Customer Reviews

By a Fraction of a Second

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I first read this book after the 2000 Olympics, and I picked it up again when I saw that several of the swimmers in the book are on the current Olympic team--Natalie Coughlin, Kaitlin Sandeno, Diana Munz, and Lindsay Benko. This book gives a realistic (not a "rah-rah") look at what it takes to be the best. Knowing what these swimmers have had to go through to make the Olympic team makes it all the more interesting to watch them swim.

I'm not a swimmer. I've been a swim official and followed a swimming daughter for over a decade. This book brings the personality of swimmers to the forefront. It's a real page-turner, and you can experience vicariously the chlorine and the struggles that these young women encounter to be elite swimmers.
I recommend this book. As a librarian and a swim parent, I know how hard it is to find books for girls on swimming. This is a great read and gives long overdue attention to the sport. For the novice to the expert, there's material here to inform as well as entertain.

I found this book very inspiring for athletes as well as for coaches. It gives in depth stories about real athletes and what makes them successful, how they deal with defeat and how they live their lives.
I highly recommend this book to any sports fan, especially to people that are passionate about swimming. There are great stories and everyone can learn something about what makes a champion!
This is an outstanding book to read before the 2004 Olympics Games because almost every single athlete listed in the book is still swimming and trying again to make the team. Go USA!

Cyndi Gallagher
Head Coach, UCLA Swimming

This book has no coherent theme or direction (except maybe "Yeah American swimming!") and jumps around constantly, never spending more than a few pages on a single person. It also shamelessly aggrandizes everyone (swimmers and coaches) it talks about, making no effort whatsoever to talk about the failures, suffering and shortcomings that are as much a part of the process of swim training and racing as the medals and Olympic glory. If you want to read a good book about the preparation for and competition leading up to the Olympics, read "Gold in the Water." Maybe this book is trying to do something different than "Gold in the Water" did but if so, I don't know what it is and it didn't do it particularly well.
That said, this book is not a complete waste. It is kind of a cool book to skim with trials and Athens coming up just to remember (or learn) who's who (or who was who in 2000) in American women's swimming, especially since mainstream coverage of swimming is so poor except between July and September of an olympic year. It might also be worth a look if you have a daughter who swims and want to expose her to positive female role models. Don't expect Pulitzer prize writing or any kind of in-depth study of any of the characters though.

This book was very interesting and I loved to read about the young women in USA Swimming! However, it seems like some of the stories may be a little skewed.