Regulating Bodies: Elite Sport Policies and Their Unintended Consequences

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 international 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 concerns. 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 alternative regulatory strategies to reflect the next generation of high-performance athletes. A scoping inquiry into the modern 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.

Table of Contents:
Figures and Tables Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction Chapter 1: Regulating Weight Chapter 2: Regulating Sex Chapter 3: Regulating Impairment Chapter 4: Regulating Dope Chapter 5: Regulating Genetics Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Jaime Schultz is a Professor of Kinesiology with an affiliate faculty appointment in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Pennsylvania State University. An award-winning teacher and scholar, she has published widely on issues relating to sex, gender, sexuality, "race," and sport. Schultz currently serves as co-editor of the "Sport and Society" series at the University of Illinois Press.

Review :
Within Regulating Bodies-and in characteristically eloquent, insightful, and empirically-grounded fashion-Jamie Schultz complicates the various policy initiatives through which elite sport has purportedly sought to protect athletes' bodies. Regulating Bodies represents a vital, prescient, and rich contribution to the burgeoning literature focused on the socio-material dimensions of contemporary sport: it is a necessary acquisition for anyone with an interest in making sense of the socio-scientific dimensions, and compounded human outcomes, of the contemporary sporting leviathan. Rupturing the silos that too often mark scholarly discussions of sport, Jaime Schultz has brought her sharp, critical eye to the actions of sports governing bodies' elaborations of sports' eligibility rules. By exploring those decisions determining who may play, she shifts attention from the ways sport disciplines bodies to the dehumanising processes that reduce athletes to their bodies and impose rules that determine not what those bodies may do, but which bodies may participate and on what terms. Schultz's analysis produces a call to action to shift the ways sport governance and analysts approach regulation and eligibility rules that those of us with an interest in making sport better, fairer, and more just would do well to act on. Quite simply, Regulating Bodies is a remarkable book. Beautifully written and expertly researched, it exposes the complexities of some of the most pressing and controversial issues in contemporary sport. Regulating Bodies is a must read for anyone interested in the past, present, and future of elite sport. A warning though, once started, it is very hard to put down! Combining meticulous research, unflinching critical acumen, and extraordinary empathy, Jaime Schultz's Regulating Bodies explores how the protective policies and regulations ostensibly meant to safeguard sport often perpetuate discrimination, danger, and abuse. Its observations are at once lacerating and hopeful. Anyone who cares about sport-from scholars to athletes to policymakers—should read and learn from this important and timely book. Regulating Bodies is an engaging whirlwind tour of the hottest current debates in sports policy and ethics. Schultz's recommendation for the future could not be more on point. Schultz makes a compelling case for sports governing organizations to 'align protective policies with human rights accords.' A valuable resource. This is a well-documented, scholarly but accessible work with extensive notes, a bibliography, and some images. Thoughtful questions leave the reader wondering about the costs and benefits of elite sports and who really wins.