Hungary and the modern Olympic games

When? 09 - 15. 08. 2021.

Where? ONLINE

Hungary has been participating in the modern Olympic movement actively form the very beginning, and is a very Olympic-oriented nation still today. It has several reasons, and throughout the last 125 years there was always a philosophical-political background of it, regardless the political system. Olympic sports were always privileged, the number of gold medals and other results was part of the public discussion, the nation’s pride was quite dependent on the sport (Olympic) success.

This course guides students through the history of Hungary at the Olympic Games, the ideology behind the sports policy and today’s tendencies, with a lot of interesting facts and stories.

Structure of the course

The course will last for one week and it contains 4 thematic days:

1. The foundation of the Olympic movement and Hungary’s participation in it and at the first Olympic events.
2. Olympism and politics: the socialist view of top sport in the 1950s; the heart-breaking Olympics in Melbourne in 1956 and the socialist boycott of the Los Angeles 1984 Games
3. Gender equality in the Olympic movement in general and in Hungary; the greatest sportswomen and the gender stereotyping in the different sports
4. Hungary’s dreams to organize the Games – the economic side of the organization. The Hungarian Olympic movement today

Besides the interactive lectures, we plan two events: a visit to the Hungarian Sports Museum and a Historical Olympic walk-through Budapest.

Literature

David Goldblatt: The global history of the Olympic games, Pan Macmillan, London, 2017.

Allen Guttmann: The Olympics: A history of the modern games, University of Illionis, 2000.

Olympic.org documents, Olympic Channel videos, other websites related to the Olympics

Target group

Anyone can attend the course; no previous knowledge or degree is needed. Being involved in sport-related or history studies is an advantage.

List of lecturers

dr. Zsuzsanna Bukta assistant professor, Institute of Health Promotion and Sport Sciences

dr. Katalin Szikora, sport historian and guest lecturer; Institute of Health Promotion and Sport Sciences

E-mail: budapestsummer@elte.hu

Apply here