Best Olympics Ever?

Helen Jefferson Lenskyj is Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto. She is the author of Inside the Olympic Industry: Power, Politics, and Activism, also published by SUNY Press; Women, Sport, and Physical Activity: Selected Research Themes; and Out of Bounds: Women, Sport, and Sexuality.

"A solid and comprehensive analysis of the 'hidden' side of Sydney 2000, this book is bound to provoke controversy. It is hard to think of any other event that could be justified on the basis that it will make the nation feel good for a couple of weeks and to hell with the expense and the practice of democratic procedures. Lenskyj includes a range of topics that are usually 'written out' of accounts of the Olympics." — Jim McKay, University of Queensland"The Best Olympics Ever? is provocative, stimulating, and challenging. In the best tradition of radical literature, it forces us to confront our assumptions and stereotypes and in so doing we are served well—especially with regard to the Olympic Games, an institution shrouded in myth and illusion." — Jeff Segrave, Skidmore College

• Acknowledgments Abbreviations and Websites Introduction 1. The Mass Media: Olympic Industry Boosters and Critics 2. Police, Protest, and Olympic Legislation: "You've Got to Keep the Buggers under Control" 3. Black and White Australia: Reconciliation and Sydney 2000 4. "You Can't Share the Spirit if You Can't Pay the Rent": Housing and Homelessness in the Olympic City 5. Olympic Values, Impacts, and Issues: The Real Legacy 6. Productive Partnerships: Corporatized Universities Meet the Olympic Industry 7. "I'm Not Against the Olympics, But....": Local and Global Resistance 8. Bondi Beach Volleyball Stadium: The Battlers Lose the Beach 9. September 2000 in Melbourne and Sydney: Democracy at Risk Conclusion Appendix References Index