As part of the The encyclopaedia of sport series from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and International Federation of Sports Medicine, this volume was published six years ago. It is perhaps this that makes reviewing such a large tome (650 pages) from a rapidly changing subject difficult; one expects the title “encyclopaedia” to give timeless statements of fact that perhaps as yet are not attainable.

As a case in point, the chapter on gender verification (written very much from the viewpoint of the author) clearly went to press just as the IOC ceased gender testing at the 2000 Games and is now largely historical. What the author cannot have hoped to predict was the inclusion of transsexuals by the very next Games in Athens; it will be interesting when history records the first transsexual Olympic medal.

Rather than …