'Team GB' and London 2012: The Paradox of National and Global Identities

Citation

MacRury I & Poynter G (2010) 'Team GB' and London 2012: The Paradox of National and Global Identities. International Journal of the History of Sport, 27 (16-18), pp. 2958-2975. https://doi.org/10.1080/09523367.2010.508280

Abstract
This article explores the problems associated with ‘national identity’ in the UK and examines the tensions arising between the international and local dimensions of the games through examples of domestic (UK) and international (Brazil, Chicago) media coverage of the key debates relating to London's period of preparation. The chapter proposes a conception of London 2012 as exemplar of an event poised to generate insights and experiences connected to a new politics of ‘cosmopolitan’ identity; insights central to grasping the cultural politics of contemporary urban development – and the paradoxes of national identity in current discourses of Olympism.

Journal
International Journal of the History of Sport: Volume 27, Issue 16-18

• Accepted manuscript