Buy or borrow this book! Support your local independent bookseller
Find it in a WorldCat library
Compare prices at major online bookstores
|
|
|
Jane Leder's Grace & Glory begins, appropriately, with one woman's revolutionary participation in the first modern Olympics. Melpomene, a Greek woman, petitioned Olympic officials to let her run the first marathon (run from Marathon to Athens). Though she was denied entry into the race, she ran the 26-mile race anyway, and though not allowed to cross the official finish line, she ran the distance in four hours, 30 minutes, having passed many of the male racers who'd dropped out of the race.
Fifty-five biographical profiles, beginning with Atalanta (Greek goddess of the hunt) and concluding with Bonnie Blair, make for an outstanding overview of women's invaluable contributions to the Olympics.
While not confined to the Olympics, Anne Janette Johnson's Great Women in Sports nonetheless relies heavily on those athletes whose Olympic exploits made them household names in recent years: Olga Korbut, Nadia Comeneci, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Florence Griffith Joyner. Nearly every member of the 1996 USA women's basketball team, including Connecticut's Rebecca Lobo, USC's Cheryl Miller, and Texas Tech's Sheryl Swoopes, merits a profile from each of their respective NCAA championship teams.
Great Women in Sports is a wonderful sports compilation book with over 150 individual profiles. The respect that female athletes have gained is hard earned. Johnson's book is a fitting tribute to those athletes -- and those who will compete in the future.
Shelton Clark was beaten by Uta Pippig in 1993 New York marathon. He is a freelance writer in Nashville.
©1996, ProMotion, inc.