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Have you ever run a mile in only four minutes? Landed a double layout backflip? Yeah, me neither. Luckily, every two years, the Olympics offers us the next best thing: watching incredible athletic accomplishments in sports from swimming to break dancing, all from the comfort of our couches.
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This year, exercise your mind by getting into one of these inspiring books about the Olympics. From what it really takes to train for the Olympics to some of the greatest underdog successes of all time, these are the inside stories of the games — some of them in Olympians’ own words.
Running for My Life is Olympic runner Lopez Lomong’s memoir about his harrowing childhood being kidnapped to be a Sudanese child soldier at only six years old. Swimming Pretty delves into the vaudevillian history of synchronized swimming, while Olympic Pride, American Prejudice follows amazing Black athletes facing down both Jim Crow laws and Hitler’s Germany at the Nazi-sponsored Berlin Olympics.
From the history of the games to inspiring stories of overcoming incredible odds, these books will give you a new perspective on the summer games.
So before tuning in to the Paris Olympics, grab a croissant and say bonjour to one of these Olympic reads.
The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown
This nonfiction underdog story has also been adapted into a movie of the same name, directed by George Clooney. It follows the American men's rowing team, a rag-tag group of working-class boys who come from families of loggers, farmers and shipyard workers. They stun the world by beating competitive teams from the East Coast and Great Britain. But their greatest challenge is at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, as they go oar to oar with Adolf Hitler's rowing team.
Running for My Life by Lopez Lomong and Mark Tabb
Olympic track athlete Lopez Lomong shares his unbelievable transformation from one of the Lost Boys of Sudan to an American Olympian in this incredibly moving memoir. At only 6 years old, Lopez was kidnapped to become a child soldier in the Sudanese Civil War. He unflinchingly tells his life story from his escape to a refugee camp in Kenya, his dream of becoming an Olympian, his immigration to America and finally, his becoming a world champion. This memoir will inspire gratitude and a few tears.
Related: Best Memoirs of All Time
Fast Girls by Elise Hooper
This novel, based on real events, follows sprinters Betty, Louise and Helen as they chase their Olympic dreams, from the 1928 Olympics that were the first to allow women track athletes to the infamous 1936 Nazi-sponsored Olympics in Berlin. Facing the crushing weight of sexism, racism and the Great Depression, at a time where women were discouraged from athletics, this hopeful novel weaves intertwining narratives that conjoin at the fateful 1936 Olympics to determine the fastest woman in the world.
The Three-Year Swim Club by Julie Checkoway
This nonfiction read interweaves Olympic, Japanese-Hawaiian and WWII history in an inspiring story of overcoming adversity. The sugar ditch kids are Japanese-American children in Hawaii whose parents were sugar cane laborers working in near slavery. Coached by a man who knows little beyond how to tread water, the kids swim in dirty irrigation ditches to train. To become Olympic athletes, they must overcome not only poverty, but widespread anti-Japanese sentiment and the cancellation of the 1940 and 1944 Olympics due to WWII.
Courage to Soar by Simone Biles and Michelle Burford
Simone Biles is the most decorated gymnast in history. With seven Olympic medals, 30 World Championship medals and five gymnastics moves named after her, she's one of the greatest athletes of our time. In her memoir, she discusses her early start in gymnastics, her faith and what it's like to compete on the highest stage in athletics. Learn more about the woman behind the records before watching her fly in her third Olympic appearance!
RELATED: Simone Biles Had an Epic Response to Olympics Question From 'Today' Host Hoda Kotb
The Other Olympians by Michael Waters
In this nonfiction read, Michael Waters tracks the origin of athletic sex testing through the Nazi German Olympics. He highlights transgender athletes from the '30s, Mark Weston and Zdeněk Koubek, and how anxieties about their gender led to the creation of modern sports sex testing that still impacts athletes today.
Related: Best LGBT Books
The Games: A Global History of the Olympics by David Goldblatt
Seasoned sportswriter David Goldblatt takes on nothing smaller than the entire history of the modern Olympics in this comprehensive book. With his dry British wit, he wryly observes the political, historical and international forces that surround and intersect the actual sports of the Olympics.
This book focuses less on athletic achievements and more on the behind the scenes, including the shortcomings of the International Olympic Committee, the effect of WWII and the Cold War on the games, the birth of the Paralympics and the fight for recognition for postcolonial nations.
For the Glory by Duncan Hamilton
Eric Liddell is the famous Olympian in Chariots of Fire. At the 1924 Olympics, he refused to run his 100-meter race because his Christian faith prevented him from running on a Sunday. Instead, he ran the 400-meter race and won the gold medal.
For the Glory continues Liddell's story after the Olympics, when he became a missionary in China. As WWII descended, he was imprisoned in a Japanese labor camp for 18 months. Even under extreme hardship, he ministered to fellow prisoners, running one last race within the walls of the camp before he died. Both tragic and inspiring, For the Glory is a deeper look at a famous Olympic story.
The Naked Olympics by Tony Perrottet
What was it like to attend the ancient Olympics? Well, for starters, the athletes competed naked. Viscerally evocative of the sights (and smells!) of the ancient games, this book reconstructs the wild bacchanals, deadly chariot racing and sex and corruption that marked the games. Keep an eye out for cameos from Socrates, Plato and Herodotus! Humorous and gross in turns, this quick read will give you a very different perspective on the modern games.
Swimming Pretty by Vicki Valosik
This history explores one of the most interesting Olympic events: Synchronized swimming. On the 40th anniversary of it becoming an Olympic sport, this book follows the sport's development from "scientific swimming" done by Ben Franklin to Victorian vaudevillian "water queens" who swam in tanks on stage.
Along the way, Swimming Pretty covers the struggle of women athletes to be allowed to compete and the early social tensions between beauty and athleticism. A feminist look at a sexist history, this book celebrates pioneers and women's aquatic accomplishments.
Olympic Pride, American Prejudice by Deborah Riley Draper and Travis Thrasher
This nonfiction book follows the stories of 18 Black athletes who competed in the 1936 Nazi Olympics, including famous runner Jesse Owens. To show the world what they're capable of, they had to fight against discrimination both in Jim Crow-era America and in Hitler's Germany. This powerful book shines light on some of the untold stories of these incredible athletes and the barriers they broke on the world stage.
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