Showing titles in Olympics & Paralympics

On the eve of the opening of the 30th Olympiad in London this summer, sports activist and writer Mark Perryman presents a sharply critical take on the way the Games have been organized and an imaginative blueprint for how they could be improved. The London Olympics have been promoted as of great benefit for the host city and nation. The organizers insist that the lasting value of the facilities built, the tourism the Games will attract, and the popular participation in sport they will promote, all make the spending of billions of pounds of public money an excellent investment.

Made in America is a detailed, behind-the-scenes look at what Ueberroth and his colleagues encountered on the road to the 1984 games. Despite the international intrigues, terrorist threats, boycotts, and financial obstacles, Ueberroth managed to make the Los Angeles Olympics an unprecedented success—and the standard for future games.

"Athletes first" is a slogan the International Olympic Committee often touts, but the reality is very different, as preeminent Olympics expert Jules Boykoff shows in this book. While the world’s attention is riveted by the triumphs and tribulations on their screens, there is much that goes on behind the scenes that is deeply troubling: athletes are increasingly voicing concerns over physical, mental and sexual abuse, and they are collectively expressing grievances around equity and human rights.

Read by the author. Get a high-octane dose of encouragement from Lolo Jones, three-time Olympian and world champion hurdler and bobsledder. Growing up in a broken home, Lolo learned to shoplift at a young age just to eat at night and sometimes slept on the basement floor of the Salvation Army...

The Olympics are the world’s most prestigious stage for athletic competition. Fans both casual and hardcore tune in religiously every few years to watch as men and women push themselves to the limits of human performance. But what makes a champion? Is it genetics? Hours of training? A psychological advantage? Of all the athletes who dedicate their lives - and bodies - to achieving that perfect moment of triumph, why will one person or team win out over another? Science has some compelling answers, and in this audiobook, Scientific American explores this topic from various angles.

Professional distance runners Elvin Kibet and Shadrack Kipchirchir grew up in rural Kenyan villages. Though their lives began in poverty, both were driven to reach their full potential, to gain an education, and make a difference. And they would find their way to do just that through the high-pressure world of distance running.

One of the top storylines from the 2021 Tokyo Olympics was the brigade of bandits from Australia throwing down at the freestyle park for the inaugural action-sports events - in particular the young gun from Logan City, Queensland, who took the gold medal off the table before his competitors knew...

Men's hockey in Canada may hog the limelight, but interest in women's hockey has never been higher. The Role I Played is a memoir of Sami Jo Small's 10 years with Canada's National Women's Hockey Team. Beginning with her experience as a rookie at the first-ever women's Olympic hockey tournament in Nagano in 1998 and culminating with Canada's third straight Olympic gold medal in Vancouver in 2010, the veteran goaltender gives the listener behind-the-scenes insight into one of the most successful teams in sports history.

Apolo Ohno shares his most valuable lessons for overcoming challenges with resilience, creativity, and purpose. In speed skating, a hard pivot is an aggressive shift of direction that requires courage, practice, and split-second timing. For Apolo Ohno, the most frightening hard pivot of his life...

Ice hockey has long been considered one of the most dangerous sports. It's full-contact, played at high speeds on freshly sharpened blades while chasing a small puck. Despite the physical and visual demands, ice hockey is also the only professional sport to have a blind league. Craig Fitzpatrick is nearly completely blind but has taught over 300 blind adults and children to play ice hockey at a competitive level.

The inspiring, unlikely story of the American, Canadian, South Korean and even North Korean women who joined together to form Korea’s first Olympic ice hockey team. Two weeks before the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics, South Korea’s women’s hockey team was forced into a...

News highlights of 1936 Olympics held in Berlin, Germany, with athletes from 52 nations, that includes descriptions of street crowds, Adolph Hitler’s motorcade, the Hindenburg, and stadium ceremonies to open the Games.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Clemente and When Pride Still Mattered, the blockbuster story of the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, seventeen days that helped define the modern world. Legendary athletes and stirring events are interwoven into a suspenseful narrative of sports and...

What does it take to become a champion? Gold medalist Missy Franklin, along with her parents, D.A. and Dick, tell the inspirational and heartwarming story of how Missy became both a legendary athlete and a happy and confident woman, something they accomplished by doing things their own way and...

A 2024 Christopher Award Winner “A gut-wrenching, wildly inspiring story about overcoming the most daunting obstacles through steely tenacity, sheer will, and a great big dose of motherly love.” —Jeannette Walls, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Glass Castle An inspirational and...

A story of risk, adventure, and daring as four American bobsledders race for the gold in the most dangerous competition in Olympic history. In the 1930s, as the world hurtled toward war, speed was all the rage. Bobsledding, the fastest and most thrilling way to travel on land, had become a...

Even today, it’s considered one of the most thrilling races in Olympic history. The hundred-meter sprint final at the 1924 Paris Games, featuring three of the world’s fastest swimmers—American legends Duke Kahanamoku and Johnny Weissmuller, and Japanese upstart Katsuo Takaishi—had the cultural impact of other milestone moments in Olympic history: Jesse Owens’s podiums in Berlin and John Carlos’s raised, black-gloved fist in Mexico City. Never before had an Olympic swimming final prominently featured athletes of different races, and never had it been broadcast 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.

Jessie Owens, atleta americano nero, che in pieno nazismo dominò a Berlino 1936 lasciando di sasso Hitler e gli altri gerarchi impettiti in tribuna d'onore; Livio Berruti, studente di chimica, capace, a Roma 1960, di dominare i duecento metri piani con una corsa perfetta e leggera; Bob Beamon, un altro statunitense di colore che, a Messico '68, nel pieno della rivolta studentesca e operaia, saltò, nel lungo, otto metri e novanta, lasciando il mondo a bocca aperta [...] Sara Simeoni, veronese, principessa del salto in alto a Mosca 1980 [...]

De ses débuts en patinage de vitesse à son dernier tour de piste, en passant par l’intimidation dont il a été victime à l’école, son ascension parmi l’élite et les hauts et les bas de sa vie personnelle, Charles Hamelin s’ouvre à Luc Bellemare avec une grande générosité. Charles Hamelin a remporté 6 médailles olympiques, 142 médailles en Coupe du monde et 38 médailles aux championnats du monde. Sa longue et florissante carrière sportive a été marquée par de très grands moments, mais aussi par de cuisantes déceptions.