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This study examines media images of sports public figures during 4 periods of modern Chinese history. Furthermore, an explanation is provided for each of the variables that have affected the media’s portrayal of sports public figures. As in most cultures and nations around the world, sports public figures are recognizable characters in modern Chinese culture. They have a significant impact on opinions regarding sports and society and have gained a pivotal role in the fabric of mainstream culture. Over the various historical periods in China, the country’s media have reported stories involving sports public figures differently. The descriptions contained in this study are reflections of the various political, economical, cultural, sports, and media climates during different time periods in China. The commercialization of sports and the rise of the media’s presence have influenced the pursuit of an all-encompassing image of Chinese sports public figures.

How can Global Sporting Governing Bodies (GSGBs) like the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) take a stand on political issues in places where a sporting event which comes under their aegis is being held without compromising their own position as neutral governing bodies of sport? Drawing upon a historical sociological approach and using the FIA and the Formula 1 world motorsport championship as its key example, this paper argues that one reason why controversy about this is growing is because FIA’s current power structures were established in an era less suited to today’s world of sports and stakeholdership. In order to change, we need to review the historical processes that shaped current power relations between the GSGB and its stakeholders and, through that, identify an alternative view of power which may resolve the dilemma which the relation between sport and politics currently throws up.

In this paper I view the history of kinesiology in America through the lens of a shifting academic landscape where physical culture and building acted upon each other to reflect emergent views concerning the nature of training in physical education and scientific developments around human movement. It is also an organizational history that has been largely lived in the gymnasium and the laboratory from its inception in the late nineteenth century to its current arrangements in the academy. Historians have referred to this in appropriately embodied terms as the head and the heart of physical education, and of course the impact of gender, class, and race was ever present. I conclude that the profession/discipline conundrum in kinesiology that has ebbed and flowed in the shifting spaces and carefully organized places of the academy has not gone away in the twenty-first century and that the complexities of today’s training require more fertile and flexible collaborative approaches in research, teaching, and professional training.

The rediscovery in the past three years of the widespread and highly organized use of performance-enhancing drugs—known as “doping”—in professional cycling has thrown the sport into a period of turmoil. Through a critical historical analysis, the article argues that profound institutional changes introduced into professional cycling by the sport’s governing body both facilitated and reflected the increasing commercial penetration of the sport. These institutional transformations put new pressures on team managers and racers, leading to significant changes in team organizations and rider preparation, in part fostering a new social organization of doping practices.

For two centuries, women and girls have performed extraordinary feats of endurance with limited notice. Women’s individual achievements have included walking for a month with less than 10 or 15 minutes continuous rest, walking and running more than 400 miles in six consecutive days, and defeating all men contestants in endurance competitions. Ideally, these achievements should have shattered the myths of female frailty and allowed more women to participate in and manage endurance events. However, women’s endurance has often been reduced, marginalized or exploited. Using post-modern historical analysis of 1000 printed sources, the author focuses on 19th century women’s professional endurance efforts, and also shows that marginalization and exploitation of women’s endurance continues into the 21st century.