France's Sports Strategy and the Phenomenon of Sportswashing: A case study of the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics and Paralympics

Författare

Inès Charlotte Koerfer

Summary, in English

Traditionally, sportswashing has served as a short-hand way to criticise and accuse non-democratic countries of strategically using investments in sport, sports clubs and sports events to distract from or cover up oppressive practices. This thesis investigates sportswashing through a case study of the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics and Paralympics, aiming to assess whether a practice commonly associated with autocratic regimes could also be applied to democratic contexts. Through the development of an original typology of ‘systemic’ and ‘opportunistic’ sportswashing and the completion of a qualitative
content analysis of press kits, campaigns and discourses by the French government and state subsidiaries, France’s political and diplomatic motivations for hosting the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games are analysed as well as their alignment with either form of ‘systemic’ and ‘opportunistic’ sportswashing is evaluated. The study shows that the French sports strategy contains elements of both types and that a further category called ‘hybrid sportswashing’ may be necessary to fully cover the use of sports and sports mega-events by democratic states.

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