This Academy Award-nominated documentary shows the 1960 Summer Olympics, held in Rome. "La grande olimpiade" ("The Grand Olympics" in English) shows both the athletes participating in the games, and also gives some fine shots of the eternal city. Among the notable athletes who stood out at those Olympics were Wilma Rudolph (representing the United States) and Abebe Bikila (representing Ethiopia). Although not shown in the documentary, a young Muhammad Ali - then known as Cassius Clay - won boxing's light-heavyweight gold medal.

One of the things that you might notice while watching the documentary is that they call Taiwan "China", while mainland China is nowhere to be seen. No doubt the US wasn't going to allow China's participation. Similarly, Vietnam gets represented only by South Vietnam (a country practically invented by the US). I doubt that anyone would've guessed that a few decades later, every country would get to participate, even those which the US defines as the enemy.

The only other thing that I really noticed was that the narrator often mispronounced Slavic names. No doubt the names got transliterated in certain languages, and the narrator simply pronounced them Italian-style. Sometimes I feel like all names should get written in the International Phonetic Alphabet, just so that everyone can pronounce them.

Anyway, a fine documentary. It must've been quite the experience to be there.

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142 minutes of the film speak of events and athletes that have characterized the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome.

Comitato Olimpico Nazionale Italiano (CONI)

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The Grand Olympics

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