The Complete Book of the Olympics 2008

by David Wallechinsky, Jaime Loucky

With a complete statistical record since the 1896 founding of the modern Games—including medals won and times, distances, or scores recorded by the top eight competitors in all events (from staples such as the marathon to long-discontinued competitions such as the tug of war), this encyclopedic tome contains anything anyone could ever need or want to know about the modern Olympic Games. Far from a dry compendium of names, numbers, and scoring systems, this book also contains a summary history of every event at each of the 26 modern Games, enriched with an extraordinary wealth of Olympic lore and anecdote. The authors provide thought-provoking analysis of issues and controversies from shamateurism to drug-taking and corruption, and they have sieved through more than a century of Olympic history to assemble a mind-boggling collection of stories that range from the inspiring, through the comic, to the bizarre. Such long-forgotten characters are included as the boy who was plucked from the streets of Paris to navigate for two Dutch oarsmen in the paired-oar event in 1900 and, after steering them to victory and a Gold Medal, returned to obscurity, his name unknown to this day; or the 72-year-old winner of a silver medal for target-shooting.

Genres: Sports, Nonfiction, Reference, History

1177 pages, Paperback

First published February 7, 1984

About the author

David Wallechinsky is an American populist historian and television commentator, the president of the International Society of Olympic Historians (ISOH) and the founder and editor-in-chief of AllGov.com.

Reviews

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll be honest... I didn't read this straight-through, cover-to-cover. It's more like an almanac, providing information about every event at every Olympic games. But more than just providing the details of who won and in what time, it also provides stories of the participants. And not just leading up to that event, but occasionally discussing what happened to an individual in their future. The author also tries to inject some humor into the book, making it far more enjoyable to read than any true almanac. An entertaining resource that I found invaluable to have by my side watching the Olympics.

[Craig Curtis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very thorough, event-by-event recap of the modern olympic games. A good reference book for olympic fans, but while it offers statistics and anticdotes from virtually every event in olympic history, it doesn't really tell much of the story of each olympic games like I was hoping. It's organized by individual event rather than by olympiad, which probably makes it easier to use as a reference, though it did make it something of a challenge to read cover-to-cover. Still, an informative book, to say the least!

[VaughanPL]

Click to find it in the catalogue.

[stan · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent and informative

[Darren · Rating 5 out of 5]

I hope they continue this almanac for winter and summer games to come. Very interesting -- especially the stories included about each event at the modern Olympics.