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Gems from the Games

The Olympics Games is the greatest and the ultimate sporting event where participants are in a quest to stretch the limits of their physical excellence. No wonder that events and anecdotes associated with the lives of winners in this sporting spectacle with its motto ‘Citius, Altius, Fortius’ (swifter, higher and stronger) always draws the curiosity of sports buffs.

‘Mandahasikkunna Oleevilakal’ (smiling olive leaves) authored by freelance sports writer Vinod Kunnaruvath is about Olympic winners and their pulsating feats and struggles in their quest for the ultimate excellence in the world of sports. The book gives special emphasis on personal agonies and anguish of those great known and unknown sporting men and women who won medals in the Olympics.

“Those who perform in this ultimate arena of sports reach there after surviving many crises,” says Mr. Kunnaruvath and adds that the history of this greatest sporting event has no dearth of real stories and anecdotes that still inspire sports persons all over the world. His objective is to introduce to the Malayalam reading public and sports buffs to this interesting and sometimes idiosyncratic world of sports.

The book is a collection of sketches about great sporting legends such as Cassius Clay, better known as Muhammad Ali, who tossed his 1960 Olympic medal in the Ohio river after he faced racial harassment; American gymnast and Olympic winner George Roth who experienced penury during the period of the Great Depression before he won gold medal in the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles; Spyridon Louis who served as a water-carrier in Greece and won the marathon in the 1896 Summer Olympics; the great Finnish athletic legend Pavo Nurmi; American athlete Wilma Glodean Rudolph who defeated polio and won three Olympic medals; former Ethiopian athlete Miruts Yifter who forgot his age in the Moscow Olympics and Japanese imperial army officer Takeichi Nishi who won the gold medal in the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics.

Hailing from Azhikode in Kannur, Mr. Kunnaruvath has been working as a freelance sports writer for the last 25 years.

His first book ‘Manaveekathayude Manifestois about the World Soccer event.

Mohamed Nazeer

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