TAKING THE POLITICS OUT OF SPORT?

Abstract

Apart from so-called rebel tours there had been little sporting contact between Australia and South Africa between 1971 and 1992. In response to political reforms in South Africa, Australia started to relax its barriers to sporting contact in 1991, and in 1992 South Africa returned to the international sporting arena after an enforced absence of more than 20 years. This article explores representations of relationships between sport and politics in four Australian newspapers during the transition period in South African politics. While politics was inflected in the ways in which renewed sporting contacts between Australia and South Africa were reported, the frames used were not clearcut but interacted in complex and dynamic ways.