Showing titles in Olympics & Paralympics

The 1988 Seoul Olympics played host to what has been described by some as the dirtiest race of all time, by others as the greatest. The final of the men's 100 metres at those Olympics is certainly the most infamous in the history of athletics, and more indelibly etched into the consciousness of the sport, the Olympics, and a global audience of millions, than any other athletics event before or since.

Ellen Keane spent most of her teens uncomfortable with her limb difference and battling to hide her insecurities. It was only when she embraced her difference that she found her superpower. She started to believe in her unique abilities and gradually find the success that she had never dreamed possible. Perfectly Imperfect is for anyone struggling to accept who they are. With anecdotes from her own life, practical advice and good-natured humour, Keane challenges you to let go of waiting until everything is perfect and instead embrace your imperfections and accept who you are, flaws and all.

By the Sword is an epic history of sword fighting - a science, an art, and, for many, a religion that began at the dawn of civilization in ancient Egypt and has been an obsession for mankind ever since. With wit and insight, Richard Cohen gives us an engrossing history of the world via the sword.

Abhinav Bindra once shot 100 out of 100 in practice six times in a row and walked out of the range unhappy. He is a perfectionist who once soled his shoes with rubber from Ferrari tyres because he thought it would help. He would wake up at 3:00 a.m. to practise at his range at home if an idea suddenly struck him. It is from such obsession that greatness arrives.

Dreams Do Come True tells the inspirational story of one of Britain's golden girls from London 2012. Great Britain's finest woman rower had one final career target to achieve and, on 3 August 2012, on the water at Eton Dorney, she - and Anna Watkins - beat three other pairs to win the gold in the Women's Double Sculls at the London Olympics. After winning silver in 2000, 2004 and 2008, Katherine Grainger could finally call herself an Olympic champion.

Faster! Higher! Stronger! Stranger! A glorious tapestry of legendary characters, forgotten records, crazy accomplishments, unbelievable feats, wacky contests, and controversial moments, Total Olympics is pure pleasure for anyone who loves the world’s greatest sporting event. Discover how the modern Games began, in an out-of-the-way Victorian English town named Much Wenlock. Long-discontinued Olympic sports like tug of war, firefighting, live pigeon shooting, and painting. And the over-the-top, heroic exploits that make it all so thrilling.

In the 1930s, as the world hurtled towards terrible global conflict, speed was all the rage. It was described by Aldous Huxley as 'the one genuinely modern pleasure', and one of the fastest and most thrilling ways to attain it was through the new sport of bobsledding. Exotic, exciting and above all dangerous, it was by far the most popular event at the Lake Placid Winter Olympics. It required an abundance of skill and bravery. And the four men who triumphed at those games lived the most extraordinary lives.

From her first strokes as a novice, Ginny Gilder found herself in a new world, training with Olympic rowers and participating in the famous Title IX naked protest, which helped define the movement for equality in college sports. Short, asthmatic, and stubborn, Gilder made the team against all odds and for the next 10 years devoted herself to answering a seemingly simple question: how badly do you want to go fast?

Experimente un año extraordinario entre la gente real de la antigua Grecia viendo cómo se preparan para el evento más importante de su calendario. Estamos en el año 248 a. C y los antiguos griegos esperaban con ansias los 133º Juegos Olímpicos. Celebrados cada cuatro años en honor a Zeus, rey de los dioses Olímpicos, los Juegos son el punto culminante del calendario antiguo y un evento tanto social como deportivo.

This unique audiobook history of the Olympics, first issued in 2008, has been updated to include the Beijing Olympics and released to coincide with the London event. Written by the prize-winning sports journalist John Goodbody, and with a fascinating personal documentary featuring one of Britain's leading Olympians, Sebastian Coe, who is now heading the 2012 Games, this is an ideal opener!

On the night in 1964 that Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay) stepped into the ring with Sonny Liston, he was widely regarded as an irritating freak who danced and talked way too much. Six rounds later Ali was not only the new world heavyweight boxing champion: He was "a new kind of black man" who would shortly transform America's racial politics, its popular culture, and its notions of heroism. No one has captured Ali—and the era that he exhilarated and sometimes infuriated—with greater vibrancy, drama, and astuteness than David Remnick.

Half an audiobook on basketball, half an audiobook on management techniques, The Gold Standard captures Coach K's personal style and approach to getting different (and sometimes difficult) people to work hard and succeed in reaching a common goal. "In all forms of leadership, whether you are a coach, a CEO, or a parent, there are four words that, when said, can bring out the best in your team, your employees, and your family...I believe in you. These four words can mean the difference between a fear of failure and the courage to try".

In December 1935, Zdenek Koubek, one of the most famous sprinters in European women’s sports, declared he was now living as a man. Around the same time, the celebrated British field athlete Mark Weston, also assigned female at birth, announced that he, too, was a man. Periodicals and radio programs across the world carried the news; both became global celebrities. A few decades later, they were all but forgotten. In The Other Olympians, Michael Waters uncovers, for the first time, the gripping true stories of Koubek, Weston, and other pioneering trans and intersex athletes from their era.

At age 9, Josh Sundquist was diagnosed with cancer, and by age 10, he'd lost his leg to the illness. But Sundquist never faltered in his dream to ski in the Paralympics, and in 2006 he achieved his goal in Turin, Italy. Just Don't Fall is the remarkable and honest story of Sundquist's determination and grit in the face of long odds and tough choices.

"If you're not strong enough to swim fast, you're probably not strong enough to swim 'pretty," said a young Esther Williams to theater impresario Billy Rose. Since the nineteenth century, tensions between beauty and strength, aesthetics and athleticism have both impeded and propelled the careers of female swimmers—none more so than synchronized swimmers, for whom Williams is often considered godmother. In this riveting history—the first of its kind—Vicki Valosik traces a century of aquatic performance, from vaudeville and dime museums to the Olympic arena.

In this exhilarating memoir, three-time World Champion and Olympic gold-medalist Nathan Chen tells the story of his remarkable journey to success, reflecting on his life as a Chinese American figure skater and the joys and challenges he has experienced—including the tremendous sacrifices he and his family made, and the physical and emotional pain he endured.

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.

At London 2012, Nicola Adams made history. The flyweight boxer - nicknamed the smiling assassin - became the first ever woman to win an Olympic Gold medal for boxing. In Rio 2016, with the nation cheering her on, she did it all over again. Growing up in Leeds, Nicola stumbled into boxing in her local sports centre while her mum was at aerobics. Age 13 she decided that she would win an Olympic Gold: nobody was going to stop her.

The Balance is coach Aimee Boorman’s inside account of the growth of a transcendent athlete and the tumultuous events that upended the lives of many girls, including Biles. Simone Biles is one of the greatest athletes of all time. She’s won six all-around world championships and eleven Olympic medals (seven gold). Five gymnastics moves are named after her, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom (the youngest recipient ever), and at an age when most elite gymnasts have retired, Biles is not just still competing—she’s dominating.

Once upon a time, they taught us to believe. They were the 1980 US Olympic hockey team, a blue-collar bunch led by an unconventional coach, and they engineered perhaps the greatest sports moment of the 20th century. Their "Miracle on Ice" has become a national fairy tale, but the real Cinderella story is even more remarkable. It is a legacy of hope, hard work, and homegrown triumph. It is a chronicle of everyday heroes who just wanted to play hockey happily ever after.