Taking Sport Seriously: Social Issues in Canadian Sport

Bob Forsey is the education officer at the Newfoundland Museum in St.
John’s.

In this collection of 58 articles, 47 contributors deal with 12
controversial themes in contemporary Canadian sports: the significance
of sport; drugs; Olympics; health, fitness, and injury; violence and
masculinity; women; sexual orientation of athletes; youth; economics of
sport; sports and the media; heritage; and the environment. The
contributors, who run the gamut from athletes to sociologists, also seek
to show the relationship of sports to other social institutions, such as
the family, education, politics, and the economy.

Freelance writer Gare Joyce argues that, in 1993, Ben Johnson was
unjustly found guilty of taking illegal drugs by the International
Amateur Athletics Federation; the decision did not stand up to
scientific scrutiny, nor did it allow for due process of law. Stephen
Strauss explains why athletes are less likely to have eating disorders.
Laura Robinson explains why all-male sports promote violence. Other
topics include racism in sports, the greed of professional sports owners
and athletes, the neglect of women’s sports by the media, and the
threat golf poses to the environment.

Even readers who don’t count themselves sports enthusiasts are bound
to find something of compelling interest in this volume.