Weightlifter Yuri Vlasov marching into the Olympic stadium carrying the Soviet flag in one outstretched hand in the Opening Ceremony. Rafer Johnson hanging on through the final event, the 1500 m run, with grim determination to win the decathlon. The event had been cancelled since 1928 for that reason. The shock and dismay of the old-school male committee members when women running the 800-meter (about half a mile) collapsed in exhaustion at the end. Wilma Rudolph, who had polio as a child, gracefully running to a gold medal in the women’s 100 meter, 200 meter, and 4 x 100 meter relay. South Africa arguing successfully that the reason there weren’t any black athletes on their team was because they just weren’t as talented as the white athletes.īing Crosby belting out “The Star-Spangled Banner” when an anti-American crowd was booing as it played for Eddie Crook, a gold-medal winning boxer. I found myself taking away a series of striking mental pictures, some amazing, some that left me shaking my head.Įthiopian Abebe Bikila running barefoot through the dark streets of Rome to win the Olympic gold medal in the marathon, becoming the first East African to win a medal. I can’t say I particularly cared about all the details of every race and competition, but the personalities and the history were the driving force behind the book. I was pleasantly surprised to find myself enjoying it.

I’m not a sports fan but I read this for the “Eclectic Reader Challenge” as a sports book that I might be able to tolerate. I don’t know that I agree that these Olympics “changed the world” but I would definitely agree that they showcased changes that were happening in the world at large.

All of these external factors came to bear on the landmark Olympic games set in the Eternal City. Women were being accepted into more and more events but were still woefully underrepresented. South Africa was trying to fight apartheid. For the first time ever, a few competitions were being televised. Definitions of “amateurism” and the direction of future Olympics were being determined. The Civil Rights movement was gaining traction. The Cold War was getting serious, with Eisenhower and Khrushchev using the Olympic Games as a propaganda platform and trying to woo athletes into defecting. Title: Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed the Worldġ960 was a turbulent year.

Rome 1960 by David Maraniss