Robert Simon, the Marjorie and Robert McEwen Professor of Philosophy, gave the Warren Fraleigh Distinguished Scholar lecture at the 34th annual meeting of the International Association for the Philosophy of Sport held at Niagara Falls, Canada, in September. The title of his lecture was "Deserving to be Lucky: Reflections on Luck, Desert, and Fairness in Sport." In the lecture, Simon argued first that luck does not ruin or spoil athletic contests which often are conceived of as tests of pure skill, and second that initial inequalities in natural ability and environment do not preclude justifiable attributions of desert in sport although it may lessen their significance. In a section of his paper, Simon discussed colleague Dan Chambliss's book Champions: The Making of Olympic Swimmers.
Simon was given the Association's Distinguished Scholar Award in 2004 and is a past president of the organization. Scholars from 12 countries, including contingents from as far away as Australia and Japan, attended the conference.
