A Secret History Of Sports

Description

The history of sport is made up of records, stars, medals and glitter. This Secret History of Sport invites us to discover the hidden side of the sport, the locker room, the backstage, the strings that pull the champions and their exploits. The vanquished, the cheats and other pariahs, without whom sport would not have its full flavor, are finally brought to light. Sport celebrates the victors, their smiles and their tears, their achievements and their fortunes. More often than not, we forget the vanquished, the cheats and the men behind the scenes who make sport business: agents, managers, trainers, entrepreneurs, financiers, journalists, bookmakers and dealers. Behind the Mohamed Ali's, the Eddy Merckx's, the Pelé's and the Federer's, this book travels through two centuries of history in contact with these occult characters who are little talked about but who have had more influence than anyone else on the evolution of the practice and the industry of sport. Take Horst Dassler, former boss of Adidas, inventor of sports marketing, maker of kings, money and champions. His empire produced all the great leaders of world sport, presidents of the IOC (Juan Antonio Samaranch, Thomas Bach) or FIFA (João Havelange, Sepp Blatter, both deposed for corruption). Or the Italian doctors who, as early as the 1950s, developed the science of doping, which has plagued cycling and many other disciplines.