Product Description
This comprehensive reference work details the accomplishments of over 90 African-American women in Olympic track and field. They overcame racism, sexism and often, abject poverty to compete and frequently to set world records and win Olympic medals.Detailed information is provided on their Olympic participation and accomplishments. Also, through a series of first-person interviews, 20 of the most prominent Olympians (such as Wilma Rudolph and Evelyn Ashford) reveal their struggles both on and off the track. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Can You Catch Them?
Track and field is the one sport were an athlete by there single effort of running, jumping, or throwing can establish there superiority over all competitors. Michael D. Davis the author of "Black American Women In Olympic Track and Field" writes an inspiring story of how African American women rose in Olympic Track and Field. Until 1948 Black American women were not allowed to compete in Olympic Track and Field despite there outstanding in the sport. Davis glorifies athletes like Alice Coachman, Mae Faggs, Wilma Rudolf, Earlene Brown, Willye White, Wyomia Tyus, Edith McGuire, Chandra Chessebrough, Evelyn Ashford, Valarie Brisco-Hooks, Florence Griffith-Joyner, Jakie Joyner-Kerse and many more. He tells about there life stories and the many adversities they had to go through. These women were said to be manly and had to undergo criticism from newspaper writers and television and radio host. For three generations black women have played a major role in the Olympic track and field events and still continue till this day.
Davis includes illustrations of these great athletes, this helps the reader envision what the conditions were in those times. These stories are in great detail and reveal fascinating information about these female runners, jumpers, and throwers. Some of the athletes still alive praise this book for the dedication Davis put into the writing of this book. There are a few negatives about this book, the writing sometime drags on and drifts to other athletes off the topic. Although the reading about some unknown athletes can be boring, it is interesting to learn about these different people. The book is easy to understand and read, it is overall a wonderful read and I recommend to any athlete who would like to be inspired by other great athletes. ... Read more

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Discusses that team of professional basketball players that the United States sent to Barcelona in 1992 to compete in the Summer Olympics. ... Read more

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In the late 1920s, Frenchman Jules Rimet had a grand vision for a global soccer tournament: he named it the World Cup. Just 13 teams contested the inaugural tournament in 1930, and the hosts Uruguay were to emerge as the winners. From these tentative beginnings, the World Cup has grown exponentially into a truly all-embracing international competition, involving some 200 countries and spanning every continent on the planet. It has provided the stage for such soccer legends as Bobby Charlton, Eusebio, Franz Beckenbauer, Johan Cruyff, Diego Maradona, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo and the incomparable Pele, and has furnished many soccer fans with their most cherished sporting memories. It is the biggest prize in competitive team sport.

The Treasures of the World Cup tells the story of the quadrennial festival of world soccer. It comprises an authoritative narrative account of each of the 17 tournaments to have taken place to date. The reportage is complemented by features on the superstars and the memorable moments for each of the finals, together with maps of the venues and results boxes. It also contains over 30 facsimile items of rare soccer memorabilia integrated into the pages of the book. The reader can relive the dramatic events that have entranced the watching millions by holding and examining soccer programs, game tickets, posters, stickers, postcards and items of correspondence, which until now have remained filed or exhibited in the National Football Museum in Preston, England, and other private collections around the world. Many of these items are newly researched and previously unpublished. ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Pierre Frédy, Baron de Coubertin (1 January 1863 ? 2 September 1937) was a French pedagogue and historian, founder of the International Olympic Committee, and considered father of the modern Olympic Games. Born into a French aristocratic family, he became an academic and studies a broad range of topics, most notably education and history.Pierre Frédy was born in Paris on January 1, 1863 into an established aristocratic family.He was the fourth child of Baron Charles Louis Frédy, Baron de Coubertin and Agathe-Gabrielle de Mirville. Family tradition held that the Frédy name had first arrived in France in the early 1400s, and the first recorded title of nobility granted to the family was given by Louis XI to an ancestor, also named Pierre de Frédy, in 1477. ... Read more

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Completely revised for the summer games in Atlanta, a definitive resource includes 1,500 anecdotes and dramatic moments from Olympic history, the top eight finishers from every Olympic event since 1896, rules and scoring for each event, black-and-white photographs, and much more.Amazon.com Review
This ultimate sports reference has anecdotes from every sport, stats and scores for the top finishers in every event of every summer Olympics since 1896.Includes complete coverage of discontinued events, national medal totals, concise descriptions of the rules and scoring for 1996, and more than 200 classic photos of Olympic athletes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Know the Olympic Record and watch it break before your eyes.
If you are a Summer Olympics fan, this is THE book for you.The book contains every modern Olympiad from 1896 Athens to 1992 Barcelona.Every event, every athlete in a top score, every Olympic record, every country and over 1,500 anecdotes and dramatic moments in the Olympic Games is here.A valuable list can also be found of the medal count of all countries participated.See for yourself which country won the most gold medals and total medals.You might be surprised.Over 860 pages of information you just need to know with more than 200 classic photographs of Olympic athletes.Know the Olympic record before it appears on the tv screen and watch the record get broken right before your eyes.

The Golden Book
At the first time (1992) I bought The Complete Book of the Summer Olympics it impressed me with details. The 2000 edition is my third and I do not have any doubt: this is the most complete guide about the Olympic History.

The best book on sports I have ever read!
When I first bought this book, I thought it would be like all of my other Olympic Resources. Giving some imformation, but not every detail you could want. This book replaces all of my others when it comes to stats, politics in the olympics, drugs, and others. Although not having many pictures, it makes up for all of the wonderful info it contains. Tell me that you knew that only 1 country entered in the, get this, a team parallel bar competition in 1896. I reccomend it to anyone.

DON'T WAIT-BUY IT NOW
If you are interested in the history, politics, rules of the games, andhuman-interest stories of the modern Olympics, this is the book to have byyour side while you watch the games this September.

I bought this book toresearch a trivia question, started reading it, and couldn't put it down.Never having been too interested in sports or the Olympics, I was surprisedhow quickly I was caught up in Wallechinsky's book.Now, I can't wait forthe games to begin.

You will reach for this every 5 minutes in September
All those moments you'll see that bring back Olympic memories you can'tquite pin down--this is where to answer those nagging questions, and to getcomprehensive background info. This will increase your viewing pleasure somuch. And it gives you something productive to do with your time when NBCis going "up close and personal," or gassing about"honor," or showing rhythmic gymnastics or water polo. We get anew edition every 4 years. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Dictionary of American History, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 1989 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Focuses on cultures and countries around the world, specifically what is and is not shared culturally by the people who live in a particular country. Entries contain descriptive summaries of the country in question, including demographic, historical, cultural, economic, religious, and political information. ... Read more

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This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
The Olympic Games or as they were called at the time pronounced Olympí'a with the accent on i) were a series of athletic competitions held for representatives of various city-states of Ancient Greece. Records indicate that they began in 776 BC in Olympia, Greece. They were celebrated until 393 AD. The Games were usually held every four years, or olympiad, as the unit of time came to be known. During a celebration of the Games, an Olympic Truce was enacted to enable athletes to travel from their countries to Olympia in safety. The prizes for the victors were laurel wreaths, palm branches, sometimes even food for life. The ancient Olympics were rather different from the modern Games. There were fewer events, and only free men who spoke Greek could compete (even though a woman is also mentioned as a winner), athletes from any country / city (famous athletes from as far as Rome and Armenia are mentioned). The Games were always held at Olympia instead of moving around to different places at each separate Olympic event as is the case for modern Olympics. ... Read more

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Get in training for the Beijing Olympics with this fully updated series telling the story of the Olympics from the earliest times to the present day. Each title looks at a different aspect of the Olympics and their great feats and scandals, to give readers a full introduction to the world's greatest sporting event. This series is packed with facts, figures and stories from the earliest Olympics to the present day. It includes discussion of the issues that have surrounded the Games in recent times, from terrorism to drugs scandals. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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The coach of the 1992 U.S. Olympic basketball team profiles the big-name members of the team, the games, and events leading up to the Olympics. Book available. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The First Dream Team...
In 1992, USA Basketball and the US Olympic Committee finally acknowledged a painful truth, that US collegians could no longer compete on an equal basis in Olympic basketball against the world's professional players.The solution: pick a "dream team" of eleven mature professionals and one outstanding collegiate player to represent the US, and select Detroit Pistons Coach Chuck Daley to lead it."America's Dream Team: The Quest For Olympic Gold", authored by Daly with Alex Sachare, is the story of their Olympic experience.

The Dream Team was perhaps unique in its collective talent and experience.Eight of the twelve players have since been inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame; at least two more should join them in due course.Three of the four coaches are also members.Much of the book is devoted to individual biographies of the players, including such icons as Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, and Charles Barkley, among others.

The book itself briefly chronicles the American experience in Olympic Basketball before getting into the selection of the team and its preparation for the Games.The actual competition is something of an anti-climax.The book frames Daly's commentary with lots of excellent color photography of the team, on and off court, and documents the intriguing experience of seeing professional rivals like Larry Bird and Patrick Ewing make common cause.

"America's Dream Team" is essentially a high quality, professionally-done sourvenir book, but one that is likely to appeal to die-hard basketball fans who remember the original "Dream Team."

Dream Team
America's Dream Team:The 1992 USA Basketball Team is in great condition and was delivered to me in relatively good time. ... Read more

Product Description
A history of the modern Olympic Games with a synopsis of the most famous competitions. ... Read more

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Until this volume was compiled, the results of the 1920 Olympics held in Antwerp, Belgium, have been far from complete. The Antwerp organizing committee typed up a report of the results almost as an afterthought because it was so financially strapped after the games. For some events only the medalists are listed, with little, if any, additional information. Very few copies were ever produced, and those few copies were in French. The seventh in a series on the early Olympics, this work fills a gap in the recording of early Olympics history by providing complete results for all competitors and all events (except for shooting, which has only partial information available). In virtually all cases, a 1920 source has been used in preference to a more modern source of information, and all details have been fully researched in contemporary newspapers, journals, and magazines and checked for accuracy by experts on various sports from all over the world. ... Read more

Product Description
Hardcover book with amazing photos of Olympic athletes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Well Worth the Money
I've found some of Annie's more recent fashion photography to be some what hit and miss; with some of it relying too heavily on props and sensationalism in an attempt to be edgy or original. This book however made me respect her skill anew. What stood out was the superb composition of the photographs, only bested perhaps by the master of portraiture (in my opinion) of Edward Steichen.

Fascinating Look at the Challenges of Sports Photography
Clearly, Annie Leibovitz is as talented as they come these days for black-and-white portraits of people who are used to posing (like actresses, actors, singers, and models).What happened when she took on athletes as her subject, looking at the preparations by Americans for the Atlanta games in 1996?

The portraits are usually stunning, as might be expected.Many of the action photographs leave something or much to be desired.But that's part of what makes the book interesting.I came away with a new respect for those terrific sports action photographs that I love so much.

As Ms. Leibovitz says, "Each time I worked with an athlete I had two possibilities: . . . concentrate on the person or . . . on the sport.""Sometimes I was able to do both."And those moments when she did both are sublime!

The motion shots are the difficulty.She nicely states the problem."If you see it, you've missed it."So you have to shoot with an expectation of what is likely to follow, and keep shooting.I suspect that she did not allow enough time to get enough of all the kinds of shots that sports photographers have led us to expect."The fixed image . . . has to be just the right slice of time, [to]. . . stand for -- and suggest -- the whole movement."

Her talent as a portrait photographer serves her well.The young women and men take on superhuman auras in stunningly composed frames.By focusing on the preparations for the games rather than the games themselves (which are very commercial now), she harkens back to the original Greek ideal of sport as a way to pursue mental and physical perfection.

If I liked the work so much, why did I grade it down one star?As I mentioned earlier, many of the motion shots were either unexciting or below the standard I am used to seeing.In addition, the pages in this book are too small for the images so many photographs have a fold right through critical details.The design is quite weak in that sense.

Here are my favorite images:

Jon Olsen (p. 17)

Amy Van Dyken (p. 19)

Mark Lenzi (p. 21)

Mihai Bagiu (p. 35)

Dominique Moceanu (p. 37)

Dominique Moceanu and John Roethlisberger (p. 39)

Men's Eight (pp. 54-55)

John Godina (p. 66)

Esther Jones, Gwen Torrence, Carlette Guidry (pp. 80-81)

Gwen Torrence (pp. 88-89)

Julie Foudy (pp. 102-103)

Chanda Rubin (pp. 104-105)

Darrick Health (pp. 132-133)

Becky Dyroen-Lancer, Heather Simmons-Carrasco, and Jill Savery (pp. 134-135)

Kevin Burnham and Morgan Reeser (pp. 174-175)

I suggest that you take up Ms. Leibovitz's challenge yourself, by photographing children practicing sports.Your subjects will be delighted with the attention, and they will be easier to shoot because they don't move as fast as adult athletes.

Shoot first, and review the contact sheets later!

Not Olympic-quality photography
Disappointing.Technically very good, but overall lacking in originality.Most of these photographs could have been taken by any newspaper sports photographer.

talent
I have gotten several copies of this book, I think these photographs are amazing and deserve an award.

Gold Medal for Leibovitz
This collection of photography at first struck me as being quite gloomy and severe.However, after a closer study of each image I realized that Leibovitz expertly captures so much of the primal emotion of physicalexertion.The images range from eerily erotic to firecely competitive--while also maintaining the dignity of each individual athlete. I'mtypically not a big fan of b&w photography but here it really works.The starkness of each image allows the humanness of each athlete to reallycome through while simultaneously allowing the terror, agony, and glory ofthe human body in competition to shine. ... Read more

Product Description
This Guide to the 1992 Winter Olympics was mailed to US Postal Employees as a way of providing information about the Olympics but also to commemorate the Post Office's Sponsorship of the games. ... Read more