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AMHERST, Mass. - Allen Guttmann, the Emily C. Jordan Folger professor of English and American Studies at Amherst College, has been awarded the first annual Sport Science Award of the IOC President, given by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Council of Sport Studies and the Physical Education (ICSSPE).
The ICSSPE was founded in Paris in 1958, in order to reinforce the links between the fields of sports, sport studies and physical education. Beginning this year, the ICSSPE will select the annual recipient of the Award of the IOC President "in recognition of scientific work in the field of sport and physical education and of outstanding sport science accomplishments of great practical significance." Guttmann's work contributes to the understanding of "the development of the Olympic movement and world sport and their impact upon peace and international understanding."
Guttmann, who joined the Amherst faculty in 1959, has written extensively about American studies, but his most recent writings have concentrated on sports and the Olympic games in particular, including such works as The Games Must Go On: Avery Brundage and the Olympic Movement (1985), Women's Sports: A History (1991), The Olympics: A History of the Modern Games (1992), and The Erotic in Sports (1996).
This award "represents the IOC's recognition of the academic study of sports," Guttmann, a pioneer in the field, says, "for which I am very grateful." Guttmann's three-volume International Encyclopaedia of Women in Sports will be published later this year.
The International Council of Sport Studies and the Physical Education Website is at http://www.icsspe.org
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