The Exploitation of High-Performance Sport in Capitalism

The Exploitation of High-Performance Sport in Capitalism

In Chapter 2 of Out of Left Field, by Gamal Abdel-Shehid and Nathan Kalman-Lamb, one of the main themes that is discussed is capitalism. The distinguishing feature of capitalism, noted by Marx and Engels, is that all goods and services are turned into commodities, including one's labour (Abdel-Shehid & Kalman-Lamb 12). According to them, people are divided into two primary classes in capitalism: the proletariat, those who sell their labour for a living, and the bourgeoisie those who own factories and businesses and therefore do not need to sell their labour (Ibid, 12). The Marxist perspective of capitalism can be applied to better understand how sport in a capitalist society is an exploitative enterprise.

In high-performance sport, athletes are the proletariat selling their labour, while coaches and team owners are the bourgeoisie profiting off of the athlete's labour. The Marxist view on high-performance sport in a capitalist society is that it is "an exploitative enterprise, where workers (the athletes) are generally treated poorly at the expense of the owners" (Ibid, 13). "Marx and Engels argued that in a capitalist society, the focus is more on the maximization of output, with very little care for the health and well-being of the worker herself or himself" (13). Often, athletes are forced to play even if they are injured. The athletes, regardless of the toll it has on them, are ultimately working for the benefit of someone else, an example of