Bøger af Kathryn Bertine

Imagine George Plimpton. Except with real athletic ability. And he's a woman. And she's taken on a challenge that makes Paper Lion look like a brisk game of Go Fish. Meet Kathryn Bertine, elite triathlete, former professional figure skater, and starving artist. Just as her personal and professional dreams begin to crumble in the summer of 2006, ESPN stakes her to a dream: Take two years to make the 2008 summer Olympics in Beijing. As Good As Gold is the heroic, hilarious account of Bertine's serial exertions in the realms of triathlon, modern pentathlon, team handball, track cycling, road cycling, rowing, open water swimming, racewalking, and-fasten your seatbelts-luge. On her journey, the obstacles range from jet lag to jellyfish, flat tires to floundering relationships, repeated rejection to road rash. But, as time is running out, Bertine doesn't sweat the small stuff, only the large-like scouring the globe for a tiny nation to adopt her, and pushing her body and mind as far as it will go. Maybe all the way to China. Between harrowing, often laugh-out-loud episodes of triumph and humiliation, Bertine takes short "Water Breaks" to contemplate the ins-and-outs of fan mail, failure, rehydration, nasal reconstruction, and how best to punish steroid users. Kathryn Bertine swims, runs, and rides-and writes-like a champion. In As Good as Gold, Bertine proves she has something more valuable than an Olympic medal. She's got Olympic mettle. When it comes to the human heart, she takes the gold.

What really happens when we stand on the front lines of change?For Bertine, former ESPN columnist and professional cyclist, activism wasn't even on her radar in 2008. She was busy trying to get to the Beijing Olympic Games. When her ESPN assignment ended, advocacy took hold. Why aren't women allowed at the Tour de France? she wondered. In 2009, wonder turned to action. Then action became something bigger than bicycles. The next decade brought global petitions, documentary films, secret meetings, bullying managers, benched careers, personal demons, brain injuries, devastating depression, inner peace and historic victories for equal opportunity. With unabashed honesty, irreverence, vulnerability, history, humor and authenticity, Bertine's memoir-turned-manual on activism takes us behind the scenes of what really happens when we stand up and fight for what we believe. And why we must.STAND delivers a poignant message to readers from all walks of life: We all have the power to create change. When we do it right, the struggle is worth the journey.