In 1924, when Ras Tafari travelled through Europe, he gained first-hand experience of modern sports and the ‘Olympic spirit’ at the eighth Olympic Games in Paris. He enquired of Pierre de Coubertin (President of the International Olympic Committee), in a private conversation, about the possibility and requirements for participating next time. Ras Tafari then formally applied to the IOC for Ethiopia's participation in the ninth Olympic Games in Amsterdam, 1928. The newly appointed Belgian president of the organization, Henri Baillet-Latour, refused this on the grounds that Ethiopia as well as other African countries would have neither the ability nor the facilities to participate in or to host Olympic Games.

Nevertheless, the application clearly shows that Ethiopia's ‘chief modernizer’ had understood the potential of modern sports as a key to worldwide recognition. Although the modern Ethiopian (male) body was not a topic in Berhanena Selam – the journal that usually discussed modernizing the empire – various bodily practices performed on different social scales brought corporeal modernity into educational institu-tions and diverse places of leisure.

This chapter scrutinises the introduction of modern sports through modern institutions and changing perceptions of leisure. It focuses on its promotion through urbanization via infrastructural development and economic growth, through the establishment of modern schools, and through an element of military reform that targeted the youngest educated stratum of the population. Arguably, developments in Ethiopia resonate what the historian Michelle Sikes described in her general statement for colonial Africa during the first half of the twentieth century: ‘Forces unleashed by colonial capitalism fused with local conditions [and shaped] the contours of African athletic development [and] sports such as cricket, rugby, tennis, hockey, athletics, boxing, and gymnastics were all in circulation’, with football assuming the lead.

Although there are practically no sources that allow any sound statement on the introduction of modern sports through the reformed armed forces, there are assumptions about the role of these institutions. However, Tamirat Gebremariam and Benoît Gaudin may not be wrong in basing their thoughts about the early promotion of athletics in the Ethiopian army on existing research on sports in colonial armies elsewhere in Africa.