Publication date:
16 June 2017Length of book:
364 pagesPublisher
Rowman & Littlefield PublishersDimensions:
237x160mm6x9"
ISBN-13: 9781442275409
Sports provide people around the world with unmatched entertainment, from the excitement of victory to the agony of defeat. Unfortunately, it also has become painfully clear that the agony of sports goes well beyond athletes losing games or competitions. Playing through concussions, the abuse of pain medicine, the use of performance-enhancing substances, and other health-related issues have become a constant reminder that being a professional athlete can be as dangerous as it is lucrative.
In The Athlete's Dilemma: Sacrificing Health for Wealth and Fame, John Weston Parry examines the health-related transgressions and hot-topic issues in America’s top spectator sports, particularly in football, baseball, hockey, soccer, cycling, tennis, and Olympic competitions. Parry delves into the unique health risks that pertain to each individual sport and scrutinizes how the various leagues and organizations have handled these issues. Controversies and scandals surrounding elite athletes are also included, highlighting the need for changes in how sports are governed and regulated in the United States and worldwide.
From football and soccer players returning to the field too soon after concussions to Olympic athletes using performance-enhancing substances, The Athlete’s Dilemma provides a broad perspective on the health risks prevalent in sports and what can be done to reduce these risks in the future. Accessibly written yet carefully researched, this book will be of interest to athletes of all levels, sports fans, academics, and health professionals.
In The Athlete's Dilemma: Sacrificing Health for Wealth and Fame, John Weston Parry examines the health-related transgressions and hot-topic issues in America’s top spectator sports, particularly in football, baseball, hockey, soccer, cycling, tennis, and Olympic competitions. Parry delves into the unique health risks that pertain to each individual sport and scrutinizes how the various leagues and organizations have handled these issues. Controversies and scandals surrounding elite athletes are also included, highlighting the need for changes in how sports are governed and regulated in the United States and worldwide.
From football and soccer players returning to the field too soon after concussions to Olympic athletes using performance-enhancing substances, The Athlete’s Dilemma provides a broad perspective on the health risks prevalent in sports and what can be done to reduce these risks in the future. Accessibly written yet carefully researched, this book will be of interest to athletes of all levels, sports fans, academics, and health professionals.
Parry (Mental Disability, Violence, Future Dangerousness), a lawyer with an expertise in mental health and health law, has written an excellent volume on the 'debilitating paradox' of popular spectator sports: that 'the overwhelming desire to attain the heightened fitness' required of an elite athlete leads children and adults to pain, injuries, and 'disability, addictions, and even premature deaths.' Part I is a solid overview of how the culture of 'playing hurt' causes both athletes and the professional medical providers on sports teams to reinforce a lifestyle that leads to injury. The second part of the book is an overview of the ways professional, collegiate, and Olympic sports organizations have ignored—and in many cases encouraged— the use of performance-enhancing drugs. In the final section, Parry takes a hard look at how 'bad practices and lack of candor at the professional level' regarding the consequences of sports-related impairments such as CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) have filtered down 'to collegiate, scholastic, and youth sports programs in very unhealthy ways.' Parry has written a highly detailed work that should be read by athletes, managers, and sports administrators at all levels.