In European Ice Hockey Championship Results: Since 1910, Tomasz Malolepszy charts this popular sport in Europe with a complete statistical history of both the men's and women's competition. For the first time ever, hockey fans can find detailed results, rosters, medalists, and standings for the European Championships all in a single volume. In addition, this book contains a list of interesting records, many of which have never before been published. European Ice Hockey Championship Results is a valuable resource for any hockey fan, journalist, or researcher.
In European Basketball Championship Results: Since 1935, Tomasz Malolepszy charts the growth and expansion of this popular sport in Europe with a complete statistical history of both the men's and women's competition. For the first time ever, basketball fans can find detailed results, rosters, medalists, and standings for the European Championships all in a single volume. In addition, this book contains a list of interesting records, many of which have never before been published. European Basketball Championship Results is a valuable resource for any basketball fan, journalist, or researcher.
The first European Championship in men's volleyball was contested in 1948 by just six teams, and the inaugural women's tournament took place in 1949. As the sport spread in popularity throughout the continent, so did the number of teams participating. Today, the European Championship is played under the auspices of the European Volleyball Confederation (CEV), of which 55 nations are members; 16 of these 55 teams are able to play for the gold in the championships. In European Volleyball Championship Results: Since 1948, Tomasz Malolepszy charts the growth and expansion of this sport in Europe with a complete statistical history of both the men's and women's competition. For the first time ever, volleyball fans can find detailed results, rosters, medalists, and standings for the European Championships all in a single volume. In addition, this book contains a list of interesting records, many of which have never before been published. European Volleyball Championship Results is a valuable resource for any volleyball fan, journalist, or researcher. Companion volumes to this book include European Soccer Championship Results: Since 1958, European Ice Hockey Championship Results: Since 1910, and European Basketball Championship Results: Since 1935.
During World War II many escape-line organizations contributed to the Allied cause by funneling hundreds of servicemen trapped behind enemy lines out of occupied Europe. As the Germans tightened their noose around the escape lines and infiltrated them, the risk of discovery only grew for the servicemen who, in ever-increasing numbers, needed safe passage across the Pyrenees. In early 1944 two important escape-line organizations operated in Toulouse in southwestern France, handing over many fugitives to French passeur Jean-Louis Bazerque (“Charbonnier”). Along with several of his successful missions, Charbonnier’s only failure as a passeur is recounted in gripping detail in So Close to Freedom. This riveting story recounts how Charbonnier tried to guide a large group of fugitives—most of them downed Allied airmen, along with a French priest, two doctors, a Belgian Olympic skater, and others—to freedom across the Pyrenees. Tragically, they were discovered by German mountain troopers just shy of the Spanish border. Jean-Luc E. Cartron offers the first detailed account of what happened, showing how Charbonnier operated, his ties with “the Françoise” (previously “Pat O’Leary”) escape-line organization, and how the group was betrayed and by whom. So Close to Freedom sheds light not only on the complex and precarious work of escape lines but also on the concrete, nerve-racking experiences of the airmen and those helping them. It shows the desperation of all those seeking passage to Spain, the myriad dangers they faced, and the lengths they would go to in order to survive. Purchase the audio edition.
2024 marks the 100-year anniversary of the winter sports week festival celebrated in Chamonix in 1924, which is now recognized as the first Olympic Winter Games. As a globally watched quadrennial mega-event, the Winter Olympics is unique from both summer sport festivals and other winter festivals, such as the Winter X Games. This book explores the impacts, issues, and legacies of the past century of the Olympic Winter Games. Grounded in sport history, the chapters in this volume draw on the disciplines of cultural history, diplomatic history, global history, environmental history, and media history to analyze the continued allure of the Winter Olympics, a century after its origin, and in light of the sustained and significant problems facing the Olympic movement. Host cities’ efforts to create positive and lasting legacies are analyzed to highlight the challenges and complexities that have plagued the Olympic movement throughout the last century. The Olympic Winter Games at 100 is essential reading for any researcher, advanced student or scholar with an interest in Olympic Studies, sports development, sport policy and history. The chapters in this book were published as two special issues in The International Journal of the History of Sport.
Between December 28, 1975, and January 11, 1976, a groundbreaking hockey event took place: Super Series '76. Eight National Hockey League clubs each hosted a single exhibition game against one of two touring teams from the USSR: Central Red Army or Wings of the Soviet. Officially nothing was at stake, but serious hockey fans realized that a Cold War clash of political ideologies was occurring on North American ice surfaces. The top pro teams would finally meet the best "amateurs" from the Soviet Elite League. The reputations of the NHL and Soviet hockey were both on the line. Canadians already knew how strong the Soviets were, based on the eye-opening experiences of both countries' hockey stars in the 1972 and 1974 Summit Series. For many Americans, however, the talents of the exotic, Eastern Bloc visitors provided a stunning revelation. This book outlines the history of the intense Canada-USSR hockey rivalry that preceded Super Series '76 and then focuses on those eight captivating games in New York, Pittsburgh, Montreal, Buffalo, Boston, Chicago, Long Island and Philadelphia. Two of these contests are still widely discussed today for vastly different reasons. One may have been the greatest hockey game ever played.
Lion in Winter is the gripping tale of the Great Britain ice hockey team's fluctuating fortunes, from being the first European Champions in 1910 through to the nadir 0f 1981, when a drop to the bottom of the world rankings resulted in a self-imposed exile from international competition. Detailing the pinnacle of international achievement with victory at the 1936 Winter Olympics, it chronicles a roller-coaster record from underdogs to bulldogs - and back again - several times. No other champion ice hockey nation has scaled the heights and plumbed the depths like the British. A definitive work of record, it is researched and written by two of the game's foremost historians and features the only complete GB Player register ever published, complemented by a wide variety of rare illustrations.
