Edoardo Molinelli
Olympic diplomacy" in the years of fascism: the People's 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, certain aspects related to 'sports diplomacy' will be addressed: the role of the People's Games as a means of protesting the Berlin Games; the influence that various international organizations (not only sports-related) 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 to make a controversial choice; 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.
Research Interests
Contemporary history; History of sport; International relations.