Seminar by Russel Field | Three Worlds Collide: GANEFO and a reconsideration of sport and politics in the 1960s

This seminar examines the Games of the New Emerging Forces (GANEFO), which involved over 3000 athletes from approximately 50 countries who competed in Jakarta in November 1963. Framed in overtly political terms, GANEFO was positioned as a challenge to the Olympic movement under Indonesia’s leadership. But the event resonated internationally in both sporting and diplomatic circles, highlighting the significance of and tensions within the non-aligned movement, turmoil in Sino-Soviet relations, and the Cold War lens through which the West viewed events in southeast Asia.  Attention will also be paid to the limited Dutch participate in the event, which included seven athletes in two sports (swimming and yachting), and the reaction in Indonesia to the appearance of Dutch competitors.

Russell Field is an associate professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management at the University of Manitoba (Canada). He is currently an affiliated fellow at KITLV.