Olympic Companions

Kentucky, 1850. An enslaved groom named Jarret and a bay foal forge a bond of understanding that will carry the horse to record-setting victories across the South. When the nation erupts in civil war, an itinerant young artist who has made his name on paintings of the racehorse takes up arms for the Union. On a perilous night, he reunites with the stallion and his groom, very far from the glamor of any racetrack.New York City, 1954. Martha Jackson, a gallery owner celebrated for taking risks on edgy contemporary painters, becomes obsessed with a nineteenth-century equestrian oil painting of mysterious provenance.Washington, DC, 2019. Jess, a Smithsonian scientist from Australia, and Theo, a Nigerian-American art historian, find themselves unexpectedly connected through their shared interest in the horse—one studying the stallion's bones for clues to his power and endurance, the other uncovering the lost history of the unsung Black horsemen who were critical to his racing success.Based on the remarkable true story of the record-breaking thoroughbred Lexington, Horse is a novel of art and science, love and obsession, and our unfinished reckoning with racism.A discarded painting in a junk pile, a skeleton in an attic, and the greatest racehorse in American history: from these strands, a Pulitzer Prize winner braids a sweeping story of spirit, obsession, and injustice across American history.

The path to achieving Zen (a balance between the body and the mind) is brilliantly explained by Professor Eugen Herrigel in this timeless account.This book is the result of the author’s six year quest to learn archery in the hands of Japanese Zen masters. It is an honest account of one man’s journey to complete abandonment of ‘the self’ and the Western principles that we use to define ourselves. Professor Herrigel imparts knowledge from his experiences and guides the reader through physical and spiritual lessons in a clear and insightful way.Mastering archery is not the key to achieving Zen, and this is not a practical guide to archery. It is more a guide to Zen principles and learning.Perfect for practitioners and non-practitioners alike.

Set during the Hundred Years' War, the protagonist of The White Company is a cloister-raised young nobleman who discovers that his father's will stipulated he travelled for a year before taking his vows. Setting off on his adventures, he finds himself part of the White Company — a group of mercenary archers en route to France. The horror of fighting awaits him — but so does the promise of valour.This is a lively, action-packed account of the exploits of a crew of Saxon archers, realistic and incredibly atmospheric in its depictions of medieval life, with a satisfying and compelling combination of breathless adventure and romantic chivalry.An epic, compelling, adventure-filled historical novel from the creator of Sherlock Holmes.

Welcome to the world of women's gymnastics and figure skating—the real world that happens away from the cameras, at the training camps and in the private lives of these talented teenage competitors.This groundbreaking book shows how a longstanding culture of abuse made young gymnasts perfect targets for a sexual predator, and continues to plead for sanity, safety, and an end to our national winning at any cost.

Fanciful dreams of becoming the next Nadia Comaneci led Jennifer Sey to become a gymnast at the age of six. Her early success propelled her family to sacrifice everything to help her become, by age 11, one of America’s elite. But as she set her sights higher and higher, Jennifer began to change, setting her needs, her health, and her well-being aside in the name of winning. And the adults in her life refused to notice her downward spiral.Now, Sey reveals the tarnish beneath her gold medals. A powerful portrait of intensity and drive, eating disorders and stage parents, abusive coaches and manipulative businessmen, Chalked Up is the story of a young girl whose dreams would become subsumed by the adults around her.Endorsements“I am grateful to Jennifer Sey for sharing such an honest account of her experiences as an elite gymnast. She has eloquently and fairly exposed a dark side to our sport that parents have long needed to be made aware of.” — Dominique Moceanu, Olympic gold medal–winning gymnast

Gold in the Water is a nonfiction sports narrative that chronicles the journey of a group of America’s finest swimmers and coaches as they vied to compete in the 2000 Olympic Games.In California, a team of talented young men begins pursuing the most elusive dream in sports, the Olympic Games. The pressure steadily increases as two best friends (a mentor and his protégé) reach the top of the world rankings and unexpectedly find themselves direct competitors. Their teammates include an emerging star methodically plotting to retrace his father's path to Olympic glory, as well as a super-extraordinary athlete desperate to walk away from it all. Led by one of the most passionate coaches in sports, a brilliant and explosive strategist on a personal quest for redemption, this team of dark horses and Olympic favorites works through escalating rivalries, joyous triumphs, and heartbreaking setbacks.Author P. H. Mullen chronicles their journey to the 2000 Olympic Games and presents one of the most powerful and moving sports books ever written. Boldly sweeping in literary power and pace, this startling book will permanently change how you view the Olympic athlete. It is a fascinating world of suspense and emotion where human desire for excellence rules over all, and where there are no second chances for glory. But above all, Gold in the Water is a triumph of the human spirit.

Join writer and swimmer Bonnie Tsui as she explores the unique skill of swimming from the five angles: survival, well-being, community, competition, and flow. Propelled by stories of polar swim champions, a Baghdad swim club, Olympian athletes, and modern-day samurai swimmers, Why We Swim takes us around the globe in a remarkable, all-encompassing account of the world of swimming. This is a joyous meditation on our innate connection to water and a true celebration of the wonders of swimming.Take a dive into the deep and discover what it is about water that seduces us, heals us, and brings us together.Endorsements'A jewel of a book, a paean to the wonders of water and our place within it.' — James Nestor, bestselling author of Breath.'Glorious.' — The New York Times.

Full of incredible characters, amazing athletic achievements, cutting-edge science, and, most of all, pure inspiration, Born to Run is an epic adventure that began with one simple question: Why does my foot hurt? In search of an answer, Christopher McDougall sets off to find a tribe of the world’s greatest distance runners and learn their secrets, and in the process shows us that everything we thought we knew about running is wrong.Isolated by the most savage terrain in North America, the reclusive Tarahumara Indians of Mexico’s deadly Copper Canyons are custodians of a lost art. For centuries they have practiced techniques that allow them to run hundreds of miles without rest and chase down anything from a deer to an Olympic marathoner while enjoying every mile of it. Their superhuman talent is matched by uncanny health and serenity, leaving the Tarahumara immune to the diseases and strife that plague modern existence. With the help of Caballo Blanco, a mysterious loner who lives among the tribe, the author was able not only to uncover the secrets of the Tarahumara but also to find his own inner ultra-athlete, as he trained for the challenge of a lifetime: a fifty-mile race through the heart of Tarahumara country pitting the tribe against an odd band of Americans, including a star ultramarathoner, a beautiful young surfer, and a barefoot wonder.With a sharp wit and wild exuberance, McDougall takes us from the high-tech science labs at Harvard to the sun-baked valleys and freezing peaks across North America, where ever-growing numbers of ultrarunners are pushing their bodies to the limit, and, finally, to the climactic race in the Copper Canyons. Born to Run is that rare book that will not only engage your mind but inspire your body when you realize that the secret to happiness is right at your feet, and that you — indeed, all of us — were born to run.

David Halberstam's The Breaks of the Game focuses on one grim season (1979–80) in the life of the Bill Walton–led Portland Trail Blazers, a team that only three years before had been NBA champions.The tactile authenticity of Halberstam's knowledge of the basketball world is unrivaled. Yet he is writing here about far more than just basketball. This is a story about a place in our society where power, money, and talent collide and sometimes corrupt, a place where both national obsessions and naked greed are exposed. It's about the influence of big media, the fans and the hype they subsist on, the clash of ethics, the terrible physical demands of modern sports (from drugs to body size), the unreal salaries, the conflicts of race and class, and the consequences of sport converted into mass entertainment and athletes transformed into superstars — all presented in a way that puts the reader in the room and on the court, and The Breaks of the Game in a league of its own.EndorsementsNew York Times bestseller.Pulitzer Prize winner for reporting on the Vietnam War.

Seventeen-year-old Greg "Slam" Harris can do it all on the basketball court. He's seen ballplayers come and go, and he knows he could be one of the lucky ones. Maybe he'll make it to the top. Or maybe he'll stumble along the way. Slam's grades aren't that hot. When his teachers confront him about his troubles, he blows up. Slam never doubted himself on the court until he found himself going one-on-one with his own future, and he didn't have the ball.

Originally published in 1958, The Professional is the story of boxer Eddie Brown's quest for the middleweight championship of the world. W. C. Heinz not only serves up a realistic depiction of the circus-like atmosphere around boxing with its assorted hangers-on, crooked promoters, and jaded journalists, but he gives us two memorable characters in Eddie Brown and in Brown's crusty trainer, Doc Carroll. They are at the heart of this poignant story as they bond together with their eye on the only prize that matters—the middleweight championship. The Professional is W. C. Heinz at the top of his game—the writer who covered the fights better than anyone else of his era, whose lean sentences, rough-and-ready dialogue, dry wit, and you-are-there style helped lay the foundation for the New Journalism of Jimmy Breslin, Gay Talese, and Tom Wolfe. And all the trademark qualities of W. C. Heinz are on ample display in this novel.But it is so much more.Endorsements"One of the five best sports novels ever written." — Pete Hamill

It’s 2002, a year after 9/11. It’s an extremely turbulent time politically, but especially so for someone like Shirin, a sixteen-year-old Muslim girl who’s tired of being stereotyped.Shirin is never surprised by how horrible people can be. She’s tired of the rude stares, the degrading comments — even the physical violence — she endures as a result of her race, her religion, and the hijab she wears every day. So she’s built up protective walls and refuses to let anyone close enough to hurt her. Instead, she drowns her frustrations in music and spends her afternoons break-dancing with her brother.But then she meets Ocean James. He’s the first person in forever who really seems to want to get to know Shirin. It terrifies her — they seem to come from two irreconcilable worlds — and Shirin has had her guard up for so long that she’s not sure she’ll ever be able to let it down.

Urban street dance—which is now referred to across the globe as "break dance" or "hip-hop dance"—was born 15 years prior to the hip hop movement. In today's pop culture, the dance innovators from "back in the day" have been forgotten, except when choreographic echoes of their groundbreaking dance forms are repeatedly recycled in today's media. Sadly, this is still the case when dance moves that were engendered from 1965 through the 1970s on the streets of Reseda, South Central Los Angeles, Oakland, San Francisco, and Fresno, CA, or in the Bronx in New York City, are utilized by modern performers.In Underground Dance: Final History of a Forgotten Era, an urban street dancer who was part of the scene in the early 1970s sets the record straight, blowing the lid off this uniquely American dance style and culture. This text redefines hip hop dance and the origins of a worldwide phenomenon, explaining the origins of classic forms such as Funk Boogaloo, Locking, Popping, Roboting, and B'boying—some of the most important developments in modern dance that directly affect today's pop culture.This book is a comprehensive, historical bible on the subject of urban street dance and its influence on modern dance, hip hop, and pop culture.

The bicycle is one of mankind's greatest inventions — and the most popular form of transport in history. Robert Penn has ridden one most days of his adult life. In his late 20s, he pedalled 40,000 kilometres around the world. Yet, like cyclists everywhere, the utilitarian bikes he currently owns don't even hint at this devotion. Robert needs a new bike, a bespoke machine that reflects how he feels when he's riding it — like an ordinary man touching the gods.It's All About the Bike is the story of a journey to design and build a dream bike. En route, Robert explores the culture, science and history of the bicycle. From Stoke-on-Trent, where an artisan hand builds his frame, to California, home of the mountain bike, where Robert tracks down the perfect wheels, via Portland, Milan and Coventry, birthplace of the modern bicycle, this is the narrative of our love affair with cycling. It's a tale of perfect components — parts that set the standard in reliability, craftsmanship and beauty. It tells how the bicycle has changed the course of human history, from the invention of the 'people's nag' to its role in the emancipation of women, and from the engineering marvel of the tangent-spoked wheel to the enduring allure of the Tour de France. It's the story of why we ride, and why this simple machine remains central to life today.

Harry de Leyer first saw the horse he would name Snowman on a truck bound for the slaughterhouse. The recent Dutch immigrant recognized the spark in the eye of the beaten-up nag and bought him for eighty dollars. On Harry's modest farm on Long Island, he ultimately taught Snowman how to fly. Here is the dramatic and inspiring rise to stardom of an unlikely duo. One show at a time, against extraordinary odds and some of the most expensive thoroughbreds alive, the pair climbed to the very top of the sport of show jumping. Their story captured the heart of Cold War-era America—a story of unstoppable hope, inconceivable dreams, and the chance to have it all. They were the longest of all longshots—and their win was the stuff of legend.

In March of 1844, the Parisian paper The Century began publishing installments of a new tale by France’s favorite author, Alexandre Dumas. Week after week readers thrilled to the adventures of the brave and clever d’Artagnan and his loyal comrades. Collected for book publication at the end of that year, and quickly translated into a dozen languages, The Three Musketeers was a worldwide sensation—nowhere more so than in the United States. Citizens of the brash new republic recognized kindred spirits in the bold musketeers, and the book and its sequels found an eager American readership.The novel's fast-moving story is set in the royal court of Louis XIII, where the swaggering King’s Musketeers square off against their rivals: the crimson-clad Guards of the dreaded Cardinal Richelieu. The Red Duke rules France with an iron hand in the name of King Louis—and of Queen Anne, who dares a secret love affair with France’s enemy, England’s Duke of Buckingham. Into this royal intrigue leaps the brash d’Artagnan, a young swordsman from the provinces determined to find fame and fortune in Paris. Bold and clever, in no time the youth finds himself up to his Gascon neck in adventure, while earning the enduring friendship of the greatest comrades in literature, the Three Musketeers: noble Athos, sly Aramis, and the giant, good-hearted Porthos.Whether you’re meeting the musketeers for the first time or discovering them all over again, it’s all for one, one for all, in this timeless tale of honor and glory, the flash of dark eyes, and the clash of bright steel.

The art and science of sword fighting go back almost to the dawn of civilization and have been an obsession for much of mankind throughout recorded history.From the Roman arena to feudal Japan and from the duellists of Europe to the development of modern-day Olympic fencing, Richard Cohen traces the course of swordsmanship with wit and erudition in a fascinating and wonderfully discursive account.Packed with anecdotes, superbly written and built on a solid foundation of historical research, this is a tribute to a deadly but beautiful skill, the mastery of which for centuries defined a man.

For many people, watching football is mere entertainment; to some it's more like a ritual; to others, its highs and lows provide a narrative to life itself.For Nick Hornby, his devotion to the game has provided one of the few constants in a life where the meaningful things — like growing up, leaving home, and forming relationships, both parental and romantic — have rarely been as simple or as uncomplicated as his love for Arsenal.Fever Pitch is his tribute to a lifelong obsession. Part autobiography, part comedy, part incisive analysis of insanity, Hornby's memoir captures the fever pitch of fandom — its agony and ecstasy, its community, and its defining role in thousands of young men's coming-of-age stories. Fever Pitch is one for the home team. But above all, it is one for everyone who knows what it really means to have a losing season.

When Alejandro “Mono” dies of cancer, his brother and two closest friends, a tight-knit group since childhood, are left to figure out how to take care of his young daughter, Guadalupe. They want to give her all the love they felt for Mono and secure her future, but there isn’t a single peso left in the bank. Mono invested all of his money in a promising soccer player whose promise hasn’t panned out, and the three hundred thousand dollars Mono spent on his transfer is soon to be lost for good.How do you sell a forward who can’t score a goal? How do you negotiate in a world whose rules you don’t know? How do you maintain relationships when repeated failures create fissures in lifelong loyalties? Fernando, Mauricio, and “Ruso” pool the few resources in their arsenal to come up with strategies—from harebrained to inspired—in their desperate attempt to recoup Mono’s investment for Guadalupe.Following the lives of four distinct characters, who, despite their great differences, still manage to find solace and pride in one another, Papers in the Wind is a tribute to friendship and proof that love and humor can triumph over sadness.

Paired with a mysterious teacher named Shivas Irons, Michael Murphy is led through a round of phenomenal golf, swept into a world where extraordinary powers are unleashed in a backswing governed by “true gravity.” A night of adventure and revelation follows, and leads to a glimpse of Seamus MacDuff, the holy man who haunts a ravine off Burningbush’s thirteenth fairway — the one they call Lucifer’s Rug. A spiritual journey, a lush travelogue, a parable of sports and philosophy. Endorsements “…for golf’s soul surfers, Golf in the Kingdom is holy scripture.” — Golf “A golf classic if any exists in our day.” — John Updike “A masterpiece on the mysticism of golf.” — San Francisco Chronicle “A fascination... Golf in the Kingdom should have a long and prosperous life.” — Joseph Campbell

Daniel James Brown's robust book tells the story of the University of Washington's 1936 eight-oar crew and their epic quest for an Olympic gold medal, a team that transformed the sport and grabbed the attention of millions of Americans. The sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers, the boys defeated elite rivals first from eastern and British universities and finally the German crew rowing for Adolf Hitler in the Olympic games in Berlin, 1936.The emotional heart of the story lies with one rower, Joe Rantz, a teenager without family or prospects, who rows not for glory, but to regain his shattered self-regard and to find a place he can call home. The crew is assembled by an enigmatic coach and mentored by a visionary, eccentric British boat builder, but it is their trust in each other that makes them a victorious team. They remind the country of what can be done when everyone quite literally pulls together—a perfect melding of commitment, determination, and optimism.Drawing on the boys' own diaries and journals, their photos and memories of a once-in-a-lifetime shared dream, The Boys in the Boat is an irresistible story about beating the odds and finding hope in the most desperate of times—the improbable, intimate story of nine working-class boys from the American west who, in the depths of the Great Depression, showed the world what true grit really meant.For readers of Laura Hillenbrand's Seabiscuit and Unbroken. It will appeal to readers of Erik Larson, Timothy Egan, James Bradley, and David Halberstam's The Amateurs.

What does it take to win at the Olympic Games? How many years of hard work and dedication does it take to prepare for such a feat? How many disappointments do you have to endure on this journey? Danielle Brittain has walked this journey over and over again — her two sons won Olympic medals for South Africa in rowing, all four of her sons have rowed at top levels, and she is currently the team doctor for the South African rowing team. Danielle has faced her own battles with cancer, and then watched as her son battled Hodgkin’s lymphoma during his Olympic training, overcame it, and went on to win silver after his recovery in this high-performance sport. The Olympic wins for the South African teams at the 2012 London Olympics and 2016 Rio Olympics were iconic moments for South Africa, and Brittain’s descriptions of what the wins meant for the individuals in the teams, their families, the coaching staff, and ordinary South Africans demonstrate the power of sport to unite the country. A rowing story, a family story, a cancer survival story, a South African story — and the story of a mother watching it all unfold.

As the day of the final of the 1995 Rugby World Cup dawned, and the Springboks faced New Zealand's all-conquering All Blacks, more was at stake than a sporting trophy. When Nelson Mandela appeared wearing a Springboks jersey and led the all-white Afrikaner-dominated team in singing South Africa's new national anthem, he conquered the hearts of white South Africa.Playing the Enemy tells the extraordinary human story of how that moment became possible. It shows how a sport, once the preserve of South Africa's Afrikaans-speaking minority, came to unify the new rainbow nation, and tells of how — just occasionally — something as simple as a game really can help people to rise above themselves and see beyond their differences.Now filmed as Invictus directed by Clint Eastwood, and starring Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela.EndorsementsShortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year 2008.

It is late summer 2013. Ben Ryan, a red-haired, 40-something, spectacle-wearing Englishman, is given 20 minutes to decide whether he wants to coach Fiji's rugby sevens team, with the aim of taking them to the nation's first-ever Olympic medal. He has never been to Fiji. There has been no discussion of contracts or salary. But he knows that no one plays rugby like the men from these isolated Pacific islands, just as no one plays football like the kids from the Brazilian favelas, or no one runs as fast as the boys and girls from Jamaica's boondocks. He knows too that no other rugby nation has so little - no money and no resources, only basic equipment and a long, sad history of losing its most gifted players to richer, greedier nations.Ryan says yes. And with that simple word he sets in motion an extraordinary journey that will encompass witchdoctors and rugby-obsessed prime ministers, sun-smeared dawns and devastating cyclones, intense friendships and bitter rows, phone taps and wild nationwide parties. It will end in Rio with a performance that not only wins Olympic gold but reaches fresh heights for rugby union and makes Ben and his 12 players living legends back home.EndorsementsShortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year 2018

Steven Callahan's dramatic tale of survival at sea is a riveting firsthand account by the only man known to have survived more than a month alone at sea, fighting for his life in an inflatable raft after his small sloop capsized just six days out.Before The Perfect Storm and In the Heart of the Sea, Adrift helped define the new wave of adventure books. In some ways it is an undeniable seafaring classic and a must-have for any adventure library.EndorsementsOn the New York Times bestseller list for more than thirty-six weeks. — The New York Times

The world's leading professional skateboarder and a hero to thousands of Generation Xers, Tony Hawk relives a lifetime of incredible highs and lows in the sport.

The White Spider dramatically recreates not only the harrowing, successful ascent made by Harrer and his comrades in 1938, but also the earlier, tragic attempts on a wall of rock that was later enshrined in mountaineer Jon Krakauer's first work, Eiger Dreams.

Why do so many feel compelled to risk their lives climbing mountains? During the climbing season one person a day dies in the Alps, and in Scotland more people die while climbing during this season than on the roads. Mountains of the Mind pursues a fascinating investigation into our emotional and imaginative responses to mountains and how these have changed over the last few centuries. It is rich with literary and historical references, and punctuated by beautifully written descriptions of the author's own climbing experiences. There are chapters on glaciers, geology, the pursuit of fear, the desire to explore the unknown, and the desire to reach the summit. The book ends with a gripping account of Mallory's attempt on Everest.Mountains of the Mind is a beautifully written synthesis of climbing memoir and cultural history.

Barbarian Days is William Finnegan’s memoir of an obsession, a complex enchantment. Surfing only looks like a sport. To initiates, it is something else: a beautiful addiction, a demanding course of study, a morally dangerous pastime, a way of life.Raised in California and Hawaii, Finnegan started surfing as a child. He has chased waves all over the world, wandering for years through the South Pacific, Australia, Asia, Africa. A bookish boy, and then an excessively adventurous young man, he went on to become a distinguished writer and war reporter. Barbarian Days takes us deep into unfamiliar worlds, some of them right under our noses—off the coasts of New York and San Francisco. It immerses the reader in the edgy camaraderie of close male friendships forged in challenging waves.Finnegan shares stories of life in a whites-only gang in a tough school in Honolulu. He shows us a world turned upside down for kids and adults alike by the social upheavals of the 1960s. He details the intricacies of famous waves and his own apprenticeships to them. Youthful folly—he drops LSD while riding huge Honolua Bay, on Maui—is served up with rueful humor. As Finnegan’s travels take him ever farther afield, he discovers the picturesque simplicity of a Samoan fishing village, dissects the sexual politics of Tongan interactions with Americans and Japanese, and navigates the Indonesian black market while nearly succumbing to malaria. Throughout, he surfs, carrying readers with him on rides of harrowing, unprecedented lucidity.Barbarian Days is an old-school adventure story, an intellectual autobiography, a social history, a literary road movie, and an extraordinary exploration of the gradual mastering of an exacting, little-understood art.EndorsementsWinner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Autobiography.Included in President Obama’s 2016 Summer Reading List.“Without a doubt, the finest surf book I’ve ever read...” — The New York Times Magazine

When paramedic Bruce Pike is called out to deal with another teenage adventure gone wrong, he knows better than anyone what happened and how. Thirty years before, that dead boy could have been him. Bruce remembers what it was like to be a risk-taking kid, to feel that thrill and that fear...Breath by Tim Winton is the story of Bruce and his best friend Loonie, and the surfing obsession that changed both of their lives. It is about the exhilaration of the sea and the waves, the treacherous addiction to risk, and the intoxicating power of forbidden love.Endorsements'Exhilarating' — Sunday Times'Rapturous' — Sunday Telegraph'A remarkable tale of grace and danger' — Financial Times

Judo, or the Way of Gentleness, is an ideal form of physical exercise and a reliable system of self-defense, specially created from traditional Japanese martial arts. This book by the creator of Kodokan judo is uniquely comprehensive and the most authoritative guide to this martial art ever published.Over a hundred years ago Jigoro Kano mastered swordsmanship and hand-to-hand combat. Failing to discover any underlying principle, he set about designing a new martial art to reflect the concept of maximum efficiency in the use of physical and mental energy. Today, the concepts and techniques of judo taught at the Kodokan are the ones originally devised by their creator and collected together in this book. Covering everything from the fundamental techniques to prearranged formal exercises for both men and women, the book offers detailed explanations of how techniques are combined in two types of randori (free practice) and kata (the practice of forms). In addition to a discussion of traditional methods of resuscitation, the book concludes with a useful appendix of information on the founder and the Kodokan International Judo Center, and a glossary of judo terminology. Fully illustrated throughout, Kodokan Judo will help students and instructors everywhere to discover the principles, techniques, and spirit of this popular martial art.

The rise, and fall, and rise again of tennis sensation Maria SharapovaIn the middle of the night, a father and his daughter step off a Greyhound bus in Florida and head straight to the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy. They ring the bell, though no one is expecting them. They don't speak English. They've arrived from Russia with only $700 and the conviction that this six-year-old will be the next tennis star. Surprisingly, they are right.Young Maria Sharapova went on to become one of the best, most famous, and highest-paid athletes. At seventeen, she won Wimbledon. At eighteen, she was ranked number one. To date, she has won five Grand Slams. Her stardom spills off the court to fashion, philanthropy, food. But at the peak of her popularity, Sharapova faced a new challenge, after testing positive for a banned drug. The backlash was shocking — sponsors fled, fans berated her, and she received a two-year suspension. Despite successfully appealing her sentence, she still faced the battle of maintaining her eminence on the court and her place in fans' hearts. In this gripping autobiography, Sharapova traces her precarious beginnings in Siberia to her controversial doping ban. The same way she plays tennis, she tells her story with a no-holds-barred attitude, fierce and provocative. Sharapova's story transcends the sports genre — this is an inspiring tale of gritty persistence, pulsing with fearlessness and candor, utterly unforgettable.

World champion runner Caster Semenya offers an empowering account of her extraordinary life and career, and her trailblazing battle to compete on her own terms.Caster Semenya is one of the greatest athletes ever to run the 800 meters. Semenya went undefeated for almost four years, winning two Olympic gold medals and three World Athletics Championships, and set and broke numerous records.However, her life and career were devastated by accusations that Semenya—who was born with naturally elevated levels of testosterone—was not a woman and should not compete against other women. Required by the International Association of Athletics Federations to take hormone-altering drugs as a condition of competing in certain events, Semenya for years suffered side effects that she describes as devastating to her health. Her predicament surfaced a still-raging firestorm over our understanding of gender, of how gender plays out in sports, and our expectations of female athletes.The Race to be Myself tells the coming-of-age story of an iconic athlete—of Semenya’s dramatic journey from a gifted and self-trained novice to the pinnacle of her sport—and takes readers behind the scenes of her inspiring battle to run in the “body that God gave me.”

No tennis player since Andre Agassi has captivated the world like Rafael Nadal.He's a rarity in today's sporting arena — a true sportsman who chooses to let his raw talent, dedication and humility define him. This autobiography, written by Nadal with award-winning journalist John Carlin, includes memorable highlights such as winning the Wimbledon 2008 final and completing a career Grand Slam after winning the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open in 2010.This book gives Nadal's millions of fans what they've been waiting for — a glimpse behind the racquet to learn what really makes Nadal — an intensely private person who until now has never talked about his personal and family life — tick.Endorsements"The greatest game of tennis ever played" — John McEnroe