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Is there anything new in technological advantage adding to sporting prowess, asks Lincoln Allison
Game Changer: The techno-scientific revolution in sports
By Rayvon Fouché
Johns Hopkins University Press 272pp, £22.00
ISBN 9781421421797
Published 29 September 2017
A starting claim of Game Changer is that the impact of technology on sport in the past 30 years is on a scale different from anything seen previously. A great deal of the book covers familiar issues of doping and the weaknesses of testing procedures, but there are also chapters on hydro-dynamic swimwear in particular and on changing sports technology in general. The careers of three individuals are discussed in detail: Lance Armstrong and two South Africans, Oscar "Blade Runner" Pistorius and the allegedly intersex runner, Caster Semenya.
Thus the parts and much interesting material. As for the whole, Rayvon Fouché's thesis hangs on the assertion that technological change threatens some essential core to the value of sport,...