The origins of the Olympics date back to Ancient Greece as a festival to the god Zeus but remarkably the four year cycle established then is still integral more than 2000 years later. After setting the scene in Olympia, Joanne traces the evolution of the modern games prompted by the endeavours of a Shropshire doctor William Penny Brookes and taken on by Frenchman Baron Pierre de Coubertin.

He steered the modern Olympics through their formative and rocky early editions under his famous mantra " it's not the winning but the taking part". There's the one legged gold medal gymnast, the athlete whose fame persuaded a town to change their name to his and the novice swimmer who'd never seen a full size pool till he made his debut, the Olympics never fail to surprise and enthral.

With more than 100 images the book focuses on people and events, the great, the good and the bad over more than a century, revealing some unusual backstories plus many heartwarming and heartbreaking outcomes that linger long in the memory. It's little wonder as we approach Paris 2024 that the Olympics still attract even the most armchair fans worldwide.

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