Sports stars are omnipresent icons of popular culture. In the global age of celebrity few public personae enjoy greater popularity and recognition than professional athletes. Yet beyond their sporting achievements athletes - from stars with near-global appeal such as Muhammad Ali or Tiger Woods to local and national sporting heroes - embody and reflect key political social and cultural discourses of our time. This anthology investigates sports stardom in its global context across the spectrum of spectator sport: from the quest of Japanese star athletes to exorcise the cultural demons of postwar Japan to the Mexican pitcher celebrating victory in the first major league baseball game played on Mexican soil; from the naturalization of a Croatian footballer in Israel to the marginalization of Scottish women curlers at the Winter Olympics. Reflecting this focus Bodies of Discourse conceptualizes the discourses surrounding sports stars as part of an increasingly transnational and fragmented public sphere and thus traces the economic social and cultural roles of these discourses ranging from nationalism and racism to foreign affairs and sexual politics.