Neil Duncanson Goes In-Depth On The Olympic's Highlight Event
The Fastest Men on Earth: The Complete Stories of the Olympic Men's 100m Champions (2021)
A Quick Book Review
Well, it certainly took me longer than a sprint to get through "The Fastest Men on Earth", Neil Duncanson's in-depth look at the history of the Olympic Games' men's 100 meters champions.
A Quick Book Review
Well, it certainly took me longer than a sprint to get through "The Fastest Men on Earth", Neil Duncanson's in-depth look at the history of the Olympic Games' men's 100 meters champions.
But that's certainly an indictment of my procrastination, and not the quality of the author's work. A writer known for media production, Duncanson dives deep into the background and 'complete stories' of each of the Olympic winners.
From Athens 1896's Thomas Burke to Rio 2016's Usain Bolt, each chapter presents a remarkable depth of background, insights, interviews, and anecdotes that illuminate who these men were and are - before and after their Olympic glory. At times tragic or inspiring, their stories together present a wonderful history of "the blue ribbon event of the Olympic Games", as described by Bolt in a foreword.
And Fastest Men thankfully doesn't skimp on highlighting the contemporaries who pushed these men to gold. Through misfortunate or just bad luck, the men on the wayside aren't just would-have-beens, but fellow competitors who easily could have been similar stars if not for fate.
Published ahead of Tokyo 2020, Fastest Men offers a mouth-watering question of who would inherit the mantle from three-time champion Bolt. Or, at least would-be mouth-watering, now knowing how those Games unfolded in the event. I'm curious, very curious, now to read what Duncanson would unveil about who Marcell Jacobs, the Tokyo champ know for being off-the-radar for much of the lead-up to the Games, is. So unexpected a champion was Jacobs that even though Fastest Men concludes with an admission that Tokyo 2020 would be "much more difficult to predict", Jacobs doesn't register any mention amongst fellow contenders Trayvon Bromell, Andre De Grasse, Noah Lyles, and others.
I'm also eager to see if we'll get a similar treatment one day from someone on the history of the women's 100 meters. Elise Hooper's 2020 novel Fast Girls on the early years of the women's event history is a great start, but obviously so many more stories are waiting to be discovered.
In the meantime, Fastest Men is well worth a place on the bookshelf of every Olympic fan and armchair historian. There is a lot to uncover - from Harold Abrahams at Paris 1924 as inspiration for the classic film Chariots of Fire, to Jesse Owen's Berlin 1936's exploits, to the beginnings of Carl Lewis' stardom at Los Angeles 1984, and the spectacular rise and fall of Ben Johnson at Seoul 1988. Subtitled alternatively as The Complete Stories of the Olympic Men's 100 Meters Champions, or The Lives and Legacies of...or The Inside Stories of..., The Fastest Men on Earth delivers.
Make sure to check out other book and media reviews by Games and Rings tagged under A Quick Review. And visit our curated bookshop on Bookshop.org to find Olympics-related titles to purchase, while supporting small businesses.
From Athens 1896's Thomas Burke to Rio 2016's Usain Bolt, each chapter presents a remarkable depth of background, insights, interviews, and anecdotes that illuminate who these men were and are - before and after their Olympic glory. At times tragic or inspiring, their stories together present a wonderful history of "the blue ribbon event of the Olympic Games", as described by Bolt in a foreword.
And Fastest Men thankfully doesn't skimp on highlighting the contemporaries who pushed these men to gold. Through misfortunate or just bad luck, the men on the wayside aren't just would-have-beens, but fellow competitors who easily could have been similar stars if not for fate.
Published ahead of Tokyo 2020, Fastest Men offers a mouth-watering question of who would inherit the mantle from three-time champion Bolt. Or, at least would-be mouth-watering, now knowing how those Games unfolded in the event. I'm curious, very curious, now to read what Duncanson would unveil about who Marcell Jacobs, the Tokyo champ know for being off-the-radar for much of the lead-up to the Games, is. So unexpected a champion was Jacobs that even though Fastest Men concludes with an admission that Tokyo 2020 would be "much more difficult to predict", Jacobs doesn't register any mention amongst fellow contenders Trayvon Bromell, Andre De Grasse, Noah Lyles, and others.
I'm also eager to see if we'll get a similar treatment one day from someone on the history of the women's 100 meters. Elise Hooper's 2020 novel Fast Girls on the early years of the women's event history is a great start, but obviously so many more stories are waiting to be discovered.
In the meantime, Fastest Men is well worth a place on the bookshelf of every Olympic fan and armchair historian. There is a lot to uncover - from Harold Abrahams at Paris 1924 as inspiration for the classic film Chariots of Fire, to Jesse Owen's Berlin 1936's exploits, to the beginnings of Carl Lewis' stardom at Los Angeles 1984, and the spectacular rise and fall of Ben Johnson at Seoul 1988. Subtitled alternatively as The Complete Stories of the Olympic Men's 100 Meters Champions, or The Lives and Legacies of...or The Inside Stories of..., The Fastest Men on Earth delivers.
Make sure to check out other book and media reviews by Games and Rings tagged under A Quick Review. And visit our curated bookshop on Bookshop.org to find Olympics-related titles to purchase, while supporting small businesses.
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