Athletes’ Voice in History

<p>This collection of essays is the third iteration in a series of publications dealing with Olympic studies that initially developed out of the tripartite relationship between Western University (Canada) Victoria University Melbourne (Australia) and the German Sport University Cologne (Germany). However for this collection papers were solicited from around the world in order to approach the topic from different and much wider perspectives. To this end this book combines a diverse range of scholarly analyses that seek to understand how the recognition of the voices of athletes have developed over many decades. In essence the sequence of chapters in this book are based around three perspectives namely: the lives and biographical profiles of athletes; the decision-making processes of and for athletes; and the formal and informal institutional representation of athletes. While the touchstone is primarily the voices of athletes associated with Olympic-related sports consideration is also given to the actions and opinions of athletes expressed in other sporting spheres. This book was originally published as a special issue of <i>The International Journal of the History of Sport</i>.</p>