Olympics, A Very Peculiar History电子书

Cover

Front Matter

Title Page

Publisher Information

Dedication

A Very Peculiar History

Quotes

Introduction

Greek Beginnings

Superheroes

A farewell to arms

Men only

Caught in the act

Getting fit

Enter a wimp

Modern Olympic venues

The events

An Ancient Wonder

Take your seat at the Games

The Olympic laureate

Naked aggression

Equestrian events

Dirty tricks

Spartan treatment

From Nero to zero

Rediscovering Olympia

Ancient Olympic greats

CHAPTER ONE: Coubertin’s Dream

Dr Arnold’s medicine

The other Olympic Games

From the horse’s mouth

IOC Presidents

Slow out of the blocks

Olympiads

They did things differently then

Lost events

A meal too far

The remarkable Babe

For love, not money

That Olympic spirit

Lost and found

The Olympic Museum

The Winter Olympics

CHAPTER TWO: The Mighty Marathon

The pride of Greece

How they ran then

Taken for a ride

A near-death experience

How long is a marathon?

Olympic bests*: Marathon

Picnic time

Death in the afternoon

A little off key

The end of cross-country

Better late than never

Not so fast!

The Munich joker

That Olympic Spirit

The Paralympic Games

The blade runner

Some Olympic firsts . . .

CHAPTER THREE: Running Into Trouble

Hitler’s Games

Olympia – the film

Murder in Munich

The torch relay

Tarnished gold

Staying at home

Black Power

The fake torch

Look at me!

Bad blood

Sabres at dawn

A race with death

Illegal substances

Vicious cycle

A race too far

That’s no lady . . .

Pulling a fast one

‘Timid pussyfooters’

Money talks

The Olympic rings

Special Olympics

CHAPTER FOUR: An A-Z of Great Olympians

Against the odds 1

Muhammad Ali

Bob Beamon

Adebe Bikila

Olympic bests: Long jump

Fanny Blankers-Koen

Olympic bests: 100 metres

Olympic bests: 200 metres

Olympic bests: 400 metres

Usain Bolt

Seb Coe

Nadia Comaneci

Against the odds 2

Athletes on celluloid

Olympic bests: High jump

Olympic bests: Pole vault

Olympic bests: Triple jump

Dick Fosbury

Dawn Fraser

Michael Johnson

Olympic bests: Decathlon (Men only)

Olympic bests: Heptathlon (Women only)

Jackie Joyner-Kersee

‘Kip’ Keino

Against the odds 3

Olympic bests: 800 metres

Olympic bests: 1,500 metres

Olga Korbut

Carl Lewis

Olympic bests: Javelin

Paavo Nurmi

Jesse Owens

Great losers

Michael Phelps

Olympic bests: 100m hurdles

Olympic bests: 400m hurdles

Against the odds 4

Steve Redgrave

Lasse Viren

Olympic bests: 5,000 metres

Olympic bests: 10,000 metres

Olympic bests: 3,000 metres steeplechase

Emil Zátopek

CHAPTER FIVE: London’s hat-trick

What happened before

What they‘ll be playing

What happened next

Meet the mascots

The biggest prize

Olympics Timeline

Finding out more

Glossary

End matter

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