Rome 1960 (2008)

OLYMPIC GOLD David Maraniss medals with his account of both the 1960 Summer Games, and the cultural developments around the competiton

If you wish you could have been at the Rome Olympics when Wilma Rudolph broke through the tape, or when Abeba Bikila won the marathon barefoot, or when Cassius Clay mistakenly tried to drink from a bidet, don't worry: David Maraniss puts you there in Rome 1960. In recounting the 1960 Summer Games, the biographer of both Vince Lombardi and Bill Clinton deftly intertwines athletic feats with tales of Cold War intrigue and omens of shamateurism and drug enhancement. In one of Maraniss' best stories, American sprinter Dave Sime was asked to bring home not only a medal but also a defector, Soviet broad jumper Igor Ter-Ovanesyan. A