The Sporting Spirit

"CITIUS, ALTIUS, FORTIUS" are the iconic words that continue to inspire a new generation of aspiring young athletes all over the world. Together with the five rings symbolizing the five continents, these two elements have come to embody the modern Olympic Games for what we recognize it as today - an all-inclusive movement that hosts the par excellence of sport every four years. Yet, those distinguishing elements couldn't have been  further from what it's controversial aristocratic founder, Pierre de Coubertin, had envisaged when he first conceived of the idea of resurrecting an Ancient Greek tradition. On the pod this week, we speak to Associate Prof. Dr. Jörg Krieger, a well-esteemed sports historian and all-round Olympics connoisseur, going back in time to trace the origins of the modern games and the role of its contentious founding father. Tune in as we discuss the the movement's early years, from the first modern games in its ancestral home of Athens in 1896 , to the last before WWII broke out, hosted by Adolf Hitler's increasingly omnipotent Nazi Germany.

The "power of football"  is something of a worn-out cliché, and sometimes feels like nothing more than a feel-good PR exercise.  However, in the last few decades, football has been taken more seriously in the field of development work. It has been argued to not only provide a basis for physical fitness and healthy living, but as a tool for tackling various social issues ranging from youth unemployment to refugee integration. On this week's show, we speak to Robert Maaskant, programme and partnerships manager at the European Football for Development Network (EFDN), an organization that provides guidance and support within the context of community and social responsibility in European football. Tune in as we discuss the day-to-day workings of the EFDN, the importance of "off the field" contributions of football clubs in their respective local communities, as well his transition from the elite level football to the community-centric work at the EFDN.  

It's Christmas Eve, but we ain't letting you off that easily. Sport for Development (SFD) means a lot of things to a lot of different people, and yet, it's often associated with NGO work run by Global North actors in the Global South. This week, we speak to the passionate SFD researcher Louis Moustakas, whose previous work experiences at StreetFootballWorld and the African Youth Games in Botswana makes him the ideal candidate to appraise this "philanthropic" field of work. MERRY XMAS EVERYONE !!!!!!!

Corruption exists in each and every walk of life, and sport  is certainly no exception to that rule. Rule-bending practices such as match-fixing, systematic doping and tax evasion has for centuries been sewn deep into the fabric of both professional and amateur sport. In this brand new episode, we speak to the passionate sport integrity expert and AEK Athens supporter, Dr. Elisavet Manoli of Loughborough University. Tune in as we delve into the complexities of defining corruption, the kinds of social and organizational problems that are the root of the problem, and whether or not countries that lack robust democratic features are more  prone to sports corruption than others. We're back and ready to go!

Before we take a little hiatus from the pressures of the cut-throat entertainment business, we talk about the hurdles we've faced while recording some of the interviews on our $8.99 mics, THE question many of you have asked, and what we have in store on future episodes. Turn up the heating and see y'all in the depths of winter, in the Sporting Spirit's and probably Donald Trump's, second term. The excitement is palpable. 

"Let us then, by being allowed to take the same exercise as boys, not only during infancy, but youth, arrive at perfection of body, that we may know how far the natural superiority of man extends", were words written by the English author and one of the founding feminist philosophers, Mary Wollstonecraft. The world, in many respects, has certainly moved on since her famous book championing the rights of women to receive rational education, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, was published in 1792. However, sport at times certainly feels like it's still being played according to 18th century rules, if you're a woman anyway. On this week's episode, we speak to the two Lisas, who are the co-founders of the female empowerment blog, Fan Von Dir. They discuss with us the idea behind their initiative, and fill us in on questions to do the types of stories the sportswomen which they write about tell, along with mechanisms that can be leveraged in order to get females level on the scoreboard with their male counterparts in sport.  

Over the last few decades, societies all over the world (not all, obvsly) have come round to the long-overdue realization that you can be whatever you feel yourself to be. Compared to  other areas, this remains arguably the most polarizing issue in sport. This week, we speak to the brilliant Prof. Karolin Heckemeyer on the archaic gender ideals of sport, the narrative of competitive fairness and perhaps more importantly, whether there could be a  future whereby individuals can compete in whichever gender category they identify as, without discrimination. 

Who will throw the knock-out punch in this year's U.S General Elections? The current P.O.T.U.S is up to his usual tricks, of playing the man not the ball, by calling political opponent Joe Biden, “weak as hell,” “stupid,” and “a low-IQ individual”. In the primaries, Biden certainly stepped up to the plate despite not being the initial frontrunner. Will Kanye West be a realistic dark horse option?  I think you get the point now. On this week's episode, we chat to Daniele Canepa, a linguistics expert, writer and proud Genoese who tells us about how and why sport lexicon is so prevalent in politics. Drawing on examples from his native homeland, Daniele tells us about Silvio Berlusconi's dramatic rise to political power,  beginning with his ownership of A.C Milan and subsequently utilizing different sporting metaphors in his attempt to alter the way in which Italians relate to politics, creating a positive public image for himself and his new political party, and to attract particular sections of the electorate. We're certainly in full swing on this one!