The Relevance of the Black Atlantic in Contemporary Sport

Abstract

Processes of homogenization and differentiation have characterized international sports organizations and competitions for more than a century. So have imaginaries of race as these are linked to sportive stereotypes in various sports. In this article, I discuss how racial imaginaries in two Norwegian sports, basketball and track and field, are informed by the real and imaginary links to the same sports in the USA. Theoretically, the article is informed by Paul Gilroy's theory of the Black Atlantic. I ask whether Gilroy's theory illuminates present-day processes in Norwegian basketball and track and field, and how the Norwegian case may relate to broader, global processes in sport. The empirical analysis is based on a wide material from Norway, including observational data and interviews with non-white top athletes, coaches, managers, sport journalists and representatives of ethnic minority organizations.