Olympic Stories That Will Inspire You!

Contributed by Lissa Clark, Hive Overland Park

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The thirty-third modern summer Olympic games are coming up soon!  See the fun and interesting reads about the Olympics Lissa Clark, Hive member and prolific reader, thought you might like. These Olympic stories will inspire you! 

Fast Girls: a Novel of the 1936 Women’s Olympic Team  by Elise Hooper  

This book follows the stories of three young women diverse in background, race, and finances as they train to compete on the world stage.  All the pageantry and politics of the looming Third Reich in 1936 sets a vivid atmosphere. Germany wants to prove to the world their Aryan race is superior in every way.  This is also the Olympics that Jesse Owens competed in.  Women’s track and field had only been allowed in the Games starting in 1928!  The women have to overcome their personal and physical weaknesses as well as gender stereotypes and limitations. Each character has an interesting back story.  They are competitors but in the end are ultimately teammates.

Fire on the Track: by Roseanne Montillo  

If you prefer non-fiction, this book is the story of one of the women from Fast Girls, Betty Robinson.  Betty competed in the first games to allow women runners in 1928 and came home a national heroine.  She then suffered terrible injuries in a plane crash.  Her fight to overcome her disabilities and regain her title as the fastest woman in the world for the 1936 Olympics is a true inspiration. 

Boys in the Boat  by Daniel J Brown   

Yes, they made a movie out of this book, but even if you saw the movie, you should read the book!! Based in the Pacific Northwest during the depression, this book follows the life of Joe Rantz - his struggles and triumphs.  Joe is abandoned in the forest at the age of 14.  He learns to fend for himself, becoming strong and self-sufficient.  Circumstances lead him to Seattle, where his strength impresses a university rowing coach.  The hardships the team endures in order to compete in the 1936 Olympics (Germany again!) make for riveting reading.

There are several interesting themes in Boys in the Boat.  One, the fact that all the boys on the team came from humble, working-class backgrounds, unlike their snobbish, elite ivy league competition on the East Coast.  Secondly,  the book does an excellent job detailing how the boys developed loyalty and teamwork.  There is excellent background on the development of the Nazi Olympics and the efforts expended to hide their treatment of Jews (and to cheat in the games!).  Lastly, the story follows through to let you know “where are they now?”

According to the author, he "fell into this book" when a neighbor asked him to meet her dad, who loved his books. The neighbor’s dad ended up being Joe Rantz and from there, the story “wrote itself!”