Despite International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samarach's proclaiming the Sydney 2000 Olympics as the "best ever," the truth of the matter is much less one-sided. In The Best Olympics Ever? Helen Jefferson Lenskyj discloses what the Sydney 2000 Olympic industry suppressed: the real costs and impacts.

There has been increasing recognition of the importance of the impacts of mega sporting events and in 2001 the IOC initiated its Olympic Games Global Impact Project. Here is a broad-ranging analysis of the impacts of one particular Olympic and Paralympic Games.

This is the first edition of the Olympic Factbook that is exclusively devoted to those games played in warm weather or indoors. The Factbook profiles the atheletes to watch in 1996 and additionally, reports on atheletes who have passed into Olympic legend. The Factbook is one convenient reference source to turn to before, during, or after the competitions, or whenever you feel like looking up the facts.