Olympics category: 421 books

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...

As the only American in the senior management team of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games, Jeff Ruffolo takes you behind the scenes and into a world no one has ever before witnessed. This remarkable, first-person account of the Beijing Summer Olympic Games is a riveting narrative taking you inside...

“A people’s history of the Olympics.”—New York Times Book Review A Boston Globe Best Book of the Year A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Year The Games is best-selling sportswriter David Goldblatt’s sweeping, definitive history of the modern Olympics. Goldblatt...

‘ An enthralling account’ Independent ‘ A fascinating book… researched with an awesome thoroughness’ Daily Telegraph ‘ Hampton’ s excellent book should be compulsory reading for everyone involved in the 2012 London Olympics’ Daily Mail Critic’ s Choice The budget...

According to legend, the ancient Olympic Games were founded by Heracles (the Roman Hercules), a son of Zeus. The first Olympics were held in 776 BCE and continued to be played every four years for nearly 1200 years. In 393 CE, the Roman emperor Theodosius I, a Christian, abolished the Games because...

The Olympics: The Basics is an accessible, contemporary introduction to the Olympic movement and Games. Chapters explain how the Olympics transcend sports, engaging us with a range of contemporary philosophical, social, cultural and political matters, including: peace development and diplomacy management...

Sex & the Olympics: Condomania explores the importance of the condom and uncovers its controversial journey en route to becoming an Olympic tradition. It looks at just how many condoms are distributed and reveals which Games suffered a critical shortage in rubber contraceptives. It examines opposition...

Designing the Olympics claims that the Olympic Games provide opportunities to reflect on the relationship between design, national identity, and citizenship. The "Olympic design milieu" fans out from the construction of the Olympic city and the creation of emblems, mascots, and ceremonies,...

Ask most Olympians how their story begins and they will answer, "When I was young, I always dreamed of going to the Olympics. . ." Some will then go on to tell of their great athletic triumphs. Others will recall agonizing near-misses. But for most, the very fact that they reached the Games...

The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics ended with a bang, when the country that gave the game of hockey to the world was on top of the world. On home ice. Canadians celebrated coast-to-coast-to-coast the record 14 gold medals won by their Olympians in Vancouver and Whistler. The politicians and sponsors...

At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, London Mayor Boris Johnson memorably said of London 2012 that 'Ping-Pong is coming home'. In fact, he might justifiably have said that 'the modern Olympic movement is coming home'. In 1850, Shropshire doctor William Penny Brookes began Olympian Games for the moral, physical...

Who reprimanded Hitler during the 1936 Olympic Games? When did the Olympic event "shin kicking" get banned? Which Shakespearean play refers to the Olympic Games? Who was the first official cheat in 388BC? Find the answers to these and many other intriguing aspects of the Olympic Games...

The 1988 Seoul Olympics played host to what has been described by some as the dirtiest race of all time, by others as the greatest. The final of the men's 100 metres at those Olympics is certainly the most infamous in the history of athletics, and more indelibly etched into the consciousness of the...

In the 2016 Olympic Games, a dozen athletes—record-breakers, notable pioneers, and all-around thrilling competitors—were overlooked in the prime-time TV coverage obsessed with sprinters, soccer legacies, and “angry faces.” Outside the Rio Spotlight tells tales of courage and American excellence...