Kategoria BISAC: Sports & Recreation >> Olympics & Paralympics

IN 1936, Adolf Hitler welcomed the world to Berlin to attend the Olympic Games. It promised to be not only a magnificent sporting event but also a grand showcase for the rebuilt Germany. No effort was spared to present the Third Reich as the newest global power. But beneath the glittering surface, the Games of the Eleventh Olympiad of the Modern Era came to act as a crucible for the dark political forces that were gathering, foreshadowing the bloody conflict to come.

The 1936 Olympics were nothing less than the most political sporting event of the last century--an epic clash between...

The 1932 Olympic games took place in Los Angeles in the depths of the Great Depression; that they were held at all falls barely short of miraculous. The United States sent thirty-seven women to compete--seventeen swimmers, seventeen track and field athletes, and three fencers. It was not easy, and far from acceptable, for a woman to be an athlete in 1932. As late as April 1931 the International Olympic Committee seriously considered eliminating women's events. The young Americans did their part to capture the imagination of spectators and reporters. Through the sports press they catapulted...

A quaint idea in the 1890s, the Olympic Games are now the foremost sporting event in the world. Information on the winners and medals abounds, but this unique book provides information on the events surrounding the Olympics: political controversies, scandals, tragedies, economic issues, and peripheral incidents. Covering specific games from the 1896 Olympics in Athens to the 2002 games in Salt Lake City, this volume also presents plans for the 2004 Athens games, 2006 Turin games, and the 2008 summer games.

Enhanced with new illustrations, this book includes sections on both...

According to most accounts, the man solely responsible for reviving the modern Olympic Games was Baron Pierre de Coubertin. Now, in The Modern Olympics, David C. Young challenges this view, revealing that Coubertin was only the last and most successful of many contributors to the dream of the modern Olympics.

Based on thirteen years of research in previously neglected documents, Young reconstructs the fascinating and almost unknown history of the Olympic revival movement in the nineteenth century, including two long-forgotten Olympiads--one in London in 1866 and another in...

With the summer Olympics' return to Athens, Tony Perrottet delves into the ancient world and lets the Greek Games begin again. The acclaimed author of Pagan Holiday brings attitude, erudition, and humor to the fascinating story of the original Olympic festival, tracking the event day by day to re-create the experience in all its compelling spectacle.

Using firsthand reports and little-known sources--including an actual Handbook for a Sports Coach used by the Greeks--The Naked Olympics creates a vivid...

The Olympic Games symbolize global cooperation, international understanding and the bonding of individuals through sports. However, throughout the history of the modern games, the Olympic ideal has often been confronted by a different reality. Crises ranging from drug abuse to racism and accusations of Disneyfication have threatened the spirit of Olympism and even the Games themselves. Post-Olympism? is the first book to provide a useful overview of the ongoing significance of the Olympics. Is Olympism relevant today? Have more frequent and tightly organized events such as World...

The Olympic Games symbolize global cooperation, international understanding and the bonding of individuals through sports. However, throughout the history of the modern games, the Olympic ideal has often been confronted by a different reality. Crises ranging from drug abuse to racism and accusations of Disneyfication have threatened the spirit of Olympism and even the Games themselves. Post-Olympism? is the first book to provide a useful overview of the ongoing significance of the Olympics. Is Olympism relevant today? Have more frequent and tightly organized events such as World...

Already the world has seen the political, economic, and cultural significance of hosting the 2008 Olympics in Beijing--in policies instituted and altered, positions softened, projects undertaken. But will the Olympics make a lasting difference? This book approaches questions about the nature and future of China through the lens of sports--particularly as sports finds its utmost international expression in the Olympics.

Drawing on newly available archival sources to analyze a hundred-year perspective on sports in China, Olympic Dreams explores why the country became obsessed...