The limits of Pan-Americanism: the case of the failed 1942 Pan-American Games

摘要

Although there had been suggestions to organise Pan-American Games as early as the 1910s, it was during the 1930s that such an event became a certain possibility. The cancellation of the 1940 Olympics due to the Second World War prompted sport officials in different countries of the Americas to vie for the organisation of a hemispheric festival to compensate for the temporal loss of the Olympic gathering. This article studies the failed attempt to organise Pan-American Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1942. In doing so, it situates the efforts of Argentine sport leaders within the structure of international sport, the rhetoric of Pan-Americanism and the complex dynamics of US-Argentine relations. The story of the failed 1942 Pan-American Games embodies and represents the limits of Pan-Americanism in the 1940s. It also reveals that these limits would be redefined, in an ironic way, in 1951, when Pan-Americanism through sport was finally made possible at the inaugural Pan-American Games held in Buenos Aires.View full textDownload full textKeywordsPan-Americanism, Pan-American Games, Buenos AiresRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09523367.2011.627198