There’s hardly any time at all left now until the Beijing 2008 Olympics – and there is no doubt that the Beijing Games are going to perhaps be the most controversial every staged. But will they be the “best Games ever”? Traditionally, it seems every Games is better than the last, at least according to the closing speach from the President of the International Olympic Committee

With so much excitment, interest and controversy over these Olympic Games, I thought it would be worth finding out more about previous Games and the history of the Olympics in general, so came across The Complete Book of the Olympics by David Wallechinsky & Jaime Loucky. Ah, the complete Book – this seemed like the perfect place to start my “Olympics readiness”!!

I will be honest and say that I haven’t yet finished reading the book, not all of it anyway – it is not really the kind of book you are going to sit and read cover to cover – but it’s kind of an ideal companion to have with you on sofa as you while away the hours of the Olympics! If there is a false start in the 100 metres, you might find a spare moment to look up an interesting Olympic fact, or if the Beach Volleyball is rained off, or cancelled due to malicious sea Algae or pollution, you could do your research into just when Beach Volleyball got into the Olympics for the first time! This book is huge – at 1200 pages to call it Encyclopedic would not be an overstatement, and that’s essentially part of what it is. I say partly because it is much more than a dry Encyclopdia filled with dry and unexciting facts; it is more a hybrid, a mix between encyclopedia and anecdote, substantiated fact and speculative lore, sharp analysis and lovingly told story. This tome will definitely be sitting on my coffee table throughout the Olympics so I can check on interesting factoids (the book provides a complete statistical record from 1896, from medals won to times, distances or scores recorded by the top eight competitors in all events, whether they be Olympic regulars such as the marathon or long-discontinued competitions such as Olympic croquet or even the tug of war!) and perhaps spend a bit of time reading some of the more expansive and unusual information – such as the story of a long-forgotten boy who was plucked from the streets of Paris to act as cox for two Dutch oarsmen in the paired-oar event in 1900 and, after steering them to victory and a Gold Medal, returned to obscurity, his name unknown to this day!

The time difference doesn’t look so bad – not as bad as the Sydney Olympics at any rate, with everything happening in the middle of my night – although I did stay up for some of it! In any case, I will be interested to see if the venues are built on time, and if China actually does manage to do something about the dreadful pollution.

It would be horrible to bring politics into my book review blog, but I will just say it is unfortunate that Beijing was even awarded the Olympics with its human rights record and its terrible behaviour in Tibet, as well as its dreadful unchecked contribution to global pollution problems. However one must hope that with the spotlight on them, this can at least be some kind of start to reform – and in the meantime, The Complete Book of The Olympics goes to show that this is by no means the first controversial staging of the Games!

The Complete Book of the Olympics – essential reading during the 17 days of the Beijing Olympic Games 2008