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Cheat
M astering the not-so-subtle art of cheating in sport.
Where there’s sport, there’s cheating. No sport is immune; athletics, swimming, rugby, American Football, cricket, baseball, badminton, motorsports, tennis and curling. Yes, even that sport on the ice with brooms.
Almost as soon as humans started playing sport competitively, they started to cheat. They cheated to win, for the fame, for the money and sometimes for reasons that are hard to understand.
From the fiendishly clever to the outright hare brained, the borderline to the blatant, Titus O’Reily takes us through the many and varied ways athletes and countries have tried to cheat over the years.
There’s the winner of the New York marathon who was driven in a car part of the way, the male basketballer whose drug test revealed he was pregnant, the Tour De France where many of the riders took the train, the Spanish Paralympic basketball team who faked being intellectually disabled to win gold at the 2000 Paralympics.
As well as sharing an alarming amount of tales involving swapping bodily fluids, Titus takes you through doping, illegal equipment, bribes, playing dirty, faking injuries, wearing disguises, dodgy referees, ball tampering, eye gouging, itching powder, licking an opponent to distract them and sending a dwarf out to bat to shrink the strike zone.
Just as sport has become more sophisticated, so has cheating in sport, from state backed doping programs to tiny motors in Tour De France bikes.
What does this say about us, that we cheat with such regularity and creativity? Will technology help stop cheating or will it only make it worse?
Mastering the not-so-subtle art of cheating is a hilarious trip through the history of cheating in sport, and a handy how-to-guide for the professional athlete in your family.
Where there’s sport, there’s cheating. No sport is immune; athletics, swimming, rugby, American Football, cricket, baseball, badminton, motorsports, tennis and curling. Yes, even that sport on the ice with brooms.
Almost as soon as humans started playing sport competitively, they started to cheat. They cheated to win, for the fame, for the money and sometimes for reasons that are hard to understand.
From the fiendishly clever to the outright hare brained, the borderline to the blatant, Titus O’Reily takes us through the many and varied ways athletes and countries have tried to cheat over the years.
There’s the winner of the New York marathon who was driven in a car part of the way, the male basketballer whose drug test revealed he was pregnant, the Tour De France where many of the riders took the train, the Spanish Paralympic basketball team who faked being intellectually disabled to win gold at the 2000 Paralympics.
As well as sharing an alarming amount of tales involving swapping bodily fluids, Titus takes you through doping, illegal equipment, bribes, playing dirty, faking injuries, wearing disguises, dodgy referees, ball tampering, eye gouging, itching powder, licking an opponent to distract them and sending a dwarf out to bat to shrink the strike zone.
Just as sport has become more sophisticated, so has cheating in sport, from state backed doping programs to tiny motors in Tour De France bikes.
What does this say about us, that we cheat with such regularity and creativity? Will technology help stop cheating or will it only make it worse?
Mastering the not-so-subtle art of cheating is a hilarious trip through the history of cheating in sport, and a handy how-to-guide for the professional athlete in your family.
297 pages, Paperback
Published November 3, 2020
20 people are currently reading
94 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
August 17, 2021
I really piled into the sports reading recently, and this one was a great complement to my recent Olympic obsession as well. O'Reily takes us on a whistle-stop tour through the history of cheat in sports. This story has it all, doping, attempted murder, spying, cooking the books, state-orchestrated programmes, and more. It moves beyond the most obvious examples (I'm think Lance Armstrong and Russia being banned from the Olympics) which is what makes it more interesting. Informative, and humourous, all you sports fans could do a lot worse than this.
May 11, 2022
All in all, it seems that no one spared from O’Reily’s humorous criticism. Not players, not coaches, not teams, not even whole nation states.
Of course this is by no means a definitive or complete history of cheating in sport, but Titus O’Reily does well to pick out the most interesting, impressive and down right weird things people have done to get ahead in their athletic endeavours.
This book delves into the famous scandals, such as that between Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan, but also pays attention to the lesser known blunders, like the poor bloke who lathered himself in beef fat before running an Olympic marathon.
O’Reily has a comically charming style. Although, while some jokes made me laugh, others made me roll my eyes. Overall its hard to escape the sense that this book is like talking to a mate at the pub over a few beers, making it the perfect lighthearted read for any sports fan.
Anyways, I’m off to run a marathon. If you see me catching a train to the finish line, no you didn’t.
Of course this is by no means a definitive or complete history of cheating in sport, but Titus O’Reily does well to pick out the most interesting, impressive and down right weird things people have done to get ahead in their athletic endeavours.
This book delves into the famous scandals, such as that between Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan, but also pays attention to the lesser known blunders, like the poor bloke who lathered himself in beef fat before running an Olympic marathon.
O’Reily has a comically charming style. Although, while some jokes made me laugh, others made me roll my eyes. Overall its hard to escape the sense that this book is like talking to a mate at the pub over a few beers, making it the perfect lighthearted read for any sports fan.
Anyways, I’m off to run a marathon. If you see me catching a train to the finish line, no you didn’t.
January 14, 2025
Excellent book detailing a variety of sporting cheats, some comical, some terrifying in their malignancy.
January 17, 2022
A great insight into the scandals that have plagued many different sporting events over the years. The author has clearly done a lot of research, and provides interesting info & analysis on some of the most notorious scandals (like Lance Armstrong & Tonya Harding), the likes of which I thought I’d known everything but happily got new juicy tidbits from! I wish he didn’t try to be so funny so much - some of his jokes were quite good but a lot landed flat. A solid piece of entertainment though!
February 4, 2023
This was quite an interesting read. I never realised that people could and did cheat in just about every sport that is played.
December 10, 2021
One too many dad jokes but v enjoyable nonetheless
February 4, 2021
A light hearted look at some great sporting stories.
Really enjoyed the history of the Tour De France and Marathon.
Very enjoyable, easy read.
Really enjoyed the history of the Tour De France and Marathon.
Very enjoyable, easy read.
August 16, 2020
I received an ARC of this book.
Interesting look at cheating in sports. Titus explores the players, coaches, management and countries who do it, why the do it and how they do it. He covers all sports from the obvious, cycling to the What The, in table tennis and curling!
Do yourself a favor and make sure you read the foot notes. There are definitely some LOL moments in those, as much as within the the content of the book.
This is a great read for the sports but in your family. Titus has done some amazing research and put it all together in an easy to digest 288 pages. At times very funny and other times very cringeworthy (due to the cheat, not the writing!), this book will make you look at sports and the people involved at all levels, in different ways. It will make you question every unbelievable feat you witness and open your eyes to the dark alleys behind our sporting heroes!
Interesting look at cheating in sports. Titus explores the players, coaches, management and countries who do it, why the do it and how they do it. He covers all sports from the obvious, cycling to the What The, in table tennis and curling!
Do yourself a favor and make sure you read the foot notes. There are definitely some LOL moments in those, as much as within the the content of the book.
This is a great read for the sports but in your family. Titus has done some amazing research and put it all together in an easy to digest 288 pages. At times very funny and other times very cringeworthy (due to the cheat, not the writing!), this book will make you look at sports and the people involved at all levels, in different ways. It will make you question every unbelievable feat you witness and open your eyes to the dark alleys behind our sporting heroes!
June 12, 2024
I wasn't to sure about this book when I saw it on the shelf at the library, but I thought what the hell. I really enjoyed it having seen some many of the stories show up when they happened.
I'm not a really big sports fan but found the book just drew me in. 36 hours from start to finish
I'm not a really big sports fan but found the book just drew me in. 36 hours from start to finish
June 22, 2021
Another humorous construction built upon the bedrock of truth, delivered only as Titus can.
A bedrock that ranges from the simplistic, to the opportunistic, to the premediated and calculated cheating by individuals, teams and state sponsored programs of East Germany and Russia. Cheating in sport is timeless and within this work Titus covers many of the sports that likely immediately come to mind, several that may not and one or two that never would. Which goes to show just what human competitive nature is and can be.
Likely as wonderful when read at a gentle pace, yet I found myself driven to finish it quickly. Maybe more quickly than you, and yes I read every page, however I may have had heavily caffeinated hours to assist me in getting through. But coffee is legal. Right ?
A bedrock that ranges from the simplistic, to the opportunistic, to the premediated and calculated cheating by individuals, teams and state sponsored programs of East Germany and Russia. Cheating in sport is timeless and within this work Titus covers many of the sports that likely immediately come to mind, several that may not and one or two that never would. Which goes to show just what human competitive nature is and can be.
Likely as wonderful when read at a gentle pace, yet I found myself driven to finish it quickly. Maybe more quickly than you, and yes I read every page, however I may have had heavily caffeinated hours to assist me in getting through. But coffee is legal. Right ?
January 19, 2021
If interested in sports, this is a good read. If interested in the lengths people will go to in various situations, this is a good read.
It is essentially a summary of some of the more outrageous and ludicrous schemes sports people and officials have entered into in order to win. It wasn’t as Australian focussed as I would have preferred - I had to look up some of the teams and places.
But Titus brings his own comedic take on the schemes which I thoroughly enjoyed.
It is essentially a summary of some of the more outrageous and ludicrous schemes sports people and officials have entered into in order to win. It wasn’t as Australian focussed as I would have preferred - I had to look up some of the teams and places.
But Titus brings his own comedic take on the schemes which I thoroughly enjoyed.
January 8, 2025
Lots of good stories, from an incredibly wide range of sports, sportspeople and nations. The author found some really interesting facts and retold the incidents well.
Three stars only because I did not enjoy his style of humor which basically boils down to 'people are idiots and I'm standing on my high hill looking down on them all'. Well obviously the cheating people were idiots, but the jokes weren't funny, and were incredibly repetitive.
Three stars only because I did not enjoy his style of humor which basically boils down to 'people are idiots and I'm standing on my high hill looking down on them all'. Well obviously the cheating people were idiots, but the jokes weren't funny, and were incredibly repetitive.
February 9, 2021
I'm a sports nerd (I'd say "tragic" but a certain slimy piece of shit former Australian PM has made that term as toxic as his politics) so I already knew pretty much every one of these "scandals" but for those that like snarky sarcastic humour and people being caught playing the system this is recommended.
December 31, 2021
Wrtten wittily, the book highlights our almost universal need for recognition and the boundaries we are sometimes prepared to cross to achieve it. As O'Reily says "If your best defense is that other people also cheat, you don't actually have a defense, you only have a rather obvious statement of fact."
September 21, 2023
3.5*
Really bonkers people out there - including sinister countries. These stories were interesting as hell.
However, I found the narration to be lazy and so much butchery of people’s names was quite off putting.
Finally, the audio cut and skipped numerous times which was frustrating. (Wasn’t my internet.)
Really bonkers people out there - including sinister countries. These stories were interesting as hell.
However, I found the narration to be lazy and so much butchery of people’s names was quite off putting.
Finally, the audio cut and skipped numerous times which was frustrating. (Wasn’t my internet.)
February 27, 2024
An informative & hilarious recount of various ways athletes have cheated across sports history. The cheating debacles range from depraved liars wielding their social power to destroy other people’s careers for speaking out against them (Lance Armstrong is a disgusting person), to simply absurd shenanigans. 4/5, recommend it as an informative and entertaining read.
January 19, 2021
Very interesting book. Saw the Author on "The Front Bar" and liked his humor. The lengths people go to too cheat is amazing. Knew about some of the incidents but some were new to me. Read this book practically overnight as it an interesting read.
June 1, 2023
Titus O’Reily details the world of sport’s dark underbelly in laugh out loud style. From foolish to evil, and sometimes plain absurd, it is remarkable the lengths some athletes and officials will go to win, and this book details the cream of the crop!
September 16, 2023
Whilst it's quite an entertaining book, I listened to the audio book which was narrated by the author. I would not really recommend this as he has appalling pronunciation of any non-English word/name... he was a bit average at some of the English ones too - the word is "Authoritarian" mate ;)
November 16, 2020
Written in a nice easy style but as an Australian I thought Titus would have more relevant stuff and I found too much American baseball, however apart from that did enjoy
February 25, 2021
An enjoyable read detailing some bizarre attempts to gain the ultimate success in sport
March 21, 2021
A sadly entertaining book about the known limits of stupidity and greed.
May 14, 2021
A funny and interesting look at the world of sports cheats. The proof reading in this book is appalling.
May 18, 2021
Good fun read
August 25, 2021
A delight. Also, ideas.
September 12, 2021
I found this was an amusing read to start with, but when getting in people conspiring together or worse, I found it somewhat depressing. What's wrong with the joy of competing and having a go?
October 31, 2021
A nice light read
March 15, 2022
Very enjoyable read - Titus O'Reilly's wit shines through.
Highly recommend
Highly recommend
March 27, 2022
Easy, fast reading while in Covid Q. Some of these episodes I’d heard before, but most were new.
One thing I learnt is how hopeless WADA have been.
An amusing style from the comedian author.
One thing I learnt is how hopeless WADA have been.
An amusing style from the comedian author.
June 1, 2022
Dispiriting. Amusingly sad.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews