"A treasure trove of lore, drama and anecdote from 116 years of Olympic history. Full descriptions of rules and scoring for every event included in the London Olympics. The top eight finishers in every Summer Olympic event since 1896."--Cover.

Photographs and text detail the now quadrennial international sports competitions, tracing their development from their ancient Greek origins and highlighting outstanding twentieth-century events and champions

Contains records, statistics, medal standings, and anecdotes from throughout the history of summer Olympics, listing the top eight finishers in every event from 1896 to 2000, describing the rules and scoring of every event included in the 2004 Athens games, and including more than two hundred photographs, as well as essays on issues such as Olympic corruption, terrorism, and doping.

A comprehensive portrait of the Summer Olympics fully updated for the 2008 games in Beijing, China. This new edition includes a complete retrospective of the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece, and incorporates updates to all charts and records, as well as fun facts and anecdotes from the most recent Olympics and training.