Selling the Five Rings: The International Olympic Committee and the Rise of Olympic Commercialism

Using International Olympic Committee meeting minutes, reports, letters, memoranda, and other primary source documents, the authors trace the rise of the Olympic games from what was meant to be an instrument of international peace to a transnational marketing giant. It was a transformation of idealism into commercialism by television and corporate sponsorship that led to bribery, corruption, scandal, and the tarnishing of the Salt Lake City games. The three authors are Canadian academics in kinesiology and human kinetics. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)