The International Olympic Committee unveiled an extended hype video - StrongTogether - for the upcoming Olympics ahead of tomorrow Olympic Day.

The setup: "More than a year ago, the world stopped, but there is one group of people who never stopped moving - the athletes of the Tokyo Olympic Games. It's time for us to cheer them on during the final days of their journey to Tokyo. As people, communities and a movement we are stronger together. Let's come together now; grow stronger together -- mentally, physically and in our communities; prepare together to celebrate the Tokyo2020 Olympic Games."

It's a fitting call to action, for Olympic Day, and for the upcoming Games that will take place under unprecedented pandemic times. It got my heartstrings going.

Watch it below.

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.

As described in the inside cover of the London 2012 preview edition, these "encyclopedic" books had "anything anyone could ever need or want to know about the modern Olympic Games". And, boy, did they. Pages and pages - that 2012 edition came in at 1334 pages - of results, scores, and final rankings of each official Olympic event since 1896. Forgotten events, discontinued sports, newly added disciplines - they were all there.

And not only that, many results came with commentary on the results, often remarkable in detail. The listing for the infamous Los Angeles 1984 women's 3000 meters track event - i.e. Mary Decker vs Zola Budd - spans eight columns across five pages, offering a remarkable look at both the context and aftermath of the race. I devoured stories such as Cassius Clay's post-Rome 1960 victory experience, where continued discrimination back home soured his Olympic retrospective.

The books were a treasure trove of anecdotes, quotes, and obscure information. Did you know that Barcelona 1992 rowing gold medalist Marnie McBean first took up the sport by looking up "Rowing" in the Toronto phone directory at age 16? Or, that Japan's swim team at Los Angeles 1932 were the first to "inhale oxygen before and after their races"? Paris 1924 high diving (a discontinued event) champion Richmond Eve was eventually declared ineligible for future competition by a New South Wales association...of which his brother was secretary. One could go on and on...

​The books were a passion project of author and researcher David Wallechinsky, who fell in love with the Games in 1960. Possibly best known as the man behind The Book of Lists, Wallechinsky was well-built to tackle the data and insight of the Olympics ahead of the first publication in 1984. More than thirty years' worth of editions spanning both Summer and Winter Games followed, as The Complete Book became "the preeminent point of reference for sports enthusiasts and journalists alike", and the "essential companion to the greatest sporting festival in the world". Any other attempt at a Games preview paled in comparison.

So posits 2016's Cold War Games: Propaganda, the Olympics, and U.S. Foreign Policy by Toby C. Rider, as it explores the growing propaganda-through-sport efforts by the United States as the Cold War with the Soviet Union ramped up in post-World War II era.

Olympic idealists may cringe, but the modern Olympics were structured at the start that made national competitions inevitable. Aside from the recent Refugee Olympic Team*, entries are allowed only through national committees, and national pride and passion is what has historically driven a significant fandom of the Games.

So, as the Soviet Union eyed an Olympic debut at Helsinki 1952, it was increasingly apparent that the emerging world power viewed an opportunity for athletic success to showcase its perceived communist system's success, as it looked to establish relevance in a post-war world. And, the U.S. took notice.

How the U.S. took notice - and responded - in the late 1940s into the 1950s is the focus of Cold War Games. Rider provides a deeply researched look at three elements: how the U.S. looked to leverage the "peaceful internationalism" ideals of the Olympic movement to support western ideas of democracy, how the U.S. worked a public relations campaign within host cities, and the overall effort to leverage the Olympic structure. The Olympics became an element in U.S. foreign policy interest to "...win World War III without fighting it." (Crusade for Freedom's Abbott Washburn).

Presented as an academic study, Cold War Games is exceedingly relevant for those who remember the fever pitch of the U.S. vs Soviet storylines as the Games approached, reaching its peak with the boycotts of Moscow 1980 and Los Angeles 1984. It's a shame, then, that Rider doesn't take his study through that period - although such a reader can draw the line there.

While not strictly an Olympics-focused book - Cold War Games is best seen as an examination of foreign policy through the Games - there is great perspective on Helsinki 1952 and Melbourne 1956 within the context of the Cold War. It's great insight for Olympic and political history fans to digest.

*Perhaps one of the bigger revelations is the idea of a "Refugee Olympic Team" was first proposed in the immediate post-war years, focused on refugees and "non-state" athletes from war-torn European nations. The proposal, which was ultimately rejected by the International Olympic Committee, wasn't entirely altruistic, however, as the emphasis on Eastern European refugees - namely, those fleeing the Soviet-bloc - would have also served as a p.r. coup in the Cold War context.

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.