This year’s hosting of the Winter Olympics and the Football World Cup by, respectively, China and Qatar – both authoritarian states – has sparked debate about the influence of politics in sport. A look at history shows that sport and politics have always gone hand in hand.
How a traditional game from Scotland became a glamour sport in Switzerland, and then went back to being a traditional game ‘of the people’: A brief history of curling in Switzerland
Bobsleighing started out as an activity to keep well-to-do foreign tourists entertained. It wasn’t until much later that the sport became popular among the Swiss as well.