Connecting the Local to the Global in the Cold War: Hungary’s Contribution to Western Colonialist Sport Practices in the International Olympic Committee, 1960s-1989

• In Event: Hungary, (anti)Colonialism, and the Global Cold War

Abstract

This presentation explores how Hungary actively engaged in colonialist work globally through the International Olympic Committee during the Cold War. When the IOC was created in the 1890s, it was a colonialist organization that aimed to control the engagement of athletes worldwide in Western forms and norms of sport under the guise of ‘international peace through apolitical sport.’ When the Soviets joined its Eastern Bloc allies in participating in the Olympic movement in 1951, they did so partly to democratize the IOC and get newly-decolonized nations to join the sport organization.

Author

• Johanna Mellis, Ursinus College