<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>This article considers the cultural and social crisis facing the sporting celebrity, with specific reference to the Australian athlete in the field of swimming. In that sense, this paper argues that parallels in other political systems for ruthless, sustained success, and the loss occasioned by it to individual sports figures, should be considered. Liberal democracies can still be perpetrating systems of sporting depression and mental illness, undermining their representatives in a relentless drive for performance and medals. The problem lies in what might be best described as a sporting industrial complex, one that emerged in Australia with the professionalization of sports.</p></abstract>

This article considers the cultural and social crisis facing the sporting celebrity, with specific reference to the Australian athlete in the field of swimming. In that sense, this paper argues that parallels in other political systems for ruthless, sustained success, and the loss occasioned by it to individual sports figures, should be considered. Liberal democracies can still be perpetrating systems of sporting depression and mental illness, undermining their representatives in a relentless drive for performance and medals. The problem lies in what might be best described as a sporting industrial complex, one that emerged in Australia with the professionalization of sports.

The Black Dog of Swimming: Mental Illness and Australia’s Sporting Industrial Complex

Physical Culture and Sport. Studies and Research

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

This article considers the cultural and social crisis facing the sporting celebrity, with specific reference to the Australian athlete in the field of...

The Black Dog of Swimming: Mental Illness and Australia’s Sporting Industrial Complex

Published Online: Mar 29, 2019

Page range: 23 - 35

Received: Jan 24, 2019

Accepted: Jan 18, 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/pcssr-2019-0003

Keywords
mental illness, Australian swimming, health, sporting industrial complex

© 2019 Binoy Kampmark, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

The Black Dog of Swimming: Mental Illness and Australia’s Sporting Industrial Complex

Published Online: Mar 29, 2019

Page range: 23 - 35

Received: Jan 24, 2019

Accepted: Jan 18, 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/pcssr-2019-0003

Keywordsmental illness, Australian swimming, health, sporting industrial complex

© 2019 Binoy Kampmark, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
mental illness, Australian swimming, health, sporting industrial complex