The Olympic Games: Athens 1896-Sydney 2000
The Olympic Games demand more from viewers than just turning on the TV.  Like the athletes themselves, we spectators need to do our training. We need to  know the history, the events, the competitors, and the records. The more up to  speed we are on them, the better shape we're in to appreciate the hoopla.Newly updated for the gathering in Sydney,The Olympic Gamesis a coffee  table-sized, gold medal effort that has a complete training facility between its  covers. Letting its tremendous cache of recent and vintage photos perform the  heavy lifting, it looks both forward and back, running the Olympian gamut from  the grand and glorious to the trivial and arcane. Sydney is previewed in detail  with a full schedule and a look at the venues and some of the athletes worth  keying on, butThe Olympic Games's real strength is its focus on the  Games' rich past and enduring legacy.Each Olympics--summer and winter--since the 1896 revival comes with an incisive  recap of the major events and personalities that defined it, followed by several  wonderful pages of portraits and action shots with remarkably informative  captions. The archival pictures are particularly priceless. They give faces to  names and accomplishments that deserve remembering. Even better, the evolution  in their very style conveys just how much so many of the sports have changed  from lonely pursuits of personal excellence to international arenas for instant  stardom. The book's last 100 pages are devoted to results and statistics--every  gold, silver, and bronze medalist gets his or her due, and for those utterly  immersed in Olympic trivia, the lighter of each Olympic torch is noted as well.--Jeff Silverman