The summer Olympics in Beijing are just three days away, and the buzz has been steady for weeks. You may have heard the awe-inspiring story of swimmer Dara Torres, who at 41 will be the “first American swimmer to compete in five Olympics and the oldest female swimmer in the history of the Games, according to an article on the Team USA web site. Last fall, at age 40, she became one of only five women ever to swim the 50-meter freestyle in less than 24 seconds. (There’s a fascinating article about Torres in the New York Times; at least check out the photos by Robert Maxwell.) Part of the reason we are fascinated by the Olympics is that we know that there is a story like this behind every event.
So, maybe it’s time for us all to get the thrill of a little armchair Olympics! If the older athlete’s story appeals, you may want to look for the movie The Rookie (based on the book The Rookie: The Incredible True Story of a Man Who Never Gave Up on His Dream by Jim Morris and Joel Engel). It tells the story of a former minor-leaguer turned coach who makes his players a promise that if they do well, he’ll try out for the major leagues. They exceed their potential, and he has to keep his promise.
Women haven’t always been in the forefront of the sports news. In Game Face: What Does a Female Athlete Look Like? by Jane Gottesman, you can see photos (with short essays and quotes from the women shown) revealing the history and progress of women in sports, starting as early as the 1800s. There’s nothing like a visual to convey the “thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.” Of course, one of the most-watched women’s sports is figure skating, and Dorothy Hamill’s A Skating Life gives us a look at the inner life and struggles of one of America’s most beloved competitors in this most artistic of events.
Starting on 8-8-08 we will be watching a new iteration of the modern Olympics, but the games themselves originate in more ancient times. The Naked Olympics: The True Story of the Ancient Games by Tony Perrottet is an entertaining account of those first games in Olympia, in the Greece of more than 1,000 years ago. It’s complete with a wealth of facts about the historical games that would seem familiar to us today (huge unruly crowds and athletes following fad diets) as well as 
some that would not (the competitors didn’t wear clothing). The Olympics’ history has not always been festive and peaceable, however. Triumph: The Untold Story of Jesse Owens and Hitler’s Olympics, by Jeremy Schaap, tells the story of the African-American athlete at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany, setting four world records and embodying the successful diversity that Hitler’s regime stood against. Finally, you may want to throw a little fiction into the mix, by trying Aquamarine by Carol Anshaw. In three connected novellas, Anshaw explores the three possible paths that the life of swimmer Jesse Austin might have taken, if she had not lost a gold medal by a hair in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. (SPL does not currently have a copy of this book, but it can be ordered through inter-library loan).
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