Dangerous Games: Australia at the 1936 Nazi Olympics

(Paperback)

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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.

Reviews

[A] fascinating book * Weekend Australian *
Larry Writer's portrait of Berlin during the 1936 Olympics, seen largely through the eyes of the Australian team, is absorbing. * Sydney Morning Herald *
Impeccably researched and superb...dramatic and touching. * Inside Sport *
Larry Writer has delivered a gem in Dangerous Games... -- Roland Perry, author of Bill the Bastard
Writer has faithfully recreated the 1936 Olympics - the most controversial in history... -- Harry Gordon, author of Australia and the Olympic Games

Author Bio

Larry Writer is an award-winning author with an interest in sport, history and crime.