History and Public Policy Program

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

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

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

Sport is often referred to as "war minus the shooting," but in one case in 1969 it helped ignite an actual armed conflict. A contentious World Cup qualifier between Honduras and El Salvador combined with political tensions to spark the so-called "Football War." Nate Jones (author of Able Archer 83) tells the story of the Football War and his work obtaining documents through the Freedom of Information Act at the National Security Archive. Episode notes: http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/resource/sport-in-the-cold-war/episode-30-the-football-war

The Friendship Games were an international competition organized by francophone African countries in the early 1960s. Later rechristened the All-African Games and recognized by the IOC, the competition became the first official Olympic sporting event for the African continent. Episode notes: http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/resource/sport-in-the-cold-war/episode-29-the-african-friendship-games

Sport and politics were deeply entwined in Southeast Asia during the Cold War. Simon Creak (University of Melbourne), historian of modern Southeast Asia, discusses the founding of the Southeast Asian Peninsular Games (SEAP). Episode notes: http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/resource/sport-in-the-cold-war/episode-28-the-southeast-asian-peninsular-games

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

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

After peace returned to the Pacific region with the end of WWII, the Asian Games were founded, opening in Delhi in 1951 and characterized as a symbol of peaceful Asian cooperation at a time of Cold War tensions and sometimes violent de-colonization. Stefan Huebner is an expert on colonialism, development policy, and sport in Asia. He is the author of Pan-Asian Sports and the Emergence of Modern Asia, 1913-1974.

Episode notes: http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/resource/sport-in-the-cold-war/episode-25-pan-asian-games

The World Youth Festival was one of the most elaborate, and expensive international events of the Cold War-ear. An international sporting competition and cultural gathering for students, it was organized by the communist bloc in order to impress visitors from nonaligned and western countries. Episode notes: http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/resource/sport-in-the-cold-war/episode-24-the-world-youth-festival