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Sport as a Business pp 99–114Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Gender, Race and Nationality: An Examination of Print Media Coverage of the 2006 Winter Olympics

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Abstract

The Olympics celebrate sport like no other event in the world. The uniqueness of this event recognizes a wide variety of sports and creates a sense of nationalistic pride. Billings and Eastman (2003: 569) stated, “the Olympics represents a mix of nationalism, internationalism, sport, and human drama unmatched by any other event”. Olympism was represented at the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Torino, Italy where Olympic organizers coined the theme ‘Passion Lives Here’. This passion was broadcast internationally, bringing the culture and Olympic spirit to consumers’ workplaces and homes. For more than two weeks the 2006 Torino Olympics held a captive audience with 84 medal events, and 1026 medals were awarded to a contingency of 2508 athletes representing 80 international Olympic Committees. Around 130 countries broadcast the Olympics live, totaling almost 1000 hours representing 50 different languages. In terms of website usage, a record was set reaching 72 million pages visited, 9.4 percent more than the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics.1

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Authors
  1. Andrea N. Eagleman
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  2. Erin L. McNary
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Harald Dolles (Visiting Professor (full-time) in International Business) (Visiting Professor (full-time) in International Business)

  2. School of Business, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

    Sten Söderman (Professor of International Business) (Professor of International Business)

Copyright information

© 2011 Andrea N. Eagleman and Erin L. McNary

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Eagleman, A.N., McNary, E.L. (2011). Gender, Race and Nationality: An Examination of Print Media Coverage of the 2006 Winter Olympics. In: Dolles, H., Söderman, S. (eds) Sport as a Business. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230306639_6

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