Full Description
Shortlisted for the 2015 William Hill Australian Sports Book of the Year Award
This is a tale of innocents abroad. Thirty-three athletes left Australia in May 1936 to compete in the Hitler Olympics in Berlin. Believing sporting competition was the best antidote to tyranny, they put their qualms on hold. Anything to be part of the greatest show on earth.
Dangerous Games drops us into a front row seat at the 100,000-capacity Olympic stadium to witness some of the finest sporting performances of all time - most famously the African American runner Jesse Owens, who eclipsed the best athletes the Nazis could pit against him in every event he entered. The Australians, with their antiquated training regimes and amateur ethos, valiantly confronted the intensely focused athletes of Germany, the United States and Japan. Behind the scenes was cut-throat wheeling and dealing, defiance of Hitler, and warm friendships among athletes.
What they did and saw in Berlin that hot, rainy summer influenced all that came after until their dying days.
Contents
Prologue: The wattle and the swastika1 Berlin wins the games2 On your marks3 The class of '364 Darkness descending5 Amateur hour6 Boycott Berlin!7 All at sea8 Into the lair9 Bells, whistles and a grand arena10 Settling in11 Innocents abroad12 Olympic countdown13 The Opening Ceremony14 Days of grace and fury15 The dying flame16 Behind the mask17 Sifting the wreckage18 Finish linesEpilogueAcknowledgementsBibliography
