We are so excited to have author David Maraniss on today’s show to talk about his new book Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe.
Path Lit by Lightning came out this week, and we talked with him about the book and Thorpe, who won the pentathlon and decathlon at Stockholm 1912, but had his medals stripped because it was later discovered that he had been a professional athlete.
On this episode we look at great and unique Olympic moments with Jeremy Fuchs, author of the new book "Total Olympics: Every Obscure, Hilarious, Dramatic and Inspiring Tale Worth Knowing." We talk Olympic legends, how the Nazis used the 1936 Winter Olympics as a dress rehearsal for the Berlin Summer Olympics, and the infamous plunge for distance event.
It's a Bucket List episode! Alison's been dying to talk about the infamous Blood in the Water water polo match from Melbourne 1956, and Jill's wanted to talk about the contentious football match between the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia from Helsinki 1952. We get to cover BOTH of them this week with Harry Blutstein, author of the book "Cold War Games: Spies, Subterfuge and Secret Operations at the 1956 Olympic Games," which looks at how politics and history played out at the Melbourne 1956 Olympics (also known as "The Friendly Games"). Hear some amazing stories of the issues with the Soviet Union, Hungary, Yugoslavia, China and Taiwan.