Political Sport and the Sport of Politics: A Psycho-cultural Study of Play the Antics of Boris Johnson and the London 2012 Olympic Games

Abstract

This chapter explores the psycho-cultural relationships between sport, politics and popular culture by focusing on the 2012 London Olympic Games and in particular, the role played by the London Mayor, Boris Johnson, whose appearances during the Games enabled him to communicate to vast audiences on a variety of media platforms.¹ The mediatisation of politics and sport creates new opportunities for politicians such as Johnson to exploit postmodern methods of political communication, which elsewhere, I have defined as flirtatious in form and content (Yates, 2010).² Johnson can be viewed as the celebrity politician par excellence, whose charismatic and eccentric public persona appears to provide an antidote to the technocratic managerial style of party politicians today. From waving to crowds whilst suspended on a zip wire, to ‘dad dancing’ to the Spice Girls at the closing ceremony, the televised spectacle of the 2012 Olympic Games provided the perfect mise en scène for Johnson to perform his schtick to full effect, tapping into the public mood that shifted from one of scepticism about the Games to one of an apparent shared national enthusiasm (Cottrell Boyce, 2012).