Winters of Discontent: The Winter Olympics and a Half Century of Protest and Resistance

The Olympic Winter Games (OWG) are often presented as glorious achievements and pristine landscapes of sport—pure as the driven snow. Winters of Discontent: The Winter Olympics and a Half Century of Protest and Resistance challenges these myths. Playing on Shakespeare's opening line in the tragedy Richard III, the title of this new publication signals the games have another storyline. Contributors to the collection, edited by historian Russell Field, unveil how unrest and danger lurk beneath sunny skies at the world's winter sports mega-event.The book focuses on the history of protest against Winter Games organized under the International Olympic Committee (IOC) banner. Rumbles of opposition echo around the world in local advocacy and social reform movements that pushed for change, viewing sport as a site for social reform and for reforming sport itself. Spanning a half century, this collection shows how protest and resistance fight back. Chapters examine how local, regional, and national pushback against power had implications that draw a transnational thread through the broader history of the OWG.Eight essays by international scholars in sport history, political science, geography, and sociology present case studies of engaged activism responding to the OWG. In a climate of neoliberal capitalism, oligarchy, and authoritarian regimes entangled with Olympic celebration worldwide, calls to critical scholarship and close attention to resistance and social change are important, according to these authors. The essays cover topics from the 1960s to the present. The introduction describes the origins of the Games and the background of Olympic protests and activism, setting the stage for each microhistory in the following chapters.The collection has a fascinating reach that bridges the politics and histories of the OWG across continents, including North America, Asia, and Europe. The chronological arrangement of chapters forms a through line that exposes common yet localized issues of social, political, and environmental concern. Field is mindful of exclusion and social limitations in a winter-based world of sport. Clear writing and well-explained concepts will appeal to students and lay readers as well as scholars. A compelling series of chapters drives readers forward to the next case study.Reading across these case studies offers insights into the contingent historical patterns that emerged as environmental, social, and human rights issues played out around the world. For example, Field examines how a bid to host the 1972 OWG in Banff, Canada, met with environmental opposition and IOC rejection; scientists and conservation advocates feared the Games would damage mountain habitats and species in Banff National Park. What activists and local residents feared could happen in Banff, and worse, eventually came to pass elsewhere in mountains with protected areas, sacred spaces, and communities, as discussed in chapters by Keiko Ikeda and Tyrel Eskelson on Sapporo 1972, Christine O'Bonsawin on Calgary 1988, Sven Daniel Wolfe on Sochi 2014, and Liv Yoon on PyeongChang 2018.For example, Wolfe examines the devastation of blasting a stone quarry next to a mountain village to build Sochi's imperial sport landscape. Local residents who hoped for economic stimulus to improve mountain tourism and those who valued plant species lost ground as Olympic development erased geographies and incomes relying on scenic forest habitat and fresh water. In this sense, readers gain insights into environmental impacts, degradation, displacement, and imperialism as part of the OWG and the heavy local footprint that travels with globalized sport mega-events.Cities faced rising public resistance and outright protest against OWG bids, derailing prospects for games that were never held in Denver (1976) and Oslo (2022), according to Adam Berg and to Jan Ove Tangen and Bieke Gils, respectively. They frame the Olympic growth machine and IOC extravagance in a clash of ethics and moral codes, turning on who will pay the bills. Jules Boykoff expands on Vancouver 2010 as a convergence of protest movements and political dissent that brought together environmental, social, Indigenous, and other voices. The power of the authoritarian state is revealed in close studies of the Games as a mega-event and contested field in Sochi, PyeongChang, and Beijing, but also in Vancouver with the (temporary) suppression of anti-Olympic signage and civil liberties that artists and activists protested. All activists did not embrace the same or nonviolent tactics; some destroyed property and broke laws.The Alps are a pivotal region in the history of winter sports and the OWG's origins, as mentioned in the introduction. Yet the Alps (and the Dinaric Alps) are not much featured in this book, suggesting opportunities for further research and dialogue to examine political responses to the Games hosted in continental Europe since the 1960s, specifically Austria, France, Italy, and Yugoslavia. Diversity, pluralism, and dissent in Europe warrant a closer look in countries with distinct cultures and histories of political protest.The dreams of protesters and resisters wanting a better world and better sport call for imaginaries in counterpoint with early Olympic aspirations and ideals of sport for peace and for youth. These dreams and ideals are freighted with activism as much as ideological struggles and relations of power. The tragedies of the OWG replay winters of discontent, yet this book also highlights the fighting spirit and reflection between non-success and non-failure. The book resolves that anti-Olympic activism is at times most successful when it brings together a coalition of movements that amplifies the needs of local people in local places; every global sport mega-event is ultimately grounded in local stories, impacts, and ecosystems. Indeed, this book teams up a scholarly collection that pursues understanding in just this way.Advocacy is a signature for these writers, and their calls for social justice as well as environmental and human rights are clear. This readable collection makes an excellent addition to the literature and is well suited for undergraduate and graduate courses. Researchers will find prime reading for sport and Olympic studies, as will readers interested in mountains, mega-events, growth regimes, and civil society.