ABOUT ME
I am an Olympic Games and Sport historian by training. My biography can be read here. Briefly: I am a health and physical education teacher by training with a BS, MAT and Ph.D/abd. I have not completed my doctoral dissertation, so I am not yet "Doctor." The "abd" above stands for "all but dissertation." My background includes a wide variety of fields including art and architecture, history, photography, psychology, business, and others. I am a retired athlete (wrestling) and wrestled in college (Penn State) and tried out for four US Olympic teams (1972-1984). I have also been a coach and referree. I originally hosted these pages on my book business web site as an educational service to the public. I am the founder of the IISOH and transferred these pages to the IISOH in January 2016 to be permanently part of the Institute's educational mission. Over time the IISOH staff will be responsible for the revisions and corrections and their names will be added as contributors.
It is important to me -- and to you -- that I remain neutral in preparing information for worldwide use. Many factors can cause a bias in the preparation of material. Knowing this can help you to be a better researcher and help you avoid such bias.
For example: if you read about the 1972 Munich Olympic Games from an American book you will have a certain perspective, or point of view. You may find a very different version of the same events if you read a German, French or Chinese book -- assuming that you can read those languages. The more controversial a subject becomes -- the more bias you will find in different sources of information.
When studying the Olympic Games you will find that several major forces can influence events. From the first Olympics in Athens in 1896 to the current selection of host cities -- the Olympic Games are influenced by politics, economics, history, culture, bias and prejudice. For example -- if you study the taking of athletes from Israel as hostages (and their eventual death) at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games -- you will find differing accounts of what happened and different perceptions on the after-effects. Should the Games have been cancelled? Should the Germans have had more sharpshooters at the airport? Did the Germans allow or prohibit Israeli agents from assisting? What was the reaction in the Muslim world? Should there be memorials or a "moment of silence" in memory of the dead athletes at every Olympic Games? After forty-four years these questions are still being asked.
Keep in mind that I am American -- so I bring a certain bias from my own nationality. We Americans -- as a nation -- are less formal than many European and Asian cultures. We are perceived as "child-like" or "immature" by some observers. Americans tend to have a "silly smile" much of the time, and are usually very friendly, informal and outgoing. Compare this to the reserved British personality, the pursed Prussian lip or the formality of Oriental society. Americans are aggresive -- they/we -- like to fight. The entire world watches -- and usually enjoys -- American television and film, much of which is action-oriented and violent. But Americans are generally conservative -- there are very few nude beaches like the ones on the French Riviera. In a nation of over 300 million people, there cannot be more than a dozen adults who have had the courage to talk to their children about sex. You will never find a naked lady on the cover of an American magazine, but if you shop in Germany or France there are dozens of naked images on popular magazines. Americans are a nation of spectators with a growing obesity problem. Our professional sports of baseball, football, basketball and hockey dominate the sports pages which are filled-in with college football, basketball and some local school news. But you will rarely read about soccer -- the most popular sport in the rest of the world.
And we Americans are rich -- at least everyone thinks so. Americans are always trying to make more money. But there is a significant population that is poor with a huge middle class dividing the extremely wealthy from the extremely poor. Athletes make millions and sometimes tens of millions of dollars. The salaries of some athletes is staggering. We are a nation of incredible diversity that no-one on earth understands. As a teacher I lived in Germany for five years and I learned the perception of German 8th graders and found it very enlightening. They widely believed that every American had a big house, 2 cars in the garage and a horse. This is news to almost all Americans - especially about the horse. In reality there are about nine million horses in the USA, with over 300 million people. Approximately three out of every one hundred Americans own a horse. In reality - most Americans have never even seen a real horse except on television like those German kids.
Be aware that I have allowed my sense of humor (that's humour for you British Commonwealth people) -- to creep into some of my comments -- usually about the English language. Also, we Americans can be self-deprecating - it is part of our sense of humor/humour. I have tried to keep my sentences simple so communication would be easy. Misunderstandings happen when communication fails. SO - you should learn to read and speak proper English the Philadelphia way - we "tawk right" and you "tawk funny."
Throughout my career I have been a physical education teacher, freestyle wrestler, coach, referee, graphic artist, photographer, researcher, writer, consultant, and publisher. I speak more than one language and have lived in Pennsylvania, Missouri, Florida and West Berlin, Germany. Beginning in 2016 I will be living in both the USA and central Europe, dividing my time between Vienna and Prague. In preparing these pages for your research use -- I have tried to be neutral (I call it being "more Swiss than the Swiss"). I gather information from the best possible sources to be used on these pages. Rarely will a personal web page make it here -- I prefer first hand sources such as Olympic committee, government, university and other scholarly sites. I examine all sources and links myself and only include those that I consider to be excellent. This is my opinion -- you might disagree. Permission to disagree with me is granted -- however there is a penalty - you will then owe me a tin of chocolate cookies.
If you wish to contact me or the staff at the IISOH -- please send an email to this address:
email: Olympicbks@aol.com
My advice --
Be cautious when you surf the world wide web in search of information -- there is a lot of garbage out there!
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was used an an international language for politics and diplomacy but was surpassed by English in the twentieth century after the rise of the United States as a world power. The rivalry between the two languages has existed for centuries because of historical antagonism between France and England (British Empire), their colonies and their royal families. Americans speak a slightly different form of English commonly referred to as American English 
while the British Empire speaks the Queen's English
. If you look at websites that have English translations you will find most of the world uses the British flag rather than the American flag. Why? Good question. It may -- or may not -- be related to a reaction to American power and influence. It may -- or may not -- be related to the historical teaching of English classes through textbooks from Great Britain rather than the USA. My own point of view -- very personal and very biased -- everyone outside of my hometown -- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania --
speaks English with a funny accent. :)