women athletes

Presents a look at women in sports, featuring interviews with female athletes and professionals in which they discuss the challenges they have faced in pursuing their sports, and discussing the special camaraderie that develops among female athletes and the impulse to pass it along to their friends, families, and children.

Photographs and text portray the joy and dedication of women participating in a variety of sports.

Investigates the destructive side of women's elite competition in gymnastics and figure-skating, exposing such problems as eating disorders, stunted growth, and debilitating injuries. Concludes that abusive coaches and intense pressure from parents are often to blame.

Presents brief biographical sketches of women known as athletes, explorers, or adventurers, from Harriet Chalmers Adams and Michelle Akers to Kristi Yamaguchi and Babe Diedrikson Zaharias.

Analyzes how girls and women reconcile social expectations and sports demands and discusses the costs and benefits of equal opportunities for men and women in sports.

Profiles four women athletes who beat the odds to compete in the 1996 Olympics: Amy Van Dyken, Gail Devers, Dominique Moceanu, and Rebecca Lobo.

Betsy Ross traces the history of women in sports, including women working as reporters, news anchors, coaches, administrators, athletes, and team doctors, and providing tips and insights from American sports columnist Christine Brennan, NASCAR racer Kelley Earnhardt, broadcaster Ann Liguori, and others.

Profiles the life and career of Lindsey Vonn, a prominent newsmaker. Through quotes from Lindsey Vonn herself, her friends, and critics, readers learn how she views herself, as well as how others regard her.

Provides an analysis of Title IX, enacted in 1972 to prohibit sex discrimination in education, assessing its successes in challenging gender norms and increasing opportunities for women athletes, and taking a critical look at places where it has fallen short.

Chronicles one basketball season of a girls' high school team in Amherst, Massachusetts.