How the captains of the last 50 years have gone about leading the world's most successful rugby team. The job of All Blacks captain comes with a scrutiny that puts it alongside the prime minister in terms of profile and public expectation. It takes a strong, confident and assured personality to captain a team where failure is never tolerated. The Captain's Run is a behind the scenes journey into the world of All Blacks captaincy. It reveals how the great captains dealt with the pressure of the toughest job in world rugby, how they coped with failure, and what they would have done differently, if given their time again.

Miguel Indurain will pass into history not just as the first cyclist to win five straight Tours de France, but also as the standard-bearer for a whole nation. While Spain lived through the dream of his repeated victories the country came to a standstill, for Indur?!in stole people's hearts not just by the number, but by the manner of his victories. Seeing him on the road or away from the action, the gallant loser or the strong, calm victor, the Spanish gained hope, and then faith. And so did many others, for it was the dignity and modesty that Miguel Indur?!in invariably displayed, in victory and defeat, that endeared him to us all. A farmer's son from a small village in Navarra, he never strayed far from his roots, nor did he allow his extraordinary success to go to his head. Javier Garcia Sanchez is a prize-winning novelist with a passion for cycle racing. In this biography of Miguel Indur?!in he takes us on an emotional journey through Indurain's prodigious career. He recounts his exploits and great battles in the saddle, the glory moments and the disappointments, and describes his passions, his ideas, and his land.

Chris Hoy and Britain's Track Cycling Revolution As the first Briton for 100 years to win three gold medals in one Olympic Games, Scottish track cyclist Chris Hoy has rewritten the record books. Critically acclaimed writer Richard Moore shadows Hoy throughout the current season - fully updated with events in Beijing - to provide an unprecedented insight into the secret world of track cycling. Heroes, Villains and Velodromes reveals how an elite athlete, Chris Hoy, lives, breathes and pushes the boundaries of his sport. How does he do it? And why? What drives him to put his body through the physical and mental hurdles to become the best in the world? And what is it like to be Olympic champion, astonishingly in three different cycling disciplines? This is also the story of an extraordinary year in the life of an extraordinary sportsman and his team, one which started with his best-ever world championships in Mallorca - where, for the first time in his career, Hoy became a double world champion - continued with his attempt on the world kilometre record in La Paz, Bolivia and two gold medals at the 2008 world championships in Manchester, before a glorious climax with seven golds for Hoy and the British track cycling team at the Beijing Olympics. By shadowing Hoy through a season, author Richard Moore has gained an unembellished insight into the mind of a World and Olympic champion. He has also attained unprecedented levels of access to the key members of the all-conquering British team and support staff, including top coaches, world-renowned psychiatrists, doctors (where the subject of drug abuse is an ever-present shadow) and the pivotal characters behind the scenes. Combining his forensic knowledge of the cycling world with his acclaimed skills as a tenacious investigative journalist, Moore captures the mood of the British team and explores an area of professional sport that has rarely been seen before.

The amazing life story of the enfant terrible of tennis in the 1970s and 80s - winner of two Grand Slam titles, three Grand Slam doubles titles and twice a Wimbledon finalist. It is not an overstatement to say that Ilie Nastase was in part responsible for the explosion of interest in tennis in the seventies. Thanks to his success, his lifestyle, his sex appeal and the controversy that continually surrounded him, Nastase's name was recognisable far beyond the confines of tennis. Yet, he also had a dark side and he regularly got himself into trouble with umpires and spectators alike. His court-side tantrums and manic questioning of line calls could spiral out of control and, all too often, he found himself fined and disqualified - and making the next day's front pages. Bjorn Borg had great difficulty adjusting to life after retirement and lost vast amounts of money, while the late Vitas Gerulaitis had a major cocaine problem. Ilie reveals how he helped both of them at a time when their problems were taking a huge toll on their personal lives. He also provides opinions and anecdotes on a host of other characters, including John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors and Arthur Ashe, Henri Leconte, Yannick Noah, Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova. As a result of his celebrity status, Nastase moved amongst the beautiful people. His book recalls some of his more memorable encounters and experiences, including dancing the night away in New York's Studio 54 and Castel in Paris with the likes of Bianca Jagger and Claudia Cardinale, and bedding some of the world's most desirable women (an Italian countess and a former Miss UK are among his conquests). For the many sports fans who followed tennis and followed his career, his stories behind the varied headline-grabbing outbursts will prove fascinating and irresistible.

Now a major motion picture starring Jon Voight, Nic Bishop, and C. Thomas Howell. This riveting true story of courage, strength, and football at the height of racial tension in Birmingham, Alabama tells the story of Coach Tandy Gerelds, his running back Tony Nathan, and a high school football game that healed a city.In the midst of violent, impassioned racial tensions in Birmingham, Alabama, new football coach, Tandy Gerelds, was struggling to create a winning football team at Woodlawn High School--one of the last schools in Birmingham to integrate. The team he was handed did not have the caliber of players he needed to win--until he saw Tony Nathan run. But Tony was African American and Coach Gerelds knew that putting him in as running back would be like drawing a target on his own back and the back of his soon-to-be star player. But Coach Gerelds saw something in Tony, and he knew that his decision to let him play was about more than football. It was about doing what was right for the school--and the city. And soon, the only place in the city where blacks and whites got along was on Coach Gerelds's football team. With the help of a new school chaplain, Tony learned to look beyond himself and realized that there was more at stake than winning a game. In 1974, Coach Gerelds's interracial team made Alabama history drawing 42,000 fans into the stadium to watch them play. It was this game that triggered the unity and support of the Woodlawn High School Colonels and that finally allowed a city to heal and taught its citizens how to love.

Betrayed by his club but beloved by the fans, former Chelsea manager Claudio Ranieri has been a constant headline-maker in 2004. Occasionally puzzling, often eccentric, but always fascinating and refreshing, the Italian describes the highs and lows of an extraordinary season at Stamford Bridge - and the dramatic end to his English journey. 'Hello, my sharks. Welcome to the funeral.' 'People have said I am a dead man walking - but I am still moving ' 'Tonight I am a crazy man and Roman Abramovich is also going mad like me ' We rejoiced with him. We laughed with him. And we cried with him. In what turned out to be a year for the Blues resembling more a soap opera than a season of football, Claudio Ranieri reveals the highlights and the hurt of his farewell twelve months in England. This collaboration between Italian journalist Massimo Marianella and Ranieri promises to reveal the inside story of a rollercoaster year at Stamford Bridge, with a first-hand account of coaching the most expensively assembled team in the Premiership, alongside the increasing pressures of satisfying his bosses as Chelsea's season threatened to turn into anticlimax. How did Ranieri keep all his players contented, when the value of his subs bench often exceeded that of most Premiership teams? What were the skills required to mould a group of exciting individuals into a team capable of challenging the likes of Arsenal and Manchester United at the top of the tree? With the media suggesting an uneasy alliance between Ranieri and Roman Abramovich, what was it that drove their complex relationship? What was the real truth behind the allegations that Ranieri's position was being undermined by his bosses? And when did the 'Tinkerman' discover his final denouement? Just some of the questions that will be answered in this book by arguably the most talked-about man in English football in 2004.

The history of modern British football can largely be written through the stories of Jack and Bobby Charlton. Both were in the World Cup winning team of '66, and each has remained deeply involved in the game ever since. The book traces the parallel lives of Jack and Bobby Charlton, following them from their schooldays through to the present day. The brothers both played prominent roles in the finest hour of English football, the 1966 World Cup triumph. Each played for the dominant club of their era, and summed up the style of their respective teams. Bobby was at Manchester Utd during their glory days under Sir Matt Busby. He survived the Munich air crash and went on to become a fast, graceful attacker who set grounds alight with his power, speed and athleticism in a team that played free-flowing, attacking football. Jack came to professional football late, working in a coal mine before Leeds signed him. Don Revie's Leeds side was renowned for its uncompromising and physical style, and Jack was himself a tough, durable and aggressive defender, who once caused uproar by admitting he had a 'black book' with a list of footballing enemies who he would target on the pitch. The two retired from football in the same year, and since, the contrast between them has been marked. Bobby's forays into management at Wigan and Preston were distinguished only by their brevity, while 'Big Jack' took the Republic of Ireland team to an unprecendented level of success, reaching the quarter finals of the World Cup in 1994. Bobby has been a key figure in the ongoing success of Manchester United over the past decade, working on recruiting players and as an FA diplomat. But, despite their continued successes, the relationship between the two has been strained, sometimes barely even polite, and the book will investigate the reasons for this, including in-depth interviews with many of those the two have been in contact with over the years.

One woman. One bike. One world. In 2018, over the course of 18,000 miles, amateur cyclist Jenny Graham smashed the round-the-world cycling record by nearly three weeks, finishing in 124 days and 11 hours. But her real achievement was a new relationship with herself and with the world. Alone and unsupported, Jenny left family and friends behind in Scotland to complete her mission: a solo lap of the planet by bike. Her inspiring story swerves from terrifying near collisions on the Russian roads and weather extremes in the southern hemisphere to the beauty of the Mongolian landscape and exhilarating wildlife encounters in North America. As she battles the physical and mental challenge to race against the clock, Jenny gradually opens up to the joy of the adventure itself and all its daily discoveries, and gives in to her impulse to connect with people. With infectious wit and honesty, Jenny recounts her friendships with strangers and the myriad different cultures she comes across that gave her a new perspective on the world. By the time Jenny crosses the finish line at the Brandenburg Gate she is a changed person, thanks to one humble bike, and the entire world. Jenny broke the record, but it was what she discovered about herself and the world around her that truly changed her.

Travel with Olympic gold medalist Jessie Diggins on her compelling journey from America's heartland to international sports history, navigating challenges and triumphs with rugged grit and a splash of glitter Pyeongchang, February 21, 2018. In the nerve-racking final seconds of the women's team sprint freestyle race, Jessie Diggins dug deep. Blowing past two of the best sprinters in the world, she stretched her ski boot across the finish line and lunged straight into Olympic immortality: the first ever cross-country skiing gold medal for the United States at the Winter Games. The 26-year-old Diggins, a four-time World Championship medalist, was literally a world away from the small town of Afton, Minnesota, where she first strapped on skis. Yet, for all her history-making achievements, she had never strayed far from the scrappy 12-year-old who had insisted on portaging her own canoe through the wilderness, yelling happily under the unwieldy weight on her shoulders: "Look! I'm doing it!" In Brave Enough, Jessie Diggins reveals the true story of her journey from the American Midwest into sports history. With candid charm and characteristic grit, she connects the dots from her free-spirited upbringing in the woods of Minnesota to racing in the bright spotlights of the Olympics. Going far beyond stories of races and ribbons, she describes the challenges and frustrations of becoming a serious athlete; learning how to push through and beyond physical and psychological limits; and the intense pressure of competing at the highest levels. She openly shares her harrowing struggle with bulimia, recounting both the adversity and how she healed from it in order to bring hope and understanding to others experiencing eating disorders. Between thrilling accounts of moments of triumph, Diggins shows the determination it takes to get there-the struggles and disappointments, the fun and the hard work, and the importance of listening to that small, fierce voice: I can do it. I am brave enough.

Peter Sagal, the host of NPR's Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! and a popular columnist for Runner's World, shares "commentary and reflection about running with a deeply felt personal story, this book is winning, smart, honest, and affecting. Whether you are a runner or not, it will move you" (Susan Orlean). On the verge of turning forty, Peter Sagal-brainiac Harvard grad, short bald Jew with a disposition towards heft, and a sedentary star of public radio-started running seriously. And much to his own surprise, he kept going, faster and further, running fourteen marathons and logging tens of thousands of miles on roads, sidewalks, paths, and trails all over the United States and the world, including the 2013 Boston Marathon, where he crossed the finish line moments before the bombings. In The Incomplete Book of Running, Sagal reflects on the trails, tracks, and routes he's traveled, from the humorous absurdity of running charity races in his underwear-in St. Louis, in February-or attempting to "quiet his colon" on runs around his neighborhood-to the experience of running as a guide to visually impaired runners, and the triumphant post-bombing running of the Boston Marathon in 2014. With humor and humanity, Sagal also writes about the emotional experience of running, body image, the similarities between endurance sports and sadomasochism, the legacy of running as passed down from parent to child, and the odd but extraordinary bonds created between strangers and friends. The result is "a brilliant book about running...What Peter runs toward is strength, understanding, endurance, acceptance, faith, hope, and charity" (P.J. O'Rourke).

With an introduction by Salman Rushdie and an afterword by the author. It was the night of February 25, 1964. A cloud of cigar smoke drifted through the ring lights. Cassius Clay threw punches into the gray floating haze and waited for the bell. When Cassius Clay burst onto the sports scene in the 1950s, he broke the mould. He changed the world of sports and went on to change the world itself: from his early fights as Cassius Clay, the young, wiry man from Louisville, unwilling to play the noble and grateful warrior in a white world, to becoming Muhammad Ali, the voice of black America and the most recognized face on the planet. King of the World is the story of an incredible rise to power, a book of battles fought inside the ring and out. With grace and power, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer David Remnick tells of a transcendent athlete and entertainer, a rapper before rap was born. Ali was a mirror of his era, a dynamic figure in the racial and cultural clashes of his time and King of the World is a classic piece of non-fiction and a book worthy of America's most dynamic modern hero.

THE MOST SUCCESSFUL CAPTAIN IN WORLD RUGBY HISTORY, IN HIS OWN WORDS Richie McCaw, Rugby World Cup winning captain and the New Zealand All Black's most capped player of all time, is unquestionably the greatest player of his generation. He is arguably the most talented player of all time. In his bestselling autobiography, McCaw talks with brutal honesty about the roots of his family life that defined his character and how it gave him the strength to emerge from the lowest moment in his career to lift the Webb Ellis Cup, and become the most successful captain world rugby has ever seen. As the first captain to successfully defend the World Cup, McCaw has set the standard of what a professional rugby player should be. Hugely popular and respected, his sheer presence means that he is a natural leader both on and off the pitch and his story is not just a brutal account of life on the front line, but an exhilarating portrait of modern rugby.

Boxing Day 1962: Sunderland's star striker Brian Clough suffers a career-ending knee injury when he collides with an outrushing goalkeeper. After a forlorn battle to regain fitness, he retires early and sinks into deep despair. October 1965: Clough persuades ex-'Boro teammate Peter Taylor to join him in managing perennial North-East strugglers Hartlepools United, lying next to bottom of the Fourth Division. A magical football odyssey has begun. Alchemy reveals the bittersweet reality of Brian Clough and Peter Taylor's first management job together. Lower-league Hartlepools United are penniless, with a meddling chairman, a ramshackle ground and want-away players. Yet the management pair tackle every challenge head-on, forging a winning blueprint that later transforms unfashionable Derby County and Nottingham Forest into League and European Cup champions. Exploiting a wealth of archive newspapers, plus interviews with those present at the creation, Alchemy exposes the humble origins of Clough & Taylor's meteoric rise to the top of the football tree.

55 Olympic medals. 6 Tour de France victories. Countless world records and world championship victories. Since the year 2000, British Cycling, Team Sky and INEOS have dominated the sport of cycling to an unprecedented degree. But at what cost? Did Sir David Brailsford, Peter Keen and the other brains behind British Cycling's massive and sudden dominance in the modern era find a winning "Moneyball" formula? Or did their success come down to luck and personal chemistry? Did this organisation, founded on relentless, ruthless efficiency contain contradictions which threatened to overwhelm it, amid accusations of drug-taking, bullying and sexism? The Medal Factory tells the full story from amateurish beginnings through a sports-science revolution to an all-conquering, yet flawed, machine. Through interviews with Brailsford and Keen, Shane Sutton, Fran Millar, Chris Boardman, Sir Chris Hoy and many other key players, Kenny Pryde interrogates the parts of the story - lottery funding, marginal gains - that we think we know, and reveals others that have remained hidden, until now.

An electrifying look inside the wild world of extreme distance running.

Once the reserve of only the most hardcore enthusiasts, ultra running is now a thriving global industry, with hundreds of thousands of competitors each year. But is the rise of this most brutal and challenging sport—with races that extend into hundreds of miles, often in extreme environments—an antidote to modern life, or a symptom of a modern illness?

In The Rise of the Ultra Runners, award-winning author Adharanand Finn travels to the heart of the sport to investigate the reasons behind its rise and discover what it takes to join the ranks of these ultra athletes. Through encounters with the extreme and colorful characters of the ultramarathon world, and his own experiences of running ultras everywhere from the deserts of Oman to the Rocky Mountains, Finn offers a fascinating account of people testing the boundaries of human endeavor.

All Together Now is one of the great sports stories. It's about a group of football fans who were determined to right a wrong. The authorities said they shouldn't try. People in football said it couldn't be done. Robbed of their beloved club, Wimbledon FC, they started again. They had absolutely nothing - no experience of running a club, no players, no manager, nowhere to play. But within nine years they re-formed their team as AFC Wimbledon, rebuilt its community work, won six promotions and fought their way back into the top tiers of the game. En route, they broke records, changed the rules of football and were the subject of Prime Minister's Questions. And now they're back in their spiritual home, Wimbledon, in a brand new stadium. For most of this time Erik Samuelson was finance director and then CEO of the club. He tells the extraordinary inside story of how the most undervalued people in football - the fans - defied the odds to take their club back to the Football League and return home.

A few miles from New Orleans, at LaSalle's Landing - in what is now the city of Kenner - stands a life-size bronze statue of two men in combat. One of them is the legendary Gypsy Jem Mace, the first Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the World and the last of the great bare-knuckle fighters. This is the story of Jem Mace's life. Born in Norfolk in 1931, between his first recorded fight, in October 1855, and his last - at the age of nearly 60 - he became the greatest fighter the world has ever known. But "Gypsy" Jem Mace was far more than a champion boxer: he played the fiddle in street processions in war-wrecked New Orleans; was friends with Wyatt Earp - survivor of the gunfight at the OK Corral (who refereed one of his fights), the author Charles Dickens; controversial actress Adah Mencken (he and Dickens were rivals for her affection); and the great and the good of New York and London high society; he fathered numerous children (the author is his great-great-grandson), and had countless lovers, resulting in many marriages and divorces.Gypsy Jem Mace is not simply a book about boxing, but more a narrative quest to uncover the life of a famous but forgotten ancestor, who died in poverty in 1910. This is a story that deserves to be told, one that will resonate with anyone, young or old, man or woman, who has ever sought to do something special before the light of life starts to dim.

Sir Robin Knox-Johnston burst to fame when he became the first man ever to complete a single-handed, non-stop circumnavigation of the world. Now, 50 years on from that famous voyage, he reveals the true, extraordinary story of his life. After leaving school, he immediately joined the Royal Naval Reserve before serving in the merchant navy and travelling the world. During that time, he spied for the British government in the Gulf, worked in the South African dockyards, and built his boat Suhaili in Bombay, before sailing home to England. In June 1968, he set sail in Suhaili in the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race, and Running Free vividly brings to life that remarkable voyage, where he was the only person to finish the race, completing his journey on 22 April 1969 and thus entering the record books. Once back home, he set up a hugely successful business and continued his naval adventures, completing a second solo circumnavigation of the globe in 2007 - at 68, he became the oldest to complete this feat. Knox-Johnston's insatiable appetite for life and adventure shines through these pages, making this book a must for all sailing enthusiasts, readers of books by Ranulph Fiennes and Chris Bonington, or for anyone who has felt that the time for putting up your feet can always be put back to another day.

An unforgettable look at a lifetime of baseball packed with humor and passion for the game. With a career that has now touched eight decades, Jim Kaat has had a prime front row seat for baseball's continuing evolution. Not only was he a major-league pitcher for 25 seasons, but his time as a pitching coach and his many years as a broadcaster have given him a singular long view of the game. In Good as Gold, Kaat weaves the tale of a lifetime, taking fans on the field, into the clubhouse, and behind the mic as only he can. Full of priceless stories from New York, Minnesota, and across the major leagues, this honest and engaging autobiography gives fans a rare seat alongside Kaat on a tour of baseball history.

Grundman presents readers with a portrait, the first of its kind, of Dolph Schayes - the star of the Syracuse Nationals basketball team during the 1950s and 1960s. Schayes may not have one of the most recognizable names in basketball history, but his accomplishments are staggering. He was named one of the fifty greatest players of all time by the NBA, and he held six NBA records, including one for career scoring, at his retirement. Grundman chronicles Schayes's life from his early days as the child of Jewish Romanian immigrants, through his illustrious basketball career, first at New York University, then as part of the Syracuse Nationals. In writing about Schayes's career, Grundman also reflects on many of the revolutionary changes that were happening in the professional basketball world, changes that affected not only Schayes and his contemporaries but also the essence of the sport.

From his time as Captain of England's cricket team to his pioneering work as Bishop of Liverpool, David Sheppard led a remarkable life. Now his story is told in full for the first time in this fascinating and insightful biography. Batting for the Poor draws on the papers left by Sheppard in the Liverpool Central Library as well as other archival material and more than 150 interviews conducted by Andrew Bradstock, all brought together to create a picture of a diligent and passionate man who helped break down divisions and turn Liverpool's fortunes around. Batting for the Poor is a vivid, entertaining biography that will be enjoyed by cricket fans, those interested in twentieth century history or the history of Liverpool and those interested in man that inspired so many as the Bishop of Liverpool. You will discover the story of an exceptional leader, and learn about the history of some of the divisions and struggles in the second half of the twentieth century that still impact society and culture in England today.

A warm and invigorating memoir about a daughter's love for her father and her appreciation for how he and others changed the game of football forever. Gene Washington's football career ended long before his daughter Maya was born. She never saw the legendary powerhouse as anything but her dad. She didn't yet grasp the impact he'd had on the sport-and on America. To understand his historic role in the integration of college football, witness his influence on generations that followed, and fully appreciate his legacy, Maya had a lot of catching up to do. Maya retraces her father's journey from the segregated south to Michigan State during the peak of the Civil Rights Movement and his journey as an NFL pioneer after the 1967 draft. She reflects on how her father's childhood-and the racism he faced-shaped her upbringing and influenced his expectations of her. She also discovers how unbreakable the emotional bond between teammates can be. But above all, Maya and her father get to know each other. As their own bond deepens, so does Maya's connection to the sport that changed the trajectory of her father's life...and hers.