Dishonored Games: Corruption, Money, and Greed at the Olympics [Hardcover]

Vyv Simson (Author), Andrew Jennings (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1992

Every four years, the Olympics are celebrated with a flood of congratulatory coverage. In all the books, articles and documentaries extolling the beauty and purity of the Olympic Ideal, only cursory notice is given to the Lausanne-based International Olympic Committee (I.O.C.) and its little known President, Juan Antonio Samaranch. "Dishonored Games" explodes the carefully cultivated image and idealistic hype behind the I.O.C. and its self-perpetuating leadership. The book reveals influence peddling, lavish gifts and bribes, and abuse of power in the Olympic movement.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Vyv Simson and Andrew Jennings are two of Britain’s top investigative journalists. Simson worked for BBC’s "Panorama" and many other television investigation programs before moving to Granada TV’s "World In Action".

Andrew Jennings reported for the "Sunday Times" and has written for most of the leading UK newspapers. He moved to the BBC and worked on a series of investigative programs before joining "World In Action".

Simson and Jennings spent six years investigating police corruption and wrote "Scotland Yard’s Cocaine Connection", the story of Britain’s biggest drug scandal. They won the Gold Medal at the New York Television and Film festival for their investigation into the Iran-Contra Affair and have also reported on the Mafia in Palermo and the Middle East conflict.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 291 pages
• Publisher: S.P.I. Books; 1St Edition edition (July 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1561711993
• ISBN-13: 978-1561711994
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,676,689 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It contains breathtaking information, January 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Dishonored Games: Corruption, Money, and Greed at the Olympics (Hardcover)

After reading Dishonored Games my head was spinning for a while. I knew that multinationals are heavily involved in sports today but I never expected the magnitude as displayed in the book. The unbelievable behavior of the Olympic committee that sold out the Olympic idea should be common knowledge, just as Samaranch's political past. When you finfish the book you'll be excited to learn that there is a sequal, called New Lords Of The Rings which is just as informative. Too bad Amazon doesn't have this title yet.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Frightening. It will change your ideas about "sports.", July 4, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Dishonored Games: Corruption, Money, and Greed at the Olympics (Hardcover)

Dishonored Games, as the title implies, is about how the Olympic system has been corrupted by big business and international politics. Yes, this is a subject we hear about often enough these days, but Simson and Jennings take it all the way. The central figure of the book is International Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio Samaranch, about whom most of us (including myself) know absolutely nothing. Samaranch, it turns out, served under the fascist Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, an ally of Hitler. After WWII, Samaranch governed the Catalonia district, where Barcelona is the capitol, and it was he who made sure that those who questioned the government were tortured or were "disappeared." When Franco died in 1977, Samaranch was run out of the country in disgrace. But he had gained much of his power through the manipulation of national sports, raking in the money that comes with that territory. He had made many friends in the international sports community, and by 1980, he had gotten himself "elected" President of the IOC. Having the Olympics in Barcelona was in many ways Samaranch's way of "retaking" the city. There is also the story of Horst Dassler, the German businessman who founded Adidas and used the company to create the system of product endorsement which has come to symbolize the death of the "art" of sports today. Together with Samaranch and other sports dignitaries, Horst's business heirs manipulate elections and other government affairs the world over, through bribery, favor-trading and even prostitution, to fill the already bursting coffers of the IOC. It is all incredibly frightening. The only problem with the book is its style. Simson and Jennings are obviously very angry over the whole subject, and that anger comes across a little too strongly. But their frustration is understandable. In the introduction, they write, "To our surprise it has turned out to be the most difficult investigation we have ever undertaken. In recent years, we have written, or made TV documentaries, about the Mafia, the Iran-Contra affair, terrorism, corruption within Scotland Yard and other dark areas of public life. The world of Olympic, amateur sport has proved to be the hardest to penetrate. Never before have we found it so difficult to obtain on-the-record interviews, documents and original sources. It is a secret, elite domain, where the decisions about sport are made behind closed doors, where money is spent on creating a fabulous life-style for a tiny circle of officials, where money has been siphoned away to offshore bank accounts and where officials preside forever, untroubled by elections." Shortly after their book was released, Simson and Jennings found that the IOC had slapped them with criminal charges. Not in any of the 30 countries in which the book has been published, where democratic laws of freedom of speech exist, but in the IOC's home country of Switzerland. They must have been on to something

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 'Best Book Ever', August 12, 2006

By 

John T. Knecht (Heber City, UT United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dishonored Games: Corruption, Money, and Greed at the Olympics (Hardcover)

Having worked seven Olympic Games this book still proved insightful to my first {Korea in '88}. I knew a lot of what was being stated, but the detail and sources of information gathered for this book was outstanding. Hats off to the authors for doing a great job.

The Olympics have changed and although there is still some issues with the 'Club' things are a lot better. I hope that they continue to get weeded out and the Games return to how and whom they should be for...the athletes and the fans.