The Olympic Games: Athens 1896-Sydney 2000 - Hardcover

Dorling Kindersley

3.75

8 ratings by Goodreads

9780789459756: The Olympic Games: Athens 1896-Sydney 2000

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0789459752 ISBN 13: 9780789459756

Publisher: Dorling Kindersley Publishers Ltd, 2000

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Including an in-depth preview of Sydney 2000.

This brand new book covers the beautiful venues, inspiring athletes and tumultuous circumstances surrounding the world's greatest sporting event. Features include an index of important facts as well as detailed statistical information about the medal winners. From Athens to Atlanta, stunning action photos taken by top sports journalists capture the true spirit of the games.

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Review:

The Olympic Games demand more from viewers than just turning on the TV. Like the athletes themselves, we spectators need to do our training. We need to know the history, the events, the competitors, and the records. The more up to speed we are on them, the better shape we're in to appreciate the hoopla.

Newly updated for the gathering in Sydney, The Olympic Games is a coffee table-sized, gold medal effort that has a complete training facility between its covers. Letting its tremendous cache of recent and vintage photos perform the heavy lifting, it looks both forward and back, running the Olympian gamut from the grand and glorious to the trivial and arcane. Sydney is previewed in detail with a full schedule and a look at the venues and some of the athletes worth keying on, but The Olympic Games's real strength is its focus on the Games' rich past and enduring legacy.

Each Olympics--summer and winter--since the 1896 revival comes with an incisive recap of the major events and personalities that defined it, followed by several wonderful pages of portraits and action shots with remarkably informative captions. The archival pictures are particularly priceless. They give faces to names and accomplishments that deserve remembering. Even better, the evolution in their very style conveys just how much so many of the sports have changed from lonely pursuits of personal excellence to international arenas for instant stardom. The book's last 100 pages are devoted to results and statistics--every gold, silver, and bronze medalist gets his or her due, and for those utterly immersed in Olympic trivia, the lighter of each Olympic torch is noted as well. --Jeff Silverman

From Publishers Weekly:

The 1996 Olympics in Atlanta will mark the centenary of the modern games, and this lavish volume, with more than 750 photos in color and b&w, is an impressive tribute. Here are the historical background to their founding by French nobleman Pierre de Coubertin and accounts of the summer and winter (the latter founded in 1925) events, from the moving victory of Greek athlete Spiridon Louis in the first marathon in Athens to the 16-day winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, in 1994. All the stars of past Olympiads are shown and their exploits detailed. Told by King Gustav in 1908 that he was the world's greatest athlete, Jim Thorpe, ever the democrat, replied, "Thanks, King." The 1924 games saw the first swimming victory of future cinematic Tarzan Johnny Weissmuller, an American; in the winter games the following year, Norwegian Sonja Henie, another future movie star, debuted in the ice rink. In 1936, African American runner-jumper Jesse Owens won four gold medals at the controversial Nazi-hosted games in Berlin; in 1972, American swimmer Mark Spitz took an unprecedented seven golds in the midst of a Palestinian terrorist attack in Munich. This book, too, deserves a gold.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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