Abstract
The Sochi Winter Olympics were a triumph in the eyes of Russia and the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Yet, a controversy around the introduction of anti-propaganda laws in Russia that had been criticised for being discriminatory marred the efforts of the IOC to fulfil its self-proclaimed aspiration of ‘encouraging the harmonious development of man’. This article discusses the controversy utilising a legally pluralist approach to sports governance, and providing a critical reading of the practices of neoliberal globalisation that marked the issue of sexuality at the Sochi games. The paper argues that the legal influence of the IOC on domestic and international legal norms is contradictory and inconsistent. This, when considered alongside the aspirations of the IOC is significantly problematic and demonstrates the importance of investigating the underlying power structures of this influential international governing body.
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Notes
Bach (2013).
Collins (2005a).
Penner et al. (2005).
Travers (2009).
Lacey (1996).
Cotterrell (2002).
Travers (2010).
Tushnet (1991a).
Tushnet (1991b).
Collins (2005b).
Kelman (1987).
Ibid 12, 3.
Harvey (2005).
Herod (2009).
Kinsey (2008).
Biccum (2002).
Ibid 8, 173.
Lacey (1996).
Tamanaha (2008).
Kleinhaus and MacDonald (1997).
Davies (2005).
De Sousa Santos (1995).
Volstrikova (2012).
Van Luijk and Frisby (2012).
Ibid 20, 387.
Giulianatti and Robertson (2004).
Pendlebury and Semens (2011).
Amara and Theodoraki (2010).
Ibid 29, 154.
Ibid 25, 346–353.
Mecro Press (2012) and Ibid 44, 2.
Ibid 24.
Ibid 1.
Balderstone (2009).
International Olympic Committee (2013).
Moon (2009).
Ibid 35, 11, 12, 16.
Ibid 1 and Ibid 35, 172.
Pierre de Coubertin, quoted in Olympic (2012) http://www.olympic.org/Documents/IOC_Interim_and_Final_Reports/IOC_Report_2009-2012_Interactive_ENG_Sept13.pdf. Accessed 22 December 2013.
Coe (2009).
Ibid 41, 142.
Ostapenko (2010), 62.
Gauthier (2013), 9.
Sochi Candidate Book (2006).
Prokopets and Zhubrin (2012), 38.
Tyagachev (2009).
Chenyshecko (2014).
Grekov (2013).
Local Government Act (1988).
Johanson (2014) and Ibid 44, 11.
Mills (2013).
Smith (2013).
Worden (2013).
Ibid 35, 11, 12, 16.
Ibid 44, 11 and 12.
Gibson (2013).
Digel (2009), 269.
ESPN (2013).
Ibid 13, 6.
Ibid 13, 6.
Pound (2009), 244.
Jones (2014).
IOC (2014).
Terlep (2014).
Ibid 63.
Sky News Online (2014).
Gibson and Walker (2014).
Wolff (2014).
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Postlethwaite, V. Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics and the controversy of the Russian Propaganda Laws: is the IOC buckling under the pressure of its own incoherence in thought?. Int Sports Law J 14, 264–274 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40318-014-0059-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40318-014-0059-z