Kevin Witherspoon has reviewed Olimpismo: The Olympic Movement and the Making of Latin America and the Caribbean in the Spring 2023 issue of the Journal of Olympic Studies.
Antonio Sotomayor and Cesar R. Torres, in their recent volume Olimpismo: The Olympic Movement and the Making of Latin America and the Caribbean, demonstrate that the Olympic Movement in Latin America extends far beyond merely the “big three” topics described above—the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, the 2016 Rio Olympics, and Buenos Aires and its various Olympic bids—and in fact many nations and events in the region have ties to the Olympic Movement that warrant scholarly attention. While several of the chapters address Mexico City, Buenos Aires, and Rio, others explore the Olympic Movement in nations such as Uruguay, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Colombia. And beyond issues associated with bidding for and hosting the Olympics, Sotomayor and Torres and the contributors in this volume address many other aspects of Olympism in the region, such as creating and managing Olympic Committees and other athletic bodies, utilizing Olympic successes (and managing Olympic failures) as fodder for nationalist pride, medal-winning athletes as national heroes, colonialism and independence in sport, racial and gender issues in Olympic sport, sport diplomacy and international relations, and future possibilities for hosting and competing in the Olympics. This volume provides a much-needed text for students and scholars of the Olympics, and of Latin America in general, and offers a road map for other scholars interested in exploring the Olympic Movement in Latin America. … [T]he quality of research and writing is consistently high, and all of the chapters contribute meaningfully to the literature in the field.
On the whole, Sotomayor and Torres meet their goals as stated in the introduction: “to systematically study the Latin American and Caribbean Olympic Movement: its origins, characteristics, and impact locally and beyond . . . [and] to fill an important gap in the scholarly literature on the Latin American and Caribbean Olympic experience, broadly understood” (7). In meeting these goals, though, this collection achieves at least three other noteworthy things: (1) Readers of this book should find their curiosity piqued to further investigate the many compelling athletes and events mentioned only briefly, or explored only partially, in these chapters; (2) It provides a “road map” for future scholars in this field, who have in this volume a variety of research and writing techniques on which to base their own research; and, (3) It raises new and important questions about Olympism in Latin America, which should provide ample fodder for the editors and contributors—and other scholars—to grapple with for years to come.
The Olympic Games are a phenomenon of unparalleled global proportions. This book examines the rich and complex involvement of Latin America and the Caribbean peoples with the Olympic Movement, serving as an effective medium to explore the making of this region. The nine essays here investigate the influence, struggles, and contributions of Latin American and Caribbean societies. By delving into nationalist political movements, post-revolutionary diplomacy, decolonization struggles, gender and disability discourses, and more, they define how the nations of this region have shaped and been shaped by the Olympic Movement.
The Journal of Olympic Studies is the official peer reviewed publication of the Center for Sociocultural Sport and Olympic Research (CSSOR). The journal publishes high quality academic work on the Olympic and Paralympic Movements, in all of its forms, from scholars in the fields of history, philosophy, management, communication, classics, literature, anthropology, cultural studies, economics, marketing, and law.