Olympic Life

In A Wrestling Life: The Inspiring Stories of Dan Gable, famed wrestler and wrestling coach Dan Gable tells engaging and inspiring stories of his childhood in Waterloo, Iowa; overcoming the murder of his sister as a teenager; his sports career from swimming as a young boy, to his earliest wrestling matches, through the 1972 Olympics; coaching at the University of Iowa from the Banachs to the Brands; life-changing friendships he made along the way; and tales of his family life off the mat.

Running for My Life is not a story about Africa or track and field athletics. It is about outrunning the devil and achieving the impossible: faith, diligence, and the desire to give back. It is the American dream come true and a reminder that saving one can help to save thousands more. Lopez Lomong chronicles his inspiring ascent from a barefoot lost boy of the Sudanese Civil War to a Nike sponsored athlete on the US Olympic Team. Though most of us fall somewhere between the catastrophic lows and dizzying highs of Lomong's incredible life, every reader will find in his story the human spark to pursue dreams that might seem unthinkable.

It's sink or swim for Jack and Annie when Magic Tree House whisks them off to the middle of the ocean. And that's just the beginning....

Growing up in a family active in promoting civil rights, Anita L. DeFrantz knew the importance of letting her voice be heard as an African American and as a woman. Her activism for individual rights and her ascent as a leader began in earnest at Connecticut College, where she was sophomore class president, chairman of the student judiciary committee her junior year, author of a student bill of rights, and a house fellow, supervising student dorm residents her senior year. At commencement in 1974, she was elected a trustee of the college by her class.

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.

The Gold Standard sets you up for success while allowing you to live life to the fullest by creating a clear vision of what you want to achieve, building a solid mindset, leading by example, and choosing excellence daily. This book shares game-changing leadership lessons in every chapter to help you inspire others to be their best on your way to achieving your goals.

In Courage to Soar, the official autobiography from four-time Olympic gold-winning and record-setting American gymnast Simone Biles, Simone shares how her faith, family, passion, and perseverance against tremendous odds made her one of the top athletes and record-breaking gymnasts in the world - and how you too can overcome challenges in your life. In this audiobook, Simone shares the details of her inspiring personal story - one filled with the kinds of daily acts of courage that led her, and can lead you, to even the most unlikely of dreams.

When Meb Keflezighi - the first person in history to win both the Boston and New York City marathons as well as an Olympic marathon medal - ran his final marathon in New York in 2017, it marked the end of an extraordinary distance-running career. Meb's last marathon was also his 26th, and each of those marathons has come with its own unique challenges, rewards, and outcomes. In 26 Marathons, Meb takes listeners on those legendary races, along every hill, bend, and unexpected turn of events that made each marathon an exceptional learning experience, and a fascinating story.

Soccer star and Olympic gold medalist Christie Pearce Rampone and sports neuropsychologist Dr. Kristine Keane share the best practices that athletes, parents, and coaches can use to turn the lessons learned through sports into lifelong skills.

In this poignant and uplifting memoir, Dancing with the Stars sensation Amy Purdy reveals the story of how losing her legs led her to find a spiritual path. When the Las Vegas native was just nineteen, she came down with bacterial meningitis and was given less than a two percent chance of survival. In a near-death experience, she saw three figures who told her: “You can come with us, or you can stay. No matter what happens in your life, it's all going to make sense in the end." In that moment, Amy chose to live.

Legacy of the Mat is a collection of stories from the Athletic and Coaching careers of twin brothers Jim and Dave Hazewinkel, two-time Olympic wrestlers. For years they have shared these stories with family and friends, and now they share them with you. Listen to the inspiring stories of these athletes as they smuggle Bibles across the Iron Curtain, coach the West Point Cadets, and witness the 1972 Munich Massacre.

Winning Life's Gold Medal takes the ideals of the Olympic Games and the experiences from one man's journey to get there and teaches some of the most valuable life lessons. Winning Life's Gold Medal contains ten motivational lessons that will help you become a better person and improve your relationships with friends and family. It will bring new meaning and joy to your life at a time in the world when it is needed most. The lessons in Winning Life's Gold Medal will change your perspective of what is really important to you. Gary Hall Sr. is an American swimmer, three-time Olympic medalist, ...

At 17, Karen Chen has already achieved what some girls can only dream of - and it's only the beginning for her. The daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, she began figure skating at five. Ten years and many grueling training sessions later, she won a bronze medal at the 2015 US Championships after sustaining a nearly career-ending ankle fracture a year earlier. In 2017, she became the US National Champion, winning gold twice and receiving the highest score ever recorded for the short program at the US National level.

Most people equate success with having more, but Sanya's quest was always for less. She started running track as a little girl in Jamaica and began competing when she was only seven. At 31 she's had a career's worth of conditioning to run a 400-meter race in 50 seconds, hopefully 49, or, even better, 48.

Mary Sanders was handed an Olympic dream by her father from the moment she was born. Determined to follow in his footsteps, the young gymnast struggled through training setbacks, financial hardships, and personal rivalries, under a cloud of grief, to compete in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. But that achievement was only the beginning for a woman determined to reinvent herself and consistently raise her own standards for success.

Lolo Jones' path to becoming a world champion and an Olympian began in childhood with a single mother who worked multiple jobs to support a family of six and a father who was serving time in prison. These early years instilled in Lolo an overcomer's mindset that gave her the strength she needed to rise above an unstable and impoverished background, to earn an economics degree at LSU, and then to establish herself as the best women's hurdler in the world.

From the lush fields of his boyhood in Jamaica, to the basketball courts of Oakville, where he came of age in one of Canada’s most thriving cultural mosaics, to his sprint toward double Olympic gold for Canada in Atlanta in 1996, Donovan Bailey got a long way on natural talent. But he also learned that in the bureaucratic world of Canadian sports, an athlete who didn't come up in the system needed to take charge of his fate if he was going to become the world’s best.

In this Lean In-style inspirational memoir, 12-year-old Jesselyn Silva offers a ringside seat to girl power and what it takes to win in the ring and in life: punch by punch. My Corner of the Ring shows kids what it means to be true to yourself and stick with your dreams even when facing adversity and ridicule. Supported by her single dad, Jesselyn (JessZilla in the ring) first donned her boxing gloves at seven years of age, making her one of very few female boxers in the country.

The Cold War was fought in every corner of society, including in the sport and entertainment industries. Recognizing the importance of culture in the battle for hearts and minds, the United States, like the Soviet Union, attempted to win the favor of citizens in nonaligned states through the soft power of sport. Athletes became de facto ambassadors of US interests, their wins and losses serving as emblems of broader efforts to shield American culture - both at home and abroad - against communism.

In My Greek Drama, Gianna Angelopoulos - known in her home country simply as "Gianna" - has written a memoir that is as much about Greece's journey as her own. From her childhood in Crete, to law school in Thessaloniki, to Athens, where she overcame male-dominated legal and political cultures to help redefine public service in Greece, Gianna worked her way into becoming one of the most respected women in Greek public life.