Documents the story of the Olympic squad that won the gold at the 1992 Barcelona Games, assessing the achievements and legacy of some of the NBA's greatest players, including Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, and Charles Barkley.
Explores the sport of track and field, including its history, greatest moments, notable athletes, and what the future of the sport holds.
"Every summer in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Nick Baumgartner went to work pouring concrete, taking on the harsh physical conditions of the construction trade in order to support his professional snowboarding dreams come winter. Unable to afford housing for those months spent training in the mountains, he lived out of a crusty van, parked anywhere he could find a spot. And in 2022, after 17 years of failure-all the crashes, injuries, and personal setbacks-he won Olympic gold at 40 years old, becoming the oldest Olympic snowboard medalist in history. Baumgartner details his journey from a one-stoplight town to the podium in Beijing in this candid and affable memoir. Tales of crisscrossing the globe on the racing circuit and competing in four Olympic Games sit comfortably alongside Baumgartner's reflections as a single parent and his affectionate portrayal of Iron River, Michigan, the community that raised him. More than just a sports story, Gold from Iron is a tale of massive dreams, constant sacrifice, and the lessons that can be learned racing down an ice-covered course with your feet strapped to a thin board"--
"The riveting true story-soon to be a high-profile film-of Olympic wrestling gold medal-winning brothers Mark Schultz and Dave Schultz and their fatal relationship with the eccentric John du Pont, heir to the du Pont dynasty. On January 26, 1996, Dave Schultz, Olympic gold medal winner and wrestling golden boy, was shot three times by du Pont family heir John E. du Pont at the famed Foxcatcher Farms estate in Pennsylvania. Following the murder there was a tense standoff when du Pont barricaded himself in his home for two days before he was finally captured. Foxcatcher is gold medal winner Mark Schultz's memoir, revealing what made him and his brother champion and what brought them to Foxcatcher Farms. It's a vivid portrait of the complex relationship heand his brother had with du Pont, a man whose catastrophic break from reality led to tragedy. No one knows the inside story of what went on behind the scenes at Foxcatcher Farms-and inside John du Pont's head-better than Mark Schultz. A movie based on Mark's memoir, also titled Foxcatcher and directed by Bennett Miller of Moneyball and Capote fame-starring Channing Tatum, Steve Carell, and Mark Ruffalo-is scheduled to release nationally Fall 2014. The incredible true story of these championship-winning brothers and the wealthiest convicted murderer of all time will be making headlines this fall, and Mark's memoir will reveal the true inside story"--
"A memoir and history of the Special Olympics and a meditation on what one can learn about how to live from people with intellectual disabilities, by the chairman of the Special Olympics"--
"Discover the astonishing, inspirational, and largely unknown true story of the eighteen African American athletes who competed in the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, defying the racism of both Nazi Germany and the Jim Crow South." -- Publisher annotation.
"For Sera Wheeler, the Olympics is the reason for everything. It's why she trains thirty hours a week, starves herself to under 100 pounds, and pops Advil like Tic Tacs. For her mother, Charlene, hungry for glory she never had, it's why she rises before dawn to drive Sera to practice in a different state, and why the family scrimps, saves, and fractures. They're why when Sera's best friends reports the gymnastics doctor to the authority who selects the Olympic team, Sera denies what she knows about his treatments, thus preserving favor. Their friendship shatters. But Sera protected her dream-- didn't she? Sera doubles down, taping broken toes, numbing torn muscles, and siphoning her family's resources. Soon she isn't training for the love of gymnastics; she's training to make her disloyalty worthwhile, no matter the cost."--Page 4 of cover.
This is the remarkable story of the University of Washington's 1936 eight-oar crew and their epic quest for an Olympic gold medal. The sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers, the boys defeated elite rivals first from eastern and British universities and finally the German crew rowing for Adof Hitler in the Olympic games in Berlin, 1936.
"Swimming is a long thread that connects the Olympic heroes of today with the real and mythic ones of the past across more than ten millennia--a recorded history that begins in a cave in the Egyptian desert and sweeps across athletes and poets, statesmenand emperors, humans and gods; across the whole human experience, the entire human story. Splash! weaves a 10,000-year-old tale that begins in a bone-dry cave in the remote southwest corner of Egypt, winds its way through ancient Greece and Rome, flows mostly underground through the Dark and Middle Ages, and then reemerges in the wake of the Renaissance before ending on the runway of the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo--where, critically, swimming will once again be among the most high-profile of all events. But swimming is also about more than itself, more than simply moving through the water, more than speed or great feats of aquatic endurance or the terror of the bottomless deep. It's part of the churning continuum of time--part of history, part oflife. Stretch "swimming" out to its largest dimension, and its history offers a multi-tiered tour through religion, fashion low and high, architecture, sanitation and public health, colonialism, segregation and integration, sexism, sexiness, guts, glory,and much, much more. Unique and compelling, Splash! sweeps across the whole of humankind's swimming history, and has fun along the way"--