Onward to the Olympics : historical perspectives on the Olympic Games / Gerald P. Schaus and Stephen R. Wenn, editors.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Wenn, Stephen R., 1964-

Schaus, Gerald P., 1950-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Olympic games (Ancient)--History.

Olympic games (Ancient).

Olympics--History.

Olympics.

History.

Physical Description:

xxvii, 376 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Waterloo, Ont. : Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2007.

Summary:

The Olympic Games have had two lives-the first lasted for a millennium with celebrations every four years at Olympia to honour the god Zeus. The second has blossomed over the past century, from a simple start in Athens in 1896 to a dazzling return to Greece in 2004. Onward to the Olympics provides both an overview and an array of insights into aspects of the Games' history. Leading North American archaeologists and historians of sport explore the origins of the Games, compare the ancient and the modern, discuss the organization and financing of these massive athletic festivals, and examine the participation, or the troubling lack of it, by women.

Onward to the Olympics bridges the historical divide between the ancient and the modern and concludes with a thought-provoking final essay that attempts to predict the future of the Olympics over the twenty-first century.

Contents:

Part I The Olympics in Antiquity

An Overview

The Ancient Olympic Games through the Centuries / Nigel B. Crowther 3

Origins

Politics and the Bronze Age Origins of Olympic Practices / Senta C. German 15

Pindar, Heracles the Idaean Dactyl, and the Foundation of the Olympic Games / Thomas K. Hubbard 27

The First Olympic Games / Max Nelson 47

The Transformation of Athletics in Sixth-Century Greece / Paul Christesen 59

Ideals and Losers

The Ancient Olympics and Their Ideals / Nigel B. Crowther 69

Olympic Losers: Why Athletes Who Did Not Win at Olympia Are Remembered / Victor Matthews 81

Details of the Festival

Judges and Judging at the Ancient Olympic Games / David Gilman Romano 95

Heroic and Athletic Sortition at Ancient Olympia / Aileen Ajootian 115

Fabulous Females and Ancient Olympia / Donald G. Kyle 131

The Halma: A Running or Standing Jump? / Hugh M. Lee 153

Another View of Olympia

Connections between Olympia and Stymphalus / Gerald P. Schaus 167

Commemorative Cash: The Coins of the Ancient and Modern Olympics / Robert Weir 179

Works Cited in Part I 193

Part II The Modern Olympics

The Olympic Games in Modern Times / Robert K. Barney 221

The Olympics Before World War II

Duke Kahanamoku-Olympic Champion and Uncle Sam's Adopted Son: The Cultural Text of a Hawaiian Conqueror / Jim Nendel 243

Carl Diem's Inspiration for the Torch Relay? Jan Wils, Amsterdam 1928, and the Origin of the Olympic Flame / Robert K. Barney, Anthony Th. Bijkerk 253

The Great Progression: A Content Analysis of the Lake Placid News and the Los Angeles Times' Treatment of the 1932 Olympics / Jonathan Paul 261

The Olympics after World War II

Womanizing Olympic Athletes: Policy and Practice during the Avery Brundage Era / Kevin B. Wamsley 273

The Bridge to Change: The 1976 Montreal Olympic Games, South African Apartheid Policy, and the Olympic Boycott Paradigm / Courtney W. Mason 283

Splitting Hairs: The Struggle between the Canadian Federal Government and the Organizing Committee of the 1976 Torontolympiad concerning South African Participation / David A. Greig 297

Juan Antonio Samaranch's Score Sheet: Revenue Generation and the Olympic Movement, 1980-2001 / Stephen R. Wenn, Scott G. Martyn 309

The Future of the Olympic Games

Olympic Ideals: Pragmatic Method and the Future of the Games / Tim Elcombe 325

"To Construct a Better and More Peaceful World" or "War Minus the Shooting"?: The Olympic Movement's Second Century / Mark Dyreson 335.

Notes:

Proceedings of a conference held in Waterloo, Ont., Oct. 3, 2003.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780889205055

0889205051

OCLC:

78042856