The 2012 Summer Olympics are fast approaching! London will be abuzz with athletes and sports enthusiasts from just about everywhere – and our TVs will blaze with fast-paced Olympic coverage. It’s an exciting time worldwide.
Aside from cheering for Michael Phelps, Allyson Felix, and any of the other potential Olympic champions, you might want to read up about the modern Olympic games. Here are a few places to start:
- The Armchair Olympian : How much do you know about sport’s biggest competition?
- Cities of culture: Staging international festivals and the urban agenda, 1851-2000
- Historical Dictionary of the Olympic Movement
And, for the visually-minded, here are some films:
The games have a long and illustrious history, going back centuries. The history of the ancient Olympics is an interesting one. Investigate these sources to learn more.
- Thinking the Olympics : the classical tradition and the modern Games
- Athletika : studies on the Olympic games and Greek athletics
- The naked Olympics : the true story of the ancient games
For those of you scholars with an Olympian’s drive for success, check out the research tools on the Classics Research Guide.
Enjoy the games!
And just for fun, here’s Hopkins great Basil Gildersleeve writing on his visit to Greece, during which he took in the first modern Olympics.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1897/02/my-sixty-days-in-greece-the-olympic-games-old-and-new/3470/