A variety of viewpoints, in historical context, are presented in this anthology on the place of the Olympics as the leading international sport event from antiquity to pondering their future. This collection constitutes the most important academic and public policy issues affecting the Olympic Movement today. It should be required reading for anyone who wants to know about or bid for an Olympic Games. Part I presents seven articles devoted to Olympic history: the Games' legacy from antiquity, their modern evolution, and the most controversial Games of the modern era, the Berlin Games of 1936. Part II reviews the persistent problems and crises that confounded and defined the Olympic Games over time. The nine essays in this section focus on a variety of issues such as performance enhancement; the rise of commercialism; enduring controversies in the form of leadership, corruption, and the Cold War; and the politics of hosting Olympic Games. Finally, in Part III, the future of the Modern Olympic Movement is addressed from the perspective of the rapidly accelerating and mushrooming process of globalization.

The 1972 Munich Olympics - remembered almost exclusively for the devastating terrorist attack on the Israeli team - were intended to showcase the New Germany and replace lingering memories of the Third Reich. That hope was all but obliterated in the early hours of September 5, when gun-wielding Palestinians murdered 11 members of the Israeli team. In the first cultural and political history of the Munich Olympics, Kay Schiller and Christopher Young set these Games into both the context of 1972 and the history of the modern Olympiad. Delving into newly available documents, Schiller and Young chronicle the impact of the Munich Games on West German society.

Katherine Grainger is not only Great Britain's finest ever woman rower, but also she has won more Olympic medals than any other female British athlete in any sport. At Rio de Janeiro in the 2016 Olympic Games, at the age of 40, and less than two years after coming out of 'retirement', with a different partner, she came within one second of retaining her women's Double Sculls gold medal. On 3 August 2012, on the water at Eton Dorney in the London 2012 Olympic Games, she - and Anna Watkins - had rowed to glory in the women's Double Sculls. Three times an Olympic silver medallist, she could finally hang up her oars as an Olympic champion to add to her six World Championships and eight World Cup gold medals - but she didn't. Katherine's story is a remarkable one - proof that nice people can be winners and dedication and hard work pay off. Incredibly bright, Grainger combined her athletic career with her education and she has degrees from Glasgow and Edinburgh universities and a PhD from London, in subjects as diverse as law, philosophy and homicide. No wonder she is so much in demand as a motivational speaker. Katherine Grainger: The Autobiography continues her inspirational story taking in her post-London activities, the return to training, finding a new double sculls partner in Vicky Thornley, the highs and lows of their attempt to qualify for Rio 2016 and eventually their astonishing row to another silver medal.