On Oct. 16, 1968, Tommie Smith and John Carlos ascended the victor's stand at the Mexico City Olympics. After receiving their medals for the 200-meter final — Smith a gold, Carlos the bronze — the men bowed their heads as the U.S. national anthem played and thrust a gloved hand into the air in a black power salute. That symbol of defiance and protest ushered in an era of athletic activism that melded sports with the mushrooming civil rights and women's movements. The photo of Smith and Carlos' statement has become one of the most famous in all of athletics, and even though what the duo ... Read More
Academic Coverage of Sports and Steroids
February 2, 2008 • By • 1 Comment
As the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform continues its probe into the use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball, and Olympic sprinter Marion Jones prepares for her six-month prison sentence for lying about using them, we look back at some of the academic literature that helped define the debate. The trajectory of academic coverage in the past quarter century has followed an arc that begins with the health effects of the performance-enhancing drugs, through efforts to regulate them, and onto the current ethical considerations … At ... Read More
