Dave Zirin, The Nation’s sports editor, is the author of eight books on the politics of sports, most recently, Brazil’s Dance with the Devil: The World Cup, The Olympics, and the Fight for Democracy. Named one of UTNE Reader’s “50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Our World,” Zirin is a frequent guest on ESPN, MSNBC, and Democracy Now! He also hosts The Nation’s Edge of Sports podcast. You can find all his work or contact him through his website EdgeofSports.com. Follow him on twitter @EdgeofSports.
In the best of times, they bring debt, displacement, pollution, and hyper militarization. In the worst, they are a shocking waste of resources in the name of nationalistic fervor.
What has been obvious to the rest of the sports world for days, if not weeks, still has not penetrated the ivory tower of the International Olympic Committee or the leaders in Japan.
The leading anthropologist, academic, and analyst of sports and disease offers an unsparing assessment of the sports world’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
