Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht's new book continues his reflections on the category of presence. Only this time, the subject of reflection was not Heidegger’s philosophy, but sport, or rather, its spectacular side, which makes many of us passionate fans, glued to TV screens or empathizing with the competition from the stadium stands. Ancient Olympics, knightly tournaments, athletic games of the Renaissance, the emergence of modern sports and its present day become the source of anthropological intuitions of the remarkable historian and literary critic Professor Gumbrecht. Contents: ORDINARY FAN 71. DEFINITIONS 16 Praise 18 Beauty 29 Sports 412. BREAKS 57 Demigods 61 Gladiators 67 Knights 72Desperate 77Athletes 81Olympians 87Consumers 953. CHARMING OBJECTS 100Bodies 102Suffering 105Grace 111Projectiles 115Shapes 119Games 122Sense of Time 129GRATITUDE 133Observation 135Dregs 150Gratitudes 167