The Thrill of Victory, the Agony of Defeat

 I felt it coming on last Thursday. Just a touch of something.  By Friday night I was on the couch all evening.  I know from past experience that this will go on for two weeks. I will be taking my meals in the living room.  I will not be able to  answer my phone.  I will get obsessive and only have one topic of conversation.  I  will even start reading the sports pages.  I have Olympic Fever.

In keeping with the old adage of starve a cold,  feed a fever, I offer the following remedies.

'Hitler's Games: The 1936 Olympics' by Duff Hart-Davis.  We all know the story of how Jesse Owens performed at these Games, but there is so much more. Germany built a 100,000 seat stadium for the games and
installed a closed-circuit TV system and a radio network that carried the games to 41 countries. This was high-tech stuff at the time.  The Olympic hymn for that year was composed by Richard Strauss. Fun fact: the venue chosen for the 1940 Olympics? Tokyo. They never happened.


 The next Olympics to be held were after the War, in London in 1948.  That story is told in  'Austerity Olympics' by Janie Hampton.  '.... the 1948 Olympics took place in war-weary London during an economic crisis. Competitors brought their own towels, travelled to venues by bus and shared rationed food'. Keep Calm and Carry On.

And of course who can forget the hockey miracle of the 1980 Winter Olympics?  'The Boys of Winter' by Wayne Coffey takes you behind the scenes of the Miracle on Ice.  I still remember being in church that Sunday when I heard that the U.S. had won.  You would have thought we won the war.

For biographies try  'A Skating Life' by Dorothy Hamill ( I myself sported the 'Dorothy' hair cut that summer) or  'Breaking the Surface' by Greg Louganis.  If you are interested in listening to some Olympic music, check out the CD 'Summon the Heroes' by John Williams with the Boston Pops. Want to learn how to improve your swimming strokes?Try  'The Mark Spitz Complete Book of Swimming'.

Afterwards, if you are suffering from withdrawal symptoms, 'Chariots of Fire' or 'Miracle' are good substitutes for the real thing. But you must realize, once you have caught Olympic Fever you are not immune.  Expect to relapse every 2 to 4 years, depending on the severity of your symptoms.  And it's not covered by insurance.