Elite athletes of today use specialized, scientific training methods and the increasing role of science in sports is undeniable. Scientific methods and equipment has even found its way into the practice of everyday exercisers, a testament to the impact of sport science. From the experiential, personal training regimes of the first half of the 20th century to the scientific training theories of the 1970s, the ideas about training and the athletic body shifted. The rationalization process started in endurance sports in the 1940s. It was part of a struggle between two models of training; natural training and rational training. Physiologists wanted to rid training of individual and local variations and create a universal model of rational, scientific training. The rationalization of training and training landscapes is here understood as an aspect of sportification, a theory commonly used to describe similar developments in sports where increasing regimentation, specialization and rationalization are among the main criteria. This dissertation adds the concept of technologies of sportification to explain the role that micro-technologies and practices (such as training logs, training camps and scientific tests) have in the scientization of training. This thesis thus sets out to analyze the role that science has played in training during the 20th century. It is a history about the rationalization of training, but also about larger issues regarding the role of personal, experiential knowledge and scientific knowledge. The main conclusions are that the process of scientization never managed to rid training of components from natural, experiential training, and that the effort by Swedish physiologists to introduce rational training was part of the larger rationalization movement at the time. In the end, training knowledge was a co-production between practitioners and theoreticians, skiers and scientists. / <p>QC 20161114</p> / Rationell träning: vetenskapliggörandet äv träning för längdskidåkning

This dissertation reveals that the various, often conflicting media representations of cheerleaders are responsible for the many ways gender and power are refracted through the lens of American popular culture and on the bodies of American youth. Beginning in the circumscribed nineteenth century world of elite male privilege, the history of cheerleading is intimately connected to the discourse of masculinity in America. It is not until almost one hundred years after the activity’s birth that its primary narrative changes from one of masculinity to one of power. This project calls attention to the ways in which sociohistoric context impacts representations of cheerleaders. My interdisciplinary project draws on sources from the popular press; children’s, adult, and mainstream literature, film, and television; material culture; and interviews with cheerleaders themselves; and engages with existing cheerleading scholarship as well as literary criticism and feminist scholarship. Each chapter interrogates a different, related trend in the cultural representation of cheerleaders, including: competing narratives of victimization, im/perfection, and popularity; a third wave feminist vision of gendered superpower; prescriptions of beauty and behavior; pornography and its connection to the professionalization of cheer; and the performance of representation by actual cheerleaders. Taken together, these chapters trace patterns of representation, fraught with nuance and complexity, to provide a picture of a shifting cultural icon whose relationship to larger social movements is often reciprocal and who challenges societal expectations of gender and generation over three centuries. / text

The image of two US athletes with black glove-covered fists raised on the podium at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics is iconic. However, despite a number of academic studies, articles, books, lectures and films addressing this moment, the deeper story behind that student-athlete protest at Mexico 68 is little known. It was far from being a merely spontaneous or violent action. In fact, the protest was part of a concerted and largely peaceful effort to highlight several systemic injustices of the late 1960s by a group named the Olympic Project for Human Rights. As will be demonstrated in this thesis, it follows that the deeper story of the student-athlete protests at Mexico 68 are ripe with significance from both: (1) a Peace Studies perspective, focussing on structural injustice, and (2) a Conflict Resolution Studies viewpoint, which upholds value in the constructive settling of disputes. Employing a Peace and Conflict Studies (PACS) lens, which keeps both sets of concerns in view, and undertaking descriptive and analytical approaches that bring the voice of the athletes to the fore as much as possible given the limitations of this study, allows for a discussion of remarkable student-athletes interacting not only within the competitive structure of their sport at the Olympics, but also amongst social, institutional, and political contexts. This approach becomes foundational for the conclusion that the athletes involved in protests at Mexico 68 were players (i.e., agents) and not pawns, in relation to complex socio-political forces, which sought to manipulate and oppress them. Moreover, this PACS approach allows for twelve concrete lessons flowing from the stories of the athletes to be delineated for their contemporary relevance in a world where far too many injustices remain. In short, the main protest is herein presented as an awe-inspiring moment, simultaneously as a compass and a key, which when integrated with a PACS perspective serves to guide us towards a fuller understanding of the Olympic Project for Human Rights and it goals, unlocking what is revealed in this study to be a potentially important moment in the history of cultures of peace.

The image of two US athletes with black glove-covered fists raised on the podium at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics is iconic. However, despite a number of academic studies, articles, books, lectures and films addressing this moment, the deeper story behind that student-athlete protest at Mexico 68 is little known. It was far from being a merely spontaneous or violent action. In fact, the protest was part of a concerted and largely peaceful effort to highlight several systemic injustices of the late 1960s by a group named the Olympic Project for Human Rights. As will be demonstrated in this thesis, it follows that the deeper story of the student-athlete protests at Mexico 68 are ripe with significance from both: (1) a Peace Studies perspective, focussing on structural injustice, and (2) a Conflict Resolution Studies viewpoint, which upholds value in the constructive settling of disputes. Employing a Peace and Conflict Studies (PACS) lens, which keeps both sets of concerns in view, and undertaking descriptive and analytical approaches that bring the voice of the athletes to the fore as much as possible given the limitations of this study, allows for a discussion of remarkable student-athletes interacting not only within the competitive structure of their sport at the Olympics, but also amongst social, institutional, and political contexts. This approach becomes foundational for the conclusion that the athletes involved in protests at Mexico 68 were players (i.e., agents) and not pawns, in relation to complex socio-political forces, which sought to manipulate and oppress them. Moreover, this PACS approach allows for twelve concrete lessons flowing from the stories of the athletes to be delineated for their contemporary relevance in a world where far too many injustices remain. In short, the main protest is herein presented as an awe-inspiring moment, simultaneously as a compass and a key, which when integrated with a PACS perspective serves to guide us towards a fuller understanding of the Olympic Project for Human Rights and it goals, unlocking what is revealed in this study to be a potentially important moment in the history of cultures of peace.

This master’s thesis examines the Swedish gymnastics troupe, the Sofia Girls 1942-1964 from the perspective of gender and girlhood. The aim is to analyse the construction of the Sofia girl by their leader Maja Carlquist, the audience and the girls themselves, focusing on their characteristics, abilities and experiences. By applying Yvonne Hirdman’s theory of the Gender contract on another subject than the housewife, the girl, it is possible to discover a more nuanced history on gender. The results show that through her leadership of the Sofia Girls, Carlquist created the idea of a particular kind of girl to present to the world. This girl was strong, yet feminine, natural, and resolved to the ideals of womanhood while also challenging them. The girls who adapted to this construction, therefore agreeing to this particular kind of gender contract, were given opportunities to travel and were situated in positions of responsibility. This gave them self-esteem as they continued their lives. Thus, by conforming to the ideals, opportunities were created for the girls rather than holding them back. In this sense, the Sofia Girls displayed signs of progress during a period where it was rare at best.

This study theoretically presupposes that the individual is an integral entity, therefore, education should take place according to the harmonious development of all the facets of a child's being. Even in antiquity, physical education and sport were seen to be important for a balanced education. Every society implements physical education and sport according to own needs and requirements, according certain values to sport, which values are reviewed in this study. A literature study corroborates that the intellectual, physical and social development of the child undoubtedly forms part of the total environment of the educative process. Exclusion of any facet could cause an imbalance in the development of the child. Incorporation of physical education and sport in the post-apartheid educational dispensation of South Africa forms the later part of the investigation. Various factors in South Africa have an influence on the role and place of physical education and sport within the curriculum. Government involvement in sport can determine the place of sport in society and in the curriculum. The readmittance of South Africa into international participation and changes in the political policy also play a role. These factors pose the challenge and facilitate the possibility to reinstate physical education and sport at schools. The structure of South African sport is undergoing a total change and the role players in the sports fraternity are now faced with numerous challenges and opportunities. Reinstating physical education and sport in the school curriculum serves a vital role in the reconstruction and development of a healthy and well-balanced society. Furthermore, reinstatement could reverse the consequences of social and economic injustices. Research undertaken in Australia, also provides some answers to problems for the South African situation. It proposes new initiatives that could be of help to the relevant role players in the planning of physical education and school sport in the post­ apartheid educational dispensation of South Africa. / Educational Studies / D. Ed. (Comparative Education)

This study theoretically presupposes that the individual is an integral entity, therefore, education should take place according to the harmonious development of all the facets of a child's being. Even in antiquity, physical education and sport were seen to be important for a balanced education. Every society implements physical education and sport according to own needs and requirements, according certain values to sport, which values are reviewed in this study. A literature study corroborates that the intellectual, physical and social development of the child undoubtedly forms part of the total environment of the educative process. Exclusion of any facet could cause an imbalance in the development of the child. Incorporation of physical education and sport in the post-apartheid educational dispensation of South Africa forms the later part of the investigation. Various factors in South Africa have an influence on the role and place of physical education and sport within the curriculum. Government involvement in sport can determine the place of sport in society and in the curriculum. The readmittance of South Africa into international participation and changes in the political policy also play a role. These factors pose the challenge and facilitate the possibility to reinstate physical education and sport at schools. The structure of South African sport is undergoing a total change and the role players in the sports fraternity are now faced with numerous challenges and opportunities. Reinstating physical education and sport in the school curriculum serves a vital role in the reconstruction and development of a healthy and well-balanced society. Furthermore, reinstatement could reverse the consequences of social and economic injustices. Research undertaken in Australia, also provides some answers to problems for the South African situation. It proposes new initiatives that could be of help to the relevant role players in the planning of physical education and school sport in the post­ apartheid educational dispensation of South Africa. / Educational Studies / D. Ed. (Comparative Education)