I am on my way home after attending the annual World Congress of the International Society of Sport, which this year was held over three days in Switzerland. More than 300 participants gathered at the University of Lausanne, on the edge of Lake Geneva, to discuss issues relating to the place of sport in society. Themes covered included sports policy, anti-doping, social exclusion and participation, ethics, disability, gender issues, sports development, globalisation, Olympism and mega-events and health. I attended the second gathering of the group ISCWAG (International Socio-Cultural Research into women's artistic gymnastics), which is a relatively newly assembled group of academics from all over the world. You can find profiles of the founder members here . This year the papers focussed on such subjects as the coach-gymnast relationship and grooming; gender-based violence and gymnastics coaching, and the pattern of older gymnasts continuing to compete in the...
Reporting and analysing Russian gymnastics since 2010. Includes original and exclusive interviews with leading coaches and gymnasts, and historical issues dating back to the Soviet Union. The first blog to report extensively on the sport using Russian language sources.