Showing titles in Olympics & Paralympics

In 1975, a group of amazing women rowed their way to international success and glory, battling sexual prejudice, bureaucracy, and male domination. Among the members of the first international women's crew team - and one of the first women's teams anywhere - were Gail Pearson, the soft-spoken MIT professor who fought to win the political battles necessary for her team to succeed; lead rower Carie Graves, a statuesque bohemian from rural Wisconsin who dropped out of college and later became the most intense rower of the crew; and Lynn Stillman, a tiny 16-year-old, Californian coxswain.

Dreamers and Schemers chronicles how Los Angeles's pursuit and staging of the 1932 Olympic Games during the depths of the Great Depression helped fuel the city's transformation from a seedy frontier village to a world-famous metropolis.

This is the story of the most unlikely Olympic decathlete in history. Despite size and stature, Bryan Clay is the defending champion of the 2008 Olympic gold medal and winner of the 2004 Olympic silver medal in the decathlon. His journey is as inspiring as it is gritty, as troubled as it is triumphant. Far more than just a sports memoir, Redemption details the drudgery, devastation, and ultimate conversion that led Bryan to become a world champion. Through a remarkable series of events and devoted prayers of his mother, Bryan's life was turned around.

From burning crosses set on the Robinsons’s lawn to a Pennsylvania small town on fire with praise and parades when the athletes return from Berlin, Olympic Pride, American Prejudice is full of emotion, grit, political upheaval, and the American dream. Capturing a powerful and untold chapter of history, the narrative is also a celebration of the courage, commitment, and accomplishments of these talented athletes and their impact on race, sports and inclusion around the world.

This audiobook will take you on a journey along with American fencing from the beginnings in the times of the founding fathers, all the way through the lackluster first decades of American competition in the Olympic Games, and on to today where American fencing stands poised to build on its success and become a major player on the world stage. It’s been a complicated road for the United States, one that’s intertwined with world politics and changing social structures.The American story is one of immigration and tenacity.

Johnny Quinn shares his “wild dream” of playing in the NFL, being crushed after getting cut three times, losing $2.6 million in contracts, and blowing out his knee. At age 30, when most professional athletes are considered “over the hill”, Johnny was competing for Team USA in the sport of bobsled at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. We all experience failure at some level; Quinn equips us to embrace change, accept risks, and learn to push through barriers, to live life on purpose.

To achieve an Olympic gold is impressive; to be part of a couple doing this in the same sport is rare; to do it 10 times between you is unprecedented. Britain's most successful female and male Olympians give us the inside track on becoming a champion. Hear their take on how they became the best in the world while finding in each other the perfect partner.

Norwich, a charming Vermont town of roughly 3,000 residents, has sent an athlete to almost every Winter Olympics for the past 30 years - and three times that athlete has returned with a medal. How does Norwich do it? To answer this question, New York Times reporter Karen Crouse moved to Vermont, immersing herself in the lives of Norwich Olympians past and present. There she discovered a culture that's the opposite of the hypercompetitive schoolyard of today's tiger moms and eagle dads.

The 2018 Winter Olympics will be the stage for many compelling stories. Athletes like Ashley Wagner and Sven Kramer are windows into hidden social phenomena, from figure skating's eating disorders to the Dutch obsession with speed skating. Controversies like the Russian doping scandal, the NHL player ban, and the question of whether North Korea will compete or disrupt are creating human drama that affects thousands of athletes.

Harry Valérien erzählt die lange und spannende Geschichte, die die Olympischen Spiele zum Mythos erhebt: Von Sportlern, die zu Helden wurden, von nationalen und persönlichen Siegen und Tragödien. Von den Spielen der Antike und ihrer Wiederentdeckung Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts bis zum Zeitalter des Hochleistungssport im Zeichen von Kommerz und Professionalisierung.

It was the team finals of women's gymnastics in the 2012 Olympics, and McKayla Maroney was on top of her game. The 16-year-old US gymnast was performing arguably the best vault of all time, launching herself unimaginably high into the air and sticking a flawless landing. When her score came, many were baffled: 16.233. Three-tenths of a point stood between her and a perfect score. If that vault wasn't perfection, what was?

The athletes competing in the 1960 Rome Olympics included some of the most honored in Olympic history: decathlete Rafer Johnson, sprinter Wilma Rudolph, Ethiopian marathoner Abebe Bikila, and Louisville boxer Cassius Clay, who at 18 seized the world stage for the first time, four years before he became Muhammad Ali.

Tony Volpentest was born without hands and feet, a condition so rare it does not have a name. Doctors said he would never be able to walk without prosthetics or special accommodations. Tony proved them all wrong when he started walking at 15 months old and went on to do everything any other kid could do: ride a bike, play basketball, and learn to write. In high school, he took up the least likely sport for someone without feet - track.

One of America's most heralded young divers, David Boudia twice went for Olympic gold, training obsessively and wholeheartedly for success. In his first Olympics, he failed miserably, not winning a single medal. Four years later saw a different story: He mounted the podium twice, winning both gold and bronze. The difference? In the intervening years, he'd changed the focus of his quest from seeking glory for himself to giving glory to God.

Leisel Jones is regarded as one of the greatest breaststrokers ever. At just 15 she won two silver medals at the Sydney Olympics and went on to win gold at Athens and Beijing. For the first time, Leisel candidly describes being thrust into the limelight so young and reveals the constant pressure she was under. Despite the highs of stardom, she suffered severe depression. Body Lengths is the inspiring story of an Australian sportsperson told with humour, optimism and style.

Olympia - die Stätte ist zum Inbegriff des antiken Sports geworden. Lebendige Schilderungen lassen uns Anteil nehmen an dem Vollzug der Riten und bringen uns die Atmosphäre in den Sportarenen nahe. Noch immer gibt uns Olympia viele Rätsel auf: Wer gründete dieses Heiligtum - und warum? Wann und unter welchen Bedingungen erlosch das Feuer auf dem Zeusaltar? Warum sind - trotz des sogenannten "olympischen Friedens" - gerade hier so viele Rüstungen und Kriegsgeräte versammelt wie nirgends sonst in Griechenland? Ein faszinierendes Feature, das umfassend einführt in eine versunkene Welt.

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.

Marty Nothstein, one of the greatest cyclists of all time, arrived at the 1996 Olympic Games a heavy favorite. In the match sprint at the Atlanta Olympics, an event akin to prizefighting on a bicycle, he raced around a banked, oval track. Nothstein lost by a hair's width on the finish line and vowed to win the gold at the next Olympics, saying, "I didn't come here for a silver medal."

Citius, Altius, Fortius (Faster, Higher, Stronger) is the motto of the International Olympic Committee. After listening to Les Woodland's The Olympics' 50 Craziest Stories the listener might wonder if the motto should be Sillier, Loonier, Crazier.

It is now 120 years after the first modern Olympic Games, and the tradition is as strong as ever. Over 200 countries and 10,000 athletes will gather in Rio de Janeiro for the 2016 Summer Games. The ancient host city of Olympia may have crumbled to dust, but the Olympics capture the attention of the world like no other event. But how much do you know about this esteemed affair - both its ancient origin and its modern incarnation - and the downright disaster it has sometimes turned out to be?