The Olympic Movement began with the Ancient Olympic Games, which were held in Greece on the Peloponnesus peninsula at Olympia, Greece. It is not clear why the Greeks instituted this quadrennial celebration in the form of an athletic festival. The recorded history of the Ancient Olympic Games begins in 776 B.C., although it is suspected that the Games had been held for several centuries by that time. The Games were conducted as religious celebrations in honor of the god Zeus, and it is known that Olympia was a shrine to Zeus from about 1000 B.C. In modern time The Olympic Movement attempts to bring all the nations of the world together in a series of multisport festivals, the Olympic Games, seeking to use sport as a means to promote internationalism and peace. This fifth edition of Historical Dictionary of The Olympic Movement covers its history through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 1000 cross-referenced entries on the history, philosophy, and politics of the Olympics, major organizations, the various sports, the participating countries, and especially the athletes. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about The Olympic Movement.
About the Author: John Grasso, an Olympic historian and Treasurer of the International Society of Olympic Historians, was born in New York City, raised in Queens, NY, educated as an accountant but spent most of his working life in data processing. He moved to Guilford in Central New York State in 1980, has written on boxing, wrestling, bowling, basketball, tennis and football and has traveled extensively--visiting more than forty-five countries and attending nine Olympic Games. Bill Mallon a former professional golfer, is an orthopedic surgeon whose lifelong interest in the Olympic Games became a second career while he was in medical school at Duke University. This fifth edition is his twenty-fifth book on the Olympic Games. With Erich Kamper, he coauthored The Golden Book of the Olympic Games, and with the late Ian Buchanan he wrote Quest for Gold: The Encyclopedia of American Olympians and several other books, including the first three editions of this book. He is the author of a series of books on the earliest Olympic Games (1896-1920) and is a founding member and past president of the International Society of Olympic Historians and former editor of ISOH's Journal of Olympic History. For his contributions to the Olympic Movement, he was awarded the Olympic Order in Silver in 2001. He also serves as the President of the American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons (ASES) (2014-15), editor-in-chief of the Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery, medical editor of Golf Digest, and medical editor of Orthopaedic Coding Newsletter. Jeroen Heijmans is an information technology (IT) professional from the Netherlands. Fascinated by the Olympics since he was nine years old, he is involved in the OlyMADMen, a group that attempts to collect complete historic results of the Olympic Games (partially available on www.sportsreference.com/olympics). He has written extensively about the Olympic Games on the Dutch sports history site Sportgeschiedenis.nl and is a member (and the web master) of the International Society of Olympic Historians (ISOH).