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"My Hidden Race" is the story of Olympic medallist Anyika Onuora, who stood on the podium at every major championship in athletics. This book won't go into detail about the technicalities of her sport or the beauty of the Olympic spirit however. In the era of the Black Lives Matter and Me Too, this is an unflinching testimony of what it takes to pursue your dreams as a Black British woman against all odds. This three-time Olympian will lift the lid on the reality of life as a black female ath...

The Beijing 2008 Olympic ceremonies were spectacular performances and technological accomplishments by the People’s Republic of China. However, the audience in Beijing was only the most overt element of a global audience receiving the message of the Games. For this global audience, the Beijing performances were a harbinger of wider regional and international ambitions; a message of intent that pointed to a larger Chinese plan to a degree not seen since the Ming dynasty. New Chinese ambitions emb...

In the 1930s, as the world hurtled towards terrible global conflict, speed was all the rage. It was described by Aldous Huxley as 'the one genuinely modern pleasure', and one of the fastest and most thrilling ways to attain it was through the new sport of bobsledding. Exotic, exciting and above all dangerous, it was by far the most popular event at the Lake Placid Winter Olympics. It required an abundance of skill and bravery. And the four men who triumphed at those Games lived the most extraord...

Traces the story of the record-setting swimmer and Olympic medalist, discussing how he rose from obscurity to become a professional in his teenage years, his participation in the 2000 and 2004 Summer Olympics, and his preparation for the 2008 Games.

The book focuses on the Irish and Irish diasporal involvement in the Olympic Games. It discusses in detail the sporting involvement but, even more so, the political and national battles which accompanied the Irish Olympic journey prior to independence. It challenges our traditional perceptions of sporting nationalism and places the Irish story in a quite unique international context, showing how decisions made in London, Lausanne and New York had a profound impact on the Irish sporting, and nati...

The quadrennial summer Olympic Games produces the world's biggest single-city cultural event. Drawing on ethnographic work around the London 2012 Games, this book contrasts the rhetoric and reality of mega-event delivery and shows that the notions of beneficial Olympic legacies and delivery benefits for host communities are, for most, unobtainable.

The word 'athletics' is derived from the Greek verb 'to struggle for a prize'. After reading this book, no one will see the Olympics as a graceful display of Greek beauty again, but as war by other means. Nigel Spivey paints a portrait of the Greek Olympics as they really were - fierce contests between bitter rivals, in which victors won kudos and rewards, and losers faced scorn and even assault. Victory was almost worth dying for, and a number of athletes did just that. Many more resorted to ch...

In 1896 the first Modern Olympic Games were held in Athens and since that time have been on a journey around the world for more than a century. Now, at the dawn of the 3rd millennium, the Games are returning to the country of their birth and the city of their revival. To celebrate this momentous event, the Olympic Museum of Lausanne together with the French sports newspaper L'Equipe, in partnership with the International Olympic Committee, have collaborated for this exceptional illustrated book...

American male decathletes have enjoyed tremendous success over the course of the past century, winning 10 Olympic medals and setting 22 world decathlon records. From Dennis Adama, a world-class high jumper while at Indiana State University, to Matt Zuber, who won 8 out of his 41 career decathlons, this work summarizes the career records of 319 of the most important American decathletes of the 20th century, including Jim Thorpe, Dan O' Brien, Bob Mathias, Rafer Johnson, and Bruce Jenner. All Olym...

Canada's first Olympic gold medallist couldn't walk until he was ten, and became the greatest runner of his generation. Who was the first Canadian to Win an Olympic Gold Medal? When Mark Hebscher was asked this simple trivia question, he had no idea that it would lead him on a two year odyssey, researching a man he had never heard of. Paralyzed as a child and told he would never walk again, George Washington Orton persevered, eventually becoming the greatest distance runner of his generat...