Dionne Koller visits the Exchange. She’s the author of a new book, “More Than Play: How Law, Policy, And Politics Shape American Youth Sport.”
About the Book
Tens of millions of children in the United States participate in youth sport, a pastime widely believed to be part of a good childhood. Yet most children who enter youth sport are driven to quit by the time they enter adolescence, and many more are sidelined by its high financial burdens.
Until now, there has been little legal scholarly attention paid to youth sport or its reform. Dionne Koller sets the stage for a different approach by illuminating the law and policy assumptions supporting a model that puts children's bodies to work in an activity that generates significant surplus value. In doing so, she identifies the wide array of beneficiaries who have a stake in a system that is much more than just play—and the political choices that protect these parties' interests at children's expense.
About the Author
Dionne Koller is a law professor and Director of the Center-for-Sport and the Law at the University of Baltimore. In 2021 she was appointed to co-chair the Commission on the State of US Olympic and Paralympics. She is a graduate of Harvard Law School and received the 2024 award for significant contributions to the field of sports law by the Association of American Law Schools.
