Sport and power: the Games in authoritarian regimes and the migration of athletes

Abstract

The Olympic Games have been a global stage, where the sporting world is driven and generates an influence on political contexts. Likewise, high performance athletes are subject to authoritarian systems. In this brief essay I will discuss the following cases: Berlin 1936, Moscow 1980 and Beijing 2008 Olympic Games since they present a correlation of similarity. I will analyze the relationship between these events and the authoritarian regimes that organized them as a tool of “soft power”. That is, a way of influencing, projecting their ideology and social control without resorting to the use of direct violence, since various mechanisms of citizen oppression are used, including elite athletes.