2016 Rio Summer Olympic Games: What Books do these 12 Olympians Like to Read?

What books did these Olympians pack in their suitcase, plus a few book-related tidbits about those we will be cheering for in the next two weeks!

By Brenda Barrera

Summer reading. What images does this conjure: curling up on a chair overlooking a tranquil lake, checking off the titles on the list your teacher handed out in May, or slipping a paperback best-seller into your carry-on bag as you travel across the country? Your answers are likely shared by some of the women representing Team USA at the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.  I enjoy reading get-to-know-this-athlete-better profiles. I believe it helps to build a fan base when we discover what inspires an athlete or motivates them to muscle through tough competition. It’s also nice to learn about a shared passion like the joy of reading a good book.

Archery – Mackenzie Brown

The recent popularity of this sport can be credited to the books and film, The Hunger Games. Here’s what Brown had to say about the popular series: “I was a fan of THE HUNGER GAMES because I read the books. It’s cool for people to see my name as the girl on fire and also get an interest in archery, even if it is from 'The Hunger Games.' Any interest in archery is good for our sport.”

Source: http://www.teamusa.org

Cycling – Sarah Hammer (track)

Hammer is a two-time Olympic silver medalist and World Champion in track cycling. In 2003, she quit the sport but returned a year later with renewed purpose and what a mark she has made since then. Her bio says she is an avid reader as does her profile in Classroom Champions. 

Favorite things to do off the bike:

1. Take my German Shepherd Dolça for walks

2. Read a good book

3. Go out to nice dinners with my husband

4. Travel

5. Drink coffee

Source: http://teamtwenty16.com

Source: www.classroomchampions.org

Diving – Kassidy Cook

According to her TeamUSA profile, Cook “enjoys cooking and reading.” She must know the Harry Potter books inside and out because she claims she can recite any of the Harry Potter spells. Hmmm, which ones do you think she would use in Rio . . . rictusempra, orchideous, riddikulus?

Source: www.teamusa.org

Gymnastics – Laurie Hernandez

Get ready for a lot of TV coverage on this 16-year-old gymnastics phenom who still manages to make time for fun by learning dances from YouTube and she also likes to read. THE MAZE RUNNER is her favorite book and she also likes to write poetry.

Source: www.nbcolympics.com

Judo – Kayla Harrison

Kayla was the first U.S. athlete to win a gold medal in judo at the London 2012 Olympic Games. Can she repeat? In addition to her inspirational accomplishments on the judo mat, Harrison is a survivor of sexual abuse and is writing not one, but two books: a memoir and one with her foundation, Fearless Foundation.

Source: http://parade.com

Rowing – Megan Kalmoe (Quadruple Sculls)

Kalmoe is a now a three-time Olympic rower and 2012 bronze medalist who also enjoys reading and writing. Her blog is well-known in the rowing community, and she recently wrote an entry, “Stop Trying to Ruin theOlympics For Us” which has generated quite a few comments. Kalmoe states she wants to travel and begin to write a book when her profession as a rower ends.

Source: www.nbcchicago.com

Shooting – Kim Rhode (skeet)

Rhode was ten years old when she discovered the sport of skeet shooting and was a world champion at age 13! According to a profile in US Magazine she collects first edition children’s books, and her bookshelves must be pretty darn full – she has about 2,000 books!

Source: www.usmagazine.com

Soccer – Carli Lloyd

According to her website, Lloyd’s best soccer moment was winning the 2015 World Cup and scoring a hat trick in the final. I have a feeling her best writing moment will be coming up shortly. Lloyd will be joining other soccer superstars like Michelle Akers, Mia Hamm, Alex Morgan, Hope Solo, and Abby Wambach who have written memoirs. Her forthcoming memoir, WHEN NOBODY WAS WATCHING, is due this fall.

Source: www.carlilloyd.com/book

Swimming – Missy Franklin

Curious about Franklin’s reading habits? Well here’s the scoop on her Rio reading list per Travel and Leisure Magazine. “I’m a huge reader,” says Franklin. “A few days before a trip, I have a great time researching what everyone is reading and picking the books for my flight.” Her books include: AFTER YOU by JoJo Moyes, COURT OF MIST AND FURY by Sarah J. Maas, ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE by Anthony Doerr, and KISSES FROM KATIE by Katie Davis.

Source: www.travelandleisure.com

Tennis – Serena Williams

Williams is now a four-time Olympian who has won gold in both singles (2012) and doubles (2000, 2008, 2012). Reading is listed among her hobbies and her favorite author is Maya Angelou.  I found this fun YouTube video, “73 Questions with Serena Williams | Vogue” and one question was: “What’s one book that made a lasting impression on you?” Her answer: LEAN IN by Sheryl Sandberg.  Also, according to USA Today, she arrived in Rio and had a Harry Potter book with her for the flight.

Source: www.youtube.com

Source: www.usatoday.com

Track & Field – Brianna Rollins (100m hurdles)

In her family, Rollins is the oldest with six younger brothers, so it’s hard to imagine how anyone would have been able to find a quiet corner to read while growing up. Rollins, a three-time NCAA Champion, will be making her Olympic debut in Rio says she stays focused by reading self-help books — they keep her positive.

Source: http://news.nike.com

Track & Field – Abbey D’Agostino (5000m)

D’Agostino, who ran for Dartmouth, is one of the most decorated athletes in Ivy League history. FloTrack did a great interview question asking her who she would have dinner with (living or dead) and why? One of her picks included: “Don Miller (the author of my favorite book, BLUE LIKE JAZZ) because his story touched the core of me during a challenging time in my life. It’s raw, honest, and incredibly profound…”

Source: www.flotrack.org

Of course, the book you know they would all like to read is an Olympic record book with their name and outstanding 2016 Olympic performance recorded. Cheers to all competing this summer in Rio!

Sporty Girl Interview with Rowing Coach Holly Fling Austin

A great big Sporty Girl Books welcome to Holly Fling Austin who is the founder and coach at Ready Set Row Summer Development Camp. Holly and I (Anna) met at a coaches training program at the US Rowing Association's Annual Conference, and I was so glad we did. She and I share a similar philosophy that prioritizes process over outcome. Our Sporty Girl Books audience is diverse. Readers may be interested in athletic opportunities for themselves or their children, and writers might appreciate Holly's coach's voice and an inside view of an elite training program. Enjoy!

In the world of junior sports, prioritizing process over outcome can be contentious. I've had parents push to get a kid racing before an athlete was ready and complain about a lack of competitive opportunities. How has your Ready Set Row (RSR) philosophy been embraced by parents?

I explain to all of my athletes and their parents my coaching philosophy:  Build young leaders who Seek challenge, Embrace work and Expect discomfort. It’s our RSR Lifestyle Framework: “SEE Life Clearly.” We build safe environments for our athletes where we redefine failure and push them to risk again and again, each time getting stronger and more confident in practice not just in competitions. 

Our framework is such a critical and immediately apparent life-skill that parents see the big picture and stop focusing on micro-details. We ask our athletes “Why do you row?” “To win races.” “Why do you want to win races?” “I want the medal and I want to beat people.” “Why do you want to beat people?” Ultimately they realize that they train and compete in this challenging sport because it allows them to push, fail and try again and test their limits on a daily basis. It’s not really whether you win a medal – after all, the medal is just a function of who showed up to race day. You can have a gold medal, but know that you did not race your best race. And you can finish a race last in your heat and feel confident you gave it your all.

The sense of accomplishment everyone desires, is when you know in your heart that you prepared, trained for and executed your race to the best of your ability – the hardware is secondary. You are so proud of your performance and all the work that you did leading up to that performance that you want to shake the hand of anyone who beats you, because you know how hard she had to have worked to go that fast. That is my goal.

In addition, I think it’s a disservice to think that the “competition” only comes on race day. We are training our athletes to fight and compete every day so that when the real race comes, they have already seen their limits and they know what they are capable of. If you are living this philosophy day-to-day, then competitive scenarios are your requirement and racing is just the icing on the cake.  

Coach Holly rowing with the Radcliffe Varsity 2000.

As a writer, I love that the athletes in your RSR program keep journals. Tell me more about the purpose and benefits of journaling while you train.

Our athletes will use their journal every day to record metrics such as sleep, fuel, hydration as well as their physical performances. This allows them to take more ownership and be accountable. It’s important that they start to take care of their bodies and start to look for performance trends. What was the workout and how did you feel? Does this food make me sleepy after I eat it? How is my performance if I sleep 45 more minutes each night? All of this is important; we are asking a lot of their bodies and most junior athletes do not think about what they put in their mouth as the fuel for the machine and they do not correlate rest and recovery with performance and risk of injury. RSR Coaches will be looking at these journals regularly to ensure athletes are recording the information and learning how to increase boat speed through personal care and nutrition.

Our athletes will also be doing daily RSR Self-Reflections. We will be asking the athletes challenging questions both about them as athletes but also as young women who will be growing into themselves and leadership positions. We will be pushing them and asking them “What do you want? And what are you willing to do to get there.” We will help them explore what type of athlete they are and what that means. We will help them answer the question “Do you really want to row in college? Because if you do, this is what that really looks like.” Athletes may have written assignments to do on their own to turn in for review or we will all write together. Athletes will work on their public speaking as they are asked to present some of their RSR Self Reflections and they will be pushed out of their comfort zone.

There is often a story line we see in books about sporty girls that pits one female athlete against another. I've experienced the mean girl more than once. How do you use mentoring in your program to develop supportive communities for athletes to reach their goals?

First, the coaches have to create the right environment and I personally work with every athlete I coach. I tell parents that my coaching style is 60% Dictator, 20% Partner and 20% Goof Ball. I will be very clear about the standards we hold our athletes to, but I will also need the athlete to work with me to constantly improve. Finally, you have to have fun in this sport. It’s too hard not to.

Once I create our environment through that type of leadership, I believe a great coach does coach athletes differently. You never compromise your standards, but you are constantly watching each athlete to identify triggers and develop specific and unique motivational techniques. Once each athlete realizes that she is a valued and unique member of the team it allows her to focus on herself and her own performance.

We are clear with our athletes that judging a peer is unacceptable and can actually be detrimental to team chemistry – that’s my job. It is however, the job of each athlete to go as fast as she can go every stroke of every day and to use her teammates to get faster. We create a competitive environment where the athletes understand that to be the best you can be, you have to test your limits every day. And the only way you can do that is if someone else is pushing you.

We cultivate that type of competition among our athletes with the understanding that to race your teammate is the best thing you can do for her since you are preparing her for battle. This competitive environment can become charged and emotional, but we are clear to our athletes that one’s physical performance has nothing to do with an athlete’s character or value as a human being. It is an indication of where she can improve. This is a critical component of a fast team that trusts each member is doing everything she can possibly do to put her bow out in front. 

Holly was the Harvard/Radcliffe Assistant Coach for the 2003 NCAA Division I Champions and Eastern Sprints Champions. 

This is eating disorders awareness week (Feb 21-27). In rowing, weight can be an issue-- making weight for lightweight boat classes and the desire for smaller coxswains. How do you stress the "heart of a fighter" over body type?

I am a perfect example – 5’6 and rowed in the Varsity Heavyweight 8+ for three years at Harvard. It doesn’t happen often, but what I stress to my athletes is that the drive, the fire, the kill switch inside an athlete is the most critical component. And it cannot be taught. If someone doesn’t want to race, I can’t teach her how to do that. If you give me a fighter I will teach her the technique, the training, the strength building exercises that are needed to make her the fastest rower she can be. And that’s all you can ask of someone. Obviously the taller you are the more leverage you have, but I know plenty of tall women who are not racers. I will always take a racer in my boat any day – no matter her size.

Holly in seven seat (second rower from left) in 2001 at NCAA, the stroke (rower farthest left) is Caryn Davies. Caryn Davies was the stroke of the USW8+ that won gold at the 2012 and 2008 Olympics and rowed in the 2004 USW8+ that won silver in Athens. 

So much of what I've learned from sports and rowing specifically-- is leadership. Talk more about your phrase "training the brain."

The brain is a muscle. You have to train it to make it stronger. And if you stop training it, it atrophies just like any other muscle.

Additionally, rowing is an offensive sport- there is no defense. You blast off the line and have your best race you can have. You cannot actively slow another boat down. The same is true for mental toughness and grit. The more you train your brain to be on offense, the less your brain has to be on defense. And any rower can tell you, if you start thinking about “I can’t do it, I can’t go on, It’s over,” it IS over.

You have to develop your positive truths and your mantras that you know in your heart are true. You will then use these truths in a race plan when you are going to ask your body to do the seemingly impossible. In my experience, negative thoughts during a race or a maximum effort piece creep into your head when there is a void. If you let your brain start to think about what your body feels and you have not developed a positive image or phrase to focus on, you will usually go slower.

I work with each athlete to develop her Truths – the qualities about herself that she knows are true so that we can call upon those strengths when we put our bodies to the test.

Current Ready Set Row athletes learning the back squat.

Your Ready Set Row summer camp program takes place at St. Andrews, the school where the movie Dead Poet's Society was filmed. This is a book blog so I have to ask... is poetry or other literature part of your training program?

Actually, we have a suggested reading list for our athletes and one of their On-Site Reflections during the camp is Racing Poetry. And as I said before, athletes and coaches will all be asked to write autobiographical stories and share them amongst the team.

St. Andrew's School Middletown, DE

What are some of the books on your bedside table right now?

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success – Carol Dwek

Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court – Wooden and Jamison

And

Teach Your Children Well: Why Values and Coping Skills Matter More than Grades, Trophies or “Fat Envelopes” – Madeline Levine  (I have a 3 year old and a 1 year old too!)

Okay. Speed round:

Pizza or sushi? Pizza.

Bike or run? Depends how long – I love a good long road ride.

Ebook or paper copy? Paper definitely.

Dance to loud music or talk with friends? Depends. I learn things everyday from the people I surround myself with and lucky for me they are some great dancers!

If you could be any animal what would it be and why? Wombat. Lovable, furry, intelligent, resilient, compassionate but ferociously defends her family. Do you know how? The way a Mama Wombat protects her nest is awesome. Wombats live in their burrows so if a Tasmanian devil or another predator comes down into her burrow to eat the babies, the Mama keeps her head towards the babies and her rump towards the predator. If the predator tries to get around her, she will crouch down to allow the predator to put his head on top of her rump and then she will stand up and crush the predator’s skull against the roof of the tunnel. You don’t want to mess with that mama. Totally awesome.

I did not know that! Well if anyone is a sporty girl not to be messed with it's Holly Fling Austin. Thanks for the interview!

The Wonderful World of Coaching

Junior Rowers help with boatyard clean up.

This spring I started coaching, and I have loved every minute of it. I rowed in high school and then picked up the sport again as an adult. I became a "captain" for our small community club with which came safety responsibilities. Later, I took on the task of program coordinator. For the last two years I've been scheduling coaches to teach adult classes for the club. At the same time I've been writing and revising (and revising, and revising) a Young Adult novel about a rower and her coach. The research for the novel allowed me to delve deeper into coaching theories. The more I learned the more I wanted to coach. 

I developed a spring junior rowing curriculum and piloted the program for 25 girls this year. Many of the girls were hooked and we continued to row throughout the summer. After one of their first long power pieces I called through the megaphone, "How you doing? Getting blisters?" 

The rower in two seat waved with a bright smile. "I've got two! It's like Christmas over here!"

With school starting I expected academics and other more traditional sports to take precedence but these girls wouldn't quit. (An crucial quality for a rower.) 

As I've coached them, the TV, movie, and yes, YA plot of the mean, conniving, and ultra competitive teen girl has been squashed.  My rowers are kind and supportive. I give them space to help make choices and they rise to the occasion every time. Yesterday we had three people show up for four or two spaces. I had them chose who would row when and they came up with fair solution.

Perhaps the kindness I've witnessed in my rowers stems from the fact that we are not a competitive crew. At this point my focus has been on teaching the technical and safety aspects of the sport. There was never any try out, no seat race, no first and second boats. I believe deeply that coaches can build self-esteem in their young rowers by waiting to race them until such time that the rowers will experience success. By success, I do not mean that they win a race. Instead, I mean that at the end of a race a rower should be able to feel that they have given all they can for themselves and their crew. A crew that is unstable in their technique or safety is often too filled with anxiety to enjoy the competition. This anxiety can lead to anger and to rowers blaming their coxswain or each other at the end of a bad row.

On the water yesterday, there was wind and little waves licked the hull of the double. My rowers were learning the basics of sculling (two oars) for the first time. Despite the tippy boat and the disequilibrium that comes with a new learning situation, all I saw were smiles and concentration. 

Back on shore we reviewed the schedule for the next practice which would be a week later and after school, but they wanted more. They wanted to row before school too. "How about 5am they asked?" My jaw dropped. I'm an early bird but five is not my favorite hour.  We settled on 5:30 and I know that I'll happily get out of bed to coach them.

The author in three seat.

Sporty Girl March Roundup

It is officially spring, and I've been told that there are some people who actually have warm temps and flowers. Here in Maine, I'm looking out on ever-present mounds of snow and listening to Siri telling me how it "feels like" ten degrees. Nope. Not jealous at all. With spring comes spring sports, and spring training and amazing photos of people getting out and about. So let's get right to it!

March is Women's History Month and this year was the 35th anniversary of the celebration with the theme "Weaving the Stories of Women's Lives." You can read more about the women honored by the National Women's History Project here. 

In the world of sports there are many storytellers. The talking heads who grace our TV screens, give us the play by play, and profile athletes are often men but there are some wonderful standout female reporters on the beat. Mary Carillo is one of my favorites. 

A correspondent for NBC Olympics and a tennis analyst since the 1980's, Ms. Carillo was a was champion doubles star herself garnering wins at the French Open, the US Open and the US Clay Court Championships. 

From her NBC bio:

"Carillo has received two coveted Peabody Awards, one of television’s highest honors, one for work on the HBO documentary Billie Jean King, Portrait of a Pioneer and the other for co-writing with Frank DeFord the HBO documentary Dare to Compete: The Struggle of Women in Sport. Carillo was named “Best Commentator” by Tennis Magazine (1988-91), “Best Commentator” by World Tennis Magazine (1986) and “Broadcaster of the Year” by the WTA (1981 and 1985). She has co-written two books—Tennis My Way with Martina Navratilova and Rick Elstein’s Tennis Kinetics."

We at Sporty Girl Books seek to honor the stories of women and girls in sports and March has been an exciting month for that.

March 8th was International Women's Day and World Rowing put out the following challenge for photos on Twitter. If you'd like to see more, search for #womeninrowing on your twitter feed!

World Rowing Celebrates #womeninmotion for International Women's Day - tweet your photos using #womeninrowing pic.twitter.com/HlidXfCJCz
— World Rowing (@WorldRowing) February 24, 2015

From NPR's "Only A Game" broadcast comes this article about JV baseball player, Sydney Dore. Sydney Dore is a 14 year old at McKeel Academy of Technology, a charter middle and high school in Lakeland, FL who showed up at Red Sox spring training to thank her inspiration Dustin Pedroia. My fave quote is from coach, Lorne Wheatcraft. "She tried out and there was no way I could say, 'You are not good enough to be on this team.' There was just no possible way to do that." Of course this is just another in a wonderful long line of girls who are being allowed to play baseball. We happily covered Mo'ne Davis and her wonderful showing at the Little League World Series.

I want to note here that we at Sporty Girl Books are also are huge fans of softball. Coaching softball since 1985 is Carol Hutchins, from Michigan. This article about her 1,400th career win comes from the NCAA website. "Michigan head coach Carol Hutchins earned her 1,400th career victory in memorable fashion as the No. 4-ranked Wolverines cruised to a 20-0, five-inning rout over rival Ohio State on Sunday. Hutchins is just the third coach to reach 1,400 wins in NCAA softball history; she is the second winningest active coach." 20-0? Congratulations to Coach Hutchins and the team!

And finally (also from NPR's, Only A Game) is a story about a women's sports team that regularly outdraws many Division I male basketball teams. Utah Gymnastics is the only program that has reached the national championships every year of that event's existence (39). With a pep band, in-between-routine videos and spectator games it has averaged over 10,000 fans for the last 20 years and according to the article had already sold 7,500 season tickets.

In fact, because of scheduling conflicts in Arizona, the 2015 PAC-12 Women's Gymnastics Championship took place last Saturday at the University of Utah where they were the first team to earn back-to-back championships. I'm sure they had plenty of psyched fans! Sadly, one of their leaders and captains, Tory Wilson, suffered an injury and could not finish with the team. Click here for more on that story and enjoy this video of the highlights!

Post by Utah Gymnastics.

Revision Strategies and Sporty Girl Books

This week, I'm going to tell you a little about what goes on behind the scenes in making a Sporty Girl Book. Writing is often a marathon, but I'm in the sprint portion of the revision for my YA work in progress about rowing. This portion of the journey requires a "head in the boat" mentality– keep my eye on the prize, nose to the grindstone, make revising my first priority, work hard no excuses.

The first 75 pages of this novel started as my creative thesis for my MFA degree at Vermont College of Fine Arts (January-June 2011). After graduation I completed a draft, and did a revision that I sent to an initial group of agents (Spring 2012). These agents each had something to say about the work which led me to a third full revision (Winter 2012-2013). A PEN New England Children's Book Discovery Award (Spring 2013) win led me to my fabulous agent, another revision and submissions to wonderful editors (read: declines and feedback-- Fall 2013). The revision that I'm working on now (Summer 2014) is based on an in-depth editorial letter received Spring of 2014.

This morning's post on Pub(lishing)Crawl from Janice Hardy, Dealing with Multiple Drafts, outlines a lot of what I'm doing.

Sometime last month I got completely overwhelmed with all of the threads, plots, time and character changes. I couldn't hold the requirements of the revision and the novel in it's many incarnations in my head any longer. I read through the novel again and created a sticky note for each scene. As I went through I wrote "cut" on some stickies and created some that had a general summary of a new scene I needed to write that said "new."

When were things happening? The editor was concerned about the lack of time markers in the form of regular calendar events that could be subtly added as the year went on. I also needed to be more explicit about what the rowing calendar looked like as not a lot of readers will come to this book with the knowledge about crew. Across the top, I wrote the months in the school year.

The colors of the stickies represented subplots and their important actors and vaguely symbolized place. I realized about halfway through that my original use of light orange for "scenes with the best friend subplot" slowly went away on the chart. But did that character really go away or were there just other players who were more center stage? Turns out that as with many books, the threads started to weave together in a natural way. Good to know. 

At the far left end of this behemoth are the numbers 1-10. As I did the original placement of the stickies, I made an arbitrary decision on the tension rating for the scene. Did an especially steamy or romantic scene really mean more protag/antag, dramatic or plot tension? Hmm... I think I had been confusing the two. I had to be careful.

My biggest issue was the tension leading to the climax. There was a dip at the end between the emotional climax and the plot climax of the book that caused a "spike" feel for the reader. Why was it there? Why weren't the stickies looking more like that gentle slope up plot mountain? Did they have to? Did my book have a different structure and was that okay? (The panorama doesn't show the end but the pic directly above does.)

I needed chocolate. And time... lot's of time.

I use Scrivener and love it. If you do too, you know that what I'm doing is not that different from Scrivener's capabilities, but for me the tactile sticking and moving of scenes both on the timeline and up or down on the tension axis has been helpful. As I change, cut, and add, I'm making those adjustments on my plot chart and will probably end up with a differently shaped story by the end.

Here's another unexpected side-effect of the plot chart: unrolling it before I get to work has become an important part of the preparation for my work sessions. A ceremony of sorts that let's my mind and body know that it is time to work.

If you have any questions for me, leave them in the comments! Until then it's nose to the grindstone, head in the boat, blinders on. :)