Identity, business and sport in a globalized world: the conflict involving Guga and his sponsors in the Sydney Olympic Games

Abstract

The goal of this article is to analyse how the press has employed the signs and meanings of nationalism through an athlete who simultaneously represents international capital and the national state and its interests. For these purposes, we analyse the content of eighteen articles from the Brazilian newspaper O Globo which covered the conflict between sponsors that jeopardized the Brazilian tennis player Gustavo Kuerten’s participation in the Sydney Olympics Games (2000). The analysis of these articles indicates that all the parties involved made use of arguments in defence of national identity to protect their own individual or institutional interests. The analysis of the conflict shows that all the parties involved had their share of the spoils and thus emerged as winners.