Every Athlete an Anthropologist: John J. MacAloon's Vision for Sport

Abstract

Abstract John J. MacAloon's eloquent advocacy of intercultural communication, exchange, and education in Olympic sports echoes and brings contemporary relevance to the internationalism of Pierre de Coubertin. MacAloon argues that the ultimate test of the Olympic Movement should be the way that during its diverse activities, it enables athletes, coaches, game officials, decision-makers, journalists, spectators, and citizens of host cities and countries to leave their comfort zones to engage with and learn from those from other cultures. In the process, he believes, they will gain confidence in speaking out against xenophobia and hatred, no mean contribution in an increasingly divisive world. This personal reflection upon MacAloon's work outlines the core of his ideas as he first presented them in the 1980s and how they were interpreted at the time; recounts the innovative and illuminating ways of his ethnographical research on the road of Asian and Olympic torch relays, at Olympic and Winter Olympic Games, and his field trips with colleagues, activists, and Olympic insiders at colloquia and conferences; and discusses the possibilities and challenges of intercultural education in Olympic sport today, placing them in the context of the recent calls for a boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.