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Forward Russia! Sports mega-events as a venue for building national identity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Vitalii Aleksandrovich Gorokhov
Vitalii Aleksandrovich Gorokhov*
Affiliation:
Department of Comparative Political Studies, North-West Institute of Management, Branch of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Saint-Petersburg, Russia
*
*Email: vgorohov@eu.spb.ru
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Abstract

This paper contributes to the discussion of links between sports, nationalism, and globalization by focusing on the political aspects of the preparation of Russian national teams for sports mega-events staged in Russia. By analyzing the cases of the XXVII Summer Universiade in Kazan, the XXII Winter Olympics in Sochi, and the XXI FIFA World Cup scheduled to take place in 12 Russian cities, the paper provides a comparative study of the benefits that mega-events provide for the host nation in terms of building national identities. To involve the sports component in the study of the nation-building processes, the paper applies the concept of the “spillover effect” of sporting nationalism which presumes that nationalist sentiment or ideology configured and promoted through sports affects non-sporting political processes, actors, and institutions. The paper argues that the “spillover effect” of sporting nationalism allows for the converting of excellence in sports mega-events – the centerpiece of global sports – into political excellence and displays the strengths of the nation to both the global and domestic public. Therefore, showing excellence as the host nation is the main objective that Russian political actors pursue in both their rhetoric and course of action.

Keywords

mega-eventsSochi 2014sporting nationalismUniversiade 2013FIFA World Cup 2018
Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 43 , Issue 2 , March 2015 , pp. 267 - 282
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

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