Between the lack of institutional sites and the expectation of virtual communities, what is the place for Olympic values in the French-speaking internet network ?

Abstract

While many cases of cheating, corruption and doping taint the sports movement, virtual communities interact about the lack of reference to Olympism in the communication of the sporting sphere. In France, the institutions of the sports movement seem to refuse to display any reference to the Olympic values and virtual communities debate about this absence. The adopted research device calls for an analysis of the institutional sites of sport and reinforced by a series of semi-structured interviews conducted online. The origin of this lack of reference to Olympism seems to come from a controversy: Institutions no longer display these values that have become ambiguous in the current context of deviance, whereas virtual communities largely subscribe to a virtuous representation of Olympic sport and valuing these values appears to them as a protective measure of the sports movement.