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A review by llynn66
The Games: A Global History of the Olympics by David Goldblatt
3.0
I am not one of those people who gets involved with sports. I don't watch Big Sports of any type (even living in this miraculous year in Cleveland.) Team sports hold no interest for me and I tend to be put off by the rabid partisanship of the crowds, the idolization of overgrown boys who can play what are basically children's games with skill and their out-of-proportion importance in our society. I am the first to grouse about the billions of dollars we pour into these entertainments which could, instead, be used on medical research, alternative energy sources, hunger and infrastructure. -- I am also thoroughly creeped out by the nationalism I see encroaching more and more into our world view. It was a bad idea eighty years ago and it remains a bad idea today.
Yet...I am a hypocrite. Because I have a soft spot for the hyped up, money hemorrhaging, nationalist circus that is the Olympic Games. Although I view their current underpinnings with suspicion and a bit of disgust, I enjoy the spectacle and the events, themselves. I have a long memory for some things and my Olympic memories extend back to Munich (that dismal and frightening Games, marred by the footage of armed terrorists and police on balconies in the Olympic Village.) I looked forward the the Olympics because we had to wait four years between them (which felt like an eternity to a child) and because they took place in various exotic locales around the globe. I was a child who was fascinated, from an early age, with other cultures and parts of the world. My life ambition was to be a 'world traveller' (a goal I met, mainly, through the television and my viewing of the Olympics and other documentaries about the world's treasures.)
I recall Olga Korbut, Marc Spitz, Dorothy Hamil, Bruce Jenner (long before Kaitlyn), Nadia Comaneci, Torvill and Dean, Carl Lewis, Sebastian Coe, Sugar Ray Leonard, the East German women's swimming team, the US hockey team 'miracle' of 1980, Greg Louganis, Mary Lou Retton, Katarina Witt, and on and on and on. I could write six more paragraphs about the memories I have being glued to the TV with my family watching our collective pop cultural sports history unfold throughout the latter part of the 20th century. -- As an adult, I have had less time to watch and I have been less happy with the coverage of the events. (Less depth of coverage, too much focus on American athletes and gold medalists and not enough attention paid to athletes from other regions and athletes who are deeper back in the medal field but who may have intriguing personal stories.)
So there is a lot for me to love but also a lot for me to wince about when it comes to this world wide ritual. -- As I read The Games, I had a clear impression that the author, David Goldblatt, has a similarly complex relationship with the Olympics. His commentary on the history of the Games was, at times, scathing. (I found him to be quite funny.) And I believe he almost wrote parts of this book as a cautionary tale. Fans may not be aware of how out-of-control the Olympics have become from a staging perspective. Very few cities in the world can actually afford to present them and to keep them relatively secure at this point. They have ballooned into a high maintenance White Elephant with champagne taste, which may not survive long into the 21st century if reforms and retooling do not take hold.
The Olympic Committee does not come off smelling like a rose in this narrative. They are, apparently, very much an Old Boys Club of insiders who enjoy luxury travel. (I don't know how you get this gig...but it sounds like a sweet deal to me...getting first class treatment for months at a time as one vets the sexiest world capitals on the globe. Nice work, if you can get it.) They have also been somewhat fossilized and very late to adapt to the changing world around them. Goldblatt saves a lot of his hilarious British sarcasm for this gang of grifters.
But we all like to look back on the highlight reel of our lives and these 'collective events' are growing more and more rare in a fragmented world where everyone has their own Youtube channel and Soundcloud mix. People no longer join community groups or social organizations (Bowling Alone) and fewer and fewer belong to organized religions. Gone is the group experience in most of our lives. Perhaps this is why we have become so relentlessly tribal in our sports fandom and our political affiliations. These remain the few areas in our lives where we feel part of a larger group of 'people like us'.
I enjoyed this overview of the Games because it did ignite some deeply buried memories I have as a spectator. I was also fascinated by the chapters on the early modern Games from the turn of the last century. (There is interesting video footage online of the London Games from 1908.) The Games provides an interesting overview of the modern Olympic Games from Athens in 1896 through an introduction to the Rio Games we just finished viewing this past summer. The Summer Games get more coverage in this book than the Winter Games, (which are described as somewhat of a step child to the Summer Games, at least initially. They seem to have gained in stature and popularity in more contemporary times. I have always enjoyed them equally, being fond of figure skating and skiing.)
I was hoping that the book would have a bit more depth about each Olympics. However, the scope here is to provide an overview of the history of the Games as a whole. Something more detailed would probably be encyclopedic in length. I do not feel this is a demerit. The Games was a solid and entertaining starting point. I am interested in the topic and will probably search for more titles about the various Olympics I remember watching over the years.
Yet...I am a hypocrite. Because I have a soft spot for the hyped up, money hemorrhaging, nationalist circus that is the Olympic Games. Although I view their current underpinnings with suspicion and a bit of disgust, I enjoy the spectacle and the events, themselves. I have a long memory for some things and my Olympic memories extend back to Munich (that dismal and frightening Games, marred by the footage of armed terrorists and police on balconies in the Olympic Village.) I looked forward the the Olympics because we had to wait four years between them (which felt like an eternity to a child) and because they took place in various exotic locales around the globe. I was a child who was fascinated, from an early age, with other cultures and parts of the world. My life ambition was to be a 'world traveller' (a goal I met, mainly, through the television and my viewing of the Olympics and other documentaries about the world's treasures.)
I recall Olga Korbut, Marc Spitz, Dorothy Hamil, Bruce Jenner (long before Kaitlyn), Nadia Comaneci, Torvill and Dean, Carl Lewis, Sebastian Coe, Sugar Ray Leonard, the East German women's swimming team, the US hockey team 'miracle' of 1980, Greg Louganis, Mary Lou Retton, Katarina Witt, and on and on and on. I could write six more paragraphs about the memories I have being glued to the TV with my family watching our collective pop cultural sports history unfold throughout the latter part of the 20th century. -- As an adult, I have had less time to watch and I have been less happy with the coverage of the events. (Less depth of coverage, too much focus on American athletes and gold medalists and not enough attention paid to athletes from other regions and athletes who are deeper back in the medal field but who may have intriguing personal stories.)
So there is a lot for me to love but also a lot for me to wince about when it comes to this world wide ritual. -- As I read The Games, I had a clear impression that the author, David Goldblatt, has a similarly complex relationship with the Olympics. His commentary on the history of the Games was, at times, scathing. (I found him to be quite funny.) And I believe he almost wrote parts of this book as a cautionary tale. Fans may not be aware of how out-of-control the Olympics have become from a staging perspective. Very few cities in the world can actually afford to present them and to keep them relatively secure at this point. They have ballooned into a high maintenance White Elephant with champagne taste, which may not survive long into the 21st century if reforms and retooling do not take hold.
The Olympic Committee does not come off smelling like a rose in this narrative. They are, apparently, very much an Old Boys Club of insiders who enjoy luxury travel. (I don't know how you get this gig...but it sounds like a sweet deal to me...getting first class treatment for months at a time as one vets the sexiest world capitals on the globe. Nice work, if you can get it.) They have also been somewhat fossilized and very late to adapt to the changing world around them. Goldblatt saves a lot of his hilarious British sarcasm for this gang of grifters.
But we all like to look back on the highlight reel of our lives and these 'collective events' are growing more and more rare in a fragmented world where everyone has their own Youtube channel and Soundcloud mix. People no longer join community groups or social organizations (Bowling Alone) and fewer and fewer belong to organized religions. Gone is the group experience in most of our lives. Perhaps this is why we have become so relentlessly tribal in our sports fandom and our political affiliations. These remain the few areas in our lives where we feel part of a larger group of 'people like us'.
I enjoyed this overview of the Games because it did ignite some deeply buried memories I have as a spectator. I was also fascinated by the chapters on the early modern Games from the turn of the last century. (There is interesting video footage online of the London Games from 1908.) The Games provides an interesting overview of the modern Olympic Games from Athens in 1896 through an introduction to the Rio Games we just finished viewing this past summer. The Summer Games get more coverage in this book than the Winter Games, (which are described as somewhat of a step child to the Summer Games, at least initially. They seem to have gained in stature and popularity in more contemporary times. I have always enjoyed them equally, being fond of figure skating and skiing.)
I was hoping that the book would have a bit more depth about each Olympics. However, the scope here is to provide an overview of the history of the Games as a whole. Something more detailed would probably be encyclopedic in length. I do not feel this is a demerit. The Games was a solid and entertaining starting point. I am interested in the topic and will probably search for more titles about the various Olympics I remember watching over the years.