Whether you're an armchair athlete or an Olympic medalist, sport plays a big part in everyday life. Through pressures of sponsorship and bids from lucrative entertainment networks, sport is also becoming a site of fierce financial competition. Stuck between these personal and commercial demands, are the participants who are required to achieve increasingly superhuman physical performances in order to meet the aspirations of the promoters, millions of spectators and whole nations. This work places the body at the centre of all sporting discourse, and makes a powerful case for including sport in the study of culture. It shows how a critical look at sport can illuminate a whole range of issues - identity and nationality, design, performance, representation and aesthetics. The book should represent a contribution to sports studies and cultural studies.