Hungarian Sport in the Cold War
In the below audio clip, former pentathlete and current director of Adidas Hungary Attila Császári explains his theory of why the socialist governments in Eastern Europe prioritized elite sport.
[1] David Caute, The Dancer Defects: The Struggle for Cultural Supremacy During the Cold War, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005, 1.
[2] Barbara Keys shows that how in the 1930s the importance of international sport organizations like the IOC and FIFA skyrocketed, specifically with the rise of Nazi Germany and within the Soviet Union’s top Party leadership. Barbara Keys, Globalizing Sport: National Rivalry and International Community in the 1930s, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2006.