The Olympic Movement: Sport, Global Politics and Identity

 The Olympic Movement is a collection of digitized primary sources covering the history of the modern Olympic and Paralympic games, from the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 to the 1992 Summer Olympics and Paralympics held in Barcelona, Spain. It also includes materials related to regional competitions such as the Pan-American Games. 

These documents provide perspectives of the history of international sporting events, the development of athletic events for people with disabilities, women and gender in sports (including barriers to women's participation), racism and prejudice in sports, international relations and conflicts, and more. A wide variety of document types are included, such as correspondence, newspapers and clippings, pamphlets, press releases, images, film, and more. In the Research Tools menu, a Guide to the Archival Collections, Thematic Guides and Search Directories can help you find materials related to specific themes. Highlights include:

• Correspondence relating to the campaign to re-instate medals awarded to the Indigenous American athlete, Jim Thorpe
• Documentation of unsuccessful bids, including both host city bids and attempts by practitioners of different sports to be added to the Olympic program
• Documents relating to controversies, boycotts, activism, and protests
• Minutes of meetings for the International Stoke Games Federation Council, documenting the early development of the Paralympic Movement
• Personal papers of US Olympians, providing unique insights into experiences of athletes

Materials in this collection were sourced from institutions in Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States, including:

• British Film Institute
• Buckinghamshire Archives
• Olympic Foundation for Culture and Heritage
• Ronald Reagan Presidential Library
• United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee
• University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Because AM is a British company, and some materials are sourced from British collections, you will often see the British term "Sport" used instead of the U.S. term "Sports" in this collection. Please also note that due to the historical nature of these materials, some items in the collection may include views or terminology now considered outdated, biased, or offensive.