Date of Award

10-11-2024

Publication Type

Thesis

Department

Kinesiology

Keywords

Boycotts;Olympic Boycotts;Olympics;Politics;Sport

Supervisor

Scott Martyn

Creative Commons License

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

Abstract

The relationship between the Olympics and politics is a reality that the International Olympic Committee has tried to ensure did not exist from its creation in 1896. However, throughout its history the strong connection between the two has revealed itself through the use and reoccurrence of boycotts. Countries that utilize boycotts on the Olympic stage have always done so as means of taking a political stand. Using three major Western newspapers as primary sources, as well as numerous secondary sources, the research conducted begins with a quick analysis of some minor Olympic boycotts to establish what boycotts were used for in the early years of the Modern Olympic Games. It then focuses its attention on the four major boycotts that have taken place during the “modern era” of the Olympic Games and analyzes if these boycotts had any effect on political or societal events and proceedings directly following the Olympiads that were boycott. Both short term (within one year of the Olympic boycott happening) and long term (within ten years of the Olympic boycott happening) effects were recorded and analyzed to also determine if the boycotts have any effect at all on the issue at hand. Through four independent case studies, and a conductive coding analysis, the research has supported the conclusion that there is no evidence of Olympic boycotts being effective when it comes to making political or societal change, or having any significant effects when looking at events that could lead to this change occurring.

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