Heather Dichter and Sport and Soft Power

This episode features the keynote presentation at the 2023 BSSH Conference at Manchester Metropolitan University. Dr Heather Dichter gives a wide ranging overview of the relationship between sport and soft power over the past century from the turbulent politics of the 1930s through the Cold War to the Beijing Games. Dr Heather Dichter of De Montfort University is a leading scholar on twentieth century sports history and won the 2022 Lord Aberdare Prize for Sport Literature for her book, 'Bidding for the 1968 Olympic Games: International Sport’s Cold War Battle with NATO' (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2021). https://www.umasspress.com/9781625345950/bidding-for-the-1968-olympic-games/#:~:text=In%20Bidding%20for%20the%201968,sport%20responded%20to%20political%20interference.