國立虎尾科技大學 |

The Greatest Olympian of All-Time? The Ideological Implications of Celebrating Michael Phelps.

Record Type:	Language materials, manuscript : Monograph/item
Title/Author:	The Greatest Olympian of All-Time? The Ideological Implications of Celebrating Michael Phelps./
Author:	Hodler, Matthew Ross.
Description:	1 online resource (166 pages)
Notes:	Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 78-12(E), Section: A.
Subject:	American studies. -
Online resource:	click for full text (PQDT)
ISBN:	9780355106206

The Greatest Olympian of All-Time? The Ideological Implications of Celebrating Michael Phelps.
Hodler, Matthew Ross.

The Greatest Olympian of All-Time? The Ideological Implications of Celebrating Michael Phelps. - 1 online resource (166 pages)

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 78-12(E), Section: A.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--The University of Iowa, 2016.

Includes bibliographical references

On August 4, 2012, white American swimmer Michael Phelps was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the international swimming federation in recognition of his Olympic achievements. The unprecedented award---a specially commissioned sculpture---proclaimed Phelps as "the greatest Olympian of All Time." This title may, at one level, be perceived as a benign honorific bestowed upon an extra-ordinary athlete. On another level, the title should be viewed as a result of the hidden ideological work done by and through discourses of swimming in America, discourses that are always racialized, classed, nationalized, and gendered.

Electronic reproduction.
Ann Arbor, Mich. :
ProQuest,
2018

Mode of access: World Wide Web

ISBN: 9780355106206Subjects--Topical Terms:

1179345
American studies.
Index Terms--Genre/Form:

554714
Electronic books.

The Greatest Olympian of All-Time? The Ideological Implications of Celebrating Michael Phelps.
LDR:04249ntm a2200373K 4500 001 914214
005 20180703102249.5
006 m o u
007 cr mn||||a|a||
008 190606s2016 xx obm 000 0 eng d
020 $a 9780355106206
035 $a (MiAaPQ)AAI10188532
035 $a (MiAaPQ)uiowa:14373
035 $a AAI10188532
040 $a MiAaPQ $b eng $c MiAaPQ
100 1 $a Hodler, Matthew Ross. $3 1187369
245 1 4 $a The Greatest Olympian of All-Time? The Ideological Implications of Celebrating Michael Phelps.
264 0 $c 2016
300 $a 1 online resource (166 pages)
336 $a text $b txt $2 rdacontent
337 $a computer $b c $2 rdamedia
338 $a online resource $b cr $2 rdacarrier
500 $a Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 78-12(E), Section: A.
500 $a Adviser: Susan Birrell.
502 $a Thesis (Ph.D.)--The University of Iowa, 2016.
504 $a Includes bibliographical references
520 $a On August 4, 2012, white American swimmer Michael Phelps was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the international swimming federation in recognition of his Olympic achievements. The unprecedented award---a specially commissioned sculpture---proclaimed Phelps as "the greatest Olympian of All Time." This title may, at one level, be perceived as a benign honorific bestowed upon an extra-ordinary athlete. On another level, the title should be viewed as a result of the hidden ideological work done by and through discourses of swimming in America, discourses that are always racialized, classed, nationalized, and gendered.
520 $a Michael Phelps is the point of entry to unpack how modern sport and the Olympics reproduce these dominant views and processes that lead to contemporary social inequalities. My focus is an examination of the power relations that enabled and produced him as the Greatest Olympian of All-Time. Phelps's phenomenal performance in the pool is undeniable, but I argue that the ensuing adulation and recognition results as much from his privileged position as a white American man as from his hard work, skill, and determination. This dissertation unpacks and explains how these processes work in the contemporary sporting world.
520 $a Scholars have long argued that sport is a site for understanding how race, class, gender, and nationalisms are performed and/or constructed. In this dissertation, I take a critical cultural studies approach to demonstrate that, from an ideological and cultural point of view, Michael Phelps is the greatest Olympian of all time because he is the physical and symbolic embodiment of the modern Olympic movement, a movement founded upon 19th century ideals of humanism, liberalism, and modernity that continues to stabilize and reinforce dominant views of race, gender, class, nationalism and sexuality.
520 $a To make this argument, I first historicize the sport of swimming itself. As one of the sports at the first Modern Olympics in 1896, swimming is an ideal site for understanding the modernization process through sport. Swimming has long been dominated by white athletes, and I deploy the recent concept of the sporting racial project to grasp how modernization is a racialized project fundamental to constructions of institutional racism. Next, I examine media representations of Michael Phelps in the early 21st century. These representations reveal the role of sport in popular imaginations of the nation and, specifically, the importance of the white male sporting hero in constructions of America in the post-9/11 world. Then, I explore and contextualize notions and meanings of "amateur" and "eligibility" within late 20th and early 21st century structures of Olympic swimming, including the complex and contradictory relationships between inter/national governing bodies. Finally, I show how these three seemingly independent processes involving race, class, gender, and nation are interdependent and fundamental to modern sport and the Olympics.
533 $a Electronic reproduction. $b Ann Arbor, Mich. : $c ProQuest, $d 2018
538 $a Mode of access: World Wide Web
650 4 $a American studies. $3 1179345
650 4 $a Sociology. $3 551705
650 4 $a Recreation. $3 559433
655 7 $a Electronic books. $2 local $3 554714
690 $a 0323
690 $a 0626
690 $a 0814
710 2 $a ProQuest Information and Learning Co. $3 1178819
710 2 $a The University of Iowa. $b Health and Sport Studies. $3 1187370
856 4 0 $u http://pqdd.sinica.edu.tw/twdaoapp/servlet/advanced?query=10188532 $z click for full text (PQDT)