Jan Haut

Nothing but medals? Attitudes towards the importance of Olympic success

States intervene increasingly in financing and organization of Olympic elite sport in order to maximize national success in the medal table. In Germany and many other countries too that includes practices that have been criticized as unacceptable in democratic societies: funding of medal-promising sports only, early selection and specialization of young athletes, authoritarian tendencies in sport policy, etc. Are those efforts reflected by a strong desire for medals within the population? Is national success regarded as so important that even critical measures are accepted? And would that indicate more general tendencies to nationalistic or authoritarian attitudes? These and other questions were addressed in a survey carried out in Germany in 2012 (N = 899). Results show that medals are indeed perceived as important, especially in lower educational levels, but by far not as important as sticking to sporting values and the rules of fair play. Multivariate analyses reveal that the desire for medal success is highly dependent on the belief in and perception of the Olympic competition. For most of the respondents that does not legitimize unfair practices or exploiting athletes, but partly the struggle for medals is also linked with a limited understanding of fair play and nationalistic or authoritarian attitudes.

Does elite success trigger mass participation in table tennis? An analysis of trickle-down effects in Germany, France and Austria

ABSTRACT There is a widespread belief that success at the elite level leads to increasing mass participation in sports. However, this assumption is merely supported by empirical evidence and is analyzed here for the case of table tennis. Therefore long-term data (1964–2014) on participation in Germany, France and Austria is statistically tested for effects of success by the countries’ athletes at international competitions. Results indicate that no general trickle-down effect can be confirmed for table tennis in the countries observed. Rather, findings are ambivalent, as a strong positive effect was found for the Austrian case, but a paradox relation for the German case, where elite success has been accompanied by decreasing participation in the last decades. Accordingly, as an “automatic” trickle-down effect is unlikely, more specific analyses and strategies seem necessary to use elite success as a lever for the promotion of the sport.

Reconstructing Elias’s Work on Leisure, Sports and the Body

This volume presents hitherto unpublished manuscripts by Norbert Elias (1897–1990). In the introduction the editors explain how and why these texts are made accessible now in a new volume. They describe how the material fits into the broader context of Eliass life and work, and point to the relevance of these new perspectives for discussions in sociological and historical research.

Completing Sportisation: Elias on the Diffusion and Differentiation of Sport in ‘Modern’ Society

Norbert Elias’s widely known papers on the development of sport largely deal with early processes of sportization, in Greek antiquity and especially in seventeenth and eighteenth century Britain. However, only in the hitherto unpublished writings Elias addressed the development of sport in the second half of the nineteenth century. In this chapter, I will show how the analysis of this crucial period in the history of “modern” sport continues and completes the figurational theory of sportization. It is described how the changing class constellations deriving from bourgeoisification (functional democratization) affected the further development of different sports in different ways. Thus it can be explained that aspects which are often ascribed to “modernization”, are not only included but put even more precise in the figurational perspective on sport.

International prestige through ‘sporting success’: an evaluation of the evidence

Abstract A central argument for public funding of elite sport is the claim that success at the Olympic Games or world championships leads to increasing international prestige for cities and states. While this assumption seems plausible in general, it clearly lacks specification. Given this, we first discuss here several theoretical approaches in order to unpack which forms of prestige can be sought by states in which kind of sports and events. Second, we summarize the (rather limited) state of empirical research on the topic. Third, secondary data, offering possible indicators for sport-induced changes in international prestige, are presented and discussed. The resulting picture reveals that the formula ‘the more success, the more prestige’ is too simple. The paper concludes by suggesting methodological approaches towards a more systematic analysis of states’ use of sport to acquire international prestige.