Historical Dictionary of the Olympic Movement (Historical Dictionaries of Sports) - Hardcover

Grasso, John; Mallon, Bill; Heijmans, Jeroen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1442248599 ISBN 13: 9781442248595

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2015

Synopsis

The Olympic Movement began with the Ancient Olympic Games, which were held in Greece on the Peloponnesus peninsula at Olympia, Greece. It is not clear why the Greeks instituted this quadrennial celebration in the form of an athletic festival. The recorded history of the Ancient Olympic Games begins in 776 B.C., although it is suspected that the Games had been held for several centuries by that time. The Games were conducted as religious celebrations in honor of the god Zeus, and it is known that Olympia was a shrine to Zeus from about 1000 B.C. In modern time The Olympic Movement attempts to bring all the nations of the world together in a series of multisport festivals, the Olympic Games, seeking to use sport as a means to promote internationalism and peace.

This fifth edition of Historical Dictionary of The Olympic Movement covers its history through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 1000 cross-referenced entries on the history, philosophy, and politics of the Olympics, major organizations, the various sports, the participating countries, and especially the athletes. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about The Olympic Movement.

About this title

About the Author:

John Grasso, an Olympic historian and Treasurer of the International Society of Olympic Historians, was born in New York City, raised in Queens, NY, educated as an accountant but spent most of his working life in data processing. He moved to Guilford in Central New York State in 1980, has written on boxing, wrestling, bowling, basketball, tennis and football and has traveled extensively—visiting more than forty-five countries and attending nine Olympic Games.

Bill Mallon a former professional golfer, is an orthopedic surgeon whose lifelong interest in the Olympic Games became a second career while he was in medical school at Duke University. This fifth edition is his twenty-fifth book on the Olympic Games. With Erich Kamper, he coauthored The Golden Book of the Olympic Games, and with the late Ian Buchanan he wrote Quest for Gold: The Encyclopedia of American Olympians and several other books, including the first three editions of this book. He is the author of a series of books on the earliest Olympic Games (1896–1920) and is a founding member and past president of the International Society of Olympic Historians and former editor of ISOH’s Journal of Olympic History. For his contributions to the Olympic Movement, he was awarded the Olympic Order in Silver in 2001. He also serves as the President of the American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons (ASES) (2014-15), editor-in-chief of the Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery, medical editor of Golf Digest, and medical editor of Orthopaedic Coding Newsletter.

Jeroen Heijmans is an information technology (IT) professional from the Netherlands. Fascinated by the Olympics since he was nine years old, he is involved in the OlyMADMen, a group that attempts to collect complete historic results of the Olympic Games (partially available on www.sportsreference.com/olympics). He has written extensively about the Olympic Games on the Dutch sports history site Sportgeschiedenis.nl and is a member (and the web master) of the International Society of Olympic Historians (ISOH).

Review:

The fifth edition of the publisher's series dealing with the Olympic Movement contains much of the same material that previous editions are known for, including hundreds of A-Z entries providing relevant details about athletes, countries, sports, dates, commentators, organizations, and related subjects. This reference book is a good place for beginners to do general research on the Olympics, with a chronology going back to 1100 BC and forward to 2020. Offering a few black-and-white photos throughout the text, authors Grasso (an Olympic historian), Mallon (a former professional golfer), and Heijmans (an IT professional) focus on athletes from the 19th and early 20th centuries. A number of athletes are not included, however (e.g., American ice skater Dick Button is mentioned but not Peggy Fleming or Dorothy Hamill, other than their listing in an appendix on final Olympic torchbearers). Most entries average approximately a half page in length, although some are considerably longer (e.g., ‘Women at the Olympics’ or ‘Olympic Finance’ are six and eight pages, respectively). Very short entries appear on the future games in 2016, 2018, and 2020. Because the book is user friendly and contains many cross-references, the new information warrants purchase of a new edition. Summing Up: Recommended. All academic and general audiences. (CHOICE)

This fifth edition has nearly 200 more pages than the fourth edition. There’s a lot of information: a chronology starting in ancient Greece, a section that discusses each modern summer and winter Olympics; and an A-Z dictionary that includes athletes, countries, different commissions, events, and mascots.... Recommended. (American Reference Books Annual)

Historical Dictionary of the Olympic Movement fifth edition is quality work and an exhaustive overview of the Olympics.... [It] will be of interest to a range of libraries and researchers including: high school, public, and university libraries.... Overall, Historical Dictionary of the OlympicMovement is a solid book and serves as comprehensive high-level overview of the Olympics and its history, while providing highly detailed and nuanced information about athletes, events and more. Historical Dictionary of theOlympic Movement is recommended for libraries, experts and fans. (Reference Reviews)

About this edition

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1442248599
• ISBN 13: 9781442248595
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 5
• Number of pages: 906