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Books > Sport & Leisure > Sports & outdoor recreation > Sporting events, tours & organisations > Olympic games
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A Life Aloft
(Paperback)
Thomas Gompf; As told to Elaine K Howley; Foreword by Steve McFarland
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R585
Discovery Miles 5 850
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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Katherine Grainger is not only Great Britain's finest ever woman
rower, but also she has won more Olympic medals than any other
female British athlete in any sport. At Rio de Janeiro in the 2016
Olympic Games, at the age of 40, and less than two years after
coming out of 'retirement', with a different partner, she came
within one second of retaining her women's Double Sculls gold
medal. On 3 August 2012, on the water at Eton Dorney in the London
2012 Olympic Games, she - and Anna Watkins - had rowed to glory in
the women's Double Sculls. Three times an Olympic silver medallist,
she could finally hang up her oars as an Olympic champion to add to
her six World Championships and eight World Cup gold medals - but
she didn't. Katherine's story is a remarkable one - proof that nice
people can be winners and dedication and hard work pay off.
Incredibly bright, Grainger combined her athletic career with her
education and she has degrees from Glasgow and Edinburgh
universities and a PhD from London, in subjects as diverse as law,
philosophy and homicide. No wonder she is so much in demand as a
motivational speaker. Katherine Grainger: The Autobiography
continues her inspirational story taking in her post-London
activities, the return to training, finding a new double sculls
partner in Vicky Thornley, the highs and lows of their attempt to
qualify for Rio 2016 and eventually their astonishing row to
another silver medal.
For sports fans everywhere. The untold story of a team cobbled
together at the last minute that was so severely trounced in an
exhibition match that many Canadians were against sending them to
the Olympics for fear of embarrassment. With little financial
support, the team stayed in fleabag hotels and were widely
ridiculed -- until they hit Olympic ice and made hockey history. A
never-before-told story.Rare interviews with some of the original
players and key people behind the scenes are skilfully woven into a
breathtaking story of scorn, triumph and redemption. This is sports
writing at its finest. Macadam breathes life into his characters
and keeps our heart rates soaring as he skillfully helps us relive
hockey history and masterfully builds tension to the breaking
point.
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The Love of Goalkeeping
(Paperback)
Tomaz Lasic; Foreword by Ric Charlesworth; Illustrated by Sebastian Lasic
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R492
R459
Discovery Miles 4 590
Save R33 (7%)
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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"What was it like to attend the ancient Olympic Games?
With the summer Olympics' return to Athens, Tony Perrottet delves
into the ancient world and lets the Greek Games begin again. The
acclaimed author of Pagan Holiday brings attitude, erudition, and
humor to the fascinating story of the original Olympic festival,
tracking the event day by day to re-create the experience in all
its compelling spectacle.
Using firsthand reports and little-known sources--including an
actual "Handbook for a Sports Coach used by the Greeks--The Naked
Olympics creates a vivid picture of an extravaganza performed
before as many as forty thousand people, featuring contests as
timeless as the javelin throw and as exotic as the chariot race.
Peeling away the layers of myth," Perrottet lays bare the ancient
sporting experience--including the round-the-clock bacchanal inside
the tents of the Olympic Village, the all-male nude workouts under
the statue of Eros, and history's first corruption scandals
involving athletes. Featuring sometimes scandalous cameos by sports
enthusiasts Plato, Socrates, and Herodotus, The Naked Olympics
offers essential insight into today's Games and an unforgettable
guide to the world's first and most influential athletic festival.
"Just in time for the modern Olympic games to return to Greece this
summer for the first time in more than a century, Tony Perrottet
offers up a diverting primer on the Olympics of the ancient
kind....Well researched; his sources are as solid as sources come.
It's also well writen....Perhaps no book of the season will show us
so briefly and entertainingly just how complete is our inheritance
from the Greeks, vulgarity and all."
--TheWashington Post
With a show-jumping career spanning over forty years, Nick Skelton
is a legend in the equestrian world. No other rider has won so many
major competitions on so many different horses and he is as popular
at Olympia and Hickstead as he is at Aachen, Geneva, Paris and
Spruce Meadows. Skelton has competed in eight Olympic Games. He was
part of the gold medal-winning Great Britain team at London 2012
and made history by winning the individual Olympic gold medal at
Rio 2016, riding at the age of fifty-eight his beloved horse Big
Star. Nick Skelton began riding at the age of eighteen months on a
Welsh pony called Oxo. At the age of seventeenth in 1975, Skelton
took team silver and individual gold at the Junior European
Championships. He has competed many times at the European Show
Jumping Championships, winning numerous medals, both individually
and with the British team. In 1980 he competed in the Alternative
Olympics, where he helped the British team to a silver medal. He
still holds the British Show Jumping High Jump record that he set
in 1978. In 2000, Skelton was forced into an early retirement after
he broke his neck from a serious fall. But following an amazing
recovery he came out of retirement in 2002 to compete again. Now he
tells the full story of his eventful life and matchless
achievements.
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