The Athlete’s Dilemma: Sacrificing Health for Wealth and Fame

Parry (Mental Disability, Violence, Future Dangerousness), a lawyer with an expertise in mental health and health law, has written an excellent volume on the “debilitating paradox” of popular spectator sports: that “the overwhelming desire to attain the heightened fitness” required of an elite athlete leads children and adults to pain, injuries, and “disability, addictions, and even premature deaths.” Part I is a solid overview of how the culture of “playing hurt” causes both athletes and the professional medical providers on sports teams to reinforce a lifestyle that leads to injury. The second part of the book is an overview of the ways professional, collegiate, and Olympic sports organizations have ignored—and in many cases encouraged—the use of performance-enhancing drugs. In the final section, Parry takes a hard look at how “bad practices and lack of candor at the professional level” regarding the consequences of sports-related impairments such as CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) have filtered down “to collegiate, scholastic, and youth sports programs in very unhealthy ways.” Parry has written a highly detailed work that should be read by athletes, managers, and sports administrators at all levels. (June)