Americas First Olympics

Author : George R. Matthews
Publisher : University of Missouri Press
ISBN 13 : 0826264751
Total Pages : 254 pages
Book Rating : 4.56/5 ( download)

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Download or read book America's First Olympics written by George R. Matthews and published by University of Missouri Press. This book was released on 2005-07-22 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: America in 1904 was a nation bristling with energy and confidence. Inspired by Theodore Roosevelt, the nation’s young, spirited, and athletic president, a sports mania rampaged across the country. Eager to celebrate its history, and to display its athletic potential, the United States hosted the world at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis. One part of the World’s Fair was the nation’s first Olympic games. Revived in Greece in 1896, the Olympic movement was also young and energetic. In fact, the St. Louis Olympics were only the third in modern times. Although the games were originally awarded to Chicago, St. Louis wrestled them from her rival city against the wishes of International Olympic Committee President Pierre de Coubertin. Athletes came from eleven countries and four continents to compete in state-of-the-art facilities, which included a ten-thousand-seat stadium with gymnasium equipment donated by sporting goods magnate Albert Spalding. The 1904 St. Louis Olympics garnered only praise, and all agreed that the games were a success, improving both the profile of the Olympic movement and the prestige of the United States. But within a few years, the games of 1904 receded in memory. They suffered a worse fate with the publication of Coubertin’s memoirs in 1931. His selective recollections, exaggerated claims, and false statements turned the forgotten Olympics into the failed Olympics. This prejudiced account was furthered by the 1948 publication of An Approved History of the Olympic Games by Bill Henry, which was reviewed and endorsed by Coubertin. America’s First Olympics, by George R. Matthews, corrects common misconceptions that began with Coubertin’s memoirs and presents a fresh view of the 1904 games, which featured first-time African American Olympians, an eccentric and controversial marathon, and documentation by pioneering photojournalist Jessie Tarbox Beals. Matthews provides an excellent overview of the St. Louis Olympics over a six-month period, beginning with the intrigue surrounding the transfer of the games from Chicago. He also gives detailed descriptions of the major players in the Olympic movement, the events that were held in 1904, and the athletes who competed in them. This original account will be welcomed by history and sports enthusiasts who are interested in a new perspective on this misunderstood event.

Author : George Matthews
Publisher : Arcadia Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9780738523293
Total Pages : 134 pages
Book Rating : 4.91/5 ( download)

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Download or read book St. Louis Olympics 1904 written by George Matthews and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2003 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first American Olympics, held in 1904 in St. Louis, were a vigorous spectacle suited to an energetic and confident nation. The games were wrested away from rival city Chicago and appended to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's Fair. Athletes came from eleven countries and four continents to compete in state-of-the-art facilities, which included a 10,000-seat stadium with gymnasium equipment donated by sporting goods magnate Albert Spalding. St. Louis Olympics, 1904 corrects common misperceptions and presents a fresh view of the games that featured first-time African American Olympians, an eccentric marathon, and documentation by pioneering photojournalist Jessie Tarbox Beals.

Author : Meghan McCarthy
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 148140640X
Total Pages : 48 pages
Book Rating : 4.06/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Wildest Race Ever written by Meghan McCarthy and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-03-01 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Megan McCarthy the award-winning author of Pop! and Earmuffs for Everyone comes the quirky, fascinating, and inspiring story of perseverance and the importance of sportsmanship set at the 1904 St. Louis Olympic Marathon. It was 1904 and St. Louis was proud to host the World’s Fair and America’s First Olympics. Hundreds of thousands of people came by car, by train, by boat. Part of the Olympics was a wild, wacky marathon. Forty-two racers registered, thirty-two showed up, and of the three racers vying for the finish line: on drove part way, one was helped by his trainers over the line, and one was a postman who travelled from Cuba and ran in street clothes that he cut off to look like shorts. How they ran and who won is a story of twists and turns that only wouldn’t be believed if it weren’t true! And it is! Find out who won in this wacky and well-researched picture book all about the historic Olympic Marathon of 1904.

Author : Susan Brownell
Publisher : U of Nebraska Press
ISBN 13 : 0803210981
Total Pages : 490 pages
Book Rating : 4.81/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The 1904 Anthropology Days and Olympic Games written by Susan Brownell and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2008-12-01 with total page 490 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the more problematic sport spectacles in American history took place at the 1904 World?s Fair in St. Louis, which included the third modern Olympic Games. Associated with the Games was a curious event known as Anthropology Days organized by William J. McGee and James Sullivan, at that time the leading figures in American anthropology and sports, respectively. McGee recruited Natives who were participating in the fair?s ethnic displays to compete in sports events, with the ?scientific? goal of measuring the physical prowess of ?savages? as compared with ?civilized men.? This interdisciplinary collection of essays assesses the ideas about race, imperialism, and Western civilization manifested in the 1904 World?s Fair and Olympic Games and shows how they are still relevant. A turning point in both the history of the Olympics and the development of modern anthropology, these games expressed the conflict between the Old World emphasis on culture and New World emphasis on utilitarianism. Marked by Franz Boas?s paper at the Scientific Congress, the events in St. Louis witnessed the beginning of the shift in anthropological research from nineteenth-century evolutionary racial models to the cultural relativist paradigm that is now a cornerstone of modern American anthropology. Racist pseudoscience nonetheless reappears to this day in the realm of sports.

Author : Jim Reisler
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 0762786604
Total Pages : 215 pages
Book Rating : 4.02/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Igniting the Flame written by Jim Reisler and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2012-06-05 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of the fourteen men – largely forgotten and never the subject of a full-length book – who created the American Olympic movement by winning eleven gold medals at the first modern Olympics in 1896 in Athens, timed for publication leading up to the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials and the 2012 Olympics in London.

Author : Deborah Riley Draper
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1501162179
Total Pages : 254 pages
Book Rating : 4.76/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Olympic Pride, American Prejudice written by Deborah Riley Draper and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2020-02-04 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this “must-read for anyone concerned with race, sports, and politics in America” (William C. Rhoden, New York Times bestselling author), the inspirational and largely unknown true story of the eighteen African American athletes who competed in the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, defying the racism of both Nazi Germany and the Jim Crow South. Set against the turbulent backdrop of a segregated United States, sixteen Black men and two Black women are torn between boycotting the Olympic Games in Nazi Germany or participating. If they go, they would represent a country that considered them second-class citizens and would compete amid a strong undercurrent of Aryan superiority that considered them inferior. Yet, if they stayed, would they ever have a chance to prove them wrong on a global stage? Five athletes, full of discipline and heart, guide you through this harrowing and inspiring journey. There’s a young and feisty Tidye Pickett from Chicago, whose lithe speed makes her the first African American woman to compete in the Olympic Games; a quiet Louise Stokes from Malden, Massachusetts, who breaks records across the Northeast with humble beginnings training on railroad tracks. We find Mack Robinson in Pasadena, California, setting an example for his younger brother, Jackie Robinson; and the unlikely competitor Archie Williams, a lanky book-smart teen in Oakland takes home a gold medal. Then there’s Ralph Metcalfe, born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, who becomes the wise and fierce big brother of the group. From burning crosses set on the Robinsons’s lawn to a Pennsylvania small town on fire with praise and parades when the athletes return from Berlin, Olympic Pride, American Prejudice has “done the world a favor by bringing into the sunlight the unknown story of eighteen black Olympians who should never be forgotten. This book is both beautiful and wrenching, and essential to understanding the rich history of African American athletes” (Kevin Merida, editor-in-chief of ESPN’s The Undefeated).

Author : Richard Hoffer
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1416593896
Total Pages : 371 pages
Book Rating : 4.98/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Something in the Air written by Richard Hoffer and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2009-09-17 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the tradition of Seabiscuit and The Summer of ’49, a gripping sports narrative that brilliantly tells the amazing individual stories of the unforgettable athletes who gathered in Mexico City in a year of dramatic upheaval. The 1968 Mexico City Olympics reflected the spirit of their revolutionary times. Richard Hoffer’s Something in the Air captures the turbulence and offbeat heroism of that historic Olympiad, which was as rich in inspiring moments as it was drenched in political and racial tensions. Although the basketball star Lew Alcindor decided to boycott, heavyweight boxer George Foreman not only competed, but waved miniature American flags over his fallen opponents. The sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos became as famous for their raised-fist gestures of protest as their speed on the track. No one was prepared for Bob Beamon’s long jump, which broke the world’s record by a staggering twenty-two inches. And then there was Dick Fosbury, the goofball high jumper whose backwards, upside down approach to the bar (the "Fosbury Flop") baffled his coaches while breaking records. Though Fosbury was his own man, he was apolitical and easygoing. He didn’t defy authority; he defied gravity. Witty, insightful, and filled with human drama, Something in the Air mixes Shakespearean complexity with Hollywood sentimentality, sociopolitical significance, and the exhilarating spectacle of youthful, physical prowess. It is a powerful, unforgettable tale that will resonate with sports fans and readers of social history alike.

Author : Andrew Maraniss
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0525514651
Total Pages : 258 pages
Book Rating : 4.57/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Games of Deception written by Andrew Maraniss and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-03-02 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *"Rivaling the nonfiction works of Steve Sheinkin and Daniel James Brown's The Boys in the Boat....Even readers who don't appreciate sports will find this story a page-turner." --School Library Connection, starred review *"A must for all library collections." --Booklist, starred review Winner of the 2020 AJL Sydney Taylor Honor! From the New York Times bestselling author of Strong Inside comes the remarkable true story of the birth of Olympic basketball at the 1936 Summer Games in Hitler's Germany. Perfect for fans of The Boys in the Boat and Unbroken. On a scorching hot day in July 1936, thousands of people cheered as the U.S. Olympic teams boarded the S.S. Manhattan, bound for Berlin. Among the athletes were the 14 players representing the first-ever U.S. Olympic basketball team. As thousands of supporters waved American flags on the docks, it was easy to miss the one courageous man holding a BOYCOTT NAZI GERMANY sign. But it was too late for a boycott now; the ship had already left the harbor. 1936 was a turbulent time in world history. Adolf Hitler had gained power in Germany three years earlier. Jewish people and political opponents of the Nazis were the targets of vicious mistreatment, yet were unaware of the horrors that awaited them in the coming years. But the Olympians on board the S.S. Manhattan and other international visitors wouldn't see any signs of trouble in Berlin. Streets were swept, storefronts were painted, and every German citizen greeted them with a smile. Like a movie set, it was all just a facade, meant to distract from the terrible things happening behind the scenes. This is the incredible true story of basketball, from its invention by James Naismith in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1891, to the sport's Olympic debut in Berlin and the eclectic mix of people, events and propaganda on both sides of the Atlantic that made it all possible. Includes photos throughout, a Who's-Who of the 1936 Olympics, bibliography, and index. Praise for Games of Deception: A 2020 ALA Notable Children's Book! A 2020 CBC Notable Social Studies Book! "Maraniss does a great job of blending basketball action with the horror of Hitler's Berlin to bring this fascinating, frightening, you-can't-make-this-stuff-up moment in history to life." -Steve Sheinkin, New York Times bestselling author of Bomb and Undefeated "I was blown away by Games of Deception....It's a fascinating, fast-paced, well-reasoned, and well-written account of the hidden-in-plain-sight horrors and atrocities that underpinned sports, politics, and propaganda in the United States and Germany. This is an important read." -Susan Campbell Bartoletti, Newbery Honor winning author of Hitler Youth "A richly reported and stylishly told reminder how, when you scratch at a sports story, the real world often lurks just beneath." --Alexander Wolff, New York Times bestselling author of The Audacity of Hoop: Basketball and the Age of Obama "An insightful, gripping account of basketball and bias." --Kirkus Reviews "An exciting and overlooked slice of history." --School Library Journal

Author : Michael Loynd
Publisher : Ballantine Books
ISBN 13 : 059335706X
Total Pages : 417 pages
Book Rating : 4.64/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Watermen written by Michael Loynd and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2023-06-13 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The feel-good underdog story of the first American swimmer to win Olympic gold, set against the turbulent rebirth of the modern Games, that “bring[s] to life an inspiring figure and illuminate[s] an overlooked chapter in America’s sports history” (The Wall Street Journal) “Once or twice in a decade, one of these stories . . . like Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken [or] Daniel Brown’s The Boys in the Boat . . . captures the imagination of the public. . . . Add The Watermen by Michael Loynd to this illustrious list.”—Swimming World Winner of the International Swimming Hall of Fame’s Paragon Award and the Buck Dawson Authors Award In the early twentieth century, few Americans knew how to swim, and swimming as a competitive sport was almost unheard of. That is, until Charles Daniels took to the water. On the surface, young Charles had it all: high-society parents, a place at an exclusive New York City prep school, summer vacations in the Adirondacks. But the scrawny teenager suffered from extreme anxiety thanks to a sadistic father who mired the family in bankruptcy and scandal before abandoning Charles and his mother altogether. Charles’s only source of joy was swimming. But with no one to teach him, he struggled with technique—until he caught the eye of two immigrant coaches hell-bent on building a U.S. swim program that could rival the British Empire’s seventy-year domination of the sport. Interwoven with the story of Charles’s efforts to overcome his family’s disgrace is the compelling history of the struggle to establish the modern Olympics in an era when competitive sports were still in their infancy. When the powerful British Empire finally legitimized the Games by hosting the fourth Olympiad in 1908, Charles’s hard-fought rise climaxed in a gold-medal race where British judges prepared a trap to ensure the American upstart’s defeat. Set in the early days of a rapidly changing twentieth century, The Watermen—a term used at the time to describe men skilled in water sports—tells an engrossing story of grit, of the growth of a major new sport in which Americans would prevail, and of a young man’s determination to excel.

Author : David E. Martin
Publisher : Human Kinetics
ISBN 13 : 9780880119696
Total Pages : 532 pages
Book Rating : 4.91/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Olympic Marathon written by David E. Martin and published by Human Kinetics. This book was released on 2000 with total page 532 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No Olympic event can rival the rich history and grand spectacle of the marathon. Created for the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896 as a commemoration of the legendary run by the Greek messenger Philippides, the race has endured like no other, producing a century of awe-inspiring competition and unforgettable stories. The Olympic Marathon brings the high drama and rich details of the past 24 Olympic marathon races to life in a way no other book ever has. This definitive resource, written by world-renowned Olympic marathon experts David Martin and Roger Gynn, goes beyond statistics to offer readers a vivid chronicle of the athletes and their memorable marathon performances. Fans will relive the compelling moments that have made the Olympic marathon legendary: Spiridon Louis winning the first modern Olympic marathon in Athens in 1896, Emil Z "topek's dramatic triple-gold performance in 1952, Ethiopian Abebe Bikila winning a gold medal while running barefoot, Joan Benoit Samuelson earning her place in history as winner of the first Olympic women's marathon in 1984, and many other fascinating stories. For each race, The Olympic Marathon provides the following: -A summary of the geographical setting and political climate surrounding the Olympic Movement -A course map and detailed street description -A step-by-step narrative of how the race was run -Biographical sketches of the top three finishers -A "Looking Ahead" section, which summarizes marathon highlights leading up to the next Olympic marathon Generously illustrated, often with rare and never-before-published photos, a pictorial glimpse is provided into the contemporary atmosphere and dynamics of each race. Plus, for readers who want complete statistics on each race, the book provides a comprehensive appendix. Included are chronological and alphabetical race results for all men and women who participated in the event and listings of the fastest men's and women's Olympic marathon performances. The Olympic Marathon is the authoritative book on the race that has captured the imagination of the world. It's a one-of-a-kind resource that every fan of running and the Olympics will treasure.