Dear all,
Last week the following items were published on idrottsforum.org (see below; language and publication dates, YYMMDD, in brackets). Click on the red headings to go to content. Utilize the Google Translate service to turn Scandinavian language pages into (some sort of) English.
Have a great week,
Kjell Eriksson
Editor
Feature Article
Testing for Sex Is a Necessity if the Women’s Category Is to Be Protected: A Comment on Pieper, Schultz & Krieger’s “Regression, Not Progress”
World Athletics (WA) recently announced that it will reinstitute mandatory sex screening of athletes in women’s track and field, with a follow-up in rare cases, to verify their sex. This move was denounced in a feature on idrottsforum.org by Lindsay Parks Pieper, Jaime Schultz and Jörg Krieger. In a comment to their article, Ask Vest Christiansen points out that the new measures from WA are informed by science and ethically justifiable, as well as necessary in order to protect the female category from male advantage in elite sport. (Published in English 250427.
Book Reviews
Winters of Discontent: The Winter Olympics and a Half Century of Protest and Resistance, by Russell Field (ed.)
In the modern era, mere bids to host the Games have sparked fierce opposition from groups motivated by local or global concerns. According to our reviewer Russell Holden, Russell Field’s edited collection Winters of Discontent: The Winter Olympics and a Half Century of Protest and Resistance (Illinois University Press), offers a valuable and long overdue insight into a surprisingly neglected area of sport history, which extends far beyond the niche status that has all too often been accorded to this significant sports gathering. (Review in English, published 250422.)
Utviklingstrappa i langrenn, by Øyvind Sandbakk, Pål Rise, Per Elias Kalfoss, Thomas Losnegard & Brit Baldishol
Utviklingstrappa i langrenn [The Cross-Country Skiing Development Staircase] is a guide for young, promising skiers who want to realize their sporting potential. The book by Sandbakk and colleagues describes an appropriate, long-term development of athletes from childhood to reaching the top level of sports. For our reviewer Daniel Svensson it offers an important part of the answer to the eternal, and for many Swedes infernal question why Norwegian XC skiers are so much better, more skillful, than Swedish skiers, or for that matter, skiers from any other nation. (Book in Norwegian, review in English, published 250423.)
The Routledge Handbook of Gender Politics in Sport and Physical Activity, by Győző Molnár & Rachael Bullingham (eds.)
Progressive and broad-ranging, The Routledge Handbook of Gender Politics in Sport and Physical Activity, edited by Győző Molnár and Rachael Bullingham, offers a comprehensive overview of the complex intersections between politics, gender, sport and physical activity. In her thorough, competent and highly useful review of this 32 chapters anthology, Anna Sätre highlights the underlying aims of the collection, some detectable trends among the contributions, and several of the chapters that stand out for their critical and innovative approaches. (Review in English, published 250425.)
News items (calls for papers, vacancies, etc.)
- Call for Papers | Towards Development of Mediatization Research IX: Youth, Sports, and Media | Online workshop, December 5, 2025. Call ends October 27, 2025 (250424)
- Call for Papers | “Sport, Recreation and Leisure in Contemporary South Africa”, Special Issue of South African Review of Sociology | Call ends April 30, 2025
