ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the body and sport as discussed by historians of sport, looking at influential authors and principal works. It explores the emergence of recent topics of interest as well as those areas which have, as yet, attracted little attention and which may benefit from further investigation. A significant amount of the literature on sport and bodies deals with specific locations and time periods: Ancient Greek athletic bodies, bodies in sport in nineteenth-century England, and works related to the first half of the twentieth century, concentrating on Nazi Germany and the regimented and superior Aryan body. Nineteenth-century England is also the subject of much historical research on sport and the body. Sport, athleticism, and muscularity in the latter half of the Victorian era were entwined themes among sport historians in the last quarter of the twentieth century. Gendered bodies in sport have also been of considerable interest to sport historians since the 1970s.
