The 2018 Winter Olympics is underway in Pyeongchang County, South Korea! A full schedule of events can be found here and some Olympic-inspired reading can be found below. 

Olympic Collision: The Story of Mary Decker and Zola Budd  by Kyle Keiderling

“An immensely readable and elegantly written account of the lives and careers of two iconic women distance runners who will always be remembered for their dramatic collision at the Los Angeles Olympics. The penetrating insights it provides into the murky world of politics, illegal drug use, and money in track and field in the 1980s will be of interest well beyond just the running community.”—Richard Mayer, South African athletics writer and historian

The 1904 Anthropology Days and Olympic Games: Sport, Race, and American Imperialism edited by Susan Brownell

“The authors provide not only a window into the history of a sporting event but also an important story about sports as a system of representation. This volume is a fine collection that recalls a past event that is still relevant to the present.”—John Bloom, American Historical Review

The Sovereign Colony: Olympic Sport, National Identity, and International Politics in Puerto Rico by Antonio Sotomayor (paperback available September 2018)

“How is it that Puerto Rico participates with a sovereign team in the International Olympic Games? The answer to that question and Puerto Rico’s sporting success in the Central American and Caribbean Games provides the fascinating subject for Antonio Sotomayor’s book. He explains the baffling and perplexing dimensions of international sport.”—William H. Beezley, author of Judas at the Jockey Club and Other Episodes of Porfirian Mexico 

American Hoops: U.S. Men’s Olympic Basketball from Berlin to Beijing by Carson Cunningham

“Relying extensively on interviews with a vast array of former Olympic coaches and players, Cunningham weaves a rich tapestry exploring the relationship of sport and politics that brings the excitement of Olympic basketball to life.”—Katz Miltons, Journal of Sport History

Something in the Air: American Passion and Defiance in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics by Richard Hoffer (new edition available Fall 2018)

“Richard Hoffer has given us a wonderful cross-section of characters and a thorough portrayal of the controversial events surrounding the 1968 Olympics, so that we learn to appreciate these Mexico City Games in a way we never did before. It’s sports history at both its finest and most fun.”—Frank Deford, Sports Illustrated senior contributing writer