Gymnastics and Globalisation in Spite of Cultural Difference

Sport, like so many other facets of life, has been affected by globalisation. By crossing national boundaries, globalisation, often also termed modern imperialism or Americanisation (Donnelly, 1996), has the ability to affect sport's various processes. This becomes more evident during mega events and when observing the traditional winners or the strongest nations. Paul De Knop and Sandra Harthoorn (1998) discuss several elements of the globalisation of sport including: the presence of international sport heroes; the world trade in sportswear; the increasing power of the international sports organisations; mega-sporting events as city-marketing; the mediaglobalisation; the migration of players and coaches; transnational teams; and sport and tourism development. When participating at international events, countries are treated with equal rules in spite of their disparities. It so happens that national pride at international sports events is associated with the success the country (or rather its athletes and teams) obtains in those events (Chalip, Johnson & Stachura, 1996). In the past the most important goal appeared to be to participate in international events; in the 1960s the concern changed and it became to win medals. Recently, in the late twentieth century it has evolved further; the most important objective became to get the gold medal (Corbett, 1999). Normally, groups of people are classified according to some characteristics that they share, such as hippy culture, Latin culture, arts culture and adolescent culture among others. Sport also has its own culture and there are different tendencies, such as elite sport culture and/or sport for all. Culture is defined in the current context as the values, customs and ways of life which distinguish one group of people from another (Dimmock & Walker, 1999). Sport bodies, as well as other forms of organisations, have their organisational culture in which they share a unique set of values, beliefs, attitudes, meta language, symbols, and behaviours (Doherty & Chelladurai, 1999; Heinilä, 1995). The collection of sporting bodies within a country could also share these elements in a national experience such as the Olympic Games. A sport discipline is a social institution and 'it continues to live on its own and instil some self-value on participants' (Heinilä, 1995: 104). The presence