Olympic Games

Dive into the Olympic games, past and present, with titles selected by RCL editors. Resources for College Libraries (RCL) features core titles for academic libraries, curated by Choice/ACRL subject specialists. In Syndetics Unbound, RCL Librarians recommend a selection of the 90,000+ titles available at rclweb.net.

Updated July 1, 2024
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Historical dictionary of the Olympic movement
Grasso, John
Paper Book
The Olympic Movement began with the Ancient Olympic Games, which were held in Greece on the Peloponnesus peninsula at Olympia, Greece. It is not clear why the Greeks instituted this quadrennial celebration in the form of an athletic festival. The recorded history of the Ancient Olympic Games begins...
The Olympics and philosophy
Reid, Heather Lynne
Paper Book
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...
The Olympics at the millennium : power, politics, and the games
Schaffer, Kay
Paper Book
The Olympics thrill the world with spectacle and drama. They also carry a cultural and social significance that goes beyond the stadium, athletes, and fans. The  Games are arenas in which individual and team athletic achievement intersect with the politics of national identity in...
Selling the five rings : the International Olympic Committee and the rise of Olympic commercialism
Barney, Robert Knight
Paper Book
The original scheme for the modern Olympic Games was hatched at an international sports conference at the Sorbonne in June 1894. At the time, few provisions were made for the financial underwriting of the project--providence and the beneficence of host cities would somehow take care of the...
The ancient Olympics
Spivey, Nigel Jonathan.
Paper Book
The word 'athletics' is derived from the Greek verb 'to struggle/suffer for a prize'. After reading this book, no one will see the Olympics as a graceful display of Greek beauty again, but as war by other means.Nigel Spivey paints a portrait of the Greek Olympics as they really were - fierce...
The 1972 Munich Olympics and the making of modern Germany
Schiller, Kay.
Paper Book
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...
The Nazi Olympics
Mandell, Richard D.
Paper Book
The Nazi Olympics is the unsurpassed exposé of one of the most bizarre festivals in sport history. Not only does it provide incisive portraits of such key figures as Adolf Hitler, Jesse Owens, Leni Riefenstahl, Helen Stephens, Kee Chung Sohn, and Avery Brundage, it also vividly conveys...
Rio 2016 : Olympic myths, hard realities
Zimbalist, Andrew S.
Paper Book
" A clear-eyed, critical examination of the social, political, and economic costs of hosting the 2016 summer Olympics The selection of Rio de Janeiro as the site of the summer 2016 Olympic Games set off jubilant celebrations in Brazil--and created enormous expectations for...
Their day in the sun : women of the 1932 Olympics
Pieroth, Doris Hinson.
Paper Book
The 1932 Olympic games took place in Los Angeles in the depths of the Great Depression; that they were held at all falls barely short of miraculous. The United States sent thirty-seven women to compete--seventeen swimmers, seventeen track and field athletes, and three fencers. It was not easy,...
The naked Olympics : the true story of the ancient games
Perrottet, Tony.
Paper Book
Ancient Greece was full of wonders, but none quite compared to the Olympic Games - the most dazzling event in the pagan world. Held without a break for over 1200 years, it remains one of the greatest institutions of the civilised world, yet little is known about its history, beyond the mythical....
Olympic dreams : China and sports, 1895-2008
Xu, Guoqi
Paper Book
Already the world has seen the political, economic, and cultural significance of hosting the 2008 Olympics in Beijing--in policies instituted and altered, positions softened, projects undertaken. But will the Olympics make a lasting difference? This book approaches questions about the nature and...

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