The Ideals of Global Sport: From Peace to Human Rights

"Sport has the power to change the world," South African president Nelson Mandela told the Sporting Club in Monte Carlo in 2000. Today, we are inundated with similar claims—from politicians, diplomats, intellectuals, journalists, athletes, and fans—about the many ways that international sports competitions make the world a better place. Promoters of the Olympic Games and similar global sports events have spent more than a century telling us that these festivals offer a multitude of "goods": that they foster friendship and mutual understanding among peoples and nations, promote peace, combat racism, and spread democracy. In recent years boosters have suggested that sports mega-events can advance environmental protection in a world threatened by climate change, stimulate economic growth and reduce poverty in developing nations, and promote human rights in repressive countries

The ideals of international sport / Barbara Jean Keys -- Friendship and mutual understanding : sport, rhetoric, and regional relations in Southeast Asia / Simon Creak -- Antidiscrimination : racism and the case of South Africa / Robert Skinner -- Democracy and democratization : the ambiguous legacy / Joon Seok Hong -- Peace : the United Nations, the International Olympic Committee, and the renovation of the Olympic truce / Roland Burke -- Reframing human rights : Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and international sport / Barbara Jean Keys -- The Moscow 1980 and Sochi 2014 Olympic Games : dissent and repression / Dmitry Dubrovskiy -- Hosting the Olympic Games in developed countries : debating the human rights ideals of sport / Jules Boykoff -- The view from China : two Olympic bids, one Olympic Games, and China's changing rights consciousness / Susan Brownell -- Competing for rights? : human rights and recent sport mega-events in Brazil / João Roriz and Renata Nagamine -- The future of idealism in sport / Barbara Jean Keys and Roland Burke.