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TELEVISION SPORT AND THE SACRIFICIAL HERO

This article reexamines television sporting heroes in the light of the myths that accompany their stereotypical images. It considers briefly the pressures that encourage broadcasters to build the most successful athletes into stars and addresses some of the main constituents propagated in such figures. The elaborate ceremonies mounted in the stadium for the Barcelona Olympics are reviewed so as to focus on a central myth on which those presentations touched. And an account is given of the manner in which the television channels received in Britain mediated these performances. The article concludes by arguing that, despite the evidence provided by the Barcelona ceremonies, the vestiges of certain ancient myths still have an animating function in television's routine sports coverage.