ABSTRACT
When the world of sport is subjected to academic scrutiny, one important question one must ask (early on) is how is it to be theorised? To use an example we will return to, the Olympic Games is clearly taken by many, spectators as well as athletes, as the pinnacle of sports accomplishment, and often claimed as a celebration of all that is noble in physical culture. But the (Summer) Olympic Games now draws a huge television audience, and catapults sport into the consciousness of billions of people. How should one investigate in depth the nature of the phenomenon, locating the Games in their true context historically, politically and socially, and probing the rhetoric of Olympic ideology? It would be a mistake to think that rigorous study here can simply ignore the role of such key 'players' as past president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Juan-Antonio Samaranch (see Jennings 1996: 42—6); but neither can we simply explain all the features of sport just by reference to them. The world of sport cannot be caught in any simple analytical 'net'. So how such topics should be explored (McFee 1989) is an issue alongside what the precise topics here are. And these questions have a dimension in philosophy.
