Italian Fascism and the Olympic Games

Paper presented at the Congress Competition and collaboration in sport and physical education from Antiquity to Modern Times, 25 CESH Congress, University of Bucharest, 21-23 September 2022, 2022

The main peculiarity of Italian sport during the Fascist Ventennio was the co-existence of two sporting systems. On the one side there was the «official» sport, based on «independent» sporting societies and federations (put under the control of the political authorities, but not completely fascistised). On the other side, the «fascist» sport, composed of the organizations of the regime (Opera nazionale Dopolavoro, Opera nazionale Balilla, Gruppi universitarî fascisti, etc), which spent huge resources and efforts to promote sport. The two systems had close relations, but the respective competences were not clearly established. Therefore, their relations were often strained, giving rise to a sort of «competitive collaboration». Over the years, the role of the fascist organizations in the promotion of sporting activities became more and more pervasive, and this caused many problems to the «independent» societies, subtracting them athletes and funds. The political leaders, and particularly Achille Starace, secretary of the Fascist party from 1931 to 1939 and president of the Coni (Italian National Olympic Committee) from 1933 to 1939, tried several times to establish clear rules. The regime did not bring the totalitarianisation of sport to the extreme consequences, dismissing completely the «independent» societies, not even during the «totalitarian acceleration» of the late Thirties.

“Modern Italy”, 2023, pp. 1-15;

University sport was less developed in Italy than in other European countries in the first decades of the twentieth century. Nevertheless, in April 1922, students from the University of Rome organised a national multi-sport event, which they called the Olimpiadi Universitarie (University Olympic Games). Many eminent figures of the ruling class supported the initiative and thousands of undergraduates participated in the competitions. The Olimpiadi Universitarie also had an important international impact and facilitated the establishment of the International University Games, which were held from 1924 to 1939. The Olimpiadi Universitarie were based on a patriotic-educational concept of sport and played a significant role in spreading physical activities in Italian universities. Additionally, they promoted the idea of sport that in the following years would be accepted by the Fascist regime. The regime developed university sport enormously, but replaced the autonomous initiative of students with control from above.

Paper presented at the conference "Students and sports in the world from the 19th century to the present day", Université de Lausanne, 1 June 2022

The history of the Littoriali dello sport, the main amateur sporting contest in Fascist Italy, and the role of university sport in the fascistization of Italian students.

2015

In the summer of 1960, Rome hosted the seventeenth Olympic Games. It was an event of paramount importancc both for the image of the eternal city and for its future development. Under the pressure of the Olympics, the national government and the municipality of Rome launched major programs for building new infrastructure and sports facilities, which drastically changed the trajectories along which the city had been slowly but constantly growing. The total budget for the Olympics amounted to almost 64 billion lire; about a half of that was used to modernize the Leonardo da Vinci airport, while the remainder was spent for roads, sports facilities, residential quarters for athletes, and urban furniture. Looking back, we realize that those projects, whose internal logic at the time seemed dictated by temporary needs and whose planning looked disorderly, were in reality intended to stake out an urban planning strategy, imposing it roughly on the debate over the new master plan then awaiti...

Journal of European Periodical Studies, 2020

Transformed from a mass rite into a real instrument of government, sports became the most effective and popular representation of the new aesthetic and pedagogy of fascist Italy by the end of the 1920s. At that time, the fascist regime, having completely reformed all major sports institutions, subjecting them to the National Fascist Party (PNF), realized the need to create a new periodical able to both emphasize the political value of sport for fascism and underline its popular attitude and mission. This in particular was the editorial mission of the monthly review Lo Sport Fascista, founded in the spring of 1928 under the auspices of the chairman of CONI, Lando Ferretti, and the secretary general of PNF, Augusto Turati. As an official organ of the Italian sports movement and mouthpiece of its achievements, the magazine deserves special focus for at least three reasons: it helped to make some disciplines, such as football and cycling, extraordinarily popular in Italy, thus creating the conditions for their real exploit in the 1930s; it was able to combine propaganda and information in a truly original and unique way within the editorial offer of that time; and it fostered the myth of the great champions, turning sporting celebrities into ambassadors of fascism worldwide. The goal of this paper is to show in detail these features of the magazine, underlining its identity as a popular product, through a twofold analysis, one that is both aesthetic and political.

Sport, Dictatorship and Fascism, 20-21 June 2017, Universitade Nova de Lisboa, Lisbon,

ENGLISH During the fascist regime, sport was widely used as a form of propaganda, by glorifying the victories of the Italian athletes, and as a factor for the nationalization of the masses, in order to strengthen the consensus for the regime and create the «new man», strong and vigorous, worthy heir of the ancient Romans. Women’s sport, however, did not have the same development as the men’s sport, as the traditional mentality and the regime itself did not like to the female involvement in sport activities. Nevertheless, some sport women were able to reach a great popularity and, in such a way, they changed, at least in part, the opinion about their participation in athletic activities and, more in general, about the role of women in society. Among them there was Ondina Valla, winner of the 80 metres hurdles race at the 1936 Summer Olympics. ITALIAN Negli anni del regime fascista lo sport, com’è noto, fu ampiamente utilizzato sia a scopo propagandistico, attraverso la celebrazione delle vittorie degli atleti italiani nelle competizioni internazionali, sia come fattore di nazionalizzazione delle masse, al fine di cementare il consenso per il regime e creare l’ «uomo nuovo», forte e vigoroso, degno erede degli antichi romani. Lo sport femminile, tuttavia, non ebbe il medesimo sviluppo di quello maschile, giacché la mentalità tradizionale e il regime stesso non apprezzavano il coinvolgimento delle donne nelle attività sportive. Ciò nonostante, alcune sportive raggiunsero una grande popolarità e, in tal modo, modificarono, almeno in parte, l’opinione sulla partecipazione femminile alle attività atletiche, e, più in generale, sul ruolo delle donne nella società. Tra loro c’era Ondina Valla, vincitrice della corsa sugli 80 metri a ostacoli alle Olimpiadi del 1936.

Studies in physical Culture &Tourism, 2012

The inter-war period in Europe brought enormous transformations in people's daily life. The political regimes of the time: fascism, communism, Nazism and Western democracies utilized every single means to ensure internal stability and triumph abroad. Italy was one of these regimes that became the birthplace of fascism, which placed a very special emphasis on sport. The awarding of the organi- zation of FIFA World Cup to Italy in 1934 was precisely what Mussolini desired. The preparation of the host nation involved enormous promotion of the fascist regime's image. In 1934, attempts to identify fascism with the pure ideals of sport reached their peak. They had already begun in the early 1920s and took the form of radical reforms of every field of Italian life exemplified by the massive construc- tion of sport stadiums and venues of "fascist design" all around the country. In every advertisement, report and campaign, fascism and sport were interconnected. On the one h...

/153/ T he most important international mega sporting events: the Summer and Winter Olympic Games and the football World Cups, were used by fascist regimes to enhance a nation's strength, prestige and imperialist ambitions. Thus they often anticipated military alliances and global conflicts. The historical testimonies of this were the 1930s-1940s events, organized and planned to be staged in those fascist states, which in 1940 would form a military alliance known as Axis Powers: fascist Italy-Nazi Germany-fascist/imperial Japan. The Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) awarded Italy to host the 1934 World Cup, while International Olympic Committee (IOC) awarded Germany with the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin and the 1936 Winter Olympic Games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. In the 1940s, several planned mega events were awarded to Japan and Italy, including the 1940 Olympic Games in Tokyo, the Winter Olympics in Sapporo, and the 1944 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo. These three events, however, were cancelled because of the outbreak of World War II, just like the 1942 World Cup, for which Nazi Germany formed a bid in 1936 1. The above enumeration of organized and planned World Cups and the Olympic Games awarded to Italy, Germany, and Japan testify that those three countries dominated the mid-1930s-early 1940s global sports. The influential sports officials, including IOC president Henri Baillet-Latour and the founder of the Olympic movement, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, expressed positive views about the political leadership and state support for sport in fascist states 2. But, the 1934

The Academy of the Foro Mussolini was the most important centre for the education of the élites of the Fascist youth organisations. But, in spite of this relevant role, after the end of the regime this Institution and its students were completely forgotten. Putting aside the most important function of the Farnesina, the training of the political leaders of the Opera Nazionale Balilla and of the Gioventù Italiana del Littorio, in this paper the author has decided to concentrate his attention on just one of the educational goal the Institute had to achieve: the training for the teachers of physical education. The fascist leadership wanted to generalise the gymnastics activity, but the country did not have enough teachers and istructors. The aim of the following article is to indicate how the regime tried to create a politically oriented group of Physical Education teachers.

The role of sport in the totalitarian regime of Metaxas in Greece (1936-1941) compared to National Socialism in Germany Summary. The regime of Metaxas (1936-1941) was a totalitarian regime with nationalistic and militaristic features. The purpose of this study is to collect and process data about the role of competitive sport and physical education in the regime of Metaxas. An additional purpose of this study is to search for common elements in the ideology and policies concerning Physical Education and sport, adopted by the National Socialism in Germany (1933-1945). The analysis of the sources revealed that, in the field of sport, they seem to have implemented similar policies. The main points of the sport's role in these two regimes were the following: (a) intense military character of Physical Education, (b) priority in Physical Education rather than in other educational subjects, (c) foundation of the regime's youth activities and educational programs organized in a nationwide scale, the core of which was Physical Education and sport (i.e. National Youth Organization, Hitler Youth), (d) the strong military character shaped by sport so as to promote or establish forms of exercise associated with war, preparations for war, military and fighting spirit, (e) effort of imposition of total state-control in athletic life, (f) effort to encourage girls further and more intense involvement in athletic activities.