THE HISTORICAL ROOTS OF SPORTSWASHING IN THE OLYMPIC MOVEMENT

Mehmet Yıldız

Abstract


This study aims to examine the historical origins of contemporary sportswashing debates within the context of the modern Olympic movement. The research argues that the use of sports organizations for international image management, propaganda, diplomatic visibility, and the production of political legitimacy is not merely a contemporary phenomenon; it is part of a historical continuum that has developed since the early days of modern sports history. The study adopts a qualitative historical research design; International Olympic Committee reports, historical archival documents, propaganda materials, media records, and sports history literature are examined using an interpretive historical analysis method. The theoretical framework of the research is based on soft power theory, the sports diplomacy approach, propaganda theory, and the perspective of the spectacle society. The analysis identifies the 1936 Berlin Olympics as a major historical turning point in the political use of sport for international image management and propaganda. Furthermore, it is determined that after the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, Cold War competition transformed sports organizations into arenas of ideological representation. The study further argues that globalization and media expansion transformed mega-sport events into strategic instruments of soft power and international visibility. Rather than representing an entirely new phenomenon, contemporary sportswashing practices appear as contemporary manifestations of longer historical processes embedded within the Olympic movement.

Keywords


sportswashing, Olympic Games, sports diplomacy, soft power, propaganda

Full Text:

PDF

References


Allison, L. (1986). The politics of sport. Manchester University Press. Retrieved from https://search.worldcat.org/title/The-Politics-of-sport/oclc/1483130631

Allison, L., & Monnington, T. (2002). Sport, prestige and international relations. Government and Opposition, 37(1), 106–134. https://doi.org/10.1111/1477-7053.00089

Arnaud, P., & Riordan, J. (Eds.). (1998). Sport and International Politics: The Impact of Fascism and Communism on Sport. London: E & FN Spon. Retrieved from https://www.routledge.com/Sport-and-International-Politics-Impact-of-Facism-and-Communism-on-Sport/Arnaud-Riordan/p/book/9781138880511

Bach, S. (2007). Leni: The Life and Work of Leni Riefenstahl. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Retrieved from https://books.google.ro/books/about/Leni.html?id=hgDfnyPRovgC&redir_esc=y

Booth, D. (2005). The Field: Truth and Fiction in Sport History. London: Routledge. Retrieved from https://books.google.ro/books/about/The_Field.html?id=8VuBAgAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y

Boykoff, J. (2013). Celebration Capitalism and the Olympic Games. London: Routledge. Retrieved from https://www.routledge.com/Celebration-Capitalism-and-the-Olympic-Games/Boykoff/p/book/9781138805262

Boykoff, J. (2022). Toward a theory of sportswashing: Mega-events, soft power, and political conflict. Sociology of Sport Journal, 39(4), 342–351. Retrieved from https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/ssj/39/4/article-p342.xml

Debord, G. (1995). The society of the spectacle (D. Nicholson-Smith, Trans.). Zone Books. (Original work published 1967). Retrieved from https://books.google.ro/books/about/Society_of_the_Spectacle.html?id=yBB4f_dQ3rIC&redir_esc=y

Ellul, J. (1973). Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes (K. Kellen & J. Lerner, Trans.). New York: Vintage Books. Retrieved from https://books.google.ro/books/about/Propaganda.html?id=UpvZAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y

Grix, J., & Brannagan, P. M. (2016). Of mechanisms and myths: Conceptualising states’ “soft power” strategies through sports mega-events. Diplomacy & Statecraft, 27(2), 251–272. https://doi.org/10.1080/09592296.2016.1169791

Grix, J., & Lee, D. (2013). Soft power, sports mega-events and emerging states: The lure of the politics of attraction. Global Society, 27(4), 521–536. https://doi.org/10.1080/13600826.2013.827632

Hargreaves, J. (1992). Olympism and nationalism: Some preliminary considerations. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 27(2), 119–135. https://doi.org/10.1177/101269029202700203

Hill, C. R. (1992). Olympic Politics. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Retrieved from https://books.google.ro/books/about/Olympic_Politics.html?id=VAO9AAAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y

Hobsbawm, E. J. (1990). Nations and Nationalism Since 1780: Programme, Myth, Reality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from https://books.google.ro/books/about/Nations_and_Nationalism_Since_1780.html?id=OHz70fY8t2UC&redir_esc=y

Hoberman, J. (1984). Sport and Political Ideology. Austin: University of Texas Press. Retrieved from https://utpress.utexas.edu/9780292775886/

Horne, J. (2007). The four “knowns” of sports mega-events. Leisure Studies, 26(1), 81–96. https://doi.org/10.1080/02614360500504628

Horne, J., & Manzenreiter, W. (Eds.). (2006). Sports Mega-Events: Social Scientific Analyses of a Global Phenomenon. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/306195268_Sports_mega-events_Social_scientific_analyses_of_a_global_phenomenon

Krüger, A. (1999). The role of sport in German international politics, 1918–1945. In P. Arnaud & J. Riordan (Eds.), Sport and International Politics: The Impact of Fascism and Communism on Sport (pp. 79–96). London: E & FN Spon. Retrieved from https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780203476581-7/role-sport-german-international-politics-1918%E2%80%931945-arnd-kr%C3%BCger

Large, D. C. (2007). Nazi Games: The Olympics of 1936. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9780230367463_5

Lenskyj, H. J. (2000). Inside the Olympic Industry: Power, Politics, and Activism. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/3341503

Mandell, R. D. (1971). The Nazi Olympics. New York: Macmillan. Retrieved from https://books.google.ro/books/about/The_Nazi_Olympics.html?id=8CYYYeTT5mEC&redir_esc=y

Miller, T., Lawrence, G., McKay, J., & Rowe, D. (2001). Globalization and Sport: Playing the World. London: Sage Publications. Retrieved from https://sk.sagepub.com/book/mono/globalization-and-sport/toc#_

Murray, S. (2018). Sports Diplomacy: Origins, Theory and Practice. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351126960

Nye, J. S. Jr. (2004). Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics. New York: Public Affairs. Retrieved from https://books.google.ro/books/about/Soft_Power.html?hl=vi&id=wuqOAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y

Reiche, D., & Sorek, T. (Eds.). (2019). Sport, Politics and Society in the Middle East. London: Hurst Publishers. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Bh6sDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Riordan, J. (1977). Sport in Soviet Society: Development of Sport and Physical Education in Russia and the USSR. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.30094.42563

Roche, M. (2000). Mega-Events and Modernity: Olympics and Expos in the Growth of Global Culture. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203443941

Tomlinson, A., & Young, C. (Eds.). (2006). National Identity and Global Sports Events: Culture, Politics, and Spectacle in the Olympics and the Football World Cup. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. Retrieved from https://books.google.ro/books/about/National_Identity_and_Global_Sports_Even.html?id=eBhYiKPLDqIC&redir_esc=y

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. (n.d.). The Nazi Olympics, Berlin 1936. Holocaust Encyclopedia. Retrieved May 25, 2026, from https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-nazi-olympics-berlin-1936




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejsss.v12i4.2243

Copyright (c) 2026 Mehmet Yıldız

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

The research works published in this journal are free to be accessed. They can be shared (copied and redistributed in any medium or format) and\or adapted (remixed, transformed, and built upon the material for any purpose, commercially and\or not commercially) under the following terms: attribution (appropriate credit must be given indicating original authors, research work name and publication name mentioning if changes were made) and without adding additional restrictions (without restricting others from doing anything the actual license permits). Authors retain the full copyright of their published research works and cannot revoke these freedoms as long as the license terms are followed.

Copyright © 2016 - 2026. European Journal Of Social Sciences Studies (ISSN 2501-8590) is a registered trademark of Open Access Publishing Group. All rights reserved.

This journal is a serial publication uniquely identified by an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) serial number certificate issued by Romanian National Library. All the research works are uniquely identified by a CrossRef DOI digital object identifier supplied by indexing and repository platforms. All the research works published on this journal are meeting the Open Access Publishing requirements and standards formulated by Budapest Open Access Initiative (2002), the Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing (2003) and  Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities (2003) and can be freely accessed, shared, modified, distributed and used in educational, commercial and non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Copyrights of the published research works are retained by authors.