The Edge by Roger Pielke
We think we know the difference between cheating and not cheating, clean and dirty, in sports-but we don t. Rapid developments in the 21st century and outdated sports governance have, in fact, left sport in a state of crisis. Increasingly, athletes and teams seek a competitive edge in the world of elite sport and go over the edge in their pursuit of one. Sustaining what we love most about sport will require that we change how we think about sport.Edge wars are to be expected in sport, because sport is about securing an edge--over history, over an opponent, over what has been done before. Pushing limits and exceeding them is a defining characteristic of sport and a fulfillment of what it means to be human. At the same time, pushing boundaries inevitably results in sometimes going over the edge, beyond what is acceptable, allowable, or ethical. Navigating this boundary is no easy feat. But sport depends upon it.
This book is about the tension between these two types of edges, the performance edge and the ethical edge, and how sport tries to manage the boundary between the two. The book is divided into three parts. In part 1, The Sport War, is about how we love sport and how far athletes are willing to go to win. Using the examples of Tom Brady and the Patriots and the Olympics, Pielke shows how rules, norms, and cheating have always defined sport. In part 2, The Battleground, Pielke zeros in on four kinds of cheating: match fixing, corrupt sport organizations, the blurring of technology and biology, and sex testing. In part 3, Winning the War for Sport, he asks what can science do to save sport from itself? What might government do? What can we do, not least by changing our expectations?
Drawing on controversies straight out of the headlines, this book synthesizes a vast amount of information to explore that edge, to make sense of it, and to offer the reader a provocative but clear new understanding of 21st-century sport. It provides some optimistic paths forward for the future of elite sport under siege. The timing could not be better.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781938901577 |
| ISBN 10 | 1938901576 |
| Title | The Edge |
| Author | Roger Pielke |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Roaring Forties Press |
| Year published | 2016-09-13 |
| Number of pages | 330 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |