The contents of Dick Pound's book can be summarized best by a quick review of the table of contents. The chapters include: Who Guards the Guards: Judging, Performance Cheats: Doping, The Flame Flickers: Politics and Terror, Playing Fair: Human Rights, Keeping Corporate Company: Sponsorship and Broadcast Bonanza: TV Rights, to name a few.

I think it is interesting to note that almost every chapter is written about a current source of controversy surrounding the Olympics. It is obvious that Mr. Pound has an agenda of his own when writing about certain personalities within the International Olympic Committee but he also has a wealth of knowledge about how and why decisions are made inside the IOC and much of that process is surprising to a first time reader.

If you are interested in finding out more about the Olympics as an organization and how it works (or in some instances fails to work) then this book will certainly give you some information you will not obtain from IOC press releases.

There are times when reading this book that I wondered how Dick Pound was able to reveal some of the information without violating non-disclosure agreements that I am certain were a part of any posting he took on. That having been said, as a very intelligent lawyer, I am equally certain that he knew exactly what he was writing and what the limitations were regarding any agreements of this type.

I recommend this book to anyone that wants to know more about the IOC and the development of the modern Olympic games. It is certainly inspired me to start watching decisions regarding the games more closely and perhaps challenging them a little more often.