The testimonios of three Canadian women athletes and the 1980 Olympic boycott are presented. The Latin American method of testimonio is adapted as a framework for understanding personal stories. Testimonios written in a series of interpretive narratives and poems--poetic testimonios--represent three women's voices. This study includes three journeys: the research journey, a journey of self-discovery, and the journeys of three women athletes. Distinct and collective voices are highlighted. An analysis of writing forms used is offered. A traditional literature review and a section linking the study's findings to the literature are available in the appendices. Testimonios are methods of resistance, and, thus, imply an appeal to matters of social justice. Therefore, "a call to action" invites researchers, counselors, and sport professionals to take a closer look at the oppressive system of high-performance sport and contemplate structural change. Beyond this, the ultimate worth of the project is for readers to decide. / Graduation date: 2002

This dissertation focuses on American women and the modern summer Olympic Games. It retraces the history of women's participation in this significant and global sporting event to study the obstacles generated by social, economic, political, and cultural gender patterns while providing a forum for female Olympians to give voice to their journeys and how they dealt with and eventually overcame some of these obstacles. The findings herein support other scholarly works, arguing that despite progress, the Olympic Games, and by extension the institution of sport in general, is and will remain a hegemonic space that allows men to maintain and reinforce their dominant position in society. It does show, however, that even though this global athletic event did not, at the collective level, result in an egalitarian redefinition of gender roles, the benefits of training and participating in the Olympics remain indisputable for the women involved--benefits no different than these enjoyed by male athletes. The Olympic Games, then, empowers women as it simultaneously reinforces their position of subordination.

The purpose of this study was to understand the governance of Olympic Games legacy. Legacy is broadly described as “all planned and unplanned, positive and negative, intangible and tangible structures created by and for a sport event that remain for a longer time than the event itself” (Preuss, 2007a, p. 86). The specific objectives of this study were: a) to map the historical evolution of legacy throughout the modern Olympic Movement (OM) (i.e., 1896-current day) in order to contextualize and conceptualize the major trends (e.g., changes in legacy, network actors/stakeholders, governance structures and processes) over time; b) to understand, explain, and compare/contrast the network governance of Olympic legacy, using Australian and Canadian case settings; and c) to critically analyze the overall structure and process of the governance of legacy within the OM focusing specifically on the aspects of performance, transparency, accountability, and participation to build a framework and provide policy recommendations for the governance of legacy in mega-events. In order to accomplish these objectives, a historical review of legacy within the OM and two descriptive case studies (Sydney 2000 and Vancouver 2010) were built using interviews and archival materials. Findings showed how the growth of the Games has culminated in the increased use and importance of legacy, leading to greater concept complexity. This resulted in the emergence of several trends including: new legacy themes, heightened interconnectedness, and formalization of governance mechanisms. Institutional theory was then applied to further explore the emergence of legacy and its habitualization, objectification, and sedimentation as an accepted norm in the Olympic Field. The examination of the legacy governance networks in the two cases showed four legacy network governance phases: legacy conceptualization, legacy planning and implementation, legacy transfer, and post-Games legacy governance, as well as a number of governance mechanisms (e.g., contracts, policies) that had an impact on the overall governance of the event’s legacy. Finally, a critical analysis of the governance of Olympic Games legacy was completed. The end result of the research project was a theoretical framework detailing the levels and fluidity of legacy governance in the OM.

Bachelor thesis. / Format: PDF. Bibl.

This research examines the use of volunteering at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games for the creation of human, social and political capital at individual, organisational and societal levels. Despite a long tradition of Olympic volunteering, this has not been investigated so far. The concept of volunteerism at Beijing 2008, in fact, was constructed upon multiple contexts including the Olympic Movement, Chinese society and an international understanding of the ternl (BOCOG, 2005). Hence, volunteerism as an under-investigated concept is firstly studied individually in each of these contexts. The frameworks underpinning this research include Getz's (2005) human resource planning process which explains how specific policies for managing event volunteers are formulated for fulfilling its vision(s); and theories of social, human and political capital as developed by Putnam (2000), Bourdieu (1986; 1991) and Coleman (1988) respectively. Multiple qualitative case study strategy is adopted for this investigation, following a constructivist paradigm. The subjective and interactive epistemology is constructed upon the knowledge and experiences of a total of fifty-seven infoIDlants, most of whom were directly involved in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Volunteer Programme. The research findings illustrate that the Chinese state and BOCOG's interpretation of the concept of volunteerisrn was manifested in organisational visions for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Volunteer Programme. These visions were accomplished through a range of management policies, which in fact placed volunteerism at Beijing 2008 in line with the maturity stage of volunteerism in the Olympic Movement. During the course of the management practices, social, human and political capital were created in varying degrees at all of the three levels. It was also evident that participation and training were the critical processes in the creation of different forms of capital. Moreover, the findings suggest that the created social, human and political capital have both positive and negative effects on those involved, while full possible long-term effects are yet to become apparent. This research makes distinctive contributions to the body of knowledge. It adds six-dimensional conceptual frameworks for both volunteerism in general and Olympic volunteerism in specific. Investigation into how volunteering for the Beijing Games has been used for the creation of social, human and political capital at individual, organisational and societal levels is deemed to be original. Research findings will contribute to the development of volunteerism in the Olympic Movement and future Olympic volunteer programmes. Suggestions for future research are also proposed to investigate on further issues of issue of the use of volunteering for the creation of social, human and political capital at future Olympic Games as well as other mega events.

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The purpose of this study was to understand the governance of Olympic Games legacy. Legacy is broadly described as “all planned and unplanned, positive and negative, intangible and tangible structures created by and for a sport event that remain for a longer time than the event itself” (Preuss, 2007a, p. 86). The specific objectives of this study were: a) to map the historical evolution of legacy throughout the modern Olympic Movement (OM) (i.e., 1896-current day) in order to contextualize and conceptualize the major trends (e.g., changes in legacy, network actors/stakeholders, governance structures and processes) over time; b) to understand, explain, and compare/contrast the network governance of Olympic legacy, using Australian and Canadian case settings; and c) to critically analyze the overall structure and process of the governance of legacy within the OM focusing specifically on the aspects of performance, transparency, accountability, and participation to build a framework and provide policy recommendations for the governance of legacy in mega-events. In order to accomplish these objectives, a historical review of legacy within the OM and two descriptive case studies (Sydney 2000 and Vancouver 2010) were built using interviews and archival materials. Findings showed how the growth of the Games has culminated in the increased use and importance of legacy, leading to greater concept complexity. This resulted in the emergence of several trends including: new legacy themes, heightened interconnectedness, and formalization of governance mechanisms. Institutional theory was then applied to further explore the emergence of legacy and its habitualization, objectification, and sedimentation as an accepted norm in the Olympic Field. The examination of the legacy governance networks in the two cases showed four legacy network governance phases: legacy conceptualization, legacy planning and implementation, legacy transfer, and post-Games legacy governance, as well as a number of governance mechanisms (e.g., contracts, policies) that had an impact on the overall governance of the event’s legacy. Finally, a critical analysis of the governance of Olympic Games legacy was completed. The end result of the research project was a theoretical framework detailing the levels and fluidity of legacy governance in the OM.

In 2012, London successfully hosted the Games of the XXX Olympiad. The main legacy of hosting the event is the 560 acre, mixed use Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park located in Stratford in the heart of London s former industrial East End. The Park is located across the four Park Boroughs of Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest, each distinct in character but shaped by similar trends of urban regeneration and gentrification. This research examines the profiles, practices and perceptions of visitors to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park as an impact study of mega events conducted within five years after the London Olympics. It draws on research about mega events and urban regeneration with a focus on sports science and geography that has largely neglected visitor experiences as an outcome of mega events. Based on a mixed methods approach combining a longitudinal face-to-face visitor survey conducted over two years, a postal survey among local schools, and interviews with stakeholders, this thesis makes an original contribution to knowledge by proposing a new conceptual framework on mega event legacy and empirical findings on the use and perceptions of The Park by local, regional, national and international visitors. The conceptual approach (Chapter 3) bridges the two distinct literatures of mega-event legacy theory (and more broadly the sports literature) and actor-network theory. The framework allows for the study to approach the research questions from a tridic actor-network perspective, examining how material, immaterial and mainly human dynamic hybrids co-exist in complex webs of relations. It also allows for the unravelling of how these relations have given rise to impacts tied to the developments in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. This unravelling is explored through the remainder of this thesis. Following the description and analysis of methods used in the thesis (Chapter 4), Chapter 5 provides a historic overview of the four Park Boroughs that define the study area of the thesis. The shifting nature of this multicultural area is contextualised in light of several catalytic events (industrialisation, de-industrialisation and finally the Olympic Games). At the heart of this examination is the intention to show that despite the narratives pedalled by policy makers, planners and politicians, areas of East London were inhabited by groups who for several centuries symbiotically produced and reproduced their own diverse identities and ultimately that of East London. Chapter 6 analyses and critiques 35 policy documents released during the Olympic cycle (broadly defined here as the period between 2003 and 2012) and follows both the visible and invisible actants. The key findings are that: poorly executed event planning is inextricably linked to a poor implementation of local community interests; there were unheard and excluded voices, particularly the disadvantaged and displaced, in these policy and planning documents and; that there was little opportunity for the youth voice to be heard. Finally, the analysis of policy documents has underlined the value of reflecting on legacy promises from a longer-term perspective, suggesting that the legally binding bid books should be compared with the actual outcomes from a long-term perspective. The typical visitor to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park (Chapter 7) is a white middle-aged male or female (71% over age 25, ~50/50 male and female). They will be visiting the sports facilities and their frequency of use suggests that they have monthly membership to one of the leisure centres. This indicates that they have a relatively high level of both social capital and disposable income. They will reside within the Park Boroughs, often within walking distance of the Park or close to a transport link with a direct transport connection, probably by the Underground system. They will not often visit the Park with under 18s and if they do visit with anyone, it will be their partner or friend, and thus they resemble very closely the typical affluent gentrifier couples. The term experience athlete was coined for these visitors with 53% being from the Park Boroughs. In addition, there were those who came to sight-see, designated as Games tourists of whom 56% of these were international visitors. While ~20% of the visitors to the Park were under age 18 most of these were under 12s attending with their parents. Young people and particularly young people from the Park Boroughs were largely absent from the Park, which was contributed to by discriminatory practices (often under the guise of security issues) which focused on groups of ethnic minority youth. The possible reasons for the absence of young people from the Park are explored and unravelled in Chapter 8 by discussing the results of the semi-structured interviews with local stakeholders and the postal survey with school staff. The key issues raised in this chapter were that: the lack of a representative youth voice with a hidden and perceived to be cosmetic contribution to legacy planning and; the lack of social and financial capital in school staff and young people in combination with the gentrifying process and; spatial factors such as distance from the Park and poor acces routes, all contributed to the absence of young people from the Park. Overall, this thesis stresses the importance of unravelling networks to their fullest extent to truly understand the impact such spaces have on diverse communities.