The Great Olympic Swindle
(2000)When the World Wanted Its Games Back
A non fiction book by Andrew Jennings and Clare Sambrook
Caught taking bribes from cities bidding for the Games, the old men who run the Olympics promised to change. Andrew Jennings, the British journalist who first exposed Olympic corruption and the Olympic President's fascist past in two bestselling books, didn't believe in their speedy conversion. He kept on digging and what he found amazed him. Using the old men's own secret battle plans, The Great Olympic Swindle reveals how the spin doctors who told us tobacco wasn't dangerous, worked their magic for an old fascist and his cronies, outwitting governments and the press.
With leaked files from the FBI and the KGB, the book tells the astonishing story of how organised crime families have moved into the Olympic family. A close business and personal associate of the IOC president is revealed as the bagman who channelled $40 million in bribes from President Mitterand to Germany's Chancellor Kohl. And we go inside the White House to witness a secret meeting where a senior IOC figure begged Clinton's top adviser to halt pressure for reform.
A narrative of human drama, weakness and strength, The Great Olympic Swindle shows the old men at their greediest, demanding money, sex, sweetheart business deals...and fawning flattery, wherever they go.
And meet the true Olympic heroes -- Nagano's radical nun, Atlanta's poverty activist -- the little people with courage to resist the swindlers. We meet the athletes who won Olympic glory for themselves, then risked it all to give back the Games to the world.
With leaked files from the FBI and the KGB, the book tells the astonishing story of how organised crime families have moved into the Olympic family. A close business and personal associate of the IOC president is revealed as the bagman who channelled $40 million in bribes from President Mitterand to Germany's Chancellor Kohl. And we go inside the White House to witness a secret meeting where a senior IOC figure begged Clinton's top adviser to halt pressure for reform.
A narrative of human drama, weakness and strength, The Great Olympic Swindle shows the old men at their greediest, demanding money, sex, sweetheart business deals...and fawning flattery, wherever they go.
And meet the true Olympic heroes -- Nagano's radical nun, Atlanta's poverty activist -- the little people with courage to resist the swindlers. We meet the athletes who won Olympic glory for themselves, then risked it all to give back the Games to the world.
Used availability for Clare Sambrook's The Great Olympic Swindle