Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Biographies/autobiographies of swimmers



I've always liked to read books about sports and athletes, mostly about "amateur" athletes, or those sports that are included in the Olympics. I'm especially interested in the sociology of sports, and the worlds the athletese inhabit. Swimming is my main form of exercise these days, and especially in summer my mind turns to swimming. I've managed to find quite a few biographies/autobiographies of swimmers. In some cases, I read these years, maybe even as many as 15 years ago, so I don't know that they've all held up over time.

Fraser, Dawn, and Harry Gordon. Below the surface; confessions of an Olympic champion. New York, Morrow, 1965. (Published in Australia under title Gold medal girl.)
Fraser is Australian, and won the 100 meter freestyle in the 1956, 1960, and 1964 Olympics. This was a fascinating book. Fraser is definitely opinionated, and willing to go her own way. The book gives an interesting picture of being a female athlete in the 1950s and early 1960s, as well as being an amateur athlete, including struggles with the athletic establishment. I enjoyed her descriptions of actually being at the Olympics (there was some incident about stealing a flag). An amazing amount happened to her by the time she was 28, when the book was published. Plus, you get a glimpse of Australia during and right after WWII.

Mullen, P H. Gold in the water : the true story of ordinary men and their extraordinary dream of Olympic glory. New York : T. Dunne Books, 2001.
This follows several U.S. male swimmers as they train for the 2000 Olympics. This book is much more descriptive than Melina's book above; it reads like it was written from direct observation as well as from interviews. I expected to like this a bit more than I did. But I read it in a day, while sitting on a deck by a lake in northern Wisconsin. By the time I read it, I didn't remember who got what result in the Olympics, so it was gripping to find out how each swimmer did. And it's a nice mix: not all the swimmers profiled got medals, or even made the Olympic team.

Chambliss, Daniel F. Champions: The Making of Olympic Swimmers. New York: Morrow, 1988.
Sociologist describes four swimmers at the Mission Viejo swimming club preparing for the 1984 Olympics. Slightly different take on the topic; the author wants to figure out what makes some swimmers great. But it's written in an accessible style.

Melina, Lois Ruskai. By a Fraction of a Second. El Segunda, CA : Sports Pubs, Inc., 2000.
Covers several female U.S. swimmers in the years leading up to the 2000 Olympics. This book explained technical aspects of swimming that I could understand! I read it in a day, at a lakeside cottage. I wish it'd been longer, the profiles deeper. But I enjoyed it.

Sanders, Summer, with Melinda M Marshall. Champions are raised, not born : how my parents made me a success. New York: Delacorte Press, 1999.
By a multi-medal winner from the U.S. in the 1992 Olympics. It's written in a kind of advice-book style, but there are a lot of anecdotes. Two things stand out: she writes about the social aspects of swimming as a kid, and it sounds fun! Also, her description of her comeback was interesting; I always wonder what make athletes decide to try to come back, and how they feel about it.

Tewksbury, Mark. Visions of excellence : the art of achieving your dreams.
Toronto, Ont. ; New York, N.Y. : Viking, 1993.
Tewksbury was a Canadian gold medalist in the 1992 Olympics. I think this book was supposed to have a motivational slant. I just found his descriptions of training interesting, especially training with a synchronized swimming coach. I remember reading it in Sept 2000, sitting by a pool at an Albuquerque hotel, waiting to watch the closing ceremonies of the Sydney Olympics.

Warner, Chuck. Four champions, one gold medal: the true story of four swimmers who battled for the same Olympic dream. El Segundo, Calif.: Sports Publications, 1999. Three guys from the U.S., one from Australia, all aiming for the 1976 Olympics. I remember it having a lot of training details. But I can't remember a single one of the athletes' names. I think they were training for one of the swimming distance races.

Chavoor, Sherman, with Bill Davis. The 50-meter jungle; how Olympic gold medal swimmers are made. New York, Coward, McCann, Geoghegan [1973].
Chavoor coached U.S. Olympians Mark Spitz and Debbie Meier, among others. There's quite a bit of his coaching methods in here. Didn't really stand out for me.

Schollander, Don, with Joel H. Cohen. Inside swimming. Chicago, Regnery [1974]. From the U.S., Schollander won golds in the 1964 and 1968 Olympics. I remember this book mainly because it was the first library book I ever took on a long road trip. (I'd grown up indoctrinated to never take library books on the road, because I could lose them sometime along the way. It's only happened to me once in 15 years so far!)

Ones I haven't read/finished yet:
Phelps, Michael and Brian Cazeneuve. Michael Phelps: Beneath the Surface. Champaign, IL: Sports Publishing L.L.C. , 2004.

Silver, Michael, and Natalie Coughlin. Golden girl: How Natalie Coughlin fought back, challenged conventional wisdom, and became America's Olympic Champion. [Emmaus, Pa.]: Rodale; [New York]: Distributed to the book trade by Holtzbrinck Publishers, 2006.

Ortiz, Rick. Legacies: Eight Champions, Eight Interviews. Newport Beach, CA: Metro Lifestyles and Design, 1992.
Written in question and answer format. Swimmers are male and female, from the U.S. and Great Britain, and swam at the world level in the 1980s and 1990s.

5/16/07
For other swimming books, see entries for June 29 2006, July 18, 2006., and October 10, 2006).


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