This is a collection of 35 papers, 10 of which were written specifically for this anthology. It presents a wide range of material, spanning specific topics, such as racial issues or drugs in sport, and also more abstract areas, such as the quality of sportsmanship. Most of the writing is by philosophers, but there are pieces representing sportspeople, physical education specialists, sports psychologists, sport scientists, journalists, a lawyer, and a basketball coach. For this reason, the book is stylistically very diverse. Fittingly, the volume closes with a 1999 piece by Rick Reilly, a writer for Sports Illustrated, written from the perspective of an 8 year old sports fan who is getting the wrong message from televised sport.

The theme of sport’s corruption seems to run strongly in this collection. There seems to be an undercurrent of moral outrage at sport’s degradation through commercialisation, new technology, and competition taken too far.

Editor Jan Boxill’s introductory piece on the moral significance of …