Rome 1960 book

sunshine

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By David Mariniss and is a great book. This is the year 3 white men swept the 100 meters!!!!! But what I found most refreshing is the author, unlike most sportswriters today, was not afraid to dwell in great detail on the raw athleticism and skill of many white athletes.
A fair and balanced book at least to me. The problem today is sports writers etc. throw down the black is the better athlete gauntlet and then use that as the starting point.
With the big event arriving soon this book should wet the appetite albeit like the whole year I dread the outcomes.
One other thing. at the time I thought China was
a horrible choice to host and well it looks like it was barring a miracle. Polluted air for starters. What idiots for picking Beijing.
 
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On You tube I watched the 100m finals from the Olympics in the 50s and 1960. The events seemed to be pretty much all non blacks. Blacks had made their appearance at least in the 1932 finals and of course in 1936 with Owens and Dillard and I think in 1948 blacks took it but after that and until 1964 they disappeared from the 100m finals.
 

Bart

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Sean Carlisle said:
Blacks had made their appearance at least in the 1932 finals and of course in 1936 with Owens and Dillard and I think in 1948 blacks took it but after that and until 1964 they disappeared from the 100m finals.


I was reading about the American west coast bodybuilding scene. Nobody seems to know when drugs were first introduced, but many have reported that by the mid 60's it was widespread.Perhaps that is also the case with sprinting. Blacks may respond better than whites to roids, and performance enhancing drugs.
 

white is right

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Bart said:
Sean Carlisle said:
Blacks had made their appearance at least in the 1932 finals and of course in 1936 with Owens and Dillard and I think in 1948 blacks took it but after that and until 1964 they disappeared from the 100m finals.


I was reading about the American west coast bodybuilding scene. Nobody seems to know when drugs were first introduced, but many have reported that by the mid 60's it was widespread. Perhaps that is also the case with sprinting. Blacks may respond better than whites to roids, and performance enhancing drugs.
In the strength events it seems like roids were introduced in the mid 60's, in the sprints it was probably introduced in the early 70's and virtually all top contenders were on it by the Montreal Olympics.
 

Observer

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white is right said:
Bart said:
I was reading about the American west coast bodybuilding scene. Nobody seems to know when drugs were first introduced, but many have reported that by the mid 60's it was widespread. Perhaps that is also the case with sprinting. Blacks may respond better than whites to roids, and performance enhancing drugs.
In the strength events it seems like roids were introduced in the mid 60's, in the sprints it was probably introduced in the early 70's and virtually all top contenders were on it by the Montreal Olympics.
My guess is that among sprinters amphetamines were in use in the '60's, long before the scientific use of muscle-building and recovery drugs. Also, cocaine. I know that record-setter Bob Hayes was very open about his drug problems, but I don't know enough about him to say if this had any relationship to his track days.Edited by: Observer
 
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