My interest in this particular subject, involving the analysis of design and architectural proposals for the Olympic city, derives from an earlier MPhil study, completed in 2001 (see section 3.1.2). My PhD research gave me the chance to further my investigation in this subject and focus on the role of Olympic design and architecture and the analysis of the material that describes the aesthetic character and language of host cities. By writing this thesis, I have connected, the Olympic city subject with critical theory involving issues of modern cities’ changing urban, social and cultural identities, reflected in their represented image, and I have also used methods of visual analysis. Within the course of the last ten years of my research in this field, I realised that there is a research gap in the investigation of the visual identity of different Olympic cities. This research gap consists of a lack of research that attempts a critical review of the role of Olympic architecture and design since the first Summer Olympic Games in Athens 1896 and also a lack of examination and critical analysis of the visual (and descriptive) material available in the Olympic cities’ archives. More specifically, this analysis involves questions about: - the production of a ‘visual identity’ (i.e. information about the producer of this identity, the design criteria and influences, such as technological and ideological); - the relationship of this identity with the surrounding urban, social and cultural environment: ‘what knowledge is being deployed and whose knowledge is excluded from this representation’ (Rose, 2007, p.259); 10 - the changes in how this identity is communicated and perceived (changes in the audience, in the perception of the event as a spectacle, in media and in the means of communication involved). My research journey, from the gathering of the necessary material to the writing up of this thesis, has involved a historical review of archives from different sources (libraries, organising committees and the press). It has also involved a review of theories that facilitated the interpretation of the Olympic city development as a visual identity, placed within a historical and sociocultural context. Methodologically, therefore, this study is a synthesis based on both the gathering of secondary data and also critical theory on art, design and architecture and on cities’ urban and social development. The work of the following researchers has been especially useful in exploring many of the thesis’ arguments: theorists such as Walter Benjamin and Ernst Bloch who are concerned with the modern city development; David Harvey, Fredric Jameson, Jean Baudrillard and Zygmunt Bauman, who examine the transformations in twentieth century social and cultural conditions (modernism and postmodernism); and also Sharon Zukin, Kevin Robins, and Anna Klingmann, who examine the social and cultural transformations in contemporary urban development. In this study, I also focus on the idea of transition and, therefore, on Olympic city examples that have made an immense effort to create a visual identity or alter the ways that people visually experienced them. I have been particularly interested in case studies that, with their design and architectural ideas and the ways they visually communicated the identity of a place, contributed to the transition of the Olympic city in its development as a visual identity. I suggest that, in addition to the examination of the Olympic city development as an urban plan (changing in size and scale and engaging with new technologies) and also as an international event (emerging to a mega-event), there is another type of development in Olympic design and architecture that is worth exploring, that of the Olympic city as a visual identity. 11 The original ideas in this thesis have to do with the development of the Olympic city as a visual identity and, therefore, with: - the analysis of visual material (photographs, maps, plans, pictures from the press and posters) and written material (from the Official Olympic reviews, the press, books, letters and speeches) having to do with Olympic cities since the Summer Olympic Games in Athens 1896. - the analysis of this material by interpreting the characteristics (design criteria, and priorities, who takes decisions and who is the image maker) behind each Olympic city’s design and architecture proposals. This analysis considers the promoted urban, social and cultural profile of the host city, but also considers any alternative (different from the represented) urban, social and cultural identity of the host city. - the selection of examples from the Olympic cities' visual identities that best represent the Olympic city as a transition from the modern to the postmodern era, based on characteristics from these visual identities that have faded, altered or been abolished and also characteristics that have been emphasised and promoted. Many of these characteristics changed the contemporary shape and represented profile not only of Olympic cities but also of cities in general. - the critical analysis of the role of design and architecture in the representation of an Olympic city, reflected in the characteristics of its visual identity.

ABSTRACT The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is currently planning the historic Youth Olympic Games (YOG), an international mul ti sport event that will be inaugurated in Singapore in 2010. On the 6t h of July 2007, the establishment of the YOG was approved and will feature 14 to 18 year old athletes. The purpose of the YOG is to complement the Olympic Games but not to create a “mini Games”. This event will place emphasis on quality of performance, rather than the sport ing achievement itself and the IOC aims to use the YOG to address the decline in the relevance of sport amongst the younger generation and to educate the youth through the values that sport teaches. The selected sport events will be carefully chosen to protect the health of the young athletes. This study evaluated the perceived strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that South Africa faces in delivering the mandate of the IOC on the YOG. The study had a critical theoretical framework. A semi structured questionnaire was completed by 36 academic sport experts and administrators of the nine provincial sport academies. The semi st ructured questionnaire al lowed the respondents an opportunity to comment on other relevant issue(s) not raised in the questionnaire. Thematic content analysis was carried out on the semi structured questionnaires. The data gained was util ised to briefly crit ique South African society and sports in the context of the YOG. The findings i lluminate some percept ion on South Africa’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in relation to the IOC’s vision and mandate and how a team for the Singapore 2010 YOG and beyond may be galvanised.

Globally, competition for hosting the Olympic has become fierce. The social and economic advantages resulting from hosting the Olympic Games are huge, but the cost is also formidable. In particular, Sochi, where the 2014 Winter Olympic Games will be held, invested over $50 billion in building the stadium facilities and developing Sochi and the surrounding area as modernized systems. These Olympic facilities have the potential to attract visitors both during and after the Olympic Games. Prior literature suggests that sport tourism is emerging as a prominent component of many economic development plans (Kotler, Haider and Rein 1993) and the market’s expanding opportunities in tourism and sport businesses suggest the need for studies of sport tourism (Glyptis 1991). Earlier research has verified story impact as a fundamental communication tool and analyzed narrative contents. Past sport research suggests that American Olympic naaratives focus on specific themes. Given the literature, this study examines whether story theme preferences between the Korean and the American are different with cultural difference because some researcher indicates such cultural differences can influence communication behaviors. This research examined the impact of story themes on interest in host city and host nation for Korean and American students. The study employed an experimental survey and designed 3 themed Korean stories and American stories (hero, facility, and non-theme) based on actual news articles for the experiment. The experiment results showed that the Korean and the American students have statistically significant differences in all of the dependent variables. Overall, compared to American students, Korean students had higher interest in watching and attending the Winter Olympics as well as visiting the host city. Korean students also had positive intention to watch, to attend the Winter Olympics, and to visit the host city than the American students. With regard to the findings, the differenct approaches need to be developed between two nations. Cultural differences found in this study would affect the host city’s promotional efforts. / text

This thesis examines the school-based Olympic education (OE) programs implemented in the Beijing Olympic Games from both top-down and bottom-up perspectives. The research employs a three-pronged methodology for data collection, using textual analysis, semi-structured interviews with five key informants, and storytelling with six student participants. Findings suggest that OE in China was primarily government-led, with BOCOG, academic experts and numerous volunteers providing expertise and assistance. The students’ narratives shed light on how OE was conceptualized and experienced by its recipients as well as the useful role it served in revitalizing the traditional education system. To strengthen OE during future Games, the thesis recommends that future organizers and host governments embed programs of OE in the ongoing state school systems, set clear learning objectives in advance and monitor and evaluate implementation continually. It also recommends that future researchers continue this students’ focus on the student voice.

This thesis examines the school-based Olympic education (OE) programs implemented in the Beijing Olympic Games from both top-down and bottom-up perspectives. The research employs a three-pronged methodology for data collection, using textual analysis, semi-structured interviews with five key informants, and storytelling with six student participants. Findings suggest that OE in China was primarily government-led, with BOCOG, academic experts and numerous volunteers providing expertise and assistance. The students’ narratives shed light on how OE was conceptualized and experienced by its recipients as well as the useful role it served in revitalizing the traditional education system. To strengthen OE during future Games, the thesis recommends that future organizers and host governments embed programs of OE in the ongoing state school systems, set clear learning objectives in advance and monitor and evaluate implementation continually. It also recommends that future researchers continue this students’ focus on the student voice.

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This thesis examines Imperial, Weimar, and Nazi Germany's attempt to use the Berlin Olympic Games to bring its citizens together in national consciousness and simultaneously enhance Germany's position in the international community. The sources include official documents issued by both the German and American Olympic Committees as well as newspaper reports of the Olympic proceedings. This eight chapter thesis discusses chronologically the beginnings of the Olympic movement in Imperial Germany, its growth during the Weimar and Nazi periods, and its culmination in the 1936 Berlin Games. Each German government built and improved upon the previous government's Olympic experiences with the National Socialist regime of Adolf Hitler reaping the benefits of forty years of German Olympic participation and preparation.

Nationalism and globalisation are two topics of great debate. In an increasingly connected world, these concepts are contrasted as opposites unable to coexist with a rise in one there must be a fall in the other. In this study, these concepts are explored alongside Olympism through the medium of the Olympic Games. Historically, the Olympics are structured around nations/nation-states, and national teams, while still attempting to promote universalism, internationalism, and the unity of humankind. This work aims to explore how and why nationalism, Olympism, and globalisation are expressed in the Olympic Movement through a case study of the London 2012 Olympic Games and what the outcomes of these actions are. Backed by an interpretivist paradigm, this study focused on selected events in the lead-up to the London Games, starting in the summer of 2011, and culminated with a prolonged period of observation at the London Games, both at Olympic venues and the live site at Hyde Park. Throughout the course of data collection there was a focus on not only the institutions staging the Games but also the spectators taking part in them.

This thesis investigates how male and female athletes competing in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro were portrayed in two British and two American newspapers (The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post). It also examines how the total amount of coverage was distributed between athletes of each gender. Previous studies have shown that female athletes are not given as much space as male athletes (Jones, 2004, Caple, Greenwood, & Lumby, 2011, Godoy-Pressland 2014) and that when they are reported on, not portrayed in the same way as male athletes (Eagleman, 2015). This can have negative effects for athletes and their sport (Knight & Giuliano, 2011). For this essay, a corpus was created out of articles from the four newspapers, which were subsequently analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. The findings showed a greater equality in the amount of coverage provided by newspapers than had been shown by previous studies, but with such a small sample, results could not be generalised widely. For the qualitative analysis, articles from two specific events were analysed and determined to not contain any major differences between males and females, with only one exception, which was Los Angeles Times’ article on the women’s artistic gymnastics team all-around event.

In my thesis I will focus on all the successes of Czech and Czechoslovak athletes at the Olympics in the javelin. I also want to briefly describe the history and development of this discipline. Furthermore, I will also describe modern technology of javelin and physiological description. Nevertheless, the main part will be about our Olympic heroes in this technically very demanding discipline. In this part, there will be mainly detailed course of the race at the Olympics, where they have had any success. My thesis will also include a biography of these prominent Athletes.