Great Olympic Reads
The Olympics -- fascinating to watch, a great conversation starter, and even better to read about. Believe it or not, not a large body of work exists on the Olympic games, which have been around since 1896. French educator, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, developed the idea for the Olympics as a way to share education and culture ideas, as well as to foster international relations. The first Olympic Games featured only 13 countries. Today the games represent more than 200 countries from five continents. If you're interested in finding out more about the Olympics, check out the following books and resource links.
- The Complete Book of the Olympics by David Wallechinsky
This book contains all sorts of trivia and Olympics history, including the results of every Olympic competition since 1896. Details include anecdotes about game participants.
- All That Glitters Is Not Gold by William Oscar Johnson Jr.
A look behind the scene at the controversies (not the gossip) that have been a part of every Olympic competition. Some entries are little known facts (i.e., a runner hired as a full-time employee by a major department store simply to train.)
- You Can't Go Home Again by Thomas Wolfe
This is a work of fiction set at the 1936 German games which Hitler attended. The detailed descriptions capture the WWII atmosphere well.
You can also find Olympic sports information on our wiki, GRPLpedia.
( Photo by Zhang Gene)