既往對於中國大陸和臺灣在冷戰時期體育領域進行競爭的研究，大都以國際體育組織的會籍之爭做為切入點，聚焦於兩岸在外交領域的合法性競爭，體育因之被視為兩岸政權軍事和意識形態對峙的工具，成為被政治所利用和操弄的對象。本文試圖透過著名體育人物李惠堂在1949-1979 年的思想與活動，揭示體育人物在這一時期兩岸三地的地緣格局下亦存在相當程度的主體性和能動性，對政治與體育之間的關係進行新的解讀。從1950 年代到1970 年代，李惠堂往來於香港與臺北之間，作為中華民國政府在體育領域的重要代理人，服務於臺北方面的體育、外交和僑務戰略，延續和擴展中華民國在1949 年之前參與國際體育的模式，同時妥善處理與香港社會各方面的關係，以此獲取各種政治回報和拓展自身的商業網絡。儘管他被國民黨政權塑造為「自由中國」在體育領域裏的重要象徵，但他在體育政策層面與中華民國政府也長期存在著嚴重的理念分歧與衝突。李惠堂最後三十年的人生史，是兩岸體育冷戰的歷史縮影，折射出大中華地區的體育在兩岸三地的交錯互動下的延續和變異。

Much of the literature on competition in sports in both Mainland China and Taiwan has probed into the battle over membership with international sports organizations in the Cold War era, focusing particularly on the legitimate competition in the cross-Strait diplomacy. Sports, in such case, has been considered as the puppet of the confrontations of military regime and ideology across the Strait, utilized and manipulated by politics. This paper reveals that sports figures held, to some extent, the subjectivity and initiatives in a geopolitical pattern of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Mainland China, by tracing the thoughts and activities of Lee Wai-tong, an illustrious sports figure, between 1949 and 1979, thus shedding new lights on the relationship between politics and sports. From 1950s to 1970s, Lee Waitong, as a prominent agent of the government of the Republic of China (ROC), shuttling back and forth between Hong Kong and Taipei, served the strategies in sports, foreign affairs, and overseas Chinese affairs of the regime. He maintained and broadened the ways in which the ROC participated in international sports. He, meanwhile, properly handled the relationship with Hong Kong society, so as to acquire political rewards and broaden his business network. Although he was constructed as the symbol of “Free China” in the field of sports by the Kuomintang regime, Lee Waitong had long-term serious disputes and conflicts with the government of the ROC in sports policies. The life history of Lee Wai-tong’s last three decades was the history of the cross-Strait cold war in sports in miniature that reflected the continuity and changes of sports in the interactions in Greater China including Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Mainland China.