The Gold in the Rings: The People and Events That Transformed the Olympic Games (Sport and Society) - Hardcover

Wenn, Stephen R; Barney, Robert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0252042689 ISBN 13: 9780252042683

Publisher: University of Illinois Press, 2020

Synopsis

Once a showcase for amateur athletics, the Olympic Games have become a global entertainment colossus powered by corporate sponsorship and professional participation. Stephen R. Wenn and Robert K. Barney offer the inside story of this transformation by examining the far-sighted leadership and decision-making acumen of four International Olympic Committee (IOC) presidents: Avery Brundage, Lord Killanin, Juan Antonio Samaranch, and Jacques Rogge. Blending biography with historical storytelling, the authors explore the evolution of Olympic commercialism from Brundage's uneasy acceptance of television rights fees through the revenue generation strategies that followed the Salt Lake City bid scandal to the present day. Throughout, Wenn and Barney draw on their decades of studying Olympic history to dissect the personalities, conflicts, and controversies behind the Games' embrace of the business of spectacle.

Entertaining and expert, The Gold in the Rings maps the Olympics' course from paragon of purity to billion-dollar profits.

About this title

About the Author

Stephen R. Wenn is a professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education at Wilfrid Laurier University. Robert K. Barney is professor emeritus and founding director emeritus of the International Center for Olympic Studies at the School of Kinesiology at Western University. They are the authors (with Scott Martyn) of Tarnished Rings: The International Olympic Committee and the Salt Lake City Bid Scandal.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Publication date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0252042689
• ISBN 13: 9780252042683
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 360