ATHLETES have always needed arbiters, In the ancient Olympics ten purple-clad hellanodikai—"judges of the Greeks"-were elected every four years from the ruling families in Elis, where the games were held. They ensured good behaviour by having miscreants publicly flogged. Today's referees lack such deterrents— and professional sportsmen can transgress in a way that their classical predecessors could scarcely have imagined. In 1947 Stephen Potter, a British author, jokingly coined the term "gamesmanship" for "the art of winning games without actually cheating" (though he suggested breaking an opponent's concentration, rather than misleading the referee). Modern athletes, fuelled by colossal rewards, can easily be tempted into misbehaviour.
展开▼
