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Swimming Pretty
- The Untold Story of Women in Water
- Narrated by: Sarah Welborn
- Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
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Publisher's summary
"If you're not strong enough to swim fast, you're probably not strong enough to swim 'pretty," said a young Esther Williams to theater impresario Billy Rose. Since the nineteenth century, tensions between beauty and strength, aesthetics and athleticism have both impeded and propelled the careers of female swimmers—none more so than synchronized swimmers, for whom Williams is often considered godmother.
In this riveting history—the first of its kind—Vicki Valosik traces a century of aquatic performance, from vaudeville and dime museums to the Olympic arena. Williams, who became a Hollywood sensation for her splashy "aquamusicals," was just one in a long, bedazzled line of swimmers who began their careers as athletes but found greater opportunity, and often social acceptance, in the world of show business. Together, they not only laid the groundwork for synchronized swimming, but forever changed women's relationships with water.
Now, on the fortieth anniversary of synchronized swimming's elevation to Olympic status, Swimming Pretty finally honors the history of grit, glamour, and sheer athleticism of an utterly unique sport.
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Just Add Water
- My Swimming Life
- By: Katie Ledecky
- Narrated by: Katie Ledecky
- Length: 7 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Katie Ledecky has won more individual Olympic races than any female swimmer in history. She is a three-time Olympian, a seven-time gold medalist, a twenty-one-time world champion, eight-time NCAA Champion, and a world record-holder in individual swimming events. Time and again, the question is posed to her family, her coaches, and to her—what makes her a champion? Now, for the first time, she shares what it takes to compete at an elite level.
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Wonderful Autobiography
- By K. Wiswell on 09-03-24
By: Katie Ledecky
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When the Clock Broke
- Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s
- By: John Ganz
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 15 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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With the Soviet Union extinct, Saddam Hussein defeated, and U.S. power at its zenith, the early 1990s promised a “kinder, gentler America.” Instead, it was a period of rising anger and domestic turmoil, anticipating the polarization and resurgent extremism we know today. In When the Clock Broke, the acclaimed political writer John Ganz tells the story of America’s late-century discontents.
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Amazing history of the early 90s
- By Aaron R. Isaacson on 06-25-24
By: John Ganz
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The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum
- The Rise and Fall of an American Organized-Crime Boss
- By: Margalit Fox
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 6 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1850, an impoverished twenty-five-year-old named Fredericka Mandelbaum came to New York in steerage and worked as a peddler on the streets of Lower Manhattan. By the 1870s she was a fixture of high society and an admired philanthropist. How was she able to ascend from tenement poverty to vast wealth? In the intervening years, “Marm” Mandelbaum had become the country’s most notorious “fence”—a receiver of stolen goods—and a criminal mastermind.
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A waste of time!
- By DGF on 07-23-24
By: Margalit Fox
What listeners say about Swimming Pretty
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Anonymous User
- 09-07-24
A great history filled with delightful anecdotes
As a lifelong synchronized swimmer, I didn’t realize how little I knew about our sport’s origins. BEN FRANKLIN DID BALLET LEGS IN THE THAMES?? Professional high divers in the circuses in the 1900s dove from 50 feet into 5 feet of water? The history of swim lessons as an important feminist cause was also brand new to me. The Esther Williams story arc was especially fascinating for me - from stardom, to being hidden away as proper housewife, to her return as an Olympic commentator- there was so much more to her life story than the version I’d heard before. Loved this book, strongly recommend!!
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