Run, Swim, Throw, Cheat cover art

Run, Swim, Throw, Cheat

The Science Behind Drugs in Sport

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Run, Swim, Throw, Cheat

By: Chris Cooper
Narrated by: Kieran Phoenix
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About this listen

Drugs in sport are big news and the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sport is common. Here, Chris Cooper, a top biochemist at the University of Essex, looks at the science behind drugs in sport. Using the performance of top athletes, Cooper begins by outlining the limits of human performance. Showing the basic problems of human biochemistry, physiology, and anatomy, he looks at what stops us running faster, throwing longer, or jumping higher. Using these evidence-based arguments he shows what the body can, and cannot, do. There is much curiosity about why certain substances are used, how they are detected, and whether they truly have an effect on the body. Cooper explains how these drugs work and the challenges of testing for them, putting in to context whether the 'doping' methods of choice are worth the risk or the effort.

Exploring the moral, political, and ethical issues involved in controlling drug use, Cooper addresses questions such as 'What is cheating?', 'What compounds are legal and why?', 'Why do the classification systems change all the time?', and 'Should all chemicals be legal, and what effect would this have on sport?'. Looking forward, he examines the recent work to study the physical limitations of rat and mice behaviour. He shows that, remarkably, simple genetic experiments producing 'supermice' suggest that there may be ways of improving human performance too, raising ethical and moral questions for the future of sport.

©2012 Chris Cooper (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
Addiction & Recovery Social Sciences Sociology of Sports Cycling Genetics Outdoor
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What listeners say about Run, Swim, Throw, Cheat

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Absolutely terrible narration.

Who on earth allowed this to be published in this state? The reader hasn't a clue how to pronounce the terms - even basic terms like 'vo2' are read as 'V O squared.'
The people behind this should have a long look at their quality control - absolutely terrible representation of good quality material. I feel sorry for the author.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Interesting view of drugs in sport but poor narration

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Very interesting content and really interesting insights into the world of sports and performance enhancing drugs, good flow to story and well structured analysis.

What did you like best about this story?

Good balance between scientific detail without getting too into the weeds on any specific topic.

Would you be willing to try another one of Kieran Phoenix’s performances?

The narration of the book was really poor. The narrator mispronounced a range of words, both technical and non-technical terms and some fairly common names (eg claret and haemoglobin) which got very annoying. Coupled with this, the editing of the audio seems to result in levels and tones of voice changing every other sentence which gave the book an odd style and made it even harder to listen to.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Great book, poor reader.

The science and information in this book is fascinating and well explained by the author. However the narrator has lead me to wish I purchased the print version. The narrator sounds throughout the book as though he is trying to in from me I have been miss-sold payment protection insurance. Frequent miss-pronunciations such as 'Animalies' for anomalies, 'EPA for EPO' and while explaining the problems of athletes lying about their age making the error of saying 'humans do (rather than don't) lay down a growth ring each year', 'vampire chick' for vampire chic..... This would be a pedantic complaint if the errors were not constant.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Terrible pronunciation ruins a brilliant book.

A sadly appalling narration. Miss pronunciation of some very basic and hugely important words and terminology that detracts from a fascinating book. Whoever was responsible for the editing needs firing. A poor representation of the author’s work. Do yourself a favour and buy the paperback.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Bad narration impossible to ignore

The book adds scientific detail to a subject I find fascinating. However the narration with it's odd pronunciations and stilted cadence meant the content became more and more difficult to follow as the narration became increasingly distracting. Listening became a challenge rather than a pleasure.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A good listen

Terrible narrator cannot pronounce some of the words. This distracts from a very good story.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Good Book. Very bad narration

The information in this book is excellent and very interesting but the patronising tone (as though reading to a 3 year old) and very frequent mispronunciations of the narrator made it very difficult to access the book.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A great book let down by terrible narration

If.you can get past the narrators odd cadence and distracting, unnecessary emphasis of every third word and flagrant mispronunciation and misreading there's a great book underneath.

Edit: the mispronunciation is getting so bad I may not finish the book. Crying shame

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

A very good insight to what goes on in sport

Excellent read, all backed up with scientific research. Well Narrated and the sections are split up perfectly

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Unbearable narrator

Very tiring intonation, every line is spoken like a sound bite. The narrator also mispronounces so many everyday words that it will have you holding your head in your hands. It is a real shame as the content is quite interesting.

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1 person found this helpful