‘The Diffusion of Olympic Sport through Regional Games: a comparison of pre-and post-Second World War contexts’ 

This research examined aspects of the Regional Games (in particular the Far Eastern Championships and the African Games) organised in the pre-War period, and the resistance movement of the GANEFO Games (Games of the New Emerging Forces), hosted in the troubled Post-War context.

This work, funded by a grant to Dr Dikaia Chatziefstathiou from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), identified the structures and processes in development/at play across the two periods in the Olympic world. The research involved archival analysis of a variety of documents (such as correspondence, minutes and proceedings) found at the Olympic Studies Centre of the IOC in Lausanne, Switzerland.

‘The Changing Nature of the Ideology of Olympism in the Modern Olympic Era’

A similar study carried out by Dr Chatziefstathiou analysed the writings of the founder of the Modern Olympic movement, the study revealed new dimensions in Coubertin’s ideas and values in relation to gender, social classes and race, and also how he used his political and diplomatic skills to safeguard the future of the Olympic Games. As a result, the research was awarded the esteemed inaugural Pierre de Coubertin Prize by the IOC and the International Pierre de Coubertin Committee.