Sports Athletes

Activists take a stand. They speak out and demand change. From legendary boxer Muhammad Ali to baseball star Carlos Delgado, listeners discover the pro athletes who have affected change by speaking out against war and its impact on society.

From noted ESPN commentator and journalist Kate Fagan, the heartbreaking and vital story of college athlete Madison Holleran, whose death by suicide rocked the University of Pennsylvania campus and whose life reveals with haunting detail and uncommon understanding the struggle of young people suffering from mental illness today.

Dan "Hendo" Henderson was the first fighter in MMA history to become a double champion, winning championships in PRIDE Fighting Championships and Strikeforce. He faced the biggest names in MMA, on his unparalleled run through the early days of MMA through its remarkable rise in popularity, squaring off against the likes of Fedor Emelianenko, Anderson Silva, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, Wanderlei Silva, Michael Bisping, Vitor Belfort, and Renzo Gracie. Henderson's first fight against Mauricio "Shogun" Rua in 2011 is considered one of the greatest fights in UFC history.

Discover the secrets to sports motivation that have helped countless athletes dominate their sport. Learn from the best in the business, and find the mental toughness you need to take your game to the next level.

Michael Pollan's How to Change Your Mind meets Christopher McDougall's Born to Run in this immersive, investigative look at the hidden culture of cannabis use among elite athletes (as well as weekend warriors) - and the surprising emerging science behind the elusive, exhilarating "runner's high" they all seek.

When Gracie Gold stepped onto center stage (or ice, rather) as America’s sweetheart at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, she instantly became the face of America’s most beloved winter sport. Beautiful, blonde, Midwestern, and media-trained, she was suddenly being written up everywhere from The New Yorker to Teen Vogue to People and baking cookies with Taylor Swift.

Ever felt nerves jeopardize your performance? Lost focus in a game, or had a mental block at a critical moment? You're not alone. The secret to overcoming these moments? Mental Strength. Perfect for young athletes, parents, and coaches, this book is your ultimate guide to developing the mental toughness that sets champions apart.

Like countless other kids, Phil Gaimon grew up dreaming of being a professional athlete. But unlike countless other kids, he actually pulled it off. After years of amateur races, hard training, living out of a suitcase, and never taking "no" for an answer, he finally achieved his goal and signed a contract to race professionally on one of the best teams in the world. Now, Gaimon pulls back the curtain on the WorldTour, cycling's highest level.

In Life as Sport, sport psychologist Dr. Jonathan Fader shares the skills that he teaches professional athletes - to enhance motivation, set productive goals, sharpen routines, manage stress, and clarify thought processes - and applies them to real-world situations. Dr. Fader's audiobook is the product of thousands of hours of conversations with athletes from various teams and sports.

Negative thoughts are like weeds that grow all the time without any nurturing since it’s in the human nature to think of negative consequences.

On the other hand, positive thinking about health, love, wealth, success are hard to come by, and like everything worth fighting in this life, they require a lot of nurture and care.

This audiobook plans to give you exactly what you need: the means to stay positive through constant affirmations designed to help improve oneself, change a bad behavior, or channel the universe to attract good things in your life.

From the moment she burst onto the MMA scene, Ronda Rousey was unbeatable. She repeatedly strung together back-to-back flawless victories, racking up a collection of records and forever changing the face of sports as the UFC’s first female champion. A superstar in her sport, she transcended athletics, appearing in blockbuster films and becoming a role model for women everywhere. Then, on November 15, 2015, it all came crashing down. In OUR FIGHT, Rousey explores the greatest challenge of her life and, ultimately, how she rebuilt her life into something better in the aftermath.

Dreams of becoming the next Nadia Comaneci led Jennifer Sey to become a gymnast at the age of six. Her early success and love of the sport propelled her and her family to great sacrifice so that she could become a National Team member and one of America’s elite gymnasts by age 11. But as she set her sights higher, Jennifer began to change, setting her mental and physical health aside in the name of winning.

How do we go from proficiency to mastery in sports? From average to elite. From having a “lot of moving parts” to being economical and efficient in our movements. From feeling rushed and pressured to slowing time down and acting like you knew what was going to happen all along. From deciding to take the best option available to moving to shape and change the options afforded to us. From building easily disrupted and broken skills to adaptable and even anti-fragile ones, getting stronger through being challenged.

More than a century ago, a woman ran in the very first modern Olympic marathon. She just did it without permission. Award-winning journalist Maggie Mertens uncovers the story of how women broke into competitive running and how they are getting faster and fiercer every day—and changing our understanding of what is possible as they go.

Now in his sixties, big-wave surfer Joe Sharkey has passed his prime and is losing his “stoke.” The younger surfers around the breaks on the north shore of Oahu still idolize the Shark, but his sponsors are looking elsewhere. One night, while driving home from a bar after one too many, Joe accidentally kills a stranger near Waimea, a tragedy that sends his life out of control. As the repercussions of the accident spiral ever wider, Joe's devoted girlfriend, Olive, throws herself into uncovering the dead man’s identity and helping Joe find vitality and refuge in the waves again.

How do you pick baseball’s GOATs? Is Sandy Koufax the greatest pitcher to take the mound? Is Ted Williams the greatest pure hitter the game has seen? It comes down to stats, history, and hunches.

The power to become better, greater, more refined versions of ourselves is something that each one of us possesses. It is a power with which we are born, like infinite gold inside the equally infinite mine shafts that are our minds. Now, to get at that gold - there is the rub. Since time immemorial people have struggled to manage the darkness within themselves. How do we reckon our possibilities with our capabilities? How do we overcome the difficulties within? How do we shake off the invisible sandbags that seem to drag us down and run faster, jump higher, push harder?

A mental toughness playbook for athletes, parents, and coaches. In sports, and in life, mental toughness matters - even more than raw talent and skill. But young athletes can't develop it, and master other vital aspects of the "inner game", on their own. Coaches and parents play a vital role as well. Angeron draws on his expertise as a sport psychology coach and his background as a college athlete and baseball scout to help listeners overcome the fear, doubt, and negativity that derail players and teams.

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.

The visiting clubhouse in San Diego was soggy, sweaty and sticky after the 1998 Yankees swept the Padres in four games and celebrated winning their 24th World Series title. The players raised bottles of Champagne, sprayed the bubbly on each other and reveled in a baseball season that might have been more memorable than any in history. Jack Curry was part of that unforgettable scene as a reporter, navigating around the clubhouse to ask the same, pertinent question.