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The 1908 Olympics: The First London Games

By: Keith Baker
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Sportsbooks
ISBN: 1899807616
ISBN-13: 9781899807611
Released: 07 Feb 2008
RRP: £7.99
Average Rating:

Customer Reviews

You don't have to be a sports fan to enjoy it ! - By: Susan Laybourn, 11 Jun 2008
I reallly enjoyed this book. I am not usuallly interested in sports but I was soon gripped by the drama & controversy of the momentous 1908 London Olympics as expressed in Keith Baker's light & engaging style. I polished off this book in a few days & felt both entertained & educated for very little effort on my part. It is clearly well researched & well balanced in presenting the disputes & amazing personalities that crackled at the London Olympics in 1908. I strongly recommend this volume - essential reading to enhance your pleasure & understanding of Beijing 2008 & London 2012.
Preparing for the Olympics - By: Richard Ashdown, 05 Mar 2008
Having become rather cynical of athletics over the past few years (perhaps because of drug cheats & over-exposure on television) I feel that this book has saved me just in time for the Beijing Olympics. In a wonderfully light-hearted style Keith Baker tells us about some real heroes who fought out their battles in the London Olympics 100 years ago.

Rising above the bitter wranglings between the US & Britain over who was the better, were some characters who would be role models for any of us - Dorando Pietri & Tom Longboat the marathon runners; Snowy Baker Australia's finest ever athlete; the Irish American, sixteen times world champion heavyweight thrower, Martin Sheridan; the great Scot Wyndham Halswelle; & Madge Syers pioneer for women's figure skating.

This is a great wee book which anyone who is interested in the Olympics must read. But it leaves one thinking `Will we see their likes again?'. Perhaps we shalll, but I doubt whether more than one or two of the recent crop of athletes will be celebrated in their home towns 100 years hence as Pietri will be in Carpi, Italy in July of this year? Haile Gebrselasse perhaps.