By ROBERT A. GEORGE
Posted: 2:26 am
June 29, 2008
"The world is stirring not only politically," Arthur Daley of the Times noted. "It is stirring athletically, too. Nations that weren't in existence at the time of the Melbourne Games four years ago competed here with distinction. The US scares not a soul anymore. Once the Americans dominated the show. They don't any more nor are they likely to do so again."
Daley wasn't the only one who thought so. Facing an energized Soviet Union and Eastern bloc who saw sports as their primary propaganda tool with which to battle the cultural strengths of America and the West, the sentiment going into the 1960 Olympics was that America had "gone soft."
Those words could also be spoken about America in 2008 - facing a world "stirring" politically and economically. Currently, one of the most feared US competitors is hosting the Games this year - China. One wonders if the concerns of 48 years ago may hold some lessons for today; and show that America's weaknesses both then and now have been greatly exaggerated.
In "Rome 1960," David Maraniss makes a strong case that the year's summer games had as profound an impact on international politics, as well as American sports and culture, as any one event of the latter part of the 20th century.
These were the Games that a young Cassius Clay first introduced himself to the world and accurately predicted he'd win a medal. The future Muhammad Ali is shown as a cocky, yet starkly mortal man afraid of flying. Nikos Spanakos, a featherweight from Brooklyn recalls that Clay screamed the entire flight. "So the coach gave us a sleeping pill to knock us all out, and Cassius was able to overcome the sleeping pill and was still screaming," Maraniss recounts.
These were also the Games where Wilma Rudolph and her superb fellow black "Tigerbelles" of little-known Tennessee State first made the world notice women's track and field. And when gymnastics began to take a prominent role.
But, most significantly, these were the Games when the intrigues of the Cold War forcefully inserted themselves into the sports world. In the background, Maraniss' intricate detailing of the various machinations going on between the US and Eastern Bloc powers gives parts of the book the feel of a suspense novel.
