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Golden Girl: How Natalie Coughlin Fought Back, Challenged Conventional Wisdom, and Became America's Olympic Champion
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List Price:
$24.95
Arts Photography Price:
$16.47
Your Savings: $ 8.48 ( 34% )
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Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Rodale Books
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Average Customer Rating:   
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 797.32092
EAN: 9781594862540
ISBN: 1594862540
Label: Rodale Books
Manufacturer: Rodale Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 264
Publication Date: 2006-04-18
Publisher: Rodale Books
Release Date: 2006-04-18
Studio: Rodale Books
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Editorial Reviews:
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Five years ago, Natalie Coughlin+s promising swimming career was all but extinguished when a devastating shoulder injury ended her dreams for the 2000 Olympics. After becoming, at age 15, the first person ever to qualify for all 14 women+s events at the U.S. Nationals, she seemed destined to follow the path of so many other young swimming stars-devoured by an oppressive training schedule.In Golden Girl, Sports Illustrated+s Michael Silver-coauthor of many bestselling sports memoirs-including Dennis Rodman+s, Kurt Warner+s, and Jerry Rice+s-tells the story of Natalie+s remarkable journey back from the brink. With complete access to her family, friends, coaches, teammates, and adversaries, Silver details how she made the crucial choice to train with University of California coach Teri McKeever. Together the two, star and coach, have defied long-standing training methods, forcing the swimming community to rethink the ways in which it treats its talent. An inspirational story of a complex and courageous young athlete, Golden Girl is also a fascinating portrait of the fractious world of competitive swimming.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Brings swimming to life
Comment: Not everything Natalie has to say shows everyone in the best of light; that's because not everyone is exactly a "great" person. This is her book and her story--if she felt someone mistreated her or did this or that wrong, she's entitled to say. All of this is part of why she is the great athlete she is today, and that should be applauded.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good Book
Comment: Being the father of two USA swimming daughters, I found this to be just an "okay" read. While I did find it rather annoying for the author to repeatedly bash the Terrapins, Silver did a good job portraying the pressure coaches are under to get a name for themselves by unnecessarily pushing their swimmers too far. Nonetheless, I enjoyed how the book described McKeever's unorthodox techniques and chronicled the behind the scenes march to the Olympics. In the end, it did leave me with a bit of a tarnished view of Natalie, which is a bit disappointing given the title of the book. I strongly recommend Gold in the Water.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Book
Comment: Golden Girl is an absolutely outstanding book that takes a good look at not only Natalie Coughlin's push toward Olympic excellence but also talks about subjects that many consider taboo: the politics of the sport of swimming and the need for more rational training methods. I just bought a copy for my daughter's birthday. She's an Olympian in Judo. I'm an international level Judo coach. I was fascinated by the book and can easily relate to it since the Judo community suffers from the same malaise that the swimming world suffers from. Being an unconventional coach in Judo, I'm not surprised by all the negative reviews from people within the swimming world. I get the same treatment from my Judo peers who like Terri McKeever's and Dave Salo's peers are too insecure or "know it all" to even look into alternative training methods. Since I am heavily involved in coach education, I will make this book a required reading for all Judo coaches. My advice to you, the prospective buyer of this book, is to ignore the negative reviews from the swimming culture that Golden Girl decries, unless of course you too are stuck on the conventional and can't handle outside-the-box ideas.
Customer Rating:
Summary: One of a kind
Comment: The swimming literature with which I am familiar - Gold in the Water, Champions, Four Champions: One Gold Medal, Michael Phelps: Beneath the Service, By a Fraction of a Second - satiate my interest for swimming-centered narrative, but, in my opinion, the genre, as represented by this collection of books, is one dimensional. I find that these types of books (I would include a few running, and football books among them) are purportedly about courageous young athletes that overcome and achieve through commitment, belief, and the support of teammates, family, and coaches. The narrative certainly appeals to the target audience - athletes, coaches,and parents, that are deeply invested in the system that is celebrated through these pleasing tales. In my experience, as an athlete and a coach, the narrative is fairly accurate. But there are other stories to tell, and Michael Silver tries to tell one of them. Silver, like no other writer that has told the tale of swimmer and coach, questions the hard-nosed-coach archetype. He also questions the culture, the competitive swimming culture, in which this type of coach thrives.
The title of the book is Golden Girl. Its Natalie's show, and all of the inherent benefits and detriments accrue. Silver tells her story, and he is clearly sympathetic with her version of the story. Perhaps if the intentions and methods of the coaches are fair game, then so are the intentions and the methods of the writer. I, for one, understand that from an outsiders perspective the world of competitive swimming might seem as backwards and dysfunctional as we've been led to believe women's figure skating and gymnastics are. Silver, it seems clear, is an outsider, and though his view of competitive swimming must have certainly been filtered through the experiences of Natalie, he seems to me to have a fair amount of corroboration. And to be honest the corroborating anecdotes that he includes don't seem particularly damaging (excepting perhaps the stories of the Terrapin Coach badgering female swimmers about their weight). I think we all know that there are some hard-nosed, mean SOBS, coaching out there. By and large, we would agree that most of these coaches really care about their athletes. They've had their say. For swim coaches, its been chronicled in the annals of Swimming World Magazine and just about every book on swimming that has every been written. This book is about giving Natalie a say. This book is about giving McKeever a say. To some they may come off as bitter or dysfunctional or defensive. It only makes them human. Bottome line is they did it their way, and win or lose, they succeeded. A core precept of McKeever's philosophy seems to be the the journey is more important than the destination. That Silver, in giving this say, allows them to question competitive swimming's cultures, institutions, and some of its personalities, seems unavoidable and possibly an opportunity for the sport to engage in some healthy introspection.
Just about every book on swimming that has ever been written tells a single tale. This book tells a different tale. Its a tale that's not all that different from one that has been told before, told by a coach, in his own words - Sprinting: A Coach's Challenge by Sam Freas. Its a different type of book - a mix of narrative and instruction - but if you liked Golden Girl you may want to check it out.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Piqued my interest in alternative training techniques
Comment: Based on the other comments, I thought this book would be a litany of complaints by Natalie. I assumed she would really bash her old coach. Instead, he is mentioned mostly in the context of the difference between his training philosophy and that of Teri McKeever. Ray Mitchell occupies part of a chapter. This leads me to believe that those who are outraged must not have taken the time to read the book.
That being said, I thought the book was more about the Cal swim season with a focus on Natalie and McKeever. It was a fascinating look at a different approach to swimming - focus on technique, workout variety and team building. As one of the many burned out former age groupers who swam lot of 10K+ workouts, I think the whole swimming world should celebrate that coaches such as McKeever and Salo are willing to try something new. Natalie and the Cal swim program are proof that there is more to swim training than piling up yardage. This is really inspiring. I used to worry about whether I was doing the right thing by introducing my children to this sport. This book has helped to re-ignite my love for competitive swimming.
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