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Books > Sport & Leisure > Sports & outdoor recreation > Sporting events, tours & organisations > Olympic games
Early in their lives, Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson and Monique Lamoureux-Morando chose ice hockey to be the sport they wanted to pursue. They didn't let the absence of girls hockey teams get in their way-they just played on boys teams. Nor did they let competitive adversity on the ice stop them on their way to a thrilling gold-medal victory at the 2018 Olympics, the United States' first gold medal in women's ice hockey in 20 years. They also did not allow roadblocks and discrimination off the ice deter them from taking on the big business of elite international and Olympic sports. The success of Monique, Jocelyne, and their team thrust them into the center of the fray in the struggle for gender equity, whether for women in hockey and in sports in general, or in society at large. In Dare to Make History, the Lamoureux twins chronicle their journey to the pinnacle of their sport, the challenges of competing as elite athletes while becoming new mothers, their efforts along with almost 150 other hockey players to start a new professional women's hockey league, their training to come back for the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, and their contributions as role models championing the dreams of future generations of girls in sports, education, and the workplace. This is their inspiring story-the story of all girls and women, as well as boys and men, who simply want a level playing field.
If you don't recall the 1976 Denver Olympic Games, it's because they never happened. The Mile-High City won the right to host the winter games and then was forced by Colorado citizens to back away from its successful Olympic bid through a statewide ballot initiative. Adam Berg details the powerful Colorado regime that gained the games for Denver and the grassroots activism that brought down its Olympic dreams, and he explores the legacy of this milestone moment for the games and politics in the United States. The ink was hardly dry on Denver's host agreement when Mexican American and African American urbanites, white middle-class environmentalists, and fiscally concerned local politicians realized opposition to the Olympics provided them new political openings. The Olympics quickly became a platform for taking stands on a range of issues, from conservation to urban livability to the very idea of growth, which for decades had been unquestioned in Colorado. The Olympics That Never Happened argues that hostility to the Olympics galvanized and empowered diverse citizens in a major US city, with long-term ramifications for Colorado and political activism elsewhere. The Olympics themselves were changed forever, compelling organizers to take seriously competing interests from subgroups within their communities.
Snowball's Chance: The Story of the 1960 Olympic Winter Games is the only book devoted solely to chronicling the historic events at Squaw Valley and Lake Tahoe. The VIII Olympic Winter Games took place in February 1960 in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. From 30 countries around the world, 665 athletes gathered over 11 days to engage in five recognized Olympic winter sports contested in 27 events. These sports and events included alpine skiing, Nordic combined, cross-country skiing, biathlon, figure skating, speed skating, ice hockey and ski jumping. You-are-there accounts of all competition events with top scores and medal results for each sport are included. Readers will learn about the extensive pageantry and artistic expression of the opening and closing ceremonies produced by the legendary Walt Disney. The 200-page book includes 80-plus photographs by official photographer Bill Briner and others showing historic Olympic venues and athletes in the heat of competition.
Tessa and Scott share their incredible and inspiring story - now updated and expanded with a new introduction, over 100 dazzling new photographs, and three all-new chapters covering the pair's stunning performances at the Sochi and PyeongChang Olympic Games and beyond. Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir are the most decorated figure skaters in the history of the sport, and are widely celebrated by peers and fans alike for their superior athleticism, one-of-a-kind partnership, and generosity of spirit. In these pages, they share their incredible story with the world. Tessa and Scott: Our Journey from Childhood Dream to Gold offers an intimate and revealing behind-the-scenes look at the iconic duo. Veteran sports columnist Steve Milton draws from hours of conversations with Tessa and Scott as they take us from their first meeting in 1995 to their impressive debut and rapid rise on the international scene; from the highs and lows of competitive skating to the profound impact of Tessa's injury and subsequent recovery; and from their unprecedented Olympic achievements in Vancouver in 2010 and Sochi in 2014, through to their exhilarating triumph in Pyeongchang in 2018, when their performance capture hearts the world over and catapulted them into unparalleled international acclaim. Lavishly illustrated with over 100 new photos, this updated and expanded edition is filled with personal stories and recollections from Tessa, Scott, and those close to them - including family members, friends, and coaches past and present. Tessa and Scott is as much a spectacular visual history as it is a celebration of two of the world's premier athletes.
From the critically acclaimed and bestselling author David Maraniss, a groundbreaking book that weaves sports, politics, and history into a tour de force about the 1960 Rome Olympics, eighteen days of theater, suspense, victory, and defeat David Maraniss draws compelling portraits of the athletes competing in Rome, including some of the most honored in Olympic history: decathlete Rafer Johnson, sprinter Wilma Rudolph, Ethiopian marathoner Abebe Bikila, and Louisville boxer Cassius Clay, who at eighteen seized the world stage for the first time, four years before he became Muhammad Ali. Along with these unforgettable characters and dramatic contests, there was a deeper meaning to those late-summer days at the dawn of the sixties. Change was apparent everywhere. The world as we know it was coming into view. Rome saw the first doping scandal, the first commercially televised Summer Games, the first athlete paid for wearing a certain brand of shoes. Old-boy notions of Olympic amateurism were crumbling and could never be taken seriously again. In the heat of the cold war, the city teemed with spies and rumors of defections. Every move was judged for its propaganda value. East and West Germans competed as a unified team less than a year before the Berlin Wall.There was dispute over the two Chinas. An independence movement was sweeping sub-Saharan Africa, with fourteen nations in the process of being born. There was increasing pressure to provide equal rights for blacks and women as they emerged from generations of discrimination. Using the meticulous research and sweeping narrative style that have become his trademark, Maraniss reveals the rich palate of character, competition, and meaning that gave Rome 1960 its singular essence.
In the early hours of 5 September 1972 the perimeter fence surrounding the Olympic Village in Munich was scaled by terrorists. Their target was the temporary home of the Israeli Olympic team, and within 24 hours seventeen men were dead: eleven Israelis, five terrorists and a German policeman. The attack by Black September, an ultra-violent faction of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, was seen on television by more than 900 million viewers. The world watched as Jews suffered again on German soil. Yet despite the immediate attention given to the disaster crucial questions went unanswered. Why did so many die? Any why have the German officials covered up details of the massacre? Based largely on exhaustive investigations for the film One Day in September, this book is the definitive account of the tragedy. With the help of previously secret documents, photographs and dozens of interviews, it reconstructs the tension of the day - and exposes the full extent of the Israeli 'Wrath of God' revenge mission, which over the next twenty years saw Israeli agents systematically murder their way across Europe and the Middle East. One Day in September is the most compelling account yet written of events in Munich, of the devastating impact the attack had on the relatives of terrorists and athletes alike - and of the long shadow the massacre still casts over the modern world.
This title is suitable for children of ages 4 to 8 years. Keep the Olympic spirit alive! Children can learn all about the Winter Olympic Sports and catch the spirit with these highly motivational and fun-to-read Easy Olympic Sports Readers. These colourful and exciting books represent six of the most popular winter sports: Sledding, Skiing, Figure Skating, Speed Skating, Ice Hockey, Snowboarding. With such enticing subjects, beginning readers will visit their favourite sports often while learning how to read.
Can sports and politics mix? They can and do, according to the author of this study of the Olympic Games. Richard Espy's objective is to show how the organization of the Games reflects the structure of international politics. He focuses on four basic issues concerning the Olympic system during the post-World War II period: German participation; Chinese participation; South African and Rhodesia participation; and the role of sport federations, international organizations, and business interests in the Olympics. Espy discusses the relationship between the Olympic idea of international amity through sport competition and the reality of world affairs, how television has changed governmental views and use of the Olympic Games, and whether sports can be used legitimately as a political tool. He also recommends possible changes in the organizational structure of the event-or even the Olympic ideal itself-to help the Games achieve their intended result: an atmosphere of international good will. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1979, followed by a paperback in 1981.
In the early 1900s, the Olympic Games track and field throwing events were dominated by a group of Irish-born weight throwers representing the United States. These athletes came to be known as the "Irish Whales"-primarily because of their immense size and larger-than-life presence. The Irish Whales: Olympians of Old New York shares the untold story of these Irish American athletes who competed with unparalleled distinction for the United States. James Mitchell, John Flanagan, Martin Sheridan, Pat McDonald, Paddy Ryan, and Con Walsh won a total of eighteen medals in the Olympic Games between 1900 and 1924 and completely dominated the world stage in their chosen athletic disciplines. They were lionized in the American and Irish press and became folk heroes among Irish-American immigrant communities. Almost all of these men were further distinguished by their membership in the fabled Irish American Athletic Club of New York and careers with the New York Police Department. The story of the Irish Whales is the very embodiment of the American Dream and exemplifies the triumph of many Irish emigrants in the New World. Featuring a wonderful collection of original photographs, The Irish Whales tells the dramatic stories of these international athletes and their extraordinary sporting successes.
Something in the Air is Richard Hoffer's gripping sports narrative that tells the individual stories of the athletes who gathered in Mexico City in 1968, a year of dramatic upheaval around the world. Racial tensions were high on the U.S. Olympic team, where inflamed black athletes had to choose between demands for justice, on the one hand, and loyalty to country, on the other. Although basketball star Lew Alcindor (later to become the great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) decided not to participate, heavyweight boxer George Foreman not only competed and won a gold medal but waved a miniature American flag at foreign judges. Sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos became as famous for their raised-fist gestures of protest as for their speed on the track. No one was prepared for Bob Beamon's long jump, which broke the world record by a staggering twenty-two inches. And then there was Dick Fosbury, the goofball high jumper whose backward, upside-down approach to the bar (the "Fosbury Flop") baffled his coaches while breaking records. Filled with human drama, Something in the Air is a powerful, unforgettable tale that will resonate with sports fans and readers of social history alike. This edition features a new afterword by the author on the fiftieth anniversary of the Olympics.
WINNER OF THE TELEGRAPH SPORTS BOOK AWARD FOR GENERAL OUTSTANDING SPORTS WRITING A captivating account of the Nazi Olympics - told through the voices and stories of those who were there. 'Compelling, suspenseful and beautifully done' Anna Funder, author of STASILAND For sixteen days in the summer of 1936, the world's attention turned to the German capital as it hosted the Olympic Games. Seen through the eyes of a cast of characters - Nazi leaders and foreign diplomats, athletes and journalists, nightclub owners and jazz musicians - Berlin 1936 plunges us into the high tension of this unfolding scene. Alongside the drama in the Olympic Stadium - from the triumph of Jesse Owens to the scandal when an American tourist breaks through the security and manages to kiss Hitler - Oliver Hilmes takes us behind the scenes and into the lives of ordinary Berliners: the woman with a dark secret who steps in front of a train, the transsexual waiting for the Gestapo's knock on the door, and the Jewish boy hoping that Germany may lose in the sporting arena. During the sporting events the dictatorship was partially put on hold; here then, is a last glimpse of the vibrant and diverse life in Berlin in the 1920s and 30s that the Nazis aimed to destroy. LONGLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2018
When Canada hosted the 1976 Montreal Olympics, few Canadian spectators waved flags in the stands. By 2010, in the run-up to the Vancouver Olympics, thousands of Canadians wore red mittens with white maple leaves on the palms. In doing so, they turned their hands into miniature flags that flew with even a casual wave. Red Mitten Nationalism investigates this shift in Canadians' displays of patriotism by exploring how common understandings of Canadian history and identity are shaped at the intersection of sport, commercialism, and nationalism. Through case studies of recent Canadian-hosted Olympic and Commonwealth Games, Estee Fresco argues that representations of Indigenous Peoples' cultures are central to the way everyday Canadians, corporations, and sport organizations remember the past and understand the present. Corporate sponsors and games organizers highlight selective ideas about the nation's identity, and unacknowledged truths about the history and persistence of Settler colonialism in Canada haunt the commercial and cultural features of these sporting events. Commodities that represent the nation - from disposable trinkets to carefully curated objects of nostalgia - are not uncomplicated symbols of national pride, but rather reminders that Canada is built on Indigenous land and Settlers profit from its natural resources. Red Mitten Nationalism challenges readers to re-evaluate how Canadians use sport and commercial practices to express their patriotism and to understand the impact of this expression on the current state of Indigenous-Settler relations.
Literary Nonfiction. Memoir. WOBBLES spans the physical, psychological and spiritual growth of an athlete from childhood into her stature as a fierce, Olympic competitor. When Nadine Neumann decides that she wants to be an Olympic swimmer at age eight, she trades a normal life of school friends and parties for the rigors of elite sports training. With acute honesty, wisdom and humour, Nadine spins readers through the heartaches and loneliness of a different kind of adolescence. Enduring and overcoming Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, a life-threatening accident and imposed breaks from her passion, Nadine pursues her dream as only an Olympian can--with the rarest of intensity and focus. Sweeping from Perth to Germany, India to Sydney, Brisbane to Hong Kong, the reader is invited along this journey of a remarkable young woman who stops at nothing to achieve her goals.
In this revised and all-colour edition of her indispensable guide to the ancient Games, Judith Swaddling traces their mythological and religious origins, and describes the events, the sacred ceremony and the celebrations that were an essential part of the Olympic festival. A large, detailed model based on modern research and excavation reconstructs the site of ancient Olympia, where alongside religious and civic buildings there grew an elaborate sports complex with a stadium for 40,000 spectators, indoor and outdoor training facilities, hot and cold baths, a swimming pool and a race-course. Later chapters cover the diet and medical treatment of athletes, sponsorship, patronage, propaganda and revivals of the Games and a brand new chapter, based on the latest research discusses the literary sources for the Olympic Games. The expanded final chapter on the modern Games is written in collaboration with Stewart Binns, an expert in this field who has worked closely with the International Olympic Committee over many years, and has been revised to bring the story up to the preparations for the London 2012 Games. Illustrated with gorgeous, full-colour photography and covering thousands of years of Olympic history, this fascinating book is essential reading for anyone interested in the Olympic Games.
A collection of essays from the world's leading authorities on China and human rights examining the country as it battles with the pressures brought by the 2008 Olympics.
One. Two. Three. That's as long as it took to sear the souls of a dozen young American men, thanks to the craziest, most controversial finish in the history of the Olympics-the 1972 gold-medal basketball contest between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the world's two superpowers at the time. The U.S. team, whose unbeaten Olympic streak dated back to when Adolf Hitler reigned over the Berlin Games, believed it had won the gold medal that September in Munich-not once, but twice. But it was the third time the final seconds were played that counted. What happened? The head of international basketball-flouting rules he himself had created-trotted onto the court and demanded twice that time be put back on the clock. A referee allowed an illegal substitution and an illegal free-throw shooter for the Soviets while calling a slew of late fouls on the U.S. players. The American players became the only Olympic athletes in the history of the games to refuse their medals. Of course, the 1972 Olympics are remembered primarily for a far graver matter, when eleven Israeli team members were killed by Palestinian terrorists, stunning the world and temporarily stopping the games. One American player, Tommy Burleson, had a gun to his head as the hostages were marched past him before their deaths. Through interviews with many of the American players and others, the author relates the horror of terrorism, the pain of losing the most controversial championship game in sports history to a hated rival, and the consequences of the players' decision to shun their Olympic medals to this day.
Growing up in Maplewood, New Jersey the only Black, Muslim-American in hijab, in middle school Ibtihaj discovered fencing, a sport traditionally reserved for the wealthy and elite. Though she would start fencing later than most at 12 years old, she had an undeniable talent-the sort that would soon put her on the international stage. But Ibtihaj saw something more in her Olympic journey: an opportunity to take action, to stand up and make a Muslim-American woman of color impossible to ignore. Ibtihaj's path to Olympic greatness has been marked with hateful opposition and near-debilitating challenges-bigotry from teammates at Duke University and Team USA, death threats, and social hardships as a Muslim-American. In Proud, her exhilarating emergence from young outsider to national hero and outspoken activist is a timeless, uniquely American tale of hard work, determination, and resilience that hasn't been told. |
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