Ondina Valla, une « championne du fascisme » aux Jeux olympiques de Berlin (1936)

At the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, at the age of 20, Trebisonda Valla, nicknamed Ondina, became the first Italian woman to win an Olympic gold medal. This personal endeavor quickly became an unwilling hostage of the Fascist dictatorship which declared it to be a victory of Fascism, thus underlinin...

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Main Author: Suzy Toson
Format: Article
Language:fra
Published: Association Mnémosyne 2024-04-01
Series:Genre & Histoire
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Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/genrehistoire/8922
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author Suzy Toson
author_facet Suzy Toson
author_sort Suzy Toson
collection DOAJ
description At the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, at the age of 20, Trebisonda Valla, nicknamed Ondina, became the first Italian woman to win an Olympic gold medal. This personal endeavor quickly became an unwilling hostage of the Fascist dictatorship which declared it to be a victory of Fascism, thus underlining the political stakes of this event. For the regime’s propaganda, Ondina Valla became a “champion of fascism”. Through the study of this Olympic victory, this article sheds light on the prolific sporting career of this Italian athlete, most of which took place during the Fascist period, enabling an exploration of the Fascist gendered politics that shaped Italian women’s sport over two decades. Above all, by rethinking the 1936 Olympics through Ondina Valla’s own experience, in particular by studying photographs and testimonies from the athlete collected afterwards, this portrait allows us to examine central issues in the study of the relationship between society and totalitarian regimes: the impact of fascist ideology on Ondina Valla’s development and identity, and the way in which she was able to appropriate, in the words of historian Alf Lüdtke, the world shaped by fascist dictatorship.
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spelling doaj-art-4c01c08dc3ea4d3ab6231b23aa3d8b272025-01-09T16:22:54ZfraAssociation MnémosyneGenre & Histoire2102-58862024-04-013310.4000/11y8zOndina Valla, une « championne du fascisme » aux Jeux olympiques de Berlin (1936)Suzy TosonAt the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, at the age of 20, Trebisonda Valla, nicknamed Ondina, became the first Italian woman to win an Olympic gold medal. This personal endeavor quickly became an unwilling hostage of the Fascist dictatorship which declared it to be a victory of Fascism, thus underlining the political stakes of this event. For the regime’s propaganda, Ondina Valla became a “champion of fascism”. Through the study of this Olympic victory, this article sheds light on the prolific sporting career of this Italian athlete, most of which took place during the Fascist period, enabling an exploration of the Fascist gendered politics that shaped Italian women’s sport over two decades. Above all, by rethinking the 1936 Olympics through Ondina Valla’s own experience, in particular by studying photographs and testimonies from the athlete collected afterwards, this portrait allows us to examine central issues in the study of the relationship between society and totalitarian regimes: the impact of fascist ideology on Ondina Valla’s development and identity, and the way in which she was able to appropriate, in the words of historian Alf Lüdtke, the world shaped by fascist dictatorship.https://journals.openedition.org/genrehistoire/8922genderfascismpropaganda1936BerlinOlympic games
spellingShingle Suzy Toson
Ondina Valla, une « championne du fascisme » aux Jeux olympiques de Berlin (1936)
Genre & Histoire
gender
fascism
propaganda
1936
Berlin
Olympic games
title Ondina Valla, une « championne du fascisme » aux Jeux olympiques de Berlin (1936)
title_full Ondina Valla, une « championne du fascisme » aux Jeux olympiques de Berlin (1936)
title_fullStr Ondina Valla, une « championne du fascisme » aux Jeux olympiques de Berlin (1936)
title_full_unstemmed Ondina Valla, une « championne du fascisme » aux Jeux olympiques de Berlin (1936)
title_short Ondina Valla, une « championne du fascisme » aux Jeux olympiques de Berlin (1936)
title_sort ondina valla une championne du fascisme aux jeux olympiques de berlin 1936
topic gender
fascism
propaganda
1936
Berlin
Olympic games
url https://journals.openedition.org/genrehistoire/8922
work_keys_str_mv AT suzytoson ondinavallaunechampionnedufascismeauxjeuxolympiquesdeberlin1936