Bøger af Jules Boykoff

"The need for critical writing about the Olympics has never been more important and no one does it more effectively or incisively than Jules Boykoff. Here he shows us not only the potential harm of the LA 2028 Summer Games but the activists who are bringing this reality to light." -- Dave Zirin

'Athletes first' is a slogan the International Olympic Committee often touts, but the reality is very different, as pre-eminent Olympics expert Jules Boykoff shows in this book. While the world's attention is riveted by the triumphs and tribulations on their screens, there is much that goes on behind the scenes that is deeply troubling: athletes are increasingly voicing concerns over physical, mental, and sexual abuse, and they are collectively expressing grievances around equity and human rights. Outside the stadiums, problems range from the democratic deficit and corruption surrounding the awarding of the Games, to displacement of people and gentrification of neighbourhoods to make way for Olympic venues, to the environmental damage that Olympic construction inflicts and then tries to greenwash away. Boykoff tells us that radical steps are required if the Games are to be fixed and only then will they be truly 'athletes first'.

"When Adolf Hitler hosted the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, he used the Games to rally political support for his white supremacist worldview. In doing so, Hitler not only ruptured the myth that politics and sports do not mix, but he also initiated the first major instance of sportswashing: hosting a sports mega-event to launder one's stained reputation on the world stage. The 1936 Berlin Olympics: Race, Power, and Sportswashing situates these controversial Games in the longer political history of the Olympics. In the United States, the Berlin Olympics catalyzed a raucous, if ultimately unsuccessful, boycott campaign that raised serious concerns about racialized repression in Germany. The Berlin Summer Games furnished a high-profile testing ground for racial theories rooted in white supremacy. This book demonstrates how the Olympic Games have long been both a pedestal for autocrats to boost their unsavory regimes and a flashpoint for human-rights criticism"--