Olympics Retrospective

Thomas M. Hunt, author of Drug Games, explains the history and politics of doping during the Cold War.

Episode notes: http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/resource/sport-in-the-cold-war/episode-06-performance-enhancing-drugs

Episode 6 - Performance-Enhancing Drugs

The Soviet magazine "Krokodil" was published for decades poking fun at such topical events like the boycott of the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow. Episode notes: http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/resource/sport-in-the-cold-war/episode-09-soviet-sport-satire

Episode 9 - Soviet Sport Satire

Toby C. Rider, author of Cold War Games, explains the United States’ government’s use of sport as a tool of statecraft in the early Cold War years. The U.S. government tried to project an appealing image of American ideals and culture through the medium of sport. Episode notes: http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/resource/sport-in-the-cold-war/episode-13-sport-and-statecraft-in-the-u-s

Episode 13 - Sport and Statecraft in the United States

Tim Naftali (New York University), author of One Hell of a Gamble, talks about the political dimensions of international competitions during the Cold War. Episode notes: http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/resource/sport-in-the-cold-war/episode-16-war-minus-the-shooting

Episode 16 - "War Minus the Shooting"

After 1949, the People’s Republic of China on the mainland and the Republic of China on Taiwan both competed for recognition at international sporting events and the right to refer to themselves as the true “China." 

Andrew D. Morris (California Polytechnic State University) dives into years of mutual boycotts, defections, and subterfuge played out on the Olympic stage. Episode notes: http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/resource/sport-in-the-cold-war/episode-22-a-clash-of-two-chinas

Episode 22 - A Clash of Two "Chinas"

Mikhail Yu. Prozumenshchikov, Russia's leading historian of sport, tells the story of Brezhnev's long-held dream of hosting the Olympics in Moscow. Episode notes: http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/resource/sport-in-the-cold-war/episode-23-brezhnev-s-dream

Episode 23 - Brezhnev's Dream

The Olympics were intended to showcase amateur athletics rather than commercially-supported professionals. Yet during the Cold War, the Soviet Union developed a highly "professional" sport system which provided living expenses, training facilities, and luxury perks for its "amateur" athletes. 

Sylvain Dufraisse (Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne) describes the beginnings of the Soviet system in the 1930s and the later controversies that dogged Soviet athletes at the Olympics. 

View the cartoon Dufraisse discusses and episode notes here: http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/resource/sport-in-the-cold-war/episode-26-olympic-professionals

Episode 26 - Olympic "Professionals"

Amanda Shuman (University of Freiburg) on China's role in the Cold War and how sport was seen as an integral part of life in communist China. Episode notes: http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/resource/sport-in-the-cold-war/episode-27-sport-in-the-prc

Episode 27 - Sport in the People's Republic of China

Mark S. Dyreson (Pennsylvania State University) argues that California became the center of American commercialization of the Olympics beginning with the 1932 Summer Games in Los Angeles. Episode notes: http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/resource/sport-in-the-cold-war/episode-31-californication-of-the-olympics

Episode 31 - "Californication" of the Olympics

David Goldblatt, author of The Games: A Global History of the Olympics, dives deep into the origins, politics, and influence of the modern Olympic Games. Episode notes: http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/resource/sport-in-the-cold-war/episode-32-politics-at-the-olympics

Episode 32 - Politics at the Olympics

Former CIA analyst David Kanin gives a behind-the-scenes look into the Carter administration's decision to boycott the 1980 Moscow Olympics in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Episode notes: http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/resource/sport-in-the-cold-war/episode-33-carter-s-olympic-boycott

Episode 33 - Carter's Olympic Boycott

In 1976, twenty-five African countries boycotted the Montreal Olympics to protest the participation of New Zealand, whose rugby team toured South Africa that same summer. Episode notes: http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/resource/sport-in-the-cold-war/episode-34-the-forgotten-african-olympic-boycott

Episode 34 - The Forgotten African Olympic Boycott

At the 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics, fourteen-year-old Romanian Nadia Comăneci became the first gymnast ever to be awarded a "Perfect 10."  Nadia went on to earn five additional perfect 10s during the Montreal Olympics and three gold medals, catapulting her to international stardom and into the midst of Romania's international Cold War tensions.  

Episode notes: http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/resource/sport-in-the-cold-war/episode-38-romania-s-perfect-10-gymnast

Episode 38 - Romania's Perfect 10 Gymnast

The call for an international boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics created divisions in Britain between Margaret Thatcher's government, which supported the US boycott, and British athletes, who resented being asked to sacrifice their Olympics. Episode notes: http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/resource/sport-in-the-cold-war/episode-39-britain-and-the-1980-olympics-boycott

Episode 39 - Britain and the 1980 Olympics Boycott

Podcasts and event audio from the Woodrow Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program, which includes the Cold War International History Project, the North Korea International Documentation Project, and the Nuclear Proliferation International History Project and is home to the Digital Archive at www.digitalarchive.org

International History Declassified, with Pieter Biersteker and Kian Byrne of the History and Policy Program focuses on interviews with historians to gain insight into their research, their sources, and their experiences.

Sport in the Cold War is hosted by Vince Hunt, and features insightful discussions with expert historians. Supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and directed by Professor Robert Edelman (UC San Diego), Professor Christopher Young (University of Cambridge), and Dr. Christian Ostermann (History and Public Policy Program, Woodrow Wilson Center).