The religion in Olympic tourism

Alex Norman, Carole M. Cusack

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    8 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Olympic tourism has been likened to pilgrimage [Weed, M. (2008). Olympic tourism. Oxford: Elsevier], and Olympic sites called 'shrines' for the 'pious sport tourist' [Gammon, 2004]. Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympics, promoted the 'cult of the human being' [Ruprecht, L.A. (2008). Greek exercises: The modern Olympics as Hellenic appropriation and reinvention. Thesis eleven, 93, pp. 72-87], which had distinctly religious overtones. Sport may be a functional equivalent of religion in the modern world [Cusack, C.M. (2010). Sport. In R.D. Hecht & V.F. Biondo (Eds.), Religion in everyday life and culture (pp. 915-943). Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger], and as a global spectacle, the Olympics perform the ideal of de Coubertin's 'harmony of nationalisms' [Moltmann, J. (1989). Olympia between politics and religion. Concilium, 101-109]. This acting out and collective affirmation of humanist principles is civil religion; quasi-religious beliefs and practices connected with citizenship and political community, which here affirm the pre-eminence of the human individual. Olympic tourists celebrate human achievement, and participate in a mediatised mass spectacle of consumerism. Olympic tourism has similar religious significance to other mass-mobility events (the Hajj and the Kumbh Mela), which take on significance for visitors beyond the immediately theological. Yet, the religiospiritual elements of Olympic tourism have received less attention than other secular pilgrimages (battlefields and the World Cup). We argue Olympic tourism is a quasireligious pilgrimage that moves participants closer to, and through, a spectacle event upholding certain socio-cultural ideals of the wider project of the affluent, Western culture and identity, embodied in the Olympics.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)124-136
    Number of pages13
    JournalJournal of Tourism and Cultural Change
    Volume10
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2012

    Keywords

    • Olympics
    • pilgrimages
    • religion
    • tourism

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