Abstract

The 1928 Olympic Winter Games in St Moritz was the first international sports competition in Switzerland to bring together the country’s Olympic and sport circles, its hotel industry and local authorities. Doing so crystallized public and semi-public actions around an event capable of making or breaking Switzerland’s reputation as a tourist destination. In addition, the Swiss government, which did not directly initiate the project, ensured the event would serve the aims of its foreign policy by placing a foreign ministry representative on the organising committee. The involvement of these stakeholders meant that the games mainly affected three interconnected areas: tourism – hosting the Games was a way of fending off competition from other winter sports destinations; diplomacy – the event allowed the Foreign Ministry to bolster Switzerland’s image abroad; and domestic politics – obtaining and staging the Olympics led to the development of a strong sports lobby during the 1920s.

摘要

1928 年在圣莫里茨举行的冬奥会是瑞士首个国际体育赛事，汇集了该国的奥林匹克和体育界、酒店业和地方当局。这样做是围绕一个能够成就或破坏瑞士作为旅游目的地声誉的事件而采取的公开和半公开行动。此外，没有直接发起该项目的瑞士政府通过在组委会中安排一名外交部代表来确保该活动将服务于其外交政策的目标。这些利益相关者的参与意味着奥运会主要影响三个相互关联的领域：旅游业——举办奥运会是抵御来自其他冬季运动目的地竞争的一种方式；外交——该活动使外交部能够提升瑞士在国外的形象；和国内政治——获得和举办奥运会导致了 1920 年代强大的体育游说团体的发展。