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Books > Sport & Leisure > Sports & outdoor recreation > Sporting events, tours & organisations > Olympic games
Leroy Goes To The Olympics, a children's graphic novel by Sybil
Blazej-Yee, Concept by Dr. Michael Sheps, Artwork by Toran Joseph.
Leroy Dixon's story is based on interviews with the Olympic athlete
and conveys his struggle and the people who cheered him on through
years of training. His life is sure to inspire 3rd to 5th grade
boys who love to find out more about a real sports figure. The
graphics feature refreshing artwork by a young new illustrator.
Mexican leaders eagerly anticipated the attention that hosting the
world's most visible sporting event would bring, yet they could not
have predicted the array of conflicts that would play out before
the eyes of the world during the notorious 1968 Mexico City
Olympics. Following twenty years of economic growth and political
stability-known as the "Mexican miracle"-Mexican policy makers
escaped their prior image of being economically underdeveloped to
successfully craft an image of a nation that was both modern and
cosmopolitan but also steeped in culture and tradition. Buoyed by
this new image, they set their sights on the Olympic bid, and they
not only won but also prepared impressive facilities. Prior to the
opening ceremonies, several controversies emerged, the most glaring
of which was a student protest movement that culminated in a public
massacre, leaving several hundred students dead. Less dramatic were
concerns that athletes would suffer harm in the high elevation and
thin air, debates over the nature of amateurism, threats by nations
opposing apartheid to boycott if South Africa was allowed to
compete, and the introduction of drug and gender testing.
Additionally the Olympics provided a forum for the United States
and the Soviet Union to carry their Cold War rivalry to the playing
field-a way to achieve victory without world destruction at stake.
During the Games, one of the most significant controversies
occurred when two African American athletes, Tommie Smith and John
Carlos, raised their fists in the Black Power salute while on the
medal stand. This gesture brought worldwide attention to racism
within the United States and remains a lasting image of both the
Mexico City Olympics and the Civil Rights movement. Although the
Olympics are intended to bring athletes of the world together for
harmonious competition, the 1968 Games will long be remembered as
fraught with discord. This ambitious and comprehensive study will
appeal to those interested in US history, Latin American history,
sports history, and Olympic history.
A British female hockey players journey to compete in the 2008
Beijing Olympic Games, and the London 2012 Olympic Games. Can it be
achieved.
This is a true story. What is the ultimate price of success? In
1924, swimming superstar Hilda James was a dead cert for the
British Team at the Paris Olympics. Her family had other ideas.
This is the account of a World Champion who suddenly found that her
ultimate challenge was to pull her life back together after her
dream was cruelly shattered forever. Hilda wasn't about to bow down
to anybody and broke away, finally achieving full emancipation. A
social history of life in South Liverpool plus the story of
Parkgate Baths on The Wirral provide the early background for this
extraordinary book. The final chapters are set against the backdrop
of life as a celebrity crewmember aboard Cunard's first purpose
built cruise liner, Carinthia.
Citius, Altius, Fortius (Faster, Higher, Stronger) is the motto of
the International Olympic Committee. After reading Les Woodland's
"The Olympics' 50 Craziest Stories" the reader might wonder if the
motto should be Sillier, Loonier, Crazier. There is the gentle
rower who was winning his race when he stopped his scull to avoid
scattering a mother duck and her ducklings-we'll let your read the
book to find out how he did-and the American socialites who showed
up for a golf game in Paris and accidentally ended up in the
Olympic golf contest. There was so much confusion that year they
never learned one of them had become Olympic champion. Oh, and the
men's Olympic golf champion had actually journeyed to Paris to play
tennis.Shooting live pigeons was an event in the 1900 Olympics, but
there's no mention today of the competition out of embarrassment
over the 300 dead and maimed birds that revulsed the spectators. We
can't forget the Jamaican bobsled team nor the Russian KGB colonel
who rigged the scoring in fencing and managed to create an
international incident. They are all in "The Olympics' 50 Craziest
Stories," along with dozens more athletes who managed to attain
fame they would rather not have earned.In addition to the 50
stories of competitors behaving badly, or at least oddly, Les
Woodland has sprinkled collections of interesting and sometimes
improbable Olympics facts throughout, making "The Olympics' 50
Craziest Stories" fun from cover to cover.As the author of 26
books, Les Woodland knows how to tell a story and here he's in fine
form. Join him in his trip to the crazy side of sports.
Opening with the tragedy of Nomar Kumaritashvili's death in
Whistler and concluding with one final gold for the hockey-mad home
country, the fortnight of the Vancouver Olympics brought out the
range of human emotion -- from gilded joy to funereal gloom. In
this volume, Zach Bigalke utilizes both his daily dispatches from
February 2010 and the benefit of hindsight to tell the multifaceted
stories of those seventeen days...
The ceremonial practice of Weightlifting contests presents a great
dilemma for athletes, their coaches, and the countries, which they
represent. This book deals with the performance of Weightlifters
during the events of contest. Such performance is affected by the
lifter's sense that his/her performance during the contest might be
the best and/or the last athletic event of his/her life, the prime
time to shine as a new star in the most competitive sport of force,
power, and grace. For the coach, Weightlifting contests present the
greatest challenge on many levels. First, Weightlifting coaches do
not earn any appreciable financial return from the sport, other
than getting connection to people of influence. Thus, the coach's
drive for winning is mostly his passion and time-long dedication to
the sport. Second, the lifter represents a great uncertainty to the
coach during the unusual stress of contests. Slight disturbance in
sleep, diet, or other social distractions could influence the
performance of the lifter beyond prediction. Third, the planning of
the lifts and adjusting of the lifter bodyweight are serious
issues, which the coach must manage effectively in order to
accomplish the best of his lifter's assets. In this book, the
author dedicates chapters 1 and 2 for warming up during the
contest, emphasizing the basic rules of using dummy objects in
rehearsing the full range-of- motion of the Weightlifting
exercises. That is followed up with warming up with maximal weight
as the trial time approaches. Chapter 3 deals with planning the
first lift when lifter is advanced among his/her competitors.
Chapter 8 discusses the strategy of staying-in to avoid getting
removed from the contest, as a result of failed trials. Chapters 4,
5, and 6 discuss three different lifting styles by a Romanian,
Russian, and Turkish lifters. Chapter 7 is the largest chapter in
the book and deals with toe-to-toe racing for winning the Gold.
Here, lifters must plan to maximize the sum of two lifts (the
Snatch and the Clean/Jerk) by increasing the weight of the barbell
over three trials, for each of the two lifts. The lifter cannot
lower the weight if he failed in lifting a higher weight. The
heaviest lift of the three trials makes the valid score in that
lift, by that lifter. The strategy of planning for winning when
lifters might be tied by bodyweights, in the event of lifting the
same total in the two lifts, is also discussed. Women Weightlifters
are covered in chapter 9, 10, and 11. Those three chapters discuss
the particular issues related to women's musculoskeletal anatomy
that differentiates women lifters from men. Finally, chapters 12
and 13 discuss the technical issues of failure in Weightlifting
contests. The book should help the reader relate to the scarce and
precious moments in life, when athletes accomplish the most
formidable tasks of enhancing health, strength, and fitness at the
best of human endeavors. TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1. Warming Up
With 20 kg Bar Chapter 2. Warming Up With Maximal Load Chapter 3.
Planning The First Lift in Clean/Jerk Chapter 4. Russian Male
Lifting Style Chapter 5. The Top Male Lifter Chapter 6. Lifting On
Wide Knee-Separation Chapter 7. Kilogram-To-Kilogram Racing Chapter
8. Staying In Contest Chapter 9. Short-limbed Woman Lifter Chapter
10. The Women Lifter Chapter 11. Women's Snatch Chapter 12. Dealing
With Failure. Case 1 Chapter 13. Dealing With Failure. Case 2
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The Olympics and Philosophy
(Hardcover)
Heather L. Reid, Michael W. Austin; Contributions by Michael W. Austin, Raymond Angelo Belliotti, Scott F. Parker
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R1,245
Discovery Miles 12 450
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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It is said the champions of the ancient Olympic Games received a
crown of olive leaves, symbolizing a divine blessing from Nike, the
winged goddess of victory. While the mythology of the ancient games
has come to exemplify the highest political, religious, community,
and individual ideals of the time, the modern Olympic Games, by
comparison, are widely known as an international, bi-annual
sporting event where champions have the potential to earn not only
glory for their country, but lucrative endorsement deals and the
perks of worldwide fame. The Olympics and Philosophy examines the
Olympic Movement from a variety of theoretical perspectives to
uncover the connection between athleticism and philosophy for a
deeper appreciation of the Olympic Pillars of Sport, Environment,
and Culture. While today's Olympic champions are neither blessed by
the gods nor rewarded with wreaths of olive, the original spirit
and ancient ideals of the Olympic Movement endure in its modern
embodiment. Editors Heather L. Reid and Michael W. Austin have
assembled a team of international scholars to explore topics such
as the concept of excellence, ethics, doping, gender, and race.
Interweaving ancient and modern Olympic traditions, The Olympics
and Philosophy considers the philosophical implications of the
Games' intersection with historical events and modern controversy
in a unique analysis of tradition and the future of the Olympiad.
Containing over 1000 questions on all aspects of the Summer Olympic
Games, this book is a comprehensive test of sporting and general
knowledge. Varied and challenging, the questions are divided into
four chapters: Olympic history, Olympic sports, Olympic numbers,
and Olympic mixture. Each chapter brings out some fascinating facts
about the biggest show in world sport and builds into an ideal
resource for fans of the Olympics and quizzes alike.
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.
On an August evening in 2012, crowds of eager fans will witness the
conclusion of the Modern Pentathlon competition in Greenwich Park's
Olympic stadium. The sport has been the ultimate test of the best
all round sportsman in the Olympic Games for exactly one hundred
years. Great Britain is the only country in the world to have been
represented at every Olympic competition. In Modern Pentathlon - a
Centenary History', Andy Archibald tracks the changes in a sport
dreamed up by Olympic founder, Baron de Coubertin, from its
military origins to the sport for the superfit it is today.
It takes just under 10 seconds to run, but to the winner of
Athletics' men's 100 metres goes the accolade of 'The Fastest Man
on Earth'. "The Fastest Men on Earth", first published in 1988 as a
tie-in to the "Thames Television" series of the same name, is
reissued in a new, exciting format, fully revised and updated to
include the incredible men's 100 metres final at the Beijing 2008
Games. Each chapter discusses not only the race itself, but also
the preliminary rounds, dramas and controversies and includes
interviews with all the key players, not just the champion.
Immaculately researched and written in an entertaining style "The
Fastest Men on Earth" brings to life some of the greatest athletes
who ever set foot on a running track.
This book is the first to focus on the theme of tradition as an
integral feature of the ancient and modern Olympic Games. Just as
ancient athletes and spectators were conscious of Olympic
traditions of poetic praise, sporting achievement, and catastrophic
shortcoming, so the revived Games have been consistently cast as a
legacy of ancient Greece. The essays here examine how this supposed
inheritance has been engineered, celebrated, exploited, or
challenged. The Athens Games in 2004 were widely represented as a
return to ancient, and modern, origins; the Beijing Games in 2008,
meanwhile, saluted a radically different ancient civilisation. What
is the Olympic future for ancient Greece? Thinking the Olympics
brings together contributions from various disciplines, including
cultural history, classics, comparative literature, and art
history. Together these perspectives foreground two opposing plots
which recur and collide ritually on the occasion of the Games. On
the one hand, the Games present themselves as an ideal enactment of
pure, intrinsic Olympic values; on the other, the Games appear as a
messy performance of extrinsic investments by diverse parties with
their own interests, commercial and political. Power, money,
property, and identity are persistently at stake in the Games. But
in a time when credit and trust among nations are in short supply,
the Olympic arena and its flexible traditions may be where exchange
can be done.
Legacy remains one of the most important issues relating to
multisport mega-events across the globe and it could be argued that
the development of legacy is one of the most urgent imperatives in
elite sport. In this regard the Paralympics is no exception to the
quest for long term legacy; however, little in the way of
documentation appears to be forthcoming from the International
Paralympic community in this regard. This book reviews the concept
of legacy across previous Paralympic Games by providing a series of
chapters under the headings of 'The Paralympic Legacy Debate',
'Paralympic City Legacies', 'Emerging Issues of Paralympic Legacy'
and 'Reconceptualising Paralympic Legacies'. The issues arising are
discussed in terms of a meta-analysis of the author's work and
offer interesting ideas which if taken up by the International
Paralympic Committee, International Olympic Committee, Bid
Committees, OCOG's and major sports could change the face of
Paralympic legacy towards the positive forever.
The Olympic Tour of China: Seeing Sports, Venues, Cities and Parks
All Together in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Qingdao, Qinhuangdao
and Shenyang The holding of the 2008 Olympics is an important event
in the history of China. Many Chinese see it as a symbol of China's
growing power and its increasingly important role in international
arenas and thus have made tremendous efforts to make it successful.
For many outside China, it is a great opportunity to travel to
China and see the 2008 Olympic Summer Games as well as the
transformation of the cities of China, even as a post Olympic tour.
This guide book is to help international tourists to plan and to
make a successful Olympic trip in China. This book covers: All
Olympic Co-host cites in mainland China Easy way of buying Olympic
event tickets Better deals in booking local hotels and air tickets
Olympic events and schedule Numerous photos from inner cities How
to arrive at Olympic Venues by public transportation Hotels, shops,
gourmet streets and bars in the Olympic co-host cities Price
negotiation skills and bilingual phrases Beijing, Shanghai,
Tianjin, Qingdao, Qinhuangdao and Shenyang
This book consolidates Carl Miller's extensive knowledge gained
while pursuing his life's work in Olympic-style weightlifting.
There are scientific principles behind Olympic-style weightlifting,
and Miller's 50 years of lifting, researching and coaching provide
valuable insight into the process of Olympic lifting. Whether you
are an advanced lifter or a novice, Miller equips you with the
tools to become a champion, even if it's in your own mind. For
those lifters with the desire to compete, Carl's book will inspire
you to immerse your body and mind in the intricacies required to be
a winner. Miller's success as a young weightlifter led him to a
long and unique career coaching weightlifting, fitness and
nutrition to elite athletes in the 1960s and 1970s, and later he
spread his message about the benefits of weight training to a wider
audience. As Coaching Coordinator for the U.S. Olympic
weightlifting team, Miller put into practice many methods and
techniques he gleaned from studying successful international
lifting programs. The U.S. Olympic weightlifting team under head
coach Tommy Kono won a record number of Olympic medals using
assistant Olympic coach Carl Miller's coaching system. He gathered
the best lifters in the country, had the best coaches in the sport,
and introduced new lifting techniques to elevate the U.S. lifters
to contenders. Carl Miller has dedicated himself to analyzing and
tweaking the techniques of Olympic lifting. During the 1970s, in
addition to his duties with the Olympic team, he was a National
coach, World coach, elementary school teacher and vice principal.
As a teacher and vice principal Miller developed physical
conditioning programs for the kids in his school. During his 30
years, and still counting, as founder and co-owner of Carl &
Sandra's Physical Conditioning Center, lifters seek out Carl, his
son Shane and staff for Olympic-style training. Carl & Sandra's
Conditioning Center stands apart from other gyms because Carl
Miller's philosophy revolved around the benefits of weight training
long before it became popular. He weaves the hundreds of tiny
components of Olympic-style weightlifting into beneficial fitness
programs for gym members with a wide variety of profiles, and at
the same time, his Conditioning Center trains a team of nationally
competitive masters Olympic weightlifters. "The Sport of
Olympic-Style Weightlifting" provides the athlete with a
comprehensive review of the critical elements that mold a champion.
Winning isn't simply about lifting technique, eating the right food
or visualizing lifts. You will discover the importance of body
levers and the nuances of adjusting for your own unique body
measurements, you will learn the finer points of planning the
different phases of your training, you will be enthralled with the
diverse programs available to incorporate in your routines, and you
will grasp how your mind contributes to your accomplishments at
critical points along your trajectory.
The story of the 2004 U.S. Olympic wrestling team and it's
countdown to the Athens Games.
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