Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #632588 in Books
• Published on: 1999-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Amazon.com Review
Both a gathering and a celebration, Nike brings together some of the best women writers on sports to chronicle, sport by sport, the struggles and the politics that permeate the arena, and the achievements of the achievers who've broken through to rise above. "The story of women in sports," writes former Stanford basketball star Mariah Burton Nelson in the introduction, "is a personal story, because nothing is more personal than a woman's bone, sinew, sweat and desire, and a political story, because nothing is more powerful than a woman's struggle to be free."

Sport by sport, the history of women in sports unfolds in sweeping, breezy narratives: Shelley Smith on basketball, Grace Lichtenstein on tennis, Malanie Hauser on golf, Amy Nutt on baseball, Karen Karbo on swimming, Kathleen McElroy on track and field--and the list goes on. And, of course, heroes emerge: Babe Didrikson Zaharias, Althea Gibson, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Gertrude Ederle, Billie Jean King, and scores of others who've slipped through memory's net and are finally rescued here.

Clearly assembled to inspire, Nike indeed does. But it also instructs. "This book shows what women can do when they work hard, when they team up, when they hurdle the barriers that are placed in front of them," writes Nelson. "It's about them, but it's also about us. By revealing their past, it points the way toward our future." And in Nike, so much of what's revealed borders on revelation. --Jeff Silverman

From Publishers Weekly
The pithy title promises a more powerful punch than is actually delivered in this collection of longwinded essays by women sportswriters on women's successes and struggles in 13 different sports. With the current wave of interest in female athletes this book is intended to provide comprehensive coverage of the topic: "Compared to the relentless daily barrage of information about male athletes, news about women's accomplishments is still strangely sketchy and distorted," writes Nelson. But most of the essays, in giving detailed historical overviews of the key figures and events in each sport, lack focus and read like chapters of a textbook, only not as well organized. The exceptions are Grace Lichtenstein's examination of great tennis rivalries, and Michelle Kaufman's eloquent analysis of figure skating. Beyond these, the interesting stories?such as Anita DeFrantz, the rower who led would-be Olympians in the fight against Jimmy Carter's 1980 boycott?are lost among endless anecdotes and dry statistics. If it's the facts you're after, skip to the back of the book, where a timeline from 776 B.C. to the present tells more about women in sports.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
This dynamic anthology documents the athletic achievements of female athletes during the late-nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Separate chapters written by noted sports journalists (Grace Lichtenstein, Michelle Kaufman, Karen Karbo) cover such disciplines as basketball, soccer, baseball, swimming, horseback riding, tennis, golf, and hockey, among others. Athletic pioneers and superstars are given their due in articles that trace the historical and cultural significance of such memorable events as Billie Jean King's triumphant tennis match with Bobby Riggs, Florence Griffith Joyner's record-breaking four medals at the 1988 Olympics, and ice skater Tonya Harding's fall from grace. The impact of Olympians Babe Didriksen Zaharias ("greatest all around female athlete"), Wilma Rudolph, Joan Benoit Samuelson, Nadia Comaneci, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Suzy Chaffee, and others are placed in historical context. Immensely readable, this deserves a spot in all sports collections. To include 50 photographs and a time line. Sue-Ellen Beauregard

Customer Reviews

long overdue!!
In "Nike" you will find amazing tales of female athletes past and present, and the obstacles they met and overcame along the way. Finally you can read about some of the great pioneers of women's sports, and those who are superstars today. A great gift for your girlfriend or wife (she'll think you are up-to-date on women's issues), boyfriend or husband(he can learn that women have contributed so much more to sports than the pom-pom on the sideline), son (he'll learn to respect girl athletes, and play with them), or daughter (she'll know she's not alone in her quest for athletic excellence)- they can all get something great out of this long overdue contribution to the history of women in sport.

A remarkable book about remarkable women !
A MUST for all young women of today -truly inspirational. A comprehensive and significant book.

Insightful. A must for any female athlete.
An amazing compilation and portrayal of some of the world's ground-breaking athletes.