The Olympics: A Critical Reader

The Olympic Games are a modern international sports extravaganza with an ancient history. Today's Olympic Games have an importance reaching beyond the four-yearly festival of competitive athletics, with a constant presence in the public conscious and a significant impact on social policy and politics, business, economics and the media. The Olympics: A Critical Reader provides a unique, critical reference and systematically sets out the key themes in modern Olympism, offering a structured approach to the subject for students and lecturers. Combining classic texts and discussion of the Olympics with highly original contributions, including previously unseen material from the IOC archive, the Reader explores: Section 1 Introduction to Studying the OlympicsSection 2 Conceptualising OlympismSection 3 Olympic HistorySection 4 Olympic EthicsSection 5 The Olympics and the MediaSection 6 Managing and Marketing the OlympicsSection 7 Politicising the OlympicsSection 8 Paralympic StudiesSection 9 Cultural OlympicsSection 10 Olympic EducationSection 11 Olympic LegaciesSection 12 Issues for the OlympicsSection 13 The Future of the OlympicsEach section is preceded by an editors introduction to the theme. Within each section, the texts have been selected to provide a range of views on the subject, including the views of the IOC, critical reflections, challenges to, and extensions of the discussion.The book is intended for both undergraduate and graduate students and as a primary source for teachers and scholars working in this area.Jim Parry is Head of the School of Humanities and Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Leeds. He is the Founding Director of the British Olympic Academy, and has worked with the International Olympic Academy for 20 years. Vassil Girginov is Reader in Sports Development and Sports Management at Brunel University.Parry, Jim is the author of 'The Olympics: A Critical Reader', published 2010 under ISBN 9780415445368 and ISBN 0415445361.