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Olympic Stadia: Theatres of Dreams by Geraint John and Dave Parker

2020; University of Illinois Press; Volume: 47; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/sph.2020.0068

2155-8450

Brian M. Ingrassia,

Theatre and Performance Studies

Reviewed by: Olympic Stadia: Theatres of Dreams by Geraint John and Dave Parker Brian M. Ingrassia John, Geraint, and Dave Parker. Olympic Stadia: Theatres of Dreams. London: Routledge, 2020. Pp. 194. Index, appendices, notes, and illustrations. $160.00, hb. $160.00, eb. The spaces in which professional and amateur sports are carried out and consumed are an important part of modern society and culture and, therefore, constitute a significant subject of analysis. Olympic Stadia: Theatres of Dreams is a profusely illustrated book on the stadia of the modern Summer Olympics. The authors are architectural scholars: Geraint John is an advisor to stadium-design firm Populous and a faculty member at the University of Hertfordshire, while Dave Parker is a civil engineer and journalist who formerly taught at Queen's University Belfast. The book contains thirty-four brief chapters. Twenty-nine chapters detail stadia from Athens 1896 to Tokyo 2020. With little deviation, each chapter has sections on the following topics: "Background," "Stadium origins," "Design team," "Design," and "Legacy." [End Page 303] Five additional chapters outline the ancient Olympics, the nineteenth-century Olympic revival, Pierre de Coubertin, the Paralympic Games, and "The Olympic Stadium of the Future." Two appendices discuss the 1906 Intercalated Games and Sochi's 2014 stadium, thus far the only Winter Games venue comparable to grand Summer Games stadia. Each chapter is about five pages, with three to five illustrations and a few endnotes. Sources cited include websites, newspapers, and secondary sources such as David Goldblatt's The Games: A Global History of the Olympics (2016). The authors also use official reports, when available, as primary-source material. This book gathers a wide range of information and is thus a great starting point for individuals interested in the history of Olympic stadia and their post-Olympics usage. The 145 illustrations are wonderful, and there are many fascinating facts located throughout the volume. Readers learn that the poorly organized 1900 Paris Olympics did not have a central stadium, while the lackluster 1904 St. Louis games had a small-capacity athletic field that later became Washington University's stadium. The 1908 London stadium influenced design of the 1924 Paris and 1928 Amsterdam stadia, the latter of which featured the first Olympic flame. Although Paris pioneered a rudimentary Olympic village in 1924, the idea really came to fruition at Los Angeles in 1932. Helsinki's stadium—originally built for the 1940 Olympiad but not used until the postwar 1952 games—was a masterwork of functionalist architecture that included a 72.71-meter tower, equivalent to the length of Matti Järvinen's 1932 gold-medal javelin throw. Disputes regarding venues for the 1956 Olympics led to enlargement of the Melbourne Cricket Ground, a facility that dated from the 1800s; meanwhile, Australia's strict quarantine laws meant equestrian events were held at Stockholm's 1912 stadium. The 1972 Munich Games, while known mostly for the tragic deaths of nine Israeli athletes at the hands of terrorists, were hosted at an innovative facility with interconnected venues. The 1976 Montreal stadium ran well over budget, was not completed until 1987, and never quite became the icon its planners had hoped. The Los Angeles Coliseum was the first stadium to host two Olympics (1932 and 1984). Sydney's 2000 stadium "was the largest, most technologically advanced and most sustainable Olympic Stadium ever built" (141), but Beijing's 2008 "Bird's Nest" may have been the most sensational. It is saddening to read that, while the 1964 Tokyo stadium may have been "one of the most beautiful" (92) Olympic stadia, it was razed in 2015 to make way for a new venue for the 2020 Games. After the first few chapters, which provide historical background on the Olympics, the authors focus on details of individual stadia, as well as the role and design of future structures. Attentive readers must work to see patterns of historical significance, and the brief chapters allow little room for nuance. For instance, the chapter on Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Stadium (later the Atlanta Braves' Turner Field and now Georgia State University's football stadium) states, "There was no investment in new urban transport; instead, a large fleet of buses was drafted...