Episode 05: The Russians are Coming — American Sport Podcast

Screen Shot 2021-06-01 at 8.50.33 PM.png

Episode Description

The Cold War was a military contest, a fight to secure economic markets, a race for scientific breakthroughs—and it was an athletic competition. Every four years, the Olympic Games provided an arena where American and Soviet athletes could meet and wage a battle for international supremacy. “The Russians are Coming” is the story of hotly contested medal counts, secret political defections, how heroes are made, and why you did the standing broad jump in elementary school.

Read the episode transcript

Bibliography

Bibliography:

Susan Cahn, Coming on Strong: Gender and Sexuality in Twentieth-Century Women’s Sports (Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press, 1994).

David Goldblatt, The Games: A Global History of the Olympic Games (New York and London: W. W. Norton, 2016).*

Allen Guttmann, The Games Must Go On: Avery Brundage and the Olympic Movement (New York: Columbia University Press, 1984).

Toby Rider, Cold War Games: Propaganda, the Olympics, and U.S. Foreign Policy (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2017).

* Special mention to David Goldblatt and his line about getting “tased from a drone”...so good I had to steal it!

Related Episodes

Episodes

45 Minute Listen

Episode 07: Return of the Great White Hope

45 Minute Listen

In the last episode of Season One, we explore the popularity of Larry Bird, Gerry Cooney, and Rocky Balboa in the 1980s—three “Great White Hopes” competing in professional sports that were dominated by black Americans.

45 Minute Listen

36 Minute Listen

Episode 06: Adam v. Eve

36 Minute Listen

In “Adam v. Eve,” Professor Matt explores what happened when the Modern Feminist Movement and the masculine American sports culture collided.

36 Minute Listen

43 Minute Listen

Episode 05: The Russians are Coming

43 Minute Listen

“The Russians are Coming” is the story of hotly contested medal counts, secret political defections, how heroes are made, and why you did the standing broad jump in elementary school.

43 Minute Listen

44 Minute Listen

Episode 04: Man is a Free Agent

44 Minute Listen

For over a century, professional athletes in the United States were the exclusive property of the team that signed them first. In baseball, team owners called it the “reserve system” and they said it was essential for the good of the game. In this episode of American Sport, we explore the battle between owners and players.

44 Minute Listen

39 Minute Listen

Episode 03: Fight of the Century

39 Minute Listen

The Johnson-Jeffries clash is the most significant sporting event in American history. Much more than just an athletic contest, the buildup to the “Fight of the Century” illuminated the acute racial prejudices of the era.

39 Minute Listen

38 Minute Listen

Episode 02: USA v. All Y’All

38 Minute Listen

Where did the Modern Olympic Games come from? Why do athletes have to compete as representatives of nations? And what would happen if the United States hosted an Olympic Games and nobody showed up? [Spoiler alert: people died]

38 Minute Listen

45 Minute Listen

Episode 01: Civil War on the Racetrack

45 Minute Listen

In the years leading up to the Civil War, North and South put their pride and prestige on the line in a series of intersectional horse races. Fueled by the passions of the debate over slavery in the United States, these were the events that sparked our modern American mania for sport.

45 Minute Listen

4 Minute Listen

Trailer

4 Minute Listen

American Sport will explore the sporting events that have defined our culture and changed the course of American history.

4 Minute Listen