Edoardo Molinelli
“Olympic diplomacy” in the years of the fascist regimes: the Popular Olympiad in Barcelona between protest and a new idea of sport
The project aims to explore the topic of the Barcelona People's Olympiad, an event organized in 1936 as a response to the Nazi Olympics in Berlin. In particular, it will address several aspects related to “sport diplomacy”: the role of the People’s Games as a means of challenging those held in Berlin; the influence that certain international organizations (not only sporting ones) had in the conception and realization of the event; the issue of public funding for the Olympiad, which forced the governments of some of the main European countries into a controversial decision; and finally, the questioning of the concept of the Olympic ideal defended by the IOC and the simultaneous proposal of a more open and inclusive model of sport.
Interessi di ricerca
Contemporary history; History of sports; International relations.