Gymnastics' centre of gravity: the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique, its governance and the Cold War, 1956–1976

International audienceFounded as the Bureau Des Fédérations Européennes De Gymnastique in 1881, the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) was officially created in 1922. However, despite having over 100 national associations affiliated by the end of the twentieth century, it was dominated by Europeans until relatively recently. In particular, the former communist bloc of Eastern Europe had a particular hold on gymnastics from the 1950s onwards. This article uses the FIG as a case study to highlight the institutional, political and ideological rivalries within international sport. It reveals such influences on the sportification of gymnastics and, in doing so, offers new insights into the history of the Cold War, including the USSR’s ascension to the international sporting scene, and its power surrounding the ‘South Africa ban’ due to its Apartheid policy. Thus, this work allows us to understand how the FIG’s policies were, from an early stage, embedded in a twofold dynamic of East–West and North–South. Our study is based on official and administrative documents from national associations and the FIG, and on press review from several European countries

Trampoline gymnasts’ body-self narratives of the leotard:a seamless fit?

Critical gymnastics literature suggests that a specific and narrowly defined body aesthetic is, in part, to blame for a range of serious health and well-being issues observed amongst female gymnasts. The leotard, a vital component of this ideal body aesthetic, has received relatively little scholarly attention which we suggest reflects a wider lack of focused attention towards gymnasts’ subjective or phenomenological experiences of their bodies. In this chapter we draw from an 18-month ethnographic study of British trampoline gymnasts’ bodily experiences told through their body narratives. We draw upon Frank’s (2013) body typology to explore the moments of body-self construction, unity, and disruption as the trampoline gymnasts respond to action problems in various social contexts. We illuminate moments of body-self disruption as gymnasts experience puberty and body dissatisfaction highlighting the role of the leotard in these experiences. We close by suggesting that the focus on gymnastic body problems requires more self-conscious and reflexive solutions and encourage researchers and practitioners to enable gymnasts to tell stories in an ethical endeavour to find more liveable relations with their bodies

Te Hiima : Reverend A. J. Seamer and his Māori mission

Description: vi, 59 leaves : ill., ports. ; 30 cm. Notes: Cover title. "October 2011". University of Otago department: History. Thesis (B.A. (Hons.))--University of Otago, 2011. Includes bibliographical references.This is a thematic biography of the Reverend A. J. Seamer and his Māori mission. Arthur John Seamer was a Methodist missionary in the first half of the twentieth century, who began his work with a three year period in the Salvation Army. This biography sets out to discover who the man was and why he was significant. It also seeks to understand why Seamer was so passionate about his work with Māori people, and in turn why he was so trusted amongst them, known as Te Hiima. The first chapter examines the importance of Seamer's experience in the Salvation Army, which was to influence him for the rest of his life. Chapter two then moves on to analyse Seamer's significance in the Methodist Church's relationship with the Rātana movement. As representative of the Methodist mission, Seamer was very important in his silence on doctrinal deviations within the Rātana movement, preventing its alienation, and allowing the Methodists to be the only European church to retain links with the movement. He encouraged Rātana, along with Te Puea in the King Country, away from becoming what James Belich calls 'disengager' movements, and toward a shared life with Pākehā. The third chapter examines the idea of Seamer's 'conversion' by the people he set out to convert, as he became intimate with Māori life and adopted many of their customs and traditions. Finally, chapter four questions previous interpretations of racial understanding in the first half of twentieth century. Seamer, as a case study, does not fit with James Belich's argument that Māori as 'brown Britons' were to be assimilated into Pakeha society (in the sense of the adoption of one culture's customs as the norm, coupled with the rejection of traditional ways of the other culture). With reference to Seamer's own adoption of Māori language and customs, as well as his promotion of Māori culture through Māori choirs, it can be seen that New Zealanders celebrated Māori culture as part of New Zealandness. Seamer's case suggests then, that it would be better to incorporate great room for Māori culture in our understandings of race relations in early-twentieth century New Zealand

Te Hiima : Reverend A. J. Seamer and his Māori mission

Description: vi, 59 leaves : ill., ports. ; 30 cm. Notes: Cover title. "October 2011". University of Otago department: History. Thesis (B.A. (Hons.))--University of Otago, 2011. Includes bibliographical references.This is a thematic biography of the Reverend A. J. Seamer and his Māori mission. Arthur John Seamer was a Methodist missionary in the first half of the twentieth century, who began his work with a three year period in the Salvation Army. This biography sets out to discover who the man was and why he was significant. It also seeks to understand why Seamer was so passionate about his work with Māori people, and in turn why he was so trusted amongst them, known as Te Hiima. The first chapter examines the importance of Seamer's experience in the Salvation Army, which was to influence him for the rest of his life. Chapter two then moves on to analyse Seamer's significance in the Methodist Church's relationship with the Rātana movement. As representative of the Methodist mission, Seamer was very important in his silence on doctrinal deviations within the Rātana movement, preventing its alienation, and allowing the Methodists to be the only European church to retain links with the movement. He encouraged Rātana, along with Te Puea in the King Country, away from becoming what James Belich calls 'disengager' movements, and toward a shared life with Pākehā. The third chapter examines the idea of Seamer's 'conversion' by the people he set out to convert, as he became intimate with Māori life and adopted many of their customs and traditions. Finally, chapter four questions previous interpretations of racial understanding in the first half of twentieth century. Seamer, as a case study, does not fit with James Belich's argument that Māori as 'brown Britons' were to be assimilated into Pakeha society (in the sense of the adoption of one culture's customs as the norm, coupled with the rejection of traditional ways of the other culture). With reference to Seamer's own adoption of Māori language and customs, as well as his promotion of Māori culture through Māori choirs, it can be seen that New Zealanders celebrated Māori culture as part of New Zealandness. Seamer's case suggests then, that it would be better to incorporate great room for Māori culture in our understandings of race relations in early-twentieth century New Zealand

The commercialisation of women's artistic gymnastics since the 1980s

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Women in Sport Organizations: Historiographical and Epistemological Challenges

International audienc

Transnational sport history

The series offers books on various aspects of sport history, with an international and transnational focus. The series has three main aims: To explore new topics, themes, and territories in the sporting past, including for instance a stronger focus on the numerous actors (international sport organizations, sports leaders, journalists, firms and so on) that permit the internationalization of sport. Of interest will also be the diffusion of particular sports in particular territories and the phenomenon of creolization of a foreign practice as well as the impact of internationalization or global sporting practices on continental, regional, and national structures. To create a true global history of sport by encouraging authors from different parts of the world to collaborate, exchange data in different languages, and to challenge the Euro-American-centrism currently present in many sport histories. At a time in which global history has become mainstream, what does it mean to write a global history and how can we achieve a global history of sport? To work towards a history of sport that more seriously takes issues of gender into consideration. Sport histories of women \u2013 and more broadly of gender \u2013 are still few and far between, in particular outside the Euro-American context. The series especially encourage sports histories examining gender beyond simply binaries and particularly welcome those that look at gendered social relations in sport within and beyond particular societies