ABSTRACT
In 1960 Rome organized a successful edition of the Olympics, often celebrated as the symbol of the Italian ‘economic miracle’ and as the last Games ‘with a human face’ before their surrender to commodification and gigantism. This chapter provides a picture of the 1960 Olympics that goes beyond this traditional characterization. Rome 1960, it is argued, deserves to be remembered as a ‘frontier edition’ which, on the one hand, opened the door to new ways of interpreting the Olympics and new goals to be pursued by host cities through the Games, and, on the other, anticipated problems linked to hosting the Olympic Games which will emerge more evidently in the following decades.
