Abstract

Drawing on a number of winter sport stars, the article focuses on the relationship between the Austrian „sportscape“ and national identity. Starting with a brief historical overview of the emergence of an Austrian sportscape and its defining disciplines, football and skiing, the authors will then discuss the role of alpine sport icons in constructing an Austrian nation. They will try to illustrate how mass media contribute to national identity through the everyday construction of the nation on the basis of a seemingly „natural“ sporting order such as national leagues and international fixtures, as well as through the establishment of collective memories, where narratives of unusual or extraordinary achievements which are open to mythical meanings (in Roland Barthes‘ sense) come into play. Verf.-Referat (gekürzt und geändert)