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Frankly it is hard to understand why Maranis picked these particular Olympics over say Mexico City 68 or Munich 72, as an epochal event. While this had its moments, it is nowhere near as fully realized a book as his Vietnam book. I picked this up after being very impressed with another Maranis book about the 60s, They Marched Into Sunlight: War and Peace Vietnam and America October 1967. Even if the book were to focus on a specific Olympic competition, the focus could have been broader, encompassing athletes pre event training and post event reactions back home. Maranis attributes to his subject Olympics some consequences that don't really play out fully on the confined stage of the 18 days in Rome. He makes the point that many trends that have become commonplace in the Olympics, the rise of black and women athletes; the importance of television over print media; exposure of what one sportswriter called "shamateurism" and the use of anabolic steroids all first came to the surface in the 1960 Olympics, but they were still in the growth stages by the time the closing ceremonies put an end to the events in Rome. There is very little of that here, but what there is, including Wilma Rudolph's battle with polio and the exposure of the rampant drug use by East German athletes were some of the most compelling sections of the book.
These games did not "change the world." The Soviets had already won the medal count in 1956 -- and in fact the Americans made a comeback by winning the games in 1964 and 1968, after which the Soviets dominated until their demise in the 1990s. Maraniss is at his best in capturing the shifting cultural and political ground of the day -- the tensions between the two Germanies, the Soviet politicization of the games, the start of drug scandals, the infamous Soviet trick of questionable calls through biased Eastern bloc officials, and the monumental hypocrisy of the "amateur" ideals of Brundage and the Olympic brass. He is able to capture the two great American stars of those Olympics, decathlete Rafer Johnson and sprinter Wilma Rudolph, in all their complexity; both come off as likable and graceful heroes. It was Hitler who brought the pageantry of the torch relay, heavy government spending on infrastructure, and the equation of sports performance with societal merit.
Maraniss is not entirely focused on the Americans and spends considerable time telling the story of the great Soviet Olympic team that dominated the medal count, the fine unified German team, and the barefoot Ethiopian Bikila, who won the Marathon. Maraniss can tell a compelling narrative, as he demonstrated in his terrific treatment of the Vietnam era, "They Marched into Sunlight." He uses his talents well to tell the story of the now-forgotten 1960 Olympics in Rome. And the games were first politicized by the Nazis in 1936. In fact, Hitler planned to build an obscenely large arena in Berlin to host the games in perpetuity once he won the war.Thus, the Anglo-Soviet and now the Chinese use of the games for political purposes was nothing new. No one can miss the "good old days" of amateurism after reading this book.
Before Hitler, the games were just another track meet. Nonetheless, the 1960 games are worth writing about for more than just the great personal stories. Clay was a hero as well in boxing, though Maraniss correctly points out that his subsequent fame tends to exaggerate his importance to the 1960 games. The 1936 Olympics were the games that changed the world. Essentially, everyone made money off the games except the athletes -- and a double standard was applied to Western atheletes because they were vulnerable, as opposed to Soviet athletes who were professional, full time paid athletes in every sense of the word.
The sub-title of the book is unfortunate. After that, the Japanese planned to do the same thing in 1940 and the Italians in 1944 -- only to be interrupted by the inconvenience of World War II. Maraniss is right to stress the advances in women's sports and in racial relations brought on by these personalities as well as the way in which the games mirror the increasingly dangerous rivalry between the Americans and the Soviets.
The writer did a excellent job telling about the background of the atheletes who partipated in the games. The storyof Rufus Johnson and Wilma Randolph were excellent examples. I grew up in the 1960's, some of the things he wrote about I remember. ihave enjoyed all his books.
These Games didn't change the world. It was very nice to learn more about Wilma Rudolph and Rafer Johnson, but Ali wasn't given much attention, and Abebe Bikila was glossed overf as well. Lots of nice stories, but nothing happened here that had world-wide impact. Smith and Carlos must be laughing at this title. Much too much focus on Dave Sime. I usually like Maraniss as an author, but this book was overall a disappointment.
Maraniss hits the topics that have survived in Olympic history, such as Wilma Rudolph, Cassius Clay and Rafer Johnson, while bringing in many others, from the compelling to the obscure. Maraniss also exposes the hypocrisy of Avery Brundage and the IOC, a target that deserved a pummeling. "Rome 1960" is my fourth book by the author, and while a fine work, it comes in just a touch below the other three. Some medalists came back to America effectively without notice. My point about trying a bit too hard is that many other Olympics also had major shifts and notable events. The book reminds us how quickly even the world's greatest athletes can slip back into obscurity, assuming of course that they weren't obscure to begin with.In fact, one of the key themes is the arrival of television, with Olympic coverage truly in its infancy and live satellite broadcasts still a few years away. He makes a good case here and there, with the thread about TV, the inevitable slide away from so-called amateurism, the beginning of performance-enhancing drugs, the rise of the USSR and the welcome emergence of women's track and field.
Near the conclusion, Wilma Rudolph returned to her home town in Tennessee for a major celebration, which she insisted would happen only if fully integrated. Mr. As with the author's "Clemente", a theme (lesser here, but still notable) was the role of race, where a black American could win a gold medal and be segregated at home. With that came tiny (by our standards) TV rights and not much attention. The author works hard to justify his claim that the 1960 Olympics were a true transitional games. From such visible, incremental efforts that could not be denied, true progress was made. One can argue about Rome's place in the pecking order, but even so, the book nicely shows the history of an Olympics that was more forgotten than it deserved.
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