Women Who Win: Female Athletes on Being the Best

by Lisa Taggart

Whether it's surfer Jamilah Star riding an unprecedented fifty-foot wave, Olympic marathoner Deena Kastor winning the bronze in 2004, or top-ranked climber Lynn Hill facing down a tough climb at Joshua Tree, one thing is these women have game. What's more, these amazing athletes capture our imagination. How do they do it? What motivates them to win and to become the best in their sport? In Women Who Win , adventure writer Lisa Taggart takes us behind the scenes, deep into the training regimens and the ultimate victories, to see what makes these women—and some of their fellow female athletes—tick. Whether their sport is soccer, cycling, mountain biking, or volleyball, these athletes will inspire you to pursue your dreams, whether it's running a marathon or catching your first wave.

Genres: Sports

208 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2007

About the author

Jennifer D. Munros essays and stories have been widely published in literary journals and women's anthologies. Whether fiction or nonfiction, J.D. offers a candid yet often humorous exploration of sex and the sexes, with a quirky yet earthy take on women's issues such as body image, infertility, gender roles, and marriage. J.D.s published fiction is collected in The Erotica Writers Husband & Other Stories. She is from Hawaii but now lives in Seattle."

Reviews

[Hannah D · Rating 5 out of 5]

Women who win: Female athletes on being the best. This title instantly dragged me in to read this book. This is saying that female athletes are the best and are just as good as male athletes. This is saying that women can be successful athletes and do what the men can do and even better. As a female athlete this is very relatable. My favorite story from this whole novel of female athletes is surfer Jamilah star. She worked her way to surf the 50 foot wave. She beat out all of the male surfers that thought they were better than her. She worked harder than the males and succeeded.
There are many women in this book that are inspirational. They do what they need to succeed and to become the best in their respective sports. These women are so dedicated to their sports and so am I. I want to be just like them. This book is great for not only female athletes but females to read and build the confidence that we can do whatever we put out mind to. This book when into several different female athletes lives and described what they went through. This is a powerful book to read. In Women Who Win, adventure writer Lisa Taggart takes us behind the scenes, deep into the training regimens and the ultimate victories, to see what makes these women are really made up.I highly recommend reading this book. I did not just select this book because of the title but also the idea of talking about female athletes and their journey through sports and also because I am going through that journey right now as well.

[Billy Hart · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author selects "10 best" winners in her opinion from 10 different sports. She stirs enough excitement so the reader (me) seeks a biography written on the athletes the reader believes most interesting. So far I have ordered- "Riding for my life" by Julie Krone and "It's not about the bra" by Brandi Chastain. Author Lisa Taggart provided a great direction for terrific books.

[Katelyn Viducic · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book "Women Who Win: Female Athletes on Being the Best" is a very great book. This book is based on Jamilah Star a surfer, Julie Krone a jockey, Julie Foudy a soccer player, Deena Kastor a runner, Wendy Hilliard a gymnast, Karen Smyers a triathlete, Misty May Treanor a volleyball player, Lynne Cox a distance swimmer, Tamika Catchings a basketball player, and lastly Lynn Hill a rock climber. All of these athletes have something in common they are all women. In addition all of them have very different training ways to make them preform better and have different inspirations. All of these women as well have great victories in there sports to conclude there hard work and dedication to there sport. What's sad is many years ago many women weren't excepted in the sports world. What's crazy is "to think only thirty-six years ago, women were not allowed to run the Boston Marathon" (78). These women are very inspiring because to think when some of these women were growing up women in general couldn't play on their own girls team. They had to be on the boys leagues and teams. In life they all probably experienced jealous and rude people that told them they couldn't do sports. They all followed there dreams and made things happen to achieve success which inspires many young female athletes to do the same. In conclusion everyone should read this book.

[Ogi Ogas · Rating 2 out of 5]

My ratings of books on Goodreads are solely a crude ranking of their utility to me, and not an evaluation of literary merit, entertainment value, social importance, humor, insightfulness, scientific accuracy, creative vigor, suspensefulness of plot, depth of characters, vitality of theme, excitement of climax, satisfaction of ending, or any other combination of dimensions of value which we are expected to boil down through some fabulous alchemy into a single digit.

[Tags Taggart · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am completely biased, but I think this book is touching and inspring. The women in it are amazing, and I'm sad that their stories haven't been told to a wider audience.

[Jennifer Taggart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating subjects, insightful writer.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good stories, definitely worthy of attention, but the writing depending on sports cliches. It told me what to think rather than leading me to think it. Made it weaker.

[Jamijones]

this book inspires me and all females....

[Kelsey Barklund · Rating 5 out of 5]

Notes to self: book that is a composite of multiple short stories/autobiographies of women in sport. As an athlete I can relate to many of the emotions and struggles. I appreciated this book.