By Michael Waters

his week, 11 million tourists will join more than 10,000 athletes from 206 countries for the 2024 Summer Olympics. Fifty-nine percent of American adults say they plan to tune in to the Games. This is a level of attention that the founders of the modern Olympics could only have dreamed of achieving. The Games didn’t debut to much fanfare: When a Harvard track athlete tried to get permission to compete in the first modern edition, in 1896, a skeptical dean accused him of wanting “to go to Athens on a junket.” Even the well-known phrases Olympic record and Olympic champion didn’t enter the popular lexicon until the 1920s.

During the 20th century, the Olympic Games quickly transformed from little-known curiosities to major, world-altering events. While writing my book, The Other Olympians: Fascism, Queerness, and the Making of Modern Sports, I was struck by how much the Games have shaped contemporary life and politics. These maddening, wondrous competitions have been the site of terrorism and protest, triumph and perseverance, political victory and corruption, and have influenced which states we count as countries and which cities become tourism hubs.

his week, 11 million tourists will join more than 10,000 athletes from 206 countries for the 2024 Summer Olympics. Fifty-nine percent of American adults say they plan to tune in to the Games. This is a level of attention that the founders of the modern Olympics could only have dreamed of achieving. The Games didn’t debut to much fanfare: When a Harvard track athlete tried to get permission to compete in the first modern edition, in 1896, a skeptical dean accused him of wanting “to go to Athens on a junket.” Even the well-known phrases Olympic record and Olympic champion didn’t enter the popular lexicon until the 1920s.

During the 20th century, the Olympic Games quickly transformed from little-known curiosities to major, world-altering events. While writing my book, The Other Olympians: Fascism, Queerness, and the Making of Modern Sports, I was struck by how much the Games have shaped contemporary life and politics. These maddening, wondrous competitions have been the site of terrorism and protest, triumph and perseverance, political victory and corruption, and have influenced which states we count as countries and which cities become tourism hubs.

his week, 11 million tourists will join more than 10,000 athletes from 206 countries for the 2024 Summer Olympics. Fifty-nine percent of American adults say they plan to tune in to the Games. This is a level of attention that the founders of the modern Olympics could only have dreamed of achieving. The Games didn’t debut to much fanfare: When a Harvard track athlete tried to get permission to compete in the first modern edition, in 1896, a skeptical dean accused him of wanting “to go to Athens on a junket.” Even the well-known phrases Olympic record and Olympic champion didn’t enter the popular lexicon until the 1920s.

During the 20th century, the Olympic Games quickly transformed from little-known curiosities to major, world-altering events. While writing my book, The Other Olympians: Fascism, Queerness, and the Making of Modern Sports, I was struck by how much the Games have shaped contemporary life and politics. These maddening, wondrous competitions have been the site of terrorism and protest, triumph and perseverance, political victory and corruption, and have influenced which states we count as countries and which cities become tourism hubs.

his week, 11 million tourists will join more than 10,000 athletes from 206 countries for the 2024 Summer Olympics. Fifty-nine percent of American adults say they plan to tune in to the Games. This is a level of attention that the founders of the modern Olympics could only have dreamed of achieving. The Games didn’t debut to much fanfare: When a Harvard track athlete tried to get permission to compete in the first modern edition, in 1896, a skeptical dean accused him of wanting “to go to Athens on a junket.” Even the well-known phrases Olympic record and Olympic champion didn’t enter the popular lexicon until the 1920s.

During the 20th century, the Olympic Games quickly transformed from little-known curiosities to major, world-altering events. While writing my book, The Other Olympians: Fascism, Queerness, and the Making of Modern Sports, I was struck by how much the Games have shaped contemporary life and politics. These maddening, wondrous competitions have been the site of terrorism and protest, triumph and perseverance, political victory and corruption, and have influenced which states we count as countries and which cities become tourism hubs.

his week, 11 million tourists will join more than 10,000 athletes from 206 countries for the 2024 Summer Olympics. Fifty-nine percent of American adults say they plan to tune in to the Games. This is a level of attention that the founders of the modern Olympics could only have dreamed of achieving. The Games didn’t debut to much fanfare: When a Harvard track athlete tried to get permission to compete in the first modern edition, in 1896, a skeptical dean accused him of wanting “to go to Athens on a junket.” Even the well-known phrases Olympic record and Olympic champion didn’t enter the popular lexicon until the 1920s.

During the 20th century, the Olympic Games quickly transformed from little-known curiosities to major, world-altering events. While writing my book, The Other Olympians: Fascism, Queerness, and the Making of Modern Sports, I was struck by how much the Games have shaped contemporary life and politics. These maddening, wondrous competitions have been the site of terrorism and protest, triumph and perseverance, political victory and corruption, and have influenced which states we count as countries and which cities become tourism hubs.

his week, 11 million tourists will join more than 10,000 athletes from 206 countries for the 2024 Summer Olympics. Fifty-nine percent of American adults say they plan to tune in to the Games. This is a level of attention that the founders of the modern Olympics could only have dreamed of achieving. The Games didn’t debut to much fanfare: When a Harvard track athlete tried to get permission to compete in the first modern edition, in 1896, a skeptical dean accused him of wanting “to go to Athens on a junket.” Even the well-known phrases Olympic record and Olympic champion didn’t enter the popular lexicon until the 1920s.

During the 20th century, the Olympic Games quickly transformed from little-known curiosities to major, world-altering events. While writing my book, The Other Olympians: Fascism, Queerness, and the Making of Modern Sports, I was struck by how much the Games have shaped contemporary life and politics. These maddening, wondrous competitions have been the site of terrorism and protest, triumph and perseverance, political victory and corruption, and have influenced which states we count as countries and which cities become tourism hubs.

his week, 11 million tourists will join more than 10,000 athletes from 206 countries for the 2024 Summer Olympics. Fifty-nine percent of American adults say they plan to tune in to the Games. This is a level of attention that the founders of the modern Olympics could only have dreamed of achieving. The Games didn’t debut to much fanfare: When a Harvard track athlete tried to get permission to compete in the first modern edition, in 1896, a skeptical dean accused him of wanting “to go to Athens on a junket.” Even the well-known phrases Olympic record and Olympic champion didn’t enter the popular lexicon until the 1920s.

During the 20th century, the Olympic Games quickly transformed from little-known curiosities to major, world-altering events. While writing my book, The Other Olympians: Fascism, Queerness, and the Making of Modern Sports, I was struck by how much the Games have shaped contemporary life and politics. These maddening, wondrous competitions have been the site of terrorism and protest, triumph and perseverance, political victory and corruption, and have influenced which states we count as countries and which cities become tourism hubs.

his week, 11 million tourists will join more than 10,000 athletes from 206 countries for the 2024 Summer Olympics. Fifty-nine percent of American adults say they plan to tune in to the Games. This is a level of attention that the founders of the modern Olympics could only have dreamed of achieving. The Games didn’t debut to much fanfare: When a Harvard track athlete tried to get permission to compete in the first modern edition, in 1896, a skeptical dean accused him of wanting “to go to Athens on a junket.” Even the well-known phrases Olympic record and Olympic champion didn’t enter the popular lexicon until the 1920s.

During the 20th century, the Olympic Games quickly transformed from little-known curiosities to major, world-altering events. While writing my book, The Other Olympians: Fascism, Queerness, and the Making of Modern Sports, I was struck by how much the Games have shaped contemporary life and politics. These maddening, wondrous competitions have been the site of terrorism and protest, triumph and perseverance, political victory and corruption, and have influenced which states we count as countries and which cities become tourism hubs.