Regulating Bodies:Elite Sport Policies and Their Unintended Consequences

by: Jaime Schultz (Author)

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Publication Date: 2024/6/21

Language: English

Print Length: 288 pages

ISBN-10: 0197616496

ISBN-13: 9780197616499

Book Description

How far are we willing to go in the name of "better sport"?Athletes have long sought to push the limits of human potential, but the advent and application of new knowledge, science, and technologies has taken elite sports into uncharted territory. It's no longer enough to break records―today's sport is about athletes surpassing their "natural" limits in the name of accomplishing the impossible. With highlights across the spectrum of professional athletics from ski jumping to horse racing, Regulating Bodies narrates the global scientization of the sports industry and the lasting influence of protective sports policies on inteational discourses around race, sex, identity, and impairment. While these classifications are designed to protect athletes' wellbeing in the spirit of fair play, protective policies can be shallow solutions to deeper problems―offering the appearance of care while failing to safeguard athletes from more pressing conces. Regulating Bodies investigates the development of protective policies across topics such as gene doping and sex testing to show how current policies impede the progress of athletic development by engendering unethical and unhealthy practices at the expense of an athlete's individual rights. It offers a pathway forward beyond traditional sports categorization with alteative regulatory strategies to reflect the next generation of high-performance athletes. A scoping inquiry into the mode sports industry, Regulating Bodies asks us whether the unending quest for sporting excellence is worth the financial, social, and human toll it inevitably takes on participants at every level of elite sports.

About the Author

How far are we willing to go in the name of "better sport"?Athletes have long sought to push the limits of human potential, but the advent and application of new knowledge, science, and technologies has taken elite sports into uncharted territory. It's no longer enough to break records―today's sport is about athletes surpassing their "natural" limits in the name of accomplishing the impossible. With highlights across the spectrum of professional athletics from ski jumping to horse racing, Regulating Bodies narrates the global scientization of the sports industry and the lasting influence of protective sports policies on inteational discourses around race, sex, identity, and impairment. While these classifications are designed to protect athletes' wellbeing in the spirit of fair play, protective policies can be shallow solutions to deeper problems―offering the appearance of care while failing to safeguard athletes from more pressing conces. Regulating Bodies investigates the development of protective policies across topics such as gene doping and sex testing to show how current policies impede the progress of athletic development by engendering unethical and unhealthy practices at the expense of an athlete's individual rights. It offers a pathway forward beyond traditional sports categorization with alteative regulatory strategies to reflect the next generation of high-performance athletes. A scoping inquiry into the mode sports industry, Regulating Bodies asks us whether the unending quest for sporting excellence is worth the financial, social, and human toll it inevitably takes on participants at every level of elite sports.