Author: Simon Bullivant Publisher: Constable ISBN: 1849019533 Category : Sports & Recreation Languages : en Pages : 195
Book Description
The Bumper Book of Slightly Forgotten British Olympians and Other Sporting Heroes is just that: a collection of stirring tales of pluck, grit, triumph, disaster and on occasion, ineptitude, featuring a host of former sportspeople who've been utterly forgotten by history. From Maude Waveney, the plucky servant girl who bravely took half a day off work scrubbing kitchen floors to win a gold medal folding bedsheets in the first London games, to Tom Drake, Dressage's first punk, who shocked the sport with his slashed jacket and swear words on his hat.There's the tale of the Lincolnshire javelin thrower who fell under the spell of a cult devoted to the eating of egg and chips; of the mascot of Bexhill-on-Sea's ill fated bid to host the Olympics and "Ample" Arthur Cartwright, whose football career was blighted by an obsession with archaeology. They, and many others, all have a story to tell.
Author: Jon Henderson Publisher: Random House ISBN: 0224082485 Category : Athletes Languages : en Pages : 194
Book Description
Celebrating Great Britain's 100 most notable sporting heroes, Jon Henderson has combed through the annals of our glorious and not so glorious past to bring us the geniuses and the eccentrics, the national treasures and the villains who together have shaped our present. From Henry VIII and Roy of the Rovers to Red Rum Roy and Torvill and Dean, the question is, just what does it take to make a sporting superhero? Touching on Trueman, W. G., Best and Edwards, and racing drivers, jockeys, and rowers, Hendo's 100 reveals all. Opinionated and provocative, his witty character studies--accompanied by stylish illustrations--capture the essence of his subjects' greatness, re-evaluating the famous and rescuing the forgotten. But when there's a cast of thousands to choose from and hundreds of years of history to explore, who will make the cut for the most heroic of the heroic?
Author: Charles River Editors Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform ISBN: 9781542502887 Category : Languages : en Pages : 60
Book Description
*Includes pictures *Includes Owens' quotes about his life and career *Includes accounts of the 1936 Olympics *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents "Although I wasn't invited to shake hands with Hitler, I wasn't invited to the White House to shake hands with the President either." - Jesse Owens A lot of ink has been spilled covering the lives of history's most influential figures, but how much of the forest is lost for the trees? In Charles River Editors' American Legends series, readers can get caught up to speed on the lives of America's most important men and women in the time it takes to finish a commute, while learning interesting facts long forgotten or never known. The Olympics have long been the center of attention in the sports world, but perhaps no moment in the history of the games was as poignant as Jesse Owens' performance in Berlin in 1936. Owens would finish his career with 4 gold medals and become known as "perhaps the greatest and most famous athlete in track and field history" (as his obituary in the New York Times put it), but nearly 80 years later, it's the context that has made his performance so memorable. Owens was one of the greatest track athletes in the country in the 1930s, and while he was at Ohio State, he set 3 world records and tied another one within 45 minutes at a Big Ten meet in 1935, but hurdles on the track weren't as hard to clear as ones he had to deal with away from sports. As a young black man, he had to deal with entrenched racism across the country, from staying in segregated hotels to not being eligible for a sports scholarship, In 1936, World War II was still a few years away, but Adolf Hitler was fully in control of Nazi Germany and hoped to use the Olympics as a showcase of the resurgent German nation. Internationally, Hitler's Germany was not yet a major concern to the vast majority of people unfamiliar with politics, nor were the domestic policies being carried out by the Nazis, but some still thought the United States should not even participate in the Olympics that year. Of course, those who wanted to boycott the games could not have known what Jesse Owens had in store in Berlin. Given the unabashed racism of Hitler's regime, Jesse Owens' performance would end up being a rebuke of sorts to Hitler's notion of Aryan superiority, and an apocryphal legend has since sprung up that Hitler left the games early to avoid having to shake Owens' hand. While that reputed snub almost certainly did not occur, one Nazi official did note that Hitler "was highly annoyed by the series of triumphs by the marvelous colored American runner, Jesse Owens. People whose antecedents came from the jungle were primitive, Hitler said with a shrug; their physiques were stronger than those of civilized whites and hence should be excluded from future games." Owens' performance and the focus over whether Hitler snubbed him also obscured one of the most ironic aspects of Owens' life and sports career. In fact, while some were asserting that Hitler did actually congratulate Owens, others pointed out that Owens was treated better in Germany than he was back at home, where he had to ride in a freight elevator to a reception in his honor and didn't hear from President Roosevelt following the games. Owens himself pointed out, "Hitler didn't snub me - it was our president who snubbed me. The president didn't even send me a telegram." Indeed, Owens would find it hard to get by for the rest of his life, much of which was spent trying to capitalize off commemorations of his past exploits by resorting to gimmicks such as racing against horses. The situation led him to bitterly remark, "People say that it was degrading for an Olympic champion to run against a horse, but what was I supposed to do? I had four gold medals, but you can't eat four gold medals."
Author: Jostein Gaarder Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux ISBN: 1466804270 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 735
Book Description
A page-turning novel that is also an exploration of the great philosophical concepts of Western thought, Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World has fired the imagination of readers all over the world, with more than twenty million copies in print. One day fourteen-year-old Sophie Amundsen comes home from school to find in her mailbox two notes, with one question on each: "Who are you?" and "Where does the world come from?" From that irresistible beginning, Sophie becomes obsessed with questions that take her far beyond what she knows of her Norwegian village. Through those letters, she enrolls in a kind of correspondence course, covering Socrates to Sartre, with a mysterious philosopher, while receiving letters addressed to another girl. Who is Hilde? And why does her mail keep turning up? To unravel this riddle, Sophie must use the philosophy she is learning—but the truth turns out to be far more complicated than she could have imagined.
Author: Karen Crouse Publisher: Simon and Schuster ISBN: 1501119915 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 288
Book Description
The extraordinary story of the small Vermont town that has likely produced more Olympians per capita than any other place in the country, Norwich gives “parents of young athletes a great gift—a glimpse at another way to raise accomplished and joyous competitors” (The Washington Post). In Norwich, Vermont—a charming town of organic farms and clapboard colonial buildings—a culture has taken root that’s the opposite of the hypercompetitive schoolyard of today’s tiger moms and eagle dads. In Norwich, kids aren’t cut from teams. They don’t specialize in a single sport, and they even root for their rivals. What’s more, their hands-off parents encourage them to simply enjoy themselves. Yet this village of roughly three thousand residents has won three Olympic medals and sent an athlete to almost every Winter Olympics for the past thirty years. Now, New York Times reporter and “gifted storyteller” (The Wall Street Journal) Karen Crouse spills Norwich’s secret to raising not just better athletes than the rest of America but happier, healthier kids. And while these “counterintuitive” (Amy Chua, bestselling author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother) lessons were honed in the New England snow, parents across the country will find that “Crouse’s message applies beyond a particular town or state” (The Wall Street Journal). If you’re looking for answers about how to raise joyful, resilient kids, let Norwich take you to a place that has figured it out.
Author: Watty Piper Publisher: Price Stern Sloan ISBN: 9780448420011 Category : Children's literature Languages : en Pages : 63
Book Description
Enchanting, timeless children's classics by A.A. MilneRobert Louis Stevenson and more. Includes "The Owl and the Pussy Cat", "The Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat", "Wynken, Blynken and Nod", as well as other beloved favorites.
Author: Cyril Lionel Robert James Publisher: Duke University Press ISBN: 9780822313830 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 300
Book Description
In C. L. R. James's classic Beyond a Boundary, the sport is cricket and the scene is the colonial West Indies. Always eloquent and provocative, James--the "black Plato," (as coined by the London Times)--shows us how, in the rituals of performance and conflict on the field, we are watching not just prowess but politics and psychology at play. Part memoir of a boyhood in a black colony (by one of the founding fathers of African nationalism), part passionate celebration of an unusual and unexpected game, Beyond a Boundary raises, in a warm and witty voice, serious questions about race, class, politics, and the facts of colonial oppression. Originally published in England in 1963 and in the United States twenty years later (Pantheon, 1983), this second American edition brings back into print this prophetic statement on race and sport in society.
Author: Guillem Balague Publisher: Orion ISBN: 1409155072 Category : Sports & Recreation Languages : en Pages : 459
Book Description
The definitive award-winning biography of Cristiano Ronaldo - fully updated to include the 2022 World Cup, Ronaldo's explosive exit from Manchester United and his record-breaking transfer to Al-Nassr As the Qatar World Cup opened to worldwide jubilation, Cristiano Ronaldo's second spell at Manchester United reached an abrupt conclusion. It was not to be the fairy tale ending to a glittering career. Instead, over the two seasons, it had snowballed into a toxic standoff between himself, the board and newly appointed manager, Erik ten Hag. The Theatre's dream was over. On 22 November 2022, Ronaldo's contract was terminated. In this compelling account, Guillem Balagué draws on impeccable sources, first-hand interviews and unprecedented access, taking us on a journey from Madeira to Manchester, and onto Spain, Italy and Saudi Arabia. From Ronaldo's tutelage under Sir Alex Ferguson to becoming the biggest galáctico of them all at Real Madrid, and captaining Portugal to the first silverware in their history at the UEFA Euro 2016, Guillem chronicles Ronaldo's career in its entirety. This is nothing less than the definitive portrait of a true icon of modern football, who has reached the very heights of the beautiful game and cemented his place as one of the greatest players of all time.
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