The Games: A Global History of the Olympics (2016)
A Quick Book Review

There seems to be a lack of new, independent publications on the history of the Olympic Games ahead of Tokyo 2020 this summer, so I revisited David Goldblatt's book, The Games: A Global History of the Olympics to help fuel my fandom.

It certainly did. The Games is an impressive read on the origins of Olympics, and takes the reader through the 120 years of the modern Games up to 2016, allowing appreciation for how far the Games have come - and the remarkable resilience of the Olympics as an institution.

Recounting the efforts of Pierre de Coubertin - inspired by various athletic contests such as the Cotswold Games, Much Wenlock Games, and Zappas Olympic Games, as well as, of course, the ancient Olympics - to bring together a modern version of Olympics, Goldblatt paints a vivid picture of de Coubertin's sense of sports as integral to a well-rounded education.

From that inspired start, the Games have persevered. Despite challenges from competitive "socialist" games, Nordic Games, separate women's games, and various bureaucracies and political challenges, the Olympic Games have grown from a sideshow to the most comprehensive and valuable sports property today.

Packaging Olympic history into different eras - e.g. the Games of the Belle Epoque period, post-World War I, tensions of depression and rise of fascism, post-World War II, start of the Cold War and post war re-branding, to a rapidly globalized era of economy and commercialism - The Games frames each Olympiad within the context of the socio-political forces at play in the world around them. One does get  a sense of what the Games mean to the psyche of organizers, participants, and fans as each chapter unfolds, and as each Games comes back to life. Sample lessons include understanding the positioning of Rome 1960 and Tokyo 1964 as opportunities to showcase new, rebuilt, post-WWII societies, and how Barcelona 1992 should be viewed as a culmination, rather than start, of a cultural rejuvenation effort.

Along the way, countless trivia and background facts are shared. London 1908 was originally to be Rome, (and 1904 St. Louis originally Chicago), Stockholm 1912 the first to be separated from a leading World's Fair, and many other firsts: the first parade of nations (the unofficial Athens 1906 Games), the first podium ceremony (Los Angeles 1932), official Olympic film (Berlin 1936), the first official poster without a human representation (Melbourne 1956), the first evening Opening Ceremony (Barcelona 1992), and much more. It's all endlessly fascinating for an Olympics fan.

Although not treated as extensively as Summer, the Winter Games are certainly included. Of note, Goldblatt offers a good summary perspective of the origins of key winter sports (skating, ice hockey, curling), and the tidbit that the first Winter edition - Chamonix 1924- were only packages as an Olympic Games retroactively. Also a reveal is that longtime Olympic president Avery Brundage actively did not like the Winter Games.

Reading The Games today, a glaring problem is wanting more. Published ahead of Rio 2016, The Games obviously doesn't cover the North Korean dilemma at Pyeongchang 2018, nor today's Covid-impacted Tokyo 2020. I also wonder how Goldblatt would retrospectively address the massive fallout from Beijing 2008 and London 2012 drug retesting, and Russia's drug manipulation at Sochi 2014.

I'm also struck by considering Antwerp 1920 as a recovery Games coming out of WWI. With the world not knowing what to expect, but needing an Olympics, I immediately thought of a parallel to Tokyo 2020 and the current pandemic. Similarly, there are lots of unknowns as to what the Games will be. But what they can be - an inspirational moment of community and resilience - is known.

Heroes (2021)
A Quick Film Review

What's one great way to weave Japanese culture into Olympic education? Use anime!

Through The Olympic Channel's five-part series "Heroes" released earlier this month, viewers can quickly learn about a handful of figures from the ancient Olympic games. With each episode at about five minutes, it's a quick and fun way to help get into the Olympic spirit.

Heroes centers on Mao, a high school runner in Japan who is unsure of her athletic career. As she questions her future, she is visited by Oly, a floating spirit and the "bestower of the wisdom of Greece upon the troubled youth", who whisks her away through time and space to ancient Greece. There, she is witness to the legends of the Games, and finds renewed motivation.

The heroes she comes across include Leonidas of Rhodes (winner of three foot races in four Olympiads), Milon of Croton (six-time wrestling champion), Kyniska of Sparta (credited as the first female champion), Ageas of Argos (who ran home immediately to celebrate his running victory), and Pherenike of Rhodes (a mother who trained her son to box and watched him compete live).

It's quick, it's charming, and it's a good introduction for children (and some adults!) to some of the prominent names of the ancient Games. My wish is that there were more, longer episodes. Luckily, more information on the ancient Olympic Games can be found on olympic.org/ancient-olympic-games.

I admit, I am usually bit delinquent in staying current with Olympic-themed books and film, but I have rather recently made a commitment to catch-up. Progress! Better late than never! Right?

So...over the holidays (told you I'm running behind), I finally caught up with two books that had long burned holes in my to-read pile. Both struck me as key pieces for my Olympic fandom, and I'm thrilled that I finally experienced them.

I'll share some quick thoughts:

​Running for My Life (Lopez Lomong and Mark A. Tabb, 2012)

Subtitled One Lost Boy's Journey from the Killing Fields of Sudan to the Olympic Games, Running for my Life is just that: the telling of U.S. runner Lopez Lomong's dramatic life ahead of his second Olympic appearance at London 2012.

​By 2012, the general story of Lomong's background was well-known. Born in South Sudan, he and his family were subject to the brutal civil war there which displaced countless people. At age six, Lomong was kidnapped from his village, and after escaping militants, spent ten years at a refugee camp as a "Lost Boy" in Kenya. In 2001, he was selected for resettlement in New York state, and he eventually took advantage of his running talent through high school and college, and onto the national level. Earning U.S. citizenship in 2007, he earned a spot on Team USA for Beijing 2008.

But Running for My Life is an autobiography, so we encounter this story in Lomong's own words and personal retrospection. And his telling of dramatic moments is poignant and inspiring. It's harrowing, to read his of his experience yet throughout, he maintains a positivity that belies any readers' discomfort. His charming wide-eyed-ness comes into best view as he settles, at times awkwardly, into a new life in the States and with a welcoming host family. From there, life is quick...his running prowess allowing him to integrate better than perhaps he would have otherwise. 

Lomong eventually finished 10th in the 5,000 meters at the London Olympics. Since, he's added four national championships and two NACA Championships, and he is still active in running and humanitarian work.

His story is a powerful one, and an important one to consider when seeing the United States - and its national team  - as a melting pot. His is a unique story, and his success is unique piece of Team USA's fabric.

The Olympic Games: The First Thousand Years (M.I. Finley and H.W. Pieket, 2012)

 Also from 2012 - although a republication of a 1976 edition (!) - The Olympic Games is a fascinating review of the origins of the Games, looking back to Ancient Greece.

Certainly, any true Olympics fan will want to be familiar with its origin story. And while The Olympic Games is a scholarly work, it's definitely readable. Reviewing a period from 776 B.C. to A.D. 261, the authors take us through the place and prestige of the Olympics at the time, juxtaposed with context of what was happening sociopolitically during these years.

​Understanding the Olympics as one of four Panhellenic Games, including the Nemean, Pythian, and Isthmian, is a revelation. All four Games were held regularly, in fixed locations - the Olympics in Olympia - and the intervening years helped the Greeks measure time. Athletes, in general rule Greek and of means, routinely participated in multiple Games. Surprisingly or not, sponsorship and politics played a role as years went on and popularity grew, challenging some modern romantic notion of the ancient purity of competition. The Olympics, the largest of the Panhellenic Games, lasted into Roman rule, but eventually fell into disfavor.

Details abound in The Olympic Games, and fans should revel in the descriptive accounts of the competition and its respect. One aspect interestingly filled out is the legendary Olympic truce. Rather than a complete stoppage of war, it's more true that warring parties would allow athlete travel, and would respect a no-battle zone around competition sites.

It's a fascinating look at the times, and what the Games are thought to have been like, and have meant to the populace then. I'll be revisiting this book often as I continue to consider the modern Games.