- gimes, are designed to produce optimum performance and thereby reinforce the overall impact of the SIC in the quest for sporting success. The structure of the global SIC thus in- volves mechanisms of production, experience and consumption: the identification and de- velopment of talent; its production on a glob- al stage, in a single or multi-sport event; and its consumption by direct spectators or, through the media complex, by a global mass audience. Traced over time, there is a tenden- cy towards the emergence of a global achieve- ment sport monoculture in which administra- tors, coaches, sports scientists, and teachers promote achievement sport values and ideolo- gies, and competitions and tournaments are structured along highly commodified and ra- tionalised lines. Sport has to be worked at and for. But why do such workers mean so much to people? Sports Stars and Society: Social Glue, Soft Power and Cultural Diplomacy A champion athlete is someone who is the first among all contestants or competitors and in this regard, the word refers to the ability of an individual or team to win a contest or championship. Yet, the origin of the word in- dicates a different usage and offers a clue as to why champions are so much more important to society than just their ability to win and

why such meaning is attached to them. Its first usage emerged in the context of the me- dieval tournament and referred to the person who would act as a champion of others; who would defend, support or champion a cause (see Gilchrist 2005; Hughson 2009 and Tän- nsjö 2007). Athletes are not simply champions of their sport, but also of their local commu- nity and nation and sometimes, humanity as a whole. An example of this par excellence is Muhammad Ali (Hauser 1992). A champion is said to possess special gifts and exude a cer- tain charisma: they perform ‘miracles’ and achieve the seemingly impossible. They are society’s modern heroes: symbolic representa- tions of cultural values and who we would wish people to be. Champions are talented in- dividuals but as heroes they are people whose lives tell stories about ourselves, to ourselves, but also to people from other nations (see Huizinga 2000). Hence, states are interested in sport stars not only to act as a form of social capital domestically, but also because their work acts as a form of prestige enhancement and cultural diplomacy in foreign policy terms. Champions allow us to catch a glimpse of what we could be: by representing us they make us vicariously fulfilled human beings. They are our modern heroes because sport has become the forum in which communal self- revelation occurs (Algozin 1976). That is, modern sport is a form of popular theatre in which there occurs the communal discovery of who we are. Sports stadia are contemporary

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