ABSTRACT
International sport can usefully be conceptualized as symbolic warfare, a way for nations to sublimate their martial aggression, assert their will and power over others, and satisfy their most chauvinistic impulses.1 At international sporting spectacles such as the Olympics, explicit articulations of national pride, loyalty, and attachment are de rigueur. And through the rituals of competition, ceremony, and spectatorship the national self and national Others are starkly delineated. Thus, the Olympic Games, the largest of international sporting events, are a rich source of discourses of national identity.
