On August 26, 1960, twenty-three-year-old Danish cyclist Knud Jensen, competing in that year's Rome Olympic Games, suddenly fell from his bike and fractured his skull. His death hours later led to rumors that performance-enhancing drugs were in his system. Though certainly not the first instance of doping in the Olympic Games, Jensen's death serves as the starting point for Thomas M. Hunt's thoroughly researched, chronological history of the modern relationship of doping to the Olympics. Utilizing concepts derived from international relations theory, diplomatic history, and administrative law, this work connects the issue to global political relations.

During the Cold War, national governments had little reason to support effective anti-doping controls in the Olympics. Both the United States and the Soviet Union conceptualized power in sport as a means of impressing both friends and rivals abroad. The resulting medals race motivated nations on both sides of the Iron Curtain to allow drug regulatory powers to remain with private sport authorities. Given the costs involved in testing and the repercussions of drug scandals, these authorities tried to avoid the issue whenever possible. But toward the end of the Cold War, governments became more involved in the issue of testing. Having historically been a combined scientific, ethical, and political dilemma, obstacles to the elimination of doping in the Olympics are becoming less restrained by political inertia.

Based on research in both American and foreign archives, this first book-length study of doping in the Olympics connects the use and regulation of performance-enhancing drugs to developments in the larger global environment.

About the Author

Thomas M. Hunt is Assistant Professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education at the University of Texas at Austin, where he also holds an appointment as Assistant Director for Academic Affairs at the H. J. Lutcher Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports.

Reviews
"This well-researched and well-written book provides a valuable analysis of the politics and regulation of drug use in Olympic sport." - Virginia Berridge, Review in American Historical Review



Book Information
ISBN 9780292737495
Author Thomas M. Hunt
Format Paperback
Page Count 231
Imprint University of Texas Press
Publisher University of Texas Press
Weight(grams) 454g