Olympic Games

Helen Jefferson Lenskyj is Professor Emerita, University of Toronto. Her work as a researcher and activist on gender and sport issues began in the 1980s, and her critiques of the Olympic industry include Inside the Olympic Industry and Olympic Industry Resistance.

• Chapter 1. Introduction and Background Chapter 2. Olympic ResistanceChapter 3. 'Sport and Politics Don't Mix'Chapter 4. Olympic Industry ImpactsChapter 5. Reform: 'To Restore Reputation'Chapter 6. Athletes, Politics, and ProtestChapter 7. 'Educating Youth Through Sport'Chapter 8. Athletes' Rights, Athletes' LivesChapter 9. Gender Policies: Challenges and ResponsesChapter 10. The Olympics: 'Not a Welfare Program but a Business Venture'

Lenskyj's contribution to the world of sports is an important, sharp and brave reminder that sport is political, that athletes are humans with rights not instruments for others to (mis)use for the benefit of themselves. We must never forget that as long as sports, in this case the Olympic industry, impacts the lives of its practitioners negatively, it needs to develop in line with the societal demands, regulations and laws and not to construct a sphere of its own.