The Complete Book of the Olympics

by David Wallechinsky

The latest edition of an Olympic Games reference which contains the final results of every event over the past 100 years, and the results of the research undertaken by the Games' historians, including new information on the national origins of medal winners from the former USSR.

Genres: Sports, Nonfiction, Reference, History

768 pages, Hardcover

First published February 7, 1984

About the author

David Wallechinsky is an American populist historian and television commentator, the president of the International Society of Olympic Historians (ISOH) and the founder and editor-in-chief of AllGov.com.

Reviews

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll be honest... I didn't read this straight-through, cover-to-cover. It's more like an almanac, providing information about every event at every Olympic games. But more than just providing the details of who won and in what time, it also provides stories of the participants. And not just leading up to that event, but occasionally discussing what happened to an individual in their future. The author also tries to inject some humor into the book, making it far more enjoyable to read than any true almanac. An entertaining resource that I found invaluable to have by my side watching the Olympics.

[Craig Curtis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very thorough, event-by-event recap of the modern olympic games. A good reference book for olympic fans, but while it offers statistics and anticdotes from virtually every event in olympic history, it doesn't really tell much of the story of each olympic games like I was hoping. It's organized by individual event rather than by olympiad, which probably makes it easier to use as a reference, though it did make it something of a challenge to read cover-to-cover. Still, an informative book, to say the least!

[VaughanPL]

Click to find it in the catalogue.

[stan · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent and informative

[Darren · Rating 5 out of 5]

I hope they continue this almanac for winter and summer games to come. Very interesting -- especially the stories included about each event at the modern Olympics.