OLYMPICA: AMERICA’S GOLD
(ABC Video Publishing, $14.95 each). The gold-medal-winning performances of members of the United States Summer Olympic teams come to life in this two-cassette video set created from the official film archives of the International Olympic Committee. Volume one features the achievements of such athletes as “Babe” Didrickson Zaharias, Jim Thorpe, Jesse Owens, Bruce Jenner, Carl Lewis, and Jackie Joyner-Kersee, with particular emphasis on the historical significance of their accomplishments. Volume two traces the history of the modern Olympics since the 1896 Games in Athens. Highlights include the 1936 Berlin Games attended by Adolf Hitler; the 1968 Games in Mexico City, where for the first time a woman had the honor of lighting the Olympic flame; the 1972 Munich Games, where cheers turned to tears when 11 Israelis died at the hands of Palestinian terrorists; and the 1984 Los Angeles Games, where the granddaughter of Jesse Owens, the black athlete who angered Hitler by winning four gold medals in Berlin in 1936, carried the Olympic torch into the stadium.
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