 From August 8th to 24th, the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, better known as the Summer Olympics will take place in Beijing, People's Republic of China. For two and a half weeks, the world's eyes will turn to China for the world's largest and most prestigious amateur sporting event .
Having taken place since the first Modern Olympiad in Athens, Greece in 1894, this event in steeped in history. Check out this assortment of hand selected books chronicling the history of the winter and summer Olympics as well as profiling some of the most fascinating incidents in this prestigious event. We have also included several books specifically on the subject of this summer's event in Beijing.
These Olympics are certainly not without their fair share of controversy, check out our feature on past Olympic crises.
Excited for the Summer Olympics? Then why not come and discuss it in our Community Forums.
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Lillian M. Li; Alison Dray-Novey; Haili Kong
From its earliest beginnings to its attempts to be recognized as a major international city, the history of Beijing is a fascinating journey. Focusing on the lives of ordinary people as well as rulers, this work highlights the controversial destruction of Beijing's historic districts and the construction of Olympic venues. This book contains illustrations and is available in hardback.
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Dong-Jhy Hwang
Sport, Revolution and the Beijing Olympics is a cultural history of sport in China and challenges many Western assumptions held by human rights activists who support a boycott. The author debunks harmful myths about Chinese imperialism, as well as the prevalence of drugs in Chinese sports. This book presents a balanced view in an attempt to correct popular misunderstandings.
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Susan Brownell
Why is hosting the Olympics so important to China? What is the significance of a quintessential symbol of Western civilization taking place in the heart of the Far East? Will the Olympics change China, or will China change the Olympics?
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Eleni Theodoraki
Accessible, insightful and highly topical this is the first text to focus on the nature of the Olympic Games as the ultimate mega event. This book provides strong theoretical analysis of processes and challenges in the lifecycle of the Olympics event organisation, from bidding to closing down. Olympic Event Organization gives a glimpse into just how much goes into the incredible spectacle we bear witness to every four years.
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Clive Gifford
Created by an award-winning author-and-illustrator team, Olympics sets the stage with facts, articles, and essential background information across the complete range of Olympic summer competition. Every aspect of the summer games is covered, including their history, the bidding process, training and qualifying, and life in the Olympic Village. Coverage of the events themselves captures the exhilaration of competing at the pinnacle of world sportsfrom explosive sprints and the grace of gymnastics to the proving grounds of endurance, the marathon and triathlon, and everything in between.
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Richard W. Pound
A candid look at how the Olympic rings got so tarnishedfrom a top IOC insider
Bribery, illicit drugs, tainted judges, dirty politics . . . the Olympics have come a long way from ancient Greece. Far from the vaunted symbol of athletic excellence, the Olympic games have become awash in scandal (from doping and judging scandals, questionable selection practices for future sites) that have given it a tawdry luster only cynics and news junkies would relish. Now, Dick Pound, a former Olympic medalist and twenty-five year member of the IOC gives an insider's account of the politics within the IOC as well as an unsensationalistic look at what went on behind the headlines.
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Sue Macy
"Let the games begin!" is a cry that has stirred athletes and citizens from countries all over the world for more than a hundred years. In Swifter, Higher, Stronger, Sue Macy has captured a compelling and comprehensive portrait of the summer Olympics, one that spans contests and culture, pageantry and history. In five hard-to-put-down chapters, she explains the revival of the modern Olympics and how they survived boycotts, wars, and terrorism to grow into the vast media event we know today. She profiles the breakthrough athletes who became household names after hanging medal upon medal around their necks: names like Jesse Owens, Jim Thorpe, Babe Didrikson, and Jackie Joyner Kersey.
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Floyd Conner
Olympic history is filled with the unusual, the bizarre, and the unbelievable. The Olympic's Most Wanted chronicles 700 of the most outlandish competitors in the history of the winter and summer Olympics. Its seventy lists describe in humorous detail the Olympics' most inept athletes, strangest events, most embarrassing performances, poorest losers, most outrageous cheaters, unlikeliest heroes, most notorious disqualifications, and more.
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