Speakers
Description
Keywords: Media, Foreign Athletes, Olympics
Abstract
The rise in the number of Olympic athletes who have switched nationalities has sparked further academic debate in sports sociology over the concepts of nationalism and belongings. Although foreign Olympic athletes have long been represented in Turkey’s national teams, it has been argued that nationality switching in Turkish sports is an obstacle for the development of "native-born" athletes. This study aimed to understand how the media portrays foreign Olympic athletes competing in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in terms of belonging and nationalism. The theoretical framework of the research is Nira Yuval-Davis's (2006, 2009) approach based on the separation of "belonging" and "politics of belonging". The data was gathered from a) four national newspapers with mass circulation (Hürriyet, Sözcü, Fotomaç, Fanatik) during the Games b) archival news/columns dating back to the year the athletes started to represent the Turkey and, c) ordinary people’s comments on Turkey’s most popular internet forum, “Ekşi Sözlük”. As a result of thematic and content analysis, the themes of "Boundaries: Collective belongings" and "Our Children: National pride belongings" were produced. Findings show that in 417 articles on Olympics, foreign athletes took less (12%) than native-born. In the media discourse, the new citizenships of these athletes are constantly tested by the success in their performances. Images of the athletes holding Turkish flags and giving nationalist statements are emphasized, and their patriotism is intended to be demonstrated in this way. As a result, the boundaries of “our children” and “outsiders” are constantly redefined according to athletes' discourses and achievements.
