The Global Dimension of Major Overseas Sports

The stomp of hooves on a cinder track or the precise swing of a golf club can bind people across borders and cultures. Sport is a universal language of competition, rivalry, and achievement. But the world isn’t as simple as it looks on TV. It is full of people who don’t look or act like Americans, and who live under governments that don’t share the same values.

From the start, sports have been used by people around the globe to challenge ideas about themselves and their worlds. In the age of colonialism, explorers and conquerors were awed by the physical prowess of the “primitive” peoples they encountered: Nandi runners in Kenya’s Rift Valley seemed to effortlessly cover distances that would bring European athletes to pitiable physical collapse; Tutsi high jumpers flew to heights that astonished Adolf Friedrich zu Mecklenburg’s anthropological team on his expedition to Rwanda and Burundi at the turn of the 20th century.

Since the post-Second World War era of decolonization, international sporting organizations have evolved to include not only European countries in their organizational structures and competitions but also those from other parts of the world that once were beyond their sphere of influence. The global aspect of these organizations has replaced the distinctly European one, sometimes with mixed results. Know more major international sports at 해외스포츠중계.

For example, where American economic and cultural influence has been dominant in the past, the appeal of baseball, basketball, and volleyball has tended to exceed that of football (soccer). Wherever Asian culture and values have become prominent, however, the attraction of those sports has surpassed that of soccer.

Regardless of the popularity and appeal of a particular sport, hosting a major international sporting event is expensive. The investment required to evaluate, plan, and submit a bid to host an Olympics or other event can be in the millions of dollars. Then, once a country is selected to host a major sporting event, it must spend millions more on the ceremonies, venues, and facilities needed to hold the games.