Product Description
The story of the 1960 Olympic Winter Games is the saga of the highly improbable that became the wildly successful. Within it are compelling personal stories of underdogs that become unlikely champions, American ingenuity and heroism for team and country. The inspiring story includes a promise kept to a dying loved one, brash stars that falter in the glare of a world spotlight and risky strategies that payoff with golden results. Snowball’s Chance – The Story of the 1960 Olympic Winter Games contains the only complete account of the preparations, pageantry, ceremonies, competitions and epilogues of the historic VIII Olympic Winter Games at Squaw Valley and Lake Tahoe.

We see elaborate Olympic pageantry in the ceremonies and venue decorations instilled by the creative force of Pageantry Chairman Walt Disney. The “Miracle of Squaw Valley” astonishes spectators during the opening ceremonies. For the only time in Olympic history, the venues and athlete residence halls are located in a compact intimate setting that encourages sportsmanship and socializing among nations. The underdog American ice hockey team becomes the “Team of Destiny” by fighting to capture their country’s first gold medal. American figure skaters Carol Heiss and David Jenkins sweep gold in the individual events. Well-trained Soviet and Scandinavian athletes dominate the speed skating and cross-country events. German skiers make surprise upsets in the Nordic combined and ski jumping contests. Read “you are there” accounts of all events and official results. CBS-TV is there to capture the most exciting moments and make groundbreaking live broadcasts to American audiences.

Included are 80-plus photographs by official photographer Bill Briner and others showing historic Olympic venues and athletes in the heat of competition.

Author David C. Antonucci has a passion for winter sports and the history of the VIII Olympic Winter Games. He lives at Lake Tahoe near the site of the VIII Olympic Winter Games cross-country skiing and biathlon venue. He frequently lectures on the 1960 Winter Olympics, Mark Twain at Lake Tahoe and Lake Tahoe natural history.

Table of contents, introduction, women’s individual figure skating chapter and list of illustrations are available at www.TahoeFacts.com. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Illuminates a Forgotten Footnote
This is a nostalgic but rather rudimentary account of one of the `forgotten Games of Olympic history'--the 1960 Winter Games in Squaw Valley, California. Of the various modern era Olympics staged in North America, Squaw Valley 1960 has long since been overshadowed by Los Angeles 1984, Atlanta 1996, Salt Lake 2002 and recently, Vancouver 2010. Some fifty years later, author David Antonucci brings this little known chapter to life as a legitimate piece of sports and California history.

We view and enjoy the Olympics today as behemoth spectacles. As the title indicates, it's primarily a study of the American spirit...of how one man's (developer Alexander Cushing) dream of hosting a Winter Olympics in order to boost his almost non-existent ski resort, overcame the overwhelming odds of such a quest.Hosting the Olympics--and the Winter more so than the Summer--are considered the traditional bailiwick of the Europeans.However, in 1954-1955, Cushing dared to challenge this tradition by offering to host the Games half a world away.And that he succeeded so winningly is the crux of the book.

"Snowball's Chance" takes the reader back to what were the first televised `live' (Winter) Games shown in the United States--thus also making it one of the last `you-had-to-be-there' Olympic Games.One learns how the Organizing Committee was able to dispense with building an (unnecessary and expensive) luge and bobsled track but forgot to inform the Greek Olympic Committee that it wanted a lighting of the flame at Olympia.And one discovers that Squaw Valley '60 was also the first Olympics to employ a professional showman, Walt Disney, to spice up the whole look and feel of the Games with a Hollywood touch.

Although held in a quaint California Sierra valley at the end of the Eisenhower era, the Winter Games were apparently on the verge of becoming a gargantuan undertaking even then.Visually, it's a very threadbare tome but the detailed accounts more than make up for that.If you are truly into Olympic history, I would recommend this book as a worthy addition to your library.

Entertaining account of a hugely successful Winter Olympic Games
Many skeptics including IOC President Avery Brundage thought the small family ski area in California could not host a successful Olympic Winter Games.The skeptics were wrong, and this book tells the story of how the Organizing Committee with the cooperation of local governments, the US military, and Olympic supporters around the world caused Avery Brundage to write at the conclusion of the Games, "The Olympic Winter Games were a major success in every respect."

Technological innovations at these Games brought competition into a new phase, and enabled the athletes to perform and be judged at the highest level.

Descriptions of each event during the games brings to life the drama of the competitions, and followup stories of a number of prominent athletes helps humanize these competitors. ... Read more