The first elite sport training camp in France: Manitot (1912-1924).

On the eve of the First World War, a wealthy director of a company, Antoine-Lucien Boyer, has created at Manitot, a small village close to Paris on the riverside of the Seine opposite to Giverny, the first camp of coaching for athletes. Famous boxers like Billy Papke, Georges Carpentier, Eugène Criqui, and Bernard or runners like Jean Bouin have spent a while to prepare their competitions. Taking the opportunity of being at the countryside, these athletes did angling, rowing, and hunting in parallel to their specific sport preparation. Using different sources like newspapers (L'Auto, L'écho des sports), but also books and archives (public and privates), we aim at relating the history of this first sport camp of coaching and will try to understand the reasons of the landowner for launching this experience. Furthermore, we will review the methods of training and highlight a specifically French approach, based on an eclectic training method determined by health more than by performance.

Boxeo amateur español: origen y evolución hasta los juegos olímpicos de Tokio-1964 / Boxe amador espanhol: origem e evolução até os jogos olímpicos de Tokyo-1964 / Spanish amateur boxing: origin and evolution until the 1964 Tokyo olympic games

Esta investigación recupera los hechos y circunstancias históricas que envolvieron el boxeo desde su origen en las estructuras federativas españolas hasta la participación española en los Juegos Olímpicos de Tokio en 1964. Este trabajo historiográfico utilizó el análisis documental y la entrevista semiestructurada para recuperar y contrastar información de archivos institucionales, personales y hemerográficos, rescatando contenidos inéditos del archivo personal y de la entrevista a un boxeador participante en Tokio-64. Madrid y Barcelona impulsaron la práctica pugilística en España en las primeras décadas del siglo XIX. La llegada de púgiles extranjeros propició la estructuración y regulación del boxeo y, como resultado, en 1922 se fundó la Federación Española de Boxeo, que formó parte de las estructuras olímpicas. La Guerra Civil española supuso un receso, pero en los años 60 surgió una generación de boxeadores que, a pesar de precarias circunstancias, lograron asistir a los Juegos Olímpicos y pródigas victorias posteriores.

Esta investigação recupera os factos e circunstâncias históricas que envolveram o boxe desde a sua origem nas estruturas federativas espanholas até a participação espanhola nos Jogos Olímpicos de Tóquio, em 1964. Este trabalho historiográfico utilizou análise documental e entrevistas semiestruturadas para recuperar e contrastar informações dos arquivos institucionais, pessoais e jornalísticos, recolhendo informação inédita do arquivo pessoal e da entrevista de um boxeador participante em Tóquio-64. Madrid e Barcelona promoveram a prática pugilística na Espanha nas primeiras décadas do século XIX. A chegada dos boxeadores estrangeiros levou à estruturação e à regulamentação do boxe e, em consequência, em 1922, foi fundada a Federação Espanhola de Boxe, que passou a fazer parte das estruturas olímpicas. A Guerra Civil espanhola significou uma pausa, mas nos anos 1960 surgiu uma geração de boxeadores que, apesar das circunstâncias precárias, conseguiram comparecer aos Jogos Olímpicos e ter muitas vitórias subsequentes.

This research revisits the historical facts and circumstances that involved boxing from its origin in the Spanish federative structures to Spain's participation in the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games. This historiographic study used documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews to revisit and contrast information from institutional, personal and newspaper archives, gathering unpublished content from the personal archive and from the interview with a boxer who participated in Tokyo '64. Madrid and Barcelona promoted pugilistic practice in Spain in the first decades of the nineteenth century. The arrival of foreign fighters favored the structuring and regulation of boxing and, as a result, in 1922 the Spanish Boxing Federation was founded and became part of the Olympic structures. The Spanish Civil War was a setback, but in the 1960s a generation of boxers emerged who, despite precarious circumstances, managed to attend the Olympic Games and win many subsequent victories.

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy: historical origins and current perspective.

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a neurodegenerative disease that is most often identified in postmortem autopsies of individuals exposed to repetitive head impacts, such as boxers and football players. The neuropathology of CTE is characterized by the accumulation of hyperphosphorylated tau protein in a pattern that is unique from that of other neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease. The clinical features of CTE are often progressive, leading to dramatic changes in mood, behavior, and cognition, frequently resulting in debilitating dementia. In some cases, motor features, including parkinsonism, can also be present. In this review, the historical origins of CTE are revealed and an overview of the current state of knowledge of CTE is provided, including the neuropathology, clinical features, proposed clinical and pathological diagnostic criteria, potential in vivo biomarkers, known risk factors, and treatment options.

Pushing through evolution? Incidence and fight records of left-oriented fighters in professional boxing history.

The fighting hypothesis proposes that left-oriented athletes enjoy a negative frequency-dependent advantage in combat sports such as boxing. Supporting evidence, however, is restricted to cross-sectional frequency data from small samples. Here, we examined the incidence and fight records of 2,403 left- and right-oriented fighters who were listed in the annual ratings of professional boxing from 1924 to 2012. Unexpectedly, left-oriented boxers were overrepresented in no more than 7 of the 89 years considered, their percentages varied up to 30% and increased over the entire period, and frequencies varied substantially between weight divisions. In support of the fighting hypothesis, lose-win ratios indicated larger fighting strength in left- compared to right-oriented boxers, which, however, was not reflected in different proportions of wins and losses by knockout. Our findings are partly consistent with an assumed left-oriented fighters' advantage in combat sports. Such advantage could be explained by negative frequency-dependent selection mechanisms; however, our study also revealed potential limits of the fighting hypothesis such that alternative explanations cannot be fully excluded. We propose that interference by factors not related to performance could also limit the suitability of data from elite sporting competition for testing evolutionary models of human handedness.

Dimensões socioculturais do boxe: percepção e trajetória de mulheres atletas / Dimensiones socio-culturales de boxeo: percepción y carrera de atletas mujeres / Socio-cultural dimensions of boxing: women athletes’ perception and career

O objetivo deste trabalho foi analisar a trajetória e percepção de atletas do boxe feminino sobre o esporte escolhido como profissão quanto a dimensões socioculturais. Para tanto, foram realizadas entrevistas semiestruturadas com sete boxeadoras profissionais do Brasil. Metodologicamente, combinou-se o programa ALCESTE (Analyse Lexicale par Contexte d’un Ensemble de Segments de Texte) e a Análise de Conteú- do. A partir da análise em classes temáticas, discutiu-se o relato de que o boxe feminino capitaliza poucos incentivos financeiros e pouca divulgação. Constatou-se também que, ao longo de sua trajetória, as entrevistadas se depararam com dificuldades quanto ao apoio da família e preconceitos.

This study aimed at examining the history and perception of female boxing athletes about their sporting careers regarding sociocultural dimensions. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven Brazilian professional female boxers. Methodologically, the study combined the software Analyse Lexicale par Contexte d’un Ensemble de Segments de Texte (ALCESTE) and Content Analysis. After thematic class-based analysis, we discussed the view that female boxing capitalizes few financial incentives and little publicity. We also found that, throughout their history, respondents have faced difficulties in terms of family support and prejudices.

El objetivo de este trabajo fue analizar la trayectoria y percepción de atletas del boxeo femenino sobre el deporte escogido como profesión en cuanto a sus dimensiones socioculturales. Para ello, se realizaron entrevistas semiestructuradas con siete boxeadoras profesionales brasileñas. Metodológicamente, se combina el software ALCESTE (Analyse Lexicale par Contexte d’un Ensemble de Segments de Texte) y el Análisis de Contenido. A partir del análisis en clases temáticas, se discutió el relato de que el boxeo femenino capitaliza pocos incentivos financieros y tiene poca divulgación. También se constató que, a lo largo de su trayectoria, las entrevistadas se han enfrentado a dificultades en lo que se refiere al apoyo familiar y a los prejuicios.

Identifying the patient in George W Lambert's Chesham Street.

This paper takes as its focus one of the Edwardian period's most dramatic and little-understood paintings of a medical examination: George Washington Lambert's Chesham Street (1910). The painting shows an upper-class male patient lifting his shirt to reveal a muscular torso for examination by the doctor in the scene and the viewers outside it. The subject of a medical examination, I argue, legitimised the scrutiny of exposed male flesh and offered an opportunity for sensual pleasure between men. By way of a comparison with other portraits of the artist from around the same period, I interpret Chesham Street as a patient self-portrait, which reveals the artist's dual personalities of bohemian artist and Australian boxer: two personae that did not combine seamlessly, as revealed by the composite nature of the patient in Chesham Street. From a discussion of the artist as patient, I move to an analysis of other self-portraits by Lambert in which the artist is shown flexing his muscles, especially in the context of his passion for boxing. I consider how these portraits serve as complex inscriptions of illness and health and how this relates to the experience of living and working as an Australian expatriate artist in London in the early twentieth century.

"Now the African reigns supreme": the rise of African boxing on the Witwatersrand, 1924-1959.

This essay explores the growth of boxing among the African populations on the Witwatersrand region of South Africa between 1924 and 1959. It details how the sport's jump in popularity with Africans paralleled migration to Johannesburg. Africans increasingly saw boxing as an activity and skill conducive with survival in this new environment, and thus the sport grew in popularity, stature, and skill-level amongst this emergent urban population. The essay further explores the various ways that the sport was disseminated and popularized during the era, thus detailing how the sport reached both the African masses and petit-bourgeois educated elite. As their presence in Johannesburg became more and more permanent, boxing came to encompass various meanings and ideals, such as notions of discipline, independence and civility, to these urban populations.

Ramon Guiteras: founder of the American Urological Association, surgeon, sportsman and statesman.

PURPOSE: We conducted an extensive search to learn more about Ramon Guiteras, the founder of the American Urological Association. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Scientific publications, newspaper articles, and historical documents and texts were reviewed. Institutions and organizations of which Ramon Guiteras was a member were contacted. RESULTS: Guiteras' career peaked at the turn of the century, just as genitourinary surgery was emerging as an independent field. The American Urological Association began as an organization of the members of Guiteras' clinic with the dream of becoming an inclusive organization for the benefit of all ethical physicians with an interest in the urinary sciences. Guiteras contributed to advances in urological treatments, including improving and helping to bring a method of suprapubic prostatectomy to worldwide attention. He authored numerous scientific articles and a comprehensive, fully illustrated, 2-volume textbook that was widely translated. He pursued adventure through travel and sport, and participated in missions to Cuba and France during President Wilson's term of office. CONCLUSIONS: Ramon Guiteras died at age 59 years but his legacy lives on through the American Urological Association, a detailed textbook, contributions to urological instruments and techniques, and a vibrant elementary school in Bristol, Rhode Island that bears his name.

White Anglo-Saxon hopes and black Americans' Atlantic dreams: Jack Johnson and the British boxing colour bar.

This article examines the controversy surrounding Jack Johnson's proposed world heavyweight title fight against the British champion Bombardier Billy Wells in London (1911). In juxtaposing African Americans' often glowing discussions of European tolerance with the actual white resistance the black champion faced in Britain, including the Home Office's eventual prohibition of the match, the article explores the period's transnational discourses of race and citizenship. Indeed, as white sportsmen on both sides of the Atlantic joined together in their search for a "White Hope" to unseat Johnson, the boxing ring became an important cultural arena for interracial debates over the political and social divisions between white citizens and nonwhite subjects. Although African Americans had high hopes for their hero's European sojourn, the British backlash against the Johnson-Wells match underscored the fact that their local experiences of racial oppression were just one facet of a much broader global problem. At the same time, the proposed prizefight also made the specter of interracial conflict in the colonies all the more tangible in the British capital, provoking public discussions about the merits of U.S. racial segregation, along with the need for white Anglo-Saxon solidarity around the world. Thus, this article not only exposes the underlying connections between American Jim Crow and the racialized fault lines of British imperialism, but it also traces the "tense and tender ties" linking U.S. and African American history with the new imperial history and postcolonial studies.

Some observations on the septum pellucidum.

The thin, vertically placed partition consisting of two laminae separated by a narrow chink constitutes the cavity of the septum pellucidum, known from the time of Sylvius. Traumatic lesions in boxers, rare congenital expanding cysts causing hydrocephalus, and a number of septo-optic dysplasias give clinical significance to the septum and its related cavum.

Elite athletes: is survival shortened in boxers?

Moderate exercise and intense physical training are associated with increased life expectancy (LE). Boxing is characterized by intentional and repetitive head blows, sometimes causing brain injury, possibly reducing LE. We examined a sample of male athletes born between 1860 and 1930 selected from the international "hall of fame" inductees in baseball (n = 154), ice hockey (n = 130), tennis (n = 83), football (n = 81), boxing (n = 81), track and field (n = 59), basketball (n = 58), swimming (n = 37) and wrestling (n = 32). In boxing, we analyzed the number of disputed bouts/rounds and career records. Sports were also analyzed according to physiological demand and occurrence and kind of contact (intentional, unintentional). The Kaplan-Meier product limit method was used to compare survival curves (significance: p

The risk of chronic traumatic brain injury in professional boxing: change in exposure variables over the past century.

OBJECTIVES: To determine if boxing exposure has changed over time and hence if current professional boxers are at the same risk of developing chronic traumatic brain injury (CTBI) as historical controls. DESIGN: Literature review of published studies and analysis of data of active professional boxers. SUBJECTS: Professional boxers in the United Kingdom and Australia. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Boxing history and participation in sparring and professional bouts. RESULTS: Since the 1930s, the average duration of a professional boxer's career has dropped from 19 years to five years, and the mean number of career bouts has reduced from 336 to 13. This is despite no significant decline in participation rates from 1931 until 2002. CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of boxing related CTBI will diminish in the current era of professional boxing because of the reduction in exposure to repetitive head trauma and increasing medical monitoring of boxers, with preparticipation medical and neuroimaging assessments resulting in the detection of early and potentially pre-symptomatic cases of CTBI.

Deformity in the "Boxing Boys".

The late Bronze Age wall painting the Boxing Boys (c. 17th-16th century BCE) was excavated in the ancient town of Akrotiri on the Greek island of Thera. This article considers a medical interpretation for the spinal-pelvic anomaly in the anatomy of one of the boys. The artist has depicted a combination of structural anatomical adjustments diagnostic of spondylolisthesis, a forward slippage of one of the lumbar vertebrae. The accurate portrayal of the surface appearance of this condition suggests that the artist painted directly from a live subject. Thus, the Boxing Boys mural may be the earliest visual record of a sports-induced injury. Although the meaning of the wall paintings is unclear, the wild goats (agrimia) on the adjoining walls simulate swayback as a reflection of the boy's torso deformity and share other features with the boxers, adding to the unifying characteristics of the room. The abnormal morphology appears to be the earliest achievement of transforming disease into aesthetic charm on a monumental scale.

The origins of French boxing: bare-knuckle duelling, savate and chausson, 1820-45.

Savate, also called chausson, or French boxing is a combat activity characterized by kicking and punching. Its inception reaches back to the Restoration and the monarchy of Louis-Philippe (1818-48) although it was not recognised as a combat sport until the twentieth century. This article, based on a variety of rich sources (police reports, newspapers, books, etc.) demonstrates how, on the one hand, the origins of savate can be traced back to the bare-fisted duels of the Restoration and, on the other hand, its emergence corresponds to the mutation of structural order as put forth by M. Foucault.