2024 Olympic Reads
The 2024 Summer Olympics are here! Here are some Olympic Reads to get you into the sporting spirit this summer.
Olympic Fiction
The games
Jack Morgan has returned to Rio to secure the Olympics. But before the torch is lit, the threats come fast and furious as Jack discovers that someone is trying to sabotage the games. A lethal plan put in motion during the World Cup is set to decimate Rio, and turn the Olympics from a worldwide celebration into a horrifying spectacle.
Fast girls: a novel of the 1936 women’s Olympic team
This novel explores the real life history of female athletes, members of the first integrated women’s Olympic team, and their journeys to the 1936 summer games in Berlin, Nazi Germany. It is a chronicle of three athletes who defied society’s expectations of what women could achieve.
Gold
Cyclists Zoe and Kate are friends and athletic rivals for Olympic gold, while Kate and her husband Jack, also a world-class cyclist, must contend with the recurrence of their young daughter’s leukemia.
Girl runner: a novel
Aganetha Smart defied everyone’s expectations to win a gold medal for Canada in the 1928 Olympics. But now Aganetha Smart is in a nursing home, and nobody realizes that the frail centenarian was once a bold pioneer. When two young strangers appear asking to interview Aganetha for their film about female athletes, she readily agrees. As the pieces of her life take shape, it becomes clear that these filmmakers may not be who they seem. . . .
You will know me: a novel
How far will you go to achieve a dream? That’s the question a celebrated coach poses to Katie and Eric Knox after he sees their daughter Devon, a gymnastics prodigy and Olympic hopeful, compete. For the Knoxes there are no limits — until a violent death rocks their close-knit gymnastics community and everything they have worked so hard for is suddenly at risk.
The Graham effect: a novel
Gigi Graham has exactly three goals: qualify for the women’s national hockey team, win Olympic gold, and step out of her famous father’s shadow. So far, so good, except for two little things. She needs to improve her game behind the net, and she needs help from Luke Ryder. The only potential snag? This bone-deep, body-numbing, mind-spinning chemistry they’re trying to ignore. It’s a dangerous game they’re playing, but the risks just might be worth it.
The happiest girl in the world: a novel
From the acclaimed author of Mercy House comes a gripping new novel about a young woman’s dreams of Olympic gymnastic gold–and what it takes to reach the top. The Happiest Girl in the World explores the dark history behind an athlete who stands on the world stage, biting gold. It’s about the silence required of the exceptional, a tarnished friendship, and the sacrifices a parent will make for a child, even as a family is torn apart. It’s about the price of greatness.
Winners
Lily Thomas is an aspiring ski champion training for the Olympics, a young woman with her heart set on winning the gold. But in one moment, Lily’s future is changed forever, her hopes for the Olympics swept away in a tragic accident. From the ashes of their lives, six people fight to alter the course of destiny and refuse to be defeated.
Olympic Biographies
Just add water: my swimming life
A candid and inspiring memoir from Olympic gold medalist, world champion, and one of the best swimmers ever to compete: Katie Ledecky.
One jump at a time
The three-time World Champion, Olympic gold medalist, and the first Asian American man to stand at the highest podium in figure skating reflects on the events that led him to where he is today, in this testament to the love of family and the power of persistence, grit, and passion.
Unstoppable!
Maggie Nichols’s official memoir is an inspirational tell-all about the abuse she suffered under the US national gymnastics team and how she managed to redefine herself in the face of adversity. With an introduction from Simone Biles.
Path lit by lightning: the life of Jim Thorpe
A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist presents a biography of America’s greatest all-around athlete and Olympic gold medal winner who survived racism, alcohol addiction, broken marriages, and financial distress to become a myth and a legend.
My greatest save
Briana Scurry was a pioneer on the US Women’s National Team. She won gold in Atlanta in 1996, the first time women’s soccer was ever played in the Olympics. She was a key part of the fabled “99ers,” making an epic save in the decisive penalty-kick shootout in the final. A memoir of startling candor, My Greatest Save is a story of triumph, tragedy, and redemption from a woman who has broken through barriers her entire life.
Coach K: the rise and reign of Mike Krzyzewski
The definitive biography of college basketball’s all-time winningest coach, Mike Krzyzewski. Mike Krzyzewski, known worldwide as “Coach K,” is a five-time national champion at Duke, the NCAA’s all-time leader in victories with nearly 1,200, and the first man to lead Team USA to three Olympic basketball gold medals.
Unguarded
An unflinching memoir from the six-time NBA Champion, two-time Olympic gold medalist, and Hall of Famer, revealing how Scottie Pippen, the youngest of twelve, overcame two family tragedies and universal disregard by college scouts to become an essential component of the greatest basketball dynasty of the last fifty years.
Bravey: chasing dreams, befriending pain, and other big ideas
Alexi Pappas is not only an Olympic runner, actress, filmmaker, she is a writer whose heartwarming and life-affirming memoir will inspire young readers, as she shares the touchstone moments in her life that helped her learn about confidence and self-reliance, compassion and forgiveness, and loss and hope, in this accessible and motivating memoir.
