International athletic events have been the main driver in imperialism dating back to Ancient Greece. Once local talent pools had been exploited and certain areas consistently dominated, the search for talent expanded beyond the previously circumscribed areas. Thus, Alexander conquered the “known” world, and then Rome dominated Western Europe and the Mediterranean.
The resurgence of international athletics in the early 19th century in Great Britain once again brought up the need for talent. By the 1860s, international events in England drove the development of the colonies to be an integral feed system. This was followed by the development of the Amateur Athletic Union in 1880, and then the escalation in 1896 with the reintroduction of the Olympics.
(Please note: “Amateur” athletics was really a euphemism for athletic slavery; athletes could not earn money and were owned and governed by the athletic organization of their country.)
By World War One, the western powers had divided the world’s athletic powers. The two World Wars were attempts to re-divide the talent pools. WWI was a draw; WWII, which many would say started with the Munich games in 1936, was to settle things once and for all.
And while imperialism and colonialism shifted dramatically in the post war era, it was not eradicated but replaced by cold war era spheres of hegemony. Thus, the hockey competition between the US and USSR at the 1960 Winter Games, the threat of the client state East German swimming in the 1970s, the confusion raised by third world dominance in Track, and the geo-political shift with the Chinese dominated Table Tennis gaining Olympic recognition.