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Why No Men Will Compete in Synchronized Swimming in Paris
For the first time, men are permitted to compete in artistic swimming at the 2024 Olympics. But none will.
by
Vicki Valosik
via
Made by History
on
August 5, 2024
At the 1960 Olympics, American Athletes Recruited by the CIA Tried to Convince Soviets to Defect
Al Cantello, a star of the U.S. track and field team, arranged a covert meeting between a government agent and a Ukrainian long jumper.
by
Erik Ofgang
via
Smithsonian
on
August 1, 2024
partner
Afraid of an Inspiring Olympics Story
How Europe reacted when Ethiopia tried to join the famed global sporting tradition at the 1924 Paris Olympics.
by
Hannah Borenstein
via
HNN
on
July 16, 2024
Human Velocity
“The Other Olympians: Fascism, Queerness, and the Making of Modern Sports” upends long-held assumptions about trans people’s participation in sports.
by
Michael Waters
,
Frankie de la Cretaz
via
The Baffler
on
June 7, 2024
partner
The Hidden History That Explains Why Team USA is Overwhelmingly White
Exclusion and violence in Western U.S. states help explain the Whiteness of winter sports.
by
Sherri Sheu
via
Made by History
on
February 17, 2022
partner
Rule 50 and Racial Justice
The long history of the international olympic committee's war on athletes' free expression.
by
Debbie Sharnak
,
Yannick Kluch
via
HNN
on
August 22, 2021
partner
Centuries of U.S. Imperialism Made Surfing an Olympic Sport
With an eye toward U.S. power, Americans spread the sport making its Olympic debut.
by
Thomas Blake Earle
via
Made by History
on
July 25, 2021
The 1904 Olympic Marathon May Have Been the Dumbest Race Ever Run
While we're missing three weeks of sporting endeavors due to the Tokyo Olympics, we can revisit one of the most bizarre races in modern Olympic history.
by
Jake Sturmer
,
Rebecca Armitage
via
ABC News
on
July 25, 2020
The 1952 Olympic Games, the US, and the USSR
The Olympics have long enabled global superpowers to enact their political and ideological conflicts in sport.
by
Erin Redihan
via
Process: A Blog for American History
on
February 8, 2018
When the Olympics Gave Out Medals for Art
In the modern Olympics’ early days, painters, sculptors, writers and musicians battled for gold, silver and bronze.
by
Joseph Stromberg
via
Smithsonian
on
July 25, 2012
Skateboarding: From Criminal Offense to Olympic Sport
Skateboarding was considered a silly and childish phenomenon for much of its existence.
by
Louis Anslow
via
Pessimists Archive
on
July 30, 2024
The Paris Games' Mascot, the Olympic Phryge, Boasts a Little-Known Revolutionary Past
The Phrygian cap, also known as the liberty cap, emerged as a potent symbol in 18th-century America and France.
by
Greg Daugherty
via
Smithsonian
on
June 18, 2024
A Forgotten Athlete, a Nazi Official, and the Origins of Sex Testing at the Olympics
In 1936, the Czech track star Zdeněk Koubek became world-famous after undergoing surgery so that he could live openly as a man.
by
Michael Waters
via
The New Yorker
on
June 1, 2024
partner
The ‘Miracle on Ice’ Shaped the Olympics Coverage We’re Seeing Every Night
How rooting for American athletes became part of Olympic TV coverage.
by
Bruce Berglund
via
Made by History
on
February 9, 2022
partner
Amateurism, Sneaker Money, and the Forgotten Protest of the 1968 Games
One of the most audacious examples of product placement at the Olympics was staged by John Carlos and Tommie Smith.
by
Harry Blutstein
via
HNN
on
July 25, 2021
The Olympic Star Who Just Wanted to Go Home
Tsökahovi Tewanima held an American record in running for decades, but his training at the infamous Carlisle school kept him from his ancestral Hopi lands
by
Kathleen Sharp
via
Smithsonian
on
May 20, 2021
How Wilma Rudolph Became the World’s Fastest Woman
Wilma Rudolph won three Olympic golds and was among the first athletes to use her celebrity to fight for civil rights.
by
Kate Siber
via
Outside
on
June 8, 2018
A Brief History of Women’s Figure Skating
You might be surprised to learn that this sport where women now shine was initially seen as solely the purview of male athletes
by
Kat Eschner
via
Smithsonian
on
February 6, 2018
How the National Anthem Got Tangled Up With American Sports
Like most relationships, it’s complicated.
by
Tevi Troy
via
Politico Magazine
on
September 26, 2017
The Drugs Won: The Case for Ending the Sports War on Doping
Two former anti-doping professionals think the fight against performance-enhancing drugs is doing more harm than good.
by
Patrick Hruby
via
Vice Sports
on
August 1, 2016
Want to Understand the 1992 LA Riots? Start with the 1984 LA Olympics
The causes were many, but police brutality and economic insecurity were supercharged in Los Angeles after the 1984 Olympics.
by
Dave Zirin
via
The Nation
on
April 30, 2012
Discrimination Against Trans Olympians Has Roots in Nazi Germany
1934 world champion runner Zdenek Koubek, boxer Imane Khelif, and how far we haven’t come on gender in sports.
by
Michael Waters
,
Alex Abad-Santos
via
Vox
on
August 1, 2024
How a Generation of Women and Queer Skateboarders Fought for Visibility and Recognition
On defying gender norms and expectations in extreme sports.
by
Deborah Stoll
via
Literary Hub
on
July 18, 2024
American Exchanges: Third Reich’s Elite Schools
How the Nazi government used exchange student programs to foster sympathy for Nazism in the United States.
by
Helen Roche
via
OUPblog
on
March 26, 2024
Lady Vols Country
How college basketball coach Pat Summitt transformed women's sports.
by
Jessica Wilkerson
via
Oxford American
on
June 6, 2023
partner
Pole Vaulting Over the Iron Curtain
When it became clear that the United States and its allies couldn’t “liberate” Eastern Europe through psychological war and covert ops, they turned to sports.
by
Matthew Wills
,
Toby Rider
,
Kevin Witherspoon
via
JSTOR Daily
on
May 12, 2023
Jackie Robinson, Pioneer of BDS
The Dodgers great didn’t just break Major League Baseball’s color line. He was also an activist whose legacy reaches from Brooklyn to South Africa to Palestine.
by
Robert Ross
via
The Nation
on
April 15, 2022
Eastern Sports and Western Bodies: The “Indian Club” in the U.S.
Although largely forgotten today, exercise by club swinging was all the rage in the 19th century.
by
Daniel Elkind
via
The Public Domain Review
on
April 1, 2020
Agency, Order and Sport in the Age of Trump
Jim Thorpe, Jack Johnson, and the sporting middle ground.
by
Andrew McGregor
via
Public Seminar
on
July 18, 2018
What Thomas Jefferson’s Daughters Can Teach Us About the False Promises of Patriarchy
Women have always come to the aid of men in power, but the costs of such actions have not always been immediately apparent.
by
Catherine Kerrison
via
Medium
on
April 20, 2018
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